It's as Shame to Judge a Book by its Cover,
but it Happens
How do we change the way people perceive us?
By Thomas Wilson, Opinions
Editor
Dr. Pilgrim hosted a couple of events last
week featuring a discussion on the issue of
racism and diversity on campus. These events
started because of a brave student’s
willingness to express his feelings. I felt
like a lot was accomplished during the
nearly 2 hour discussion, but I would like
to give some of my own thoughts on how we
should address this problem.
The problem was brought
about by a student who thought that the name
of an RSO implied exclusivity among the
members of the RSO. We found out during the
discussion that that is simply untrue. Why
then do specific ethnic groups have to have
an RSO? I believe this question was well
answered by a number of people, and I am
glad it was addressed. It has given me a
much better understanding of the truth.
In an e-mail interview,
Aletha Muhammad, a graduate student at
Ferris and the Kappa Theta representative to
Black Greek Council, said this, “At a
university that is considered a
predominantly white institution, students
who make up the ‘minority’ feel as if they
need a university extension to provide
resources and to network with those from the
same or similar cultures.”
I completely agree with
this, given what I’ve learned during the
discussion and knowing that minorities,
despite our great progress, still have a
hard time in this country, and need to unite
with each other. As a follower of Christ, I
am going to unite and support my brothers
and sisters in times of need, just the same
for many ethnic minorities.
I asked Muhammad if she
thought that race affected who a person is.
I’ve always been curious about this, because
I’ve never really noticed anything about
myself that I base on the fact of being a
white male. According to Muhammad though,
race does have a great affect on a lot of
minority groups.
“Imagine being constantly
bombarded by negative images of your
culture, the racial makeup in particular,”
Muhammad said. “Not only do you, as a
collective group begin to buy into these
images and begin the cycle of
self-perpetuation, but now you have a
situation where those outside of the culture
are influenced by these images as well.”
So how do we increase
awareness of what these groups are really
about? Some people proposed changing the
names of these organizations, and I even
agreed for a while, to make them more
inviting for other ethnic groups. But, as it
was so passionately spoken about, the name
shouldn’t matter.
Many of these groups don’t
think their titles should be changed because
of the historical significance they hold.
They were created in a time when oppression
was commonplace. The groups were formed to
fight this oppression and unite. They have
been around for several decades, building a
reputation based on their current name.
Anyone in advertising would say that if a
brand is popular, with a well built customer
base, don’t change it. There’s a lot of
pretext that goes with these names that
can’t simply be forgotten.
That’s not to say that
something can’t be done to fix the problem.
We have to realize that people are going to
judge a book by its cover whether we like it
or not. No matter how much we tell people to
research things, they’re going to depend on
their first impression. That’s just a fact
of life. So how do we change their first
impression?
One small thing that can
easily be done is to add a short one to two
sentence mission statement to the RSO’s
name. If I remember correctly, B.L.A.C.K.
was formed to combat the negative
stereotypes placed upon black males. So why
not change the name to, “B.L.A.C.K.:
Changing the way people perceive black
males.” Something like this, or whatever
else would better describe the RSO, would go
a long way in helping me understand why that
RSO is here. If I saw that, I would be way
more interested, because I do believe that
the negative stereotypes of black males has
a great negative impact on the way people
perceive them.
While my suggestions may not
be what this campus is looking for, I do
hope that we can find some middle ground.
For more information
about this issue, please see the article in
the News section of the newspaper. For more
opinions on this issue, see the Voices on
pg. 20.
"Men" vs. Wild
As it turns out, Bear Grylls doesn't always
act on his own.
By James O'Gorman, Editor in
Chief
Bear Grylls is
the host of Man vs. Wild on the Discovery
channel. The show is based on the idea of
the host having to survive in different
environments, ranging from deserts to
forests to swamps. As it has come to recent
news, it turns out that Grylls does not
always survive by himself.
A quick side
note, another show that I like watching is
“Survivorman” hosted by Les Stroud. This
show is very similar, except that Stroud is
out by himself. “Setting up or tearing down
all of my camera gear takes up 65 percent of
my time,” Stroud says in his behind the
scenes episode.
So as it
turns out, Grylls might not be as mighty as
he portrays in the show. During the opening
credits he talks about having climbed Mt.
Everest and being a part of the British
Special Forces.
Hollywoodreporter.com noted in a July 28
article that Grylls’ show was pulled from
both the Discovery channel and UK’s Channel
4 pending investigation. It seems that
Grylls and his team have checked into motels
from time to time, when the show led viewers
to believe that he was ‘roughing it.’ It has
also come to light that Grylls has had help
from his crew in catching food (rabbits to
be exact) and making shelter. Wikipedia and
numerous other sites list that a raft used
in the desert island episode was built a
week and a half ahead of time and taken
apart so he could assemble it on camera.
