662
PARTISAN REVIEW
To the Editor of
THE STANFORD DAILY
June
2, 1988.
It
is an unfortunate fact of life that most
students at Stanford are white, middle class, privileged, sheltered
and apathetic . These attributes are usually considered advantageous
in this world.
However, this student generation must face the reality that the
new world is populated by dark, poor, underprivileged, attacked
and fervent peoples who are quickly running out of patience.
Having been at the helm of one of the only student organiza–
tions on this campus which is committed to making waves instead of
damping waves, I have seen the reactions of our "leaders of the
future" to change.
Sorry boys and girls, you all failed miserably in the "Stanford
Stress Response Test," also known as the BSU [Black Student
Union] fee assessment vote.
You say "How did we fail? All we were trying to do was teach
you all a lesson. You black people are always griping and moaning,
and we're not going to pay you to gripe and moan. Use someone
else's money."
What the
51.1
percent of students on campus who voted
against the BSU fee assessment were voting against were commun–
ity service programs, dorm outreach programs, Jesse Jackson and
Yolanda King speeches, libraries for East Palo Alto kids and "chill–
outs" in White Plaza.
All of the marches, rallies, yelling, screaming, protesting and
general wavemaking cost between
$75
and
$200,
out of a total
budget of
$18,000.
The cost of one ASSU election would fund
35
years of political agitation, which is just a small portion of the BSU
agenda.
"How could we have been so ignorant to vote against com–
munity service when all we wanted to stop was the griping and
moaning of a special interest group?"
Why, because the average Stanford student, like the average
U.S. citizen, does not care enough to face reality when he or she can
be given a simple explanation for a very complex problem like racial
prejudice . It seems easy for a Stanford student or other privileged
member of society to sit and wait for the problems to go away and
collect his ticket to the suburbs . Unfortunately, the problem is you.
Before I continue, I will take a moment to help you overcome
