F R I D A Y FEBRUARY 20, 2004
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Volume CXXXIX, No. 18
An independent newspaper serving the Brown community since 1891
www.browndailyherald.com
U. plans response to recent campus hate crimes BY DANA GOLDSTEIN
systems today worse off than 50 years ago because no one believes in them,” Akbar said. Despite Akbar’s belief that the system is flawed, he said he is hopeful that blacks can still attain education. “We come from a long lineage of people with resilience,” he said. Cross spoke before Akbar, telling the audience that when the case was argued before the Supreme Court in 1954, lawyers used psychological arguments — something rare in courtroom arguments at the time. After the decision, the public was convinced African Americans were filled with self-hatred, a perception that set back the black community in many ways, Cross said. After Cross and Akbar spoke, Fayneese Miller, associate professor of education, began a question-andanswer session by asking what the panelists thought about the impact of the Black is Beautiful movement. Akbar said the energy of the Black is Beautiful movement is still alive, although the definition of blackness has changed. He cited 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg as examples of celebrites who have changed the language of blackness. Akbar said he was dismayed by the “anti-intellectualism” that has emerged in contemporary rap and keeps blacks “outside the access to power.”
A verbal exchange involving homophobic comments escalated into a physical confrontation between a number of students on the street near Wayland Arch Saturday night, Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene told the Herald Thursday. “The investigation that is going on right now is trying to determine how many students were involved, to what extent there was violence and how it began,” Greene said. The undergraduate community was notified about the incident Wednesday night in an e-mail from Greene, Director of Institutional Diversity Brenda Allen and Dean of the College Paul Armstrong. The email did not state when or where the altercation took place and did not give any details as to what had occurred. “The incident is being investigated by the Department of Public Safety and the students involved have been offered support through the Office of Student Life,” Greene, Allen and Armstrong wrote in the e-mail. “Although no serious injuries resulted from this altercation, it reminded us again of the potential for verbal confrontations to escalate into violence.” Last weekend’s altercation follows two incidents last semester that were investigated as hate crimes by the Department of Public Safety but remain unresolved. On Sept. 6, 2003, a female student was physically assaulted by an attacker who uttered a homophobic comment, and on Nov. 6, 2003, the assault of a male student involved racial slurs. Greene said he believed many bias-related incidents go unreported. “The students who live with this on a regular basis tell us that these incidents are not so isolated, and that to me is the most important thing to address,” he said. Queer Alliance Co-Coordinator Jason Lambrese ’06 said his organization wants people to report incidents more regularly. “I think there are a lot of incidents that happen, whether it be writing on a white board in a hallway or just verbal slurs or physical intimidation,” Lambrese said. “We’re encouraging people as much as possible to report every little thing that happens, so we can really work on changing things.” Although Wednesday night’s announcement did not detail steps the administration would take to address homophobia and violence on campus, Greene said Thursday that the University has made several decisive moves, informed by measures implemented at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. In early February, Grant Ingle, director of
see BHM, page 4
see HATE CRIMES, page 4
Nick Neely / Herald
Bill Cross, professor of social personality psychology at City University of New York (right), and Naim Akbar, an acclaimed psychologist, spoke Thursday night in Salomon 101 about the effects of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.
Speakers consider effects of Panel Brown v. Board in final Black members History Month lecture discuss service politics during teleconference BY ELISE BARAN
BY SARA PERKINS
The current generation of students isn’t politically apathetic — it’s just that young people have been frozen out of the system and turned to local, servicebased politics, said members of the activist coalition Campus Compact in a teleconference screened at Brown Thursday afternoon. The teleconference, broadcast from Michigan State University, and screened in the Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies, featured a panel which discussed the political potential of Generations X and Y. Panelists — who included activists, leaders of volunteer and community organizations and a university president — all work with Campus Compact, a higher-education-based coalition founded to encourage student engagement in politics. In a taped welcome, MSU Provost Lou Anna Simon described a report produced at a 2001 Campus Compact student conference that explored misconceptions about civic engagement levels among young people. Worried that democracy was becoming more procedural than participatory, authors of the see POLITICS, page 5
The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling in 1954 made education accessible to blacks but weakened black community, said psychologist Na’im Akbar and Bill Cross, professor of social psychology at the City University of New York, at the final Black History Month lecture Thursday night. BLACK HISTORY Akbar focused on the link between MONTH • 2004 education and power, reminding the audience that before Brown v. Board of Education, African Americans were actively involved in their own education. After the decision, they had to enter an education system established and run by whites. “The former slaves had a commitment to education that was second to none,” Akbar said. Before Brown v. Board, this helped the solidification of African-American communities, he said. He also said the Brown v. Board decision implied segregation had only negative effects on African American children and perpetuated the power dynamic between white and blacks. The decision did not offer the access to power African Americans desired, Akbar said. Instead, it brought black and white students into the same schools without giving them the same opportunities. “Black people come out of education
I N S I D E F R I D AY, F E B RUA RY 2 0 , 2 0 0 4 John Carter Brown Library exhibition features artifacts from Ivy League history campus news, page 3
Teak Foundation helps disadvantaged students meet potential campus news, page 3
James Tierney ’06 says San Francisco has managed to one-up Massachusetts column, page 7
TO D AY ’ S F O R E C A S T Funding the exploration of Mars is a bad idea, says Damien Suttle ’04 column, page 7
W. water polo sees mixed results in tournament, loses to University of Michigan sports, page 8
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