The ‘wild’
horse that he attempted to tame in another
episode was actually staged. Another episode
had ‘molten lava’ that was actually
smoldering coals with fog from a smoke
machine.
The Discovery
channel has allowed the show to re-air with
Grylls’ voice-over rerecorded. I happened to
catch an episode the other day that had been
redone. In the original episode, I was led
to believe that he constructed a throwing
stick and used that to catch a rabbit. In
the new episode he says “but I was not so
lucky.” He goes on to say, “so I have this
rabbit,” leaving it to the viewer to realize
that he never actually caught the rabbit
that he eats.
I must keep
in mind that this is reality TV, not real
TV. I still like the show even though he
might stay in motels. I also think that
“Survivorman” is a better show.
Top Five Best Fears to Have
If you didn't find a good reason to be
afraid on Halloween, read this list.
By Kevin Breen, Ferris State Torch
In case you
weren’t adequately frightened by any
Halloween festivities, which must mean that
you missed my Hillary Clinton costume, I’ve
decided to provide you some of the greatest
fears my research has allowed me to
discover, with only two exceptions (grey goo
and stomach self-digestion, which I covered
last year).
Below is the
list of the five fears in the category of
the undisputed best fears. (Currently, they
are undisputed because no one knows of the
list except me.)
1. Fear of
the number 666
This is a very popular fear
among Christians with an eye for a coming
apocalypse. Never mind that, originally, the
symbols used were not the same as the digits
we use today, and that the concept of zero
wasn’t in common usage, so the number six
might be just as good as five, or it might
not be.
When I worked at McDonalds,
people would actually order more food when
their orders came to $6.66. When asked to
choose a number between one and ten, people
choose six fewer than 1 in 10 times. The
fear of three sixes is so big, it needs a
name that is just as big. Fortunately, it’s
called Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.
2. Fear of Men (Androphobia)
Are you worried that the
person next to you might follow you home and
murder you? If that person is a female, or,
if you are a female, this fear is probably
not legitimate. I don’t want to stereotype,
but, according to the Bureau of Justice, 86
percent of all murders in this country are
committed by men.
This fear could even extend
to being a man, as males were nearly four
times as likely to be murdered than females
in 2005, both when the killer was a male,
and when the killer was female.
3. Fear of Menstruation (Menophobia)
If you are a woman, you
should be afraid of this. If you are a man,
you should be very afraid of this.
4. MRSA
A study in the Journal of
the American Medical Association found that
the drug-resistant strand of the
staphylococcus bacteria, killed nearly
19,000 Americans in 2005, more than
AIDS. Yet no one has written a Tony
Award-winning play about it.
It’s been making headlines
lately because it’s been sweeping through
schools around the country. Even more
frightening, this bacteria exists in strands
that have been invulnerable to any known
treatment. If that’s not reason for Matt
Stone and Trey Parker to make a movie that
features a wooden puppet singing “Everyone
has Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus
aureus,” I don’t know what is.
5. Fear of the Apocalypse
The apocalypse, which I
spell with lower-case letters only to
differentiate it from the immortal
supervillain who battled the X-Men when
Magneto got boring, is the word we use to
refer to the end of the world. But,
according to Jason Boyett’s, “Pocket Guide
To The Apocalypse: The Official Field Manual
For The End Of The World,” the word comes
from a Greek word that means, “the lifting
of a veil,” or, a revelation.
Plus, in the event of an
apocalypse, you’d be able to pick up some
crazy bargains at Art Van’s “Last Sale of
the World.” If you’re not yet shaking in
your crocs because of the fears presented in
this article, I recommend you put your crocs
on.
If you’re not yet excited
about the new things I have given you to be
afraid of, then check your pulse. I’m afraid
you might be dead. If you’d like to dispute
my undisputed list, write a letter to the
editor.
Singing for Sunday's Best
Is BET's new gospel show true entertainment?
By Nakira Howard, Ferris State Torch
On Sunday night
I caught a recap of last week’s show,
“Sunday’s Best.” This comes on every
Tuesday, at 8 p.m. on Black Entertainment
Television (BET). It’s a new gospel singing
competition show similar to the mainstream
show American Idol.
The phrase
that the best talent is from the church can
no longer be an opinion. It must now be a
reality. “Sunday’s Best” is more or less a
reality show.
Hosted by
gospel singer Kirk Franklin, the nationwide
search went around the country’s storefront
churches, parishes and mega-churches to find
the best undiscovered singers in America (Bet.com).
