LETTERS: The different faces of segregation at Penn

To the Editor: Last year I was a clear opponent of DuBois. I thought that it represented segregation in a physical form. "Why do they chose to segregate themselves? Why don't they be as integrated as I am?" Fortunately, this year I am infinitely more educated on the matter. But the sad fact is that a great number of students still expect that the African-American community "should enhance my personal college experiences by integrating into my college houses, my fraternities, my circle of friends. How dare they segregate themselves and take away from my full college experience?" Give me a break. I fully agree that segregation occurs at every level at this campus. I do not agree with the general concept of secluding oneself to one group at all. The difference is that when African-Americans do it, it is considered outrageous and "counter to what the entire civil rights movement stood for." Wake up, Penn. When you look out and see an entire group of white people, do you even blink an eye? What about a whole nine floors for Jewish people (DuBois only has four)? That is segregation on the same level as African-Americans. The difference is that many Penn people come from communities that are primarily middle- to upper-class and a sea of whiteness with a few brown, black, red, yellow and purple sprinkles added in. People are not used to seeing whole groups of African-Americans in their communities. In fact, it seems that people's meager (or nonexistent) experience with a few "token" African-Americans gives them the right to judge an entire community. For shame to all those people. So after you go drink at your all-white fraternity and then go party with your "integrated" group of friends, judge the black community. Please. Then go look in the mirror. Segregation in every group is a harsh reality of campus life. I would love to see the day when all people can group together as friends regardless of race, creed, religion, sex, sexual preference, income, body type and whatever other arbitrary means people use to define their "comfort zones." Until then, people are still going to hide behind those very comfort zones, waving a banner of "integration." You want to do something about it? See you at the Alpha Phi Alpha party. Alan E. Lowinger College '00 To boldly go? To the Editor: I defy Steve Schorr, or anyone else for that matter, to explain how newly-elected Undergraduate Chairperson Bill Conway's "bold move" to testify in favor of the vending ordinance justly represented the interests of Penn undergraduates. Conway urged passage of the bill despite a previous 16-2 vote by the UA to condemn both the legislation and the administration's actions in pursuing it. I doubt that Conway based his comments on a survey of any significant number of undergrads, which clearly would have been unfeasible to conduct in the "less than 10 hours since he won the election." Furthermore, Conway's testimony was not even so "bold;" He was not initially registered to testify, and Mr. Schorr attempted (unsuccessfully) to sneak him into the queue. Having seen this in person at the hearing, I believe that the only reason Conway was there was because Schorr dragged him along in an attempt to pursue his own ignorant objectives. Conway has discredited himself in a most rapid fashion by misrepresenting the interests of the UA and the undergraduates at large. Paul Curcio College '01 New structure for UMC To the Editor: As the author of the original proposal to reform the United Minorities Council ("Latino groups leave UMC, cite lack of political focus," DP, 4/15/98), to make it more political, I would like to make the following correction: The student coalitions comprising the political arm of the UMC would be Umoja, the umbrella group for black student groups; the Asian Pacific Student Coalition (APSC) for Asian and Asian-American student groups; the Latino Coalition to represent Latino interests, if they choose to accept UMC Chairperson Charles Howard's invitation; and a Native American coalition. This structure has two significant differences from what was reported in the DP. Firstly, there would indeed exist a Native American Coalition. Whether Native American students decide to represent themselves through the now-inactive organization Six Directions or through another coalition should be left to their discretion, although given their limited presence on this campus, I believe that the student body, particularly the UMC, should make a particular effort to support the formation of such an organization. Secondly, there is no "Southeast Asian coalition still in the process of forming." No plans have been made to form such a coalition, and given the presence of Southeast Asian and Southeast Asian American student groups such as Penn Phillipine Association and the Vietnamese Students' Association, such a coalition will not be forming in the near future. Seung Lee College '99 ASPC Chairperson Apples and oranges To the Editor: I found it disturbing that Anita Hill's book tour stop at Penn was treated with fatuous solemnity as a great event, and that Anita Hill herself was touted as a woman of real importance ("Hill speaks on gender, race discrimination," DP, 4/16/98). Celebrity is fairly common in America; greatness and real achievement are not. So History Professor Mary Berry's absurd comments were fairly surprising. She compares Anita Hill to Rosa Parks, which is about like putting Paula Jones and Katherine Willey on the level of Mother Teresa. Anita Hill's brand of calculated self-promotion and media grubbing is hardly unusual in Washington; Rosa Parks' courageous defiance didn't require the coaxing of partisan groups in Congress. Most humorously, many of the same people who took Anita Hill's decade-old allegations as deadly serious are fairly dismissive of the claims against Clinton, which are backed up by infinitely more evidence than Hill ever mustered. At least the Penn community had the sense to realize that a visit by a late-night talk show host was more interesting than the tales of a former bureaucrat. Christopher Dacus College '00