Letters

Tuesday, January 26, 1999

Letters

Bruin chants simply stupid

Dear Bruin Fans:

At the last three home basketball games we have listened to the
student section come up with a truly original assortment of chants:
"Fuck you Ref," "Fuck you (fill in name of opposing player),"
"Bullshit, Bullshit" and "(fill in name of opposing player) sucks."
How witty!

It must be exhilarating to finally move away from home so that
you can attend games without your parents and chant clever
obscenities without anyone twisting your ears. Keep up the great
work. Your astounding eloquence is likely the envy of college
students nationwide. At the very least, it cracks up my 12 year
old, but then he thinks fart jokes are hilarious too.

Larry Pizarro

Alumnus 1976

Political science

White males oppressed

I happened to read Jeff Burhans’ letter on the use or misuse of
the word "man" in society to which Megan Hall continually refers to
in her article, "Use of ‘man’ overlooks half of population,"
(Viewpoint, Jan. 20).

More than being an example of unknowing or presumably unwitting
discrimination, Burhans’ article seemed simply to be a rage against
political correctness and reverse discrimination. While
interpretations of his intent may vary, Hall, you have a point. The
world has always been a male-dominated patriarchy and in this
country, the white male tops this establishment.

Yes, in the past, present and future discrimination existed,
exists and will exist. There is no avoiding this. One can only take
steps (like the removal of words like "man" or through the addition
of other ever-changing politically correct terminology) to
change.

Your essay can be considered, on one level, to be right on the
mark, yet when you conclude with the following, you shatter your
own argument through hypocrisy:

"In our society, white males are the oppressors, not the
oppressed. There is no history of white men being oppressed by
African Americans, or by Hispanics (which, by the way, is a non-PC
term), or by gays and lesbians or by women."

What is this article that you write? There is a history of white
males being oppressed, and that history is now. Through your own
writing, you demonstrate a bigoted and oppressive attitude toward
the white male. Had you kept your attack focused on Burhans’
(presumed, for the sake of argument) naivete, you would have
retained credibility. Yet through your gross generalizations and
absolute statements, how can anyone believe that "changing
discriminatory attitudes is possible"? Of course, had you admitted
that reverse discrimination is necessary to end discrimination,
then I would understand your oppressive attitude and I could, with
good conscience, give up my individual freedoms for the benefit of
my fellow oppressed minorities. I harken for the opportunity of
self-sacrifice and martyrdom.

Thomas Tuchscher

Fourth-year

American literature and culture

Atheists not evil people

I’m glad to see that someone is willing to "step out of the
closet" and let people know that atheists are not the demonic
people that this country has long stereotyped them to be. In fact,
many atheists, like myself, were raised with strong religious
backgrounds and became atheists after a long, intellectual process
of cleansing ourselves from falsehoods. So let George Stebbins
("Atheists do make good citizens" Viewpoint, Jan. 25) know that I’m
a good and happy citizen too and I am that way without believing in
a god.

P.S. I don’t believe in Santa Claus either.

Scott Baxter

Facilities management

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