The winner will receive a recording
contract, a 2008 Toyota Camry and a $300,000
Tide “Loads of Hope” prize package to
support the winner’s community.
Watching the
show for the moment that I did, I became
very bothered by it. I was confused by why
people would let people judge them on how
they praise their Lord. Praise, according to
Webster's dictionary, is “Glorify by the
attribution of perfections."
Praise is
commending, by speaking or singing, the
perfections of God. Praise is a sacrifice as
the “fruit of our lips” (Hebrews 13:15).
The show has
been advertised for about a month now, while
seeing the commercials I had thoughts like
the fact that people are looking to make
money off of anything they can.
These people
come on the show for an opportunity to win
man-made things, while they already have the
biggest gift of all, which is life.
People can
give praise to God with song, dance, praise
or many other ways. For those who do give
praise to God with song, why should they
allow themselves to be judged?
Yay to Torture, Nay "Mainstream Pornography"
Examining the warped beliefs of the Bush
administration and their new appointee for
Attorney General.
By Shane Trejo, Ferris State Torch
It’s good to
know that George W. Bush’s new attorney
general appointee has got his priorities in
order.
According to
Salon.com, “Mukasey promised to review the
policy of only prosecuting “extreme” rather
than “mainstream” pornography, and vowed: “I
recognize that mainstream materials can have
an effect of cheapening a society,
objectifying women, and endangering children
in a way that we can’t tolerate.”
The porno
boogeyman is cheapening our society. Haven’t
you heard? Porno objectifies women, turns
children into evil monsters and results in
crime.
Actually,
according to Salon. com, “A 10 percent
increase in [internet] access yields about a
7.3 percent decrease in reported rapes.” And
we all know how widespread both “mainstream”
and “extreme” pornography is on the
internet.
The article
continued on saying, “States that adopted
the Internet quickly saw the biggest
declines. And, according to Clemson
professor Todd Kendall, the effects remain
even after you control for all of the
obvious confounding variables, such as
alcohol consumption, police presence,
poverty, and unemployment rates, population
density, and so forth.” While denouncing
pornography, Mukasey had a different point
of view on waterboarding. He would not talk
about the legality of the process even
though he called it “repugnant.”
Waterboarding is a form of torture that CIA
interrogators are believed to have used on
suspects, according to the Associated Press.
The same AP
article described waterboarding saying,
“During waterboarding, a prisoner is placed
on his back, with his legs slightly elevated
and thin cloths or cellophane over his face
before being doused with water. The
technique prompts asphyxiation and panic
that can lead to heart attacks as the
prisoner fights against the feeling of
drowning.”
“This CIA
program is different [than the military]. It
involves tougher customers — men like Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, and
it involves tougher interrogation,” Vice
President Cheney said.
“The American
people must know that whatever techniques we
use are within the law,” President Bush
said. Bush refused to talk about specific
techniques though saying, “There’s an enemy
out there.” As we have learned from the Bush
administrations, this scary enemy hates,
most of all, fact-checking and questioning.
But when
waterboarding was used against Americans, it
was considered criminal. “In 1947, the U.S.
charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano,
with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S.
civilian. Asano was sentenced to 15 years of
hard labor,” an NPR article said.
The bottom
line is: America invaded Iraq and is
torturing suspects. Innocent until proven
guilty doesn’t apply for “terrorists.”
As we have
seen with the Blackwater scandals, this
regime is not sensitive toward the plight of
Iraqis and people of the Middle East.
Regular people living in Iraq are getting
caught up in this mess with no rights and no
voice.
Mukasey’s
denial of waterboarding as torture shows
that he is not suited for the job of
Attorney General and restoring sanity and
order to the United States of America.
“He could
have said a lot of things which would have
given me more assurances,” Republican
Senator Arlen Specter of Penn., who will
vote to confirm Mukasey, said. “But he is
intelligent; he’s really learned in the law.
He’s strong, ethical, honest beyond any
question. He’s not an intimate of the
president.”
But when
Mukasey covers for the Bush administration
by failing to acknowledge waterboarding as
torture, I fail to see how he is anything
but an “intimate of the president.”
VOICES
Dear Editor,
I have been on this campus for over three
years now. Since my arrival on a Sunday in
August, I have felt nothing but welcome on
this campus. The Ferris community welcomed
me immediately and helped me get involved. I
have been involved and held many different
positions, but there is nothing that I am
more proud of than being named Homecoming
King.
