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Western Carolinian Volume 36 Number 43

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Item 1 - Western Carolinian Volume 36 Number 43
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Western Carolinian Volume 36 Number 43

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wcu_publications-12907.jpg

Western Carolinian Volume 36 Number 43

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Item 3 - Western Carolinian Volume 36 Number 43
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Western Carolinian Volume 36 Number 43

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Item 4 - Western Carolinian Volume 36 Number 43
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Western Carolinian Volume 36 Number 43

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  • 2 VoL, XXXVI, No. 43, Tuesday, April 6,1971 Editorial Comment THE WESTERN CAROUMAN Editorials are from the Editor's desk unless otherwise indicated by the author's initials. Opinions expressed by the columnists do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper. Address correspondence to P. O. Box 66, Cullowhee, N. C. 28723. Search for identity A Black student at Western Carolina University has to struggle every day in order to keep from becoming Whitee He is surrounded by White values, White social mores, White culture and White faces. When two of the 65 Black faces meet, in this sea of 5000 Whites, it must be a relief, indeed. Blacks here, as everywhere in the United States, face problems that no White can fully comprehend. One of the major, if not the major problem, that Blacks face is one of identity. They have just begun to discover that Whites were keeping something from them that they never knew they had. . . an identity. It is just this need for Black identity that these students should be granted their proposal for a Black student lounge. The arguements for and against the lounge have been gone over and over again. There remain two that are outstanding. The first, that the White back- lask would be uncontrollable, is probably exaggerated. There would be Whites who would charge that the Blacks were being shown favoritism, that there are plenty of clubs on campus which need space and they aren't given a lounge. Well, Black Students United for Liberation is not just a club. It is an organization formed to promote unity, pride, and an identity among students with a very selective background. No other organization can claim such a purpose and no other organization is fighting for the preservation of a race of people. Another arguement often heard is that a move to give Black students a lounge of their own would promote disunity among Black and White students. Unfortunately, this is true, but only for a short while. The move toward Black seperatism is a move toward Black identity, Black pride. Once this is accomplished, once the Blacks feel as secure in their Blackness as Whites do in their Whiteness, then seperatism will have served its purpose. Black seperatism is not as much a move away from Whites as it is a move toward Black. A White man does not want to be a Black man, and neither should a Black man want to be White. But Whites expect Blacks to become a part of their world, without pausing even for a moment to be what they are. Black That's a lot to ask of a human being. Black students want to be treated as Black human beings, not White human beings. There's a very big difference, and if you haven't realized it yet, then you are part of the problem, and not part of the solution. The Western Carolinian Published twice weekly through nS academic year, and once weekly during the summer session by the students of Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina. ^Member: U. S. Student Press Association, Collegiate Press Service, and Intercollegiate Press Service. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RONALD W. WILLIAMSON BUSINESS MANAGER WM. J. BYERS ASSOCIATE EDITOR .. W. WAT HOPKINS NEWS EDITOR CHRBTY G. MARTIN Managing Editor Gabe Pelley Copy Editor Melanle Pope Sports Editor Jim Howell' Photographer Bruce Cox Advisor *• Gerald Schwartz Editor Emeritus David Rock Whitton Natfc—1 Adyrtiafcn by National Educational AdrTttsBag Service, tae. Local adrerttstof rates available upon request Phone 2W-7287 after lunch Wednesday*. Omea.. first floor Joyner; PhonT»3-7M7. Malik* ■ jfcMS. P. Ot Box 66, CullowhM, N. C. Subscription rasa: KM per year. SETH t,€Al/£R/ Sfie Adventures of 5fie Raving Ragnar (and his pal BROOKS SANDERS) It's been three years since Martin Luther King was murdered. Sunday was the anniversary. Three years is a long time, and I had just about forgotten the whole thing - the murder, the marching, and the man. Forgetting is pretty easy to do in White America. If one is white. But the young Black lives with toe tragedy. It returns to haunt memories, to bring tears to the eyes, to make toe stomach churn with anger. Three years ago. I was twenty years old then. Today's freshman was 15 or 16. I can't help but wonder about how the WCU freshman reacted to King's death. I wonder about it because toe freshman has the chance to change things on this campus. Freshmen will be around longer than us old farts. And they have not yet succumbed to toe total apathy which strikes upperclassmen, as in the Cullowhee tradition. So toe youngsters have the chance, and toe challenge, to correct toe inbred racism here. Regardless of their background. Just because they are younger, and can still care more. If Martin Luther King were alive today, he would be 39 years old. Dick Gregory is 39, and we have the chance to hear him Wed= nesday night. Just as one could tell his children he once heard the poet Auden, so he can tell them he once experienced Dick Gregory, the Black man. That's not the best reason to hear him, but it will do for a starter, and if you need a reason, you can use that one. Gregory is a comedian. He is a good one, and he makes good money working toe college circuit. But he is more than a funny man. He uses his comedy as a weapon against racism, war, poverty, and social injustice. He wants his audience to laugh, but afterwards, he wants them to then go out and change toe world. "When I go to college campuses to talk," lie says, "I tell them in toe lecture that I lidnt come to impress, only to inform them. [ have no intention to go to a college campus md directly change a kid's beliefs. What I want to do is lay the truth down, so when he lears a lie, he will be better able to accept it or reject it, This is what I try to tell them: 'm not here to win you over. I'm not here to •un no popularity contest, If I come in and tell rou your house is on fire, it's upto you to leave." What follows is an example of Gregory laying down the truth, as set forth in his 1968 book, WRITE ME IN! "People ask me, 'If you were elected President, what group of people do you think you would have toe most trouble with?* And I have no doubt that I would have toe most trouble with colored folks. One of my first programs would be to wipe out toe poverty program and set up a 55 billion dollar a year White Folks Rest Program. I'd take all those white folks off their good jobs and put them on my Rest Program. And I'd give my black brother a good job for the first time in his life. I guarantee you that after six months of doing this, colored folks would be marching on me at toe White House, saying, 'What's wrong with you? Letting these white folks lay around not working, getting relief checks, havin'all them babies...' " ". . .1 can just see it now. A black cat would ask me, 'Greg, are you going to Europe again this summer?' And I'd answer, 'Hell, no, man. I've got to get seven more jobs to feed these damn white folks. . .' Why, it would take us 2 1/2 years to just teach white folks to eat watermelon right, . . And if we made slaves out of all white folks, it'd be toe best thing that ever happened to them. With 180 million white folks in this country, they'd pick all toe cotton in two days. . . Then they'd have 363 days just to sit around and rest, learn them songs, and plot revolt," That's just a taste of Dick Gregory. Go see him Wednesday night, and get the whole meal. Soul food never killed anyone. Honest, STiOOJNQS THE STORM'S EYE The Cat's Paw Read the CAROLINIAN Columns
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Western Carolina University Publications

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University’s student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolin...

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