Being named King has meant
so much to me. I would like to thank all of
my friends and family for their support not
only during the homecoming experience, but
for all of the love and support they have
given me. I would also like to thank the
organizations in which I am involved in. I
thank the National Residence Hall Honorary
and Carlisle Hall Council for their primary
support. I also thank the organizations I am
in including the brothers of Phi Sigma
Kappa, Residence Hall Association, Honors
Program, Student Leadership and Activities
Advisory Council and the Office or Residence
Life. Without these people, organizations,
and department, I would not be the person
that I am today.
Most importantly, I would
like to thank the campus of Ferris State
University, especially the students. Without
the support of the students and their votes,
I would not have the title Homecoming King.
As King, I want to continue to be myself and
continue to be a positive role model for
students. I will keep my involvement level
high on this campus to make my mark so that
when I do leave this university in May, I
can say that I made a positive effect on
this campus.
Once again, I would like to
thank the students, faculty and staff
members of the university. Without them, I
would not have been able to have the
opportunities that I have had on this
campus. My last words I have are for the
students. Get involved! If you think that
you may even have a little interest in an
organization or event, get out and get
involved. It is by being involved that you
build new relationships and connections, and
who knows, these connections could last a
lifetime!
Thank you,
Bob Love
Homecoming King 2007
Dear Torch,
I am greatly honored to be
crowned the 2007 Homecoming Queen of Ferris
State University. I plan to do the best that
I can do to fulfill my duties as queen. I
will be attending and supporting activities
not only at Ferris but also activities in
the Big Rapids community. I will be full of
school spirit at sporting events and also,
community service events. I am proud of
being a Ferris student and am not afraid to
show it.
Some of you may not know me
so here is a little information about
myself. I am from Bay City, MI and graduated
from Western High School in 2005. I started
attending Ferris in Fall 2005 where I was
majoring in Pharmacy. After my first
semester, I decided to changed majors to
Plastic Engineering Technology. It was on e
of the best career decisions I could have
made because I currently love my classes and
can’t wait to pursue my future career in
engineering. Also, I was and still am very
involved on campus. I was on the FSU
Athletics Dance Team from Fall 2005 to
Winter 2007. It was a great experience and I
loved that I was able to show my
school spirit. I was also a part of Student
Government in Fall 2006, but because of
class scheduling haven’t been able to attend
meetings the past couple of semesters.
However, I am currently a voting member on
the Finance Division. While being in Student
Government and Finance Division, it has
helped me gain a better understanding of
political side of Ferris. I joined Alpha
Sigma Tau in Winter 2006 and it was the
greatest decision I could have made at
Ferris. I have met so many girls and got to
know them on a personal basis that I am
proud to call them my sisters. Joining the
Society of Plastic Engineers has helped me
the most with my career in plastics. Being
in the organization, it allows me to gain
knowledge and meet people in the plastics
industry.
Finally, I want to thank all
the students at Ferris for their support and
votes because without the students, I
wouldn’t be queen. I want to thank my
parents and friends for all their support
during the homecoming process and at the
football game. I also want to give a huge
thank you to Amber Balmer who worked very
hard as my campaign manager. She is an
amazing person and has a great future
ahead of her. I would like to thank my
sponsors as well, Alpha Sigma Tau and the
Society of Plastic Engineers. Without the
help from my sponsors, I wouldn’t have been
able to run for Homecoming Queen.
--Alli Witucki
Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to
the letter in the October 24, 2007 issue of
the Torch by Daniel Nicholas Nash. Mr. Nash
I understand how you feel about this issue.
I have been faced with this very same
problem throughout my college education.
First it began to appear in
the Community College I attended in a small
town in Northwestern Michigan. I hoped that
I would not encounter it at the University
level here at Ferris, but the same attitudes
persist. What we are dealing with is a
complete ignorance of the history of Blacks
in American, and a complete unwillingness on
the part of many White Students to
acknowledge not only the terrible history of
slavery, lynchings, segregation, prejudice,
discrimination and racism, but also the
persistence of Blacks as second class
citizens in American society. Surely you
know that Blacks have higher rates of
unemployment, are paid lower wages, work and
live in more dangerous conditions, have
lower rates of and lower quality of
education, have poorer health and less
access to health insurance and competent
health care, and continue to deal with
prejudice, discrimination and racism in
America, including the city of Big Rapids
and the campus of FSU.
I have the pleasure of being
classmates with some of the students who
belong to the organizations that you
criticized, and I can guarantee that they
would welcome you to any of their meetings
or events. Considering what Black students
face in today’s world why would you deny
them the opportunity to get together and
support each other? If you have any
questions about the history of Blacks in
America and the nature of racism I suggest
you contact Dr. David Pilgrim the Chief
Diversity Officer of FSU and take a
tour of the Jim Crow Museum here on campus,
or take Introduction to African American
Studies with Dr.Gerald E. Matthews.
