Green, Bowler Say Board Vote Racist
Ethnic Commissioner
Amendment Fails
i Cowrie*
Vol. 31, No. 10
Pasadena City College, Pasadena, California
May 7, 1969
DEBBIE NEISLER, representing the Foreign Lan¬
guages Department, was named Queen of the
42nd Annual OMD Carnival Saturday. She vied
with 1 1 other candidates for the title. Debbie
was dressed as an Indian, in keeping with the
“Wonderful World of Fantasy" theme of the
carnival. Bob Easton, who has numerous tele¬
vision and movie credits, emceed the festivities.
International Week Activities To Feature
Displays, Shows, and Native Costumes
By DEBBIE GKUBBS
PCC’s International Club is
sponsoring a week of entertain¬
ment for all students. The series,
‘‘International Week,” will be held
on campus May 12 through 16.
Members of the International
Club have been working side by
side with the faculty and student
body officers for several months
planning the program for Inter¬
national Week.
Bharat Maharaj Persad, presi¬
dent of the group, has “high
hopes” for the success of Inter¬
national Week.”
Native Costumes
Persad explains that the main
purpose of having the week is
to promote international relation¬
ships. Therefore, Bharat urges
students who are originally from
foreign countries, to wear their
native costumes during the week.
There will be displays from
each country in the Campus Cen¬
ter lounge on Tuesday, Wednes¬
day, and Thursday of Internation¬
al Week. Approximately 75 coun-
ln Memoriam
Stanley Chase
Stanley Chase, member of the
faculty in the Engineering and
Technology Department, died
April 29 after a prolonged illness.
“Mr. Chase was an invaluable
teacher at PCC during the time
of the college’s separation from
the Pasadena Schools. Because
of recognition for his business
acumen, he was asked by the
chancellor of the California Com¬
munity Colleges to devote some
time to assisting in the organiza¬
tion of that state office,” said
President Armen Saraflan in a
statement to the faculty.
The family requested that no
flowers be sent, but any memorial
contributions may be made to the
Pasadena City College Scholar¬
ship Fund Association.
tries will be represented in the
festivities.
To produce atmosphere, native
music from various countries will
be played in the Campus Center
during the entire week.
The following schedule is a
sneak preview of what is in store
for students:
Monday, May 12: A convocation
in Harbeson Hall at 11 will start
activities. Dr. Armen Saraflan
will officially declare the opening
of International Week. Other
speakers will include Dr. Ralph
Hallman, chairman of the Social
Sciences Department and Lennox
Tierney, chairman of the Art De¬
partment.
Their talks will center around
the topic, “Humanness and Na¬
ture in Internationalism.”
Any student who wishes to at¬
tend the convocation will be ex¬
cused from class.
Variety Show
Tuesday, May 13: A variety
show in the Campus Center
lounge at noon will emphasize
Eastern countries. The show will
include native dances, music, and
costumes.
Any student who wishes to per¬
form or display something from
his country is invited to do so at
this time.
Wednesday, May 14: An Inter¬
national Fashion Parade and Con¬
cert will be held in Harbeson Hall
at 11. Students will model their
native costumes. All countries
will be represented.
Again, teachers are urged to
allow their students permission
to attend.
Several schools from the imme¬
diate area have been invited to
attend the “fashion show.”
Displays
Thursday, May 15: Another va¬
riety show will be held at noon
in the lounge. Western countries
will be emphasized at this time.
Students from surrounding
schools have been invited to view
the displays as well as the va¬
riety show.
Friday, May 16: A movie of the
International Club’s annual din¬
ner party will be shown in 200C
at noon. Also on Friday, inter¬
national students will talk to sev¬
eral classes about their countries.
International Club members
hope that students will enjoy the
week’s entertainment.
Robert L. Brock, who describes
himself as a Black Nationalist,
lectured to students last week
on “Black Studies — Are They
Relevant to the Self-Determina¬
tion of America’s Colonized Black
People?”
Brock posed the question of
whether or not a black studies
program was good or harmful.
He gave several “facts” about the
program — all of which pointed to
white racism.
Brock explained that the term
“black studies” is, from the be¬
ginning, distinctly misleading.
The term is a sign of segregation,
not a sign of equality or unity.
To establish unity and equali¬
ty, Brock suggested that black
history and black culture should
automatically be inserted in our
elementary, high school, and col¬
lege textbooks.
Brock also said that white peo¬
ple — not black people — were
somewhat responsible for the
planning of black studies. Brock,
himself, was the main organiz¬
er of promoting a black studies
program in Los Angeles’ school
system.
Whites Teach Blacks
However, the school board and
the faculty, which consist mostly
Heated argument marked last
Thursday’s ASB board meeting.
The issue under heavy discussion
centered around the appointment
of a minorities ethnic affairs
commissioner to the Board.
President Martin Green and
Freshman Class President Jim
Bowler introduced a motion for
the creation of the new post. The
motion was defeated in a 6-4 roll
call vote, with one abstention,
that of Charles Clark, Senate pre¬
sident.
The new commissioner, as out¬
lined in the motion, would have
voting power on the ASB Board,
and be a member of the ASB
Cabinet and an ex-officio member
of the Supreme Council.
He would be appointed by the
ASB president with the approval
of the ASB Board from candi¬
dates nominated by PCC’s domes¬
tic cultural groups, such as BSU
and UMAS.
The central idea behind the mo¬
tion is that there is immediate
need for representation of ethnic
minorities.
Lewis Opposed
Valerie Lewis, ASB vice-presi¬
dent, who voted against the mea¬
sure, explains that it would put
too much power in the hands of
the president to appoint a new
member of the ASB who would
have voting power.
She further said that all min¬
ority students would not be re¬
presented in the new commission,
and believes that all minority stu¬
dents should be consulted in the
appointment since UMAS and
BSU cannot speak for all minor¬
ities on campus.
Another opponent to the mo¬
tion, ICC President Stephen
Lantz, said he opposed the mo¬
tion because he felt the commis¬
sioner should be elected by the
members of the groups repre¬
sented, not appointed by the pre¬
sident.
He also felt that the president
should not be given this power of
appointment because of the pos¬
sibility of favoritism.
Green expressed a very defi¬
nite view on the reasons behind
the motion’s defeat. “The Board,”
he stated last Friday, “for no
other reason than racism, ignor¬
ance, and blindness to the prob¬
lems of PCC, turned down this
measure.”
Most Constructive
Considering the amendment
the most constructive idea dis¬
cussed by any ASB government
of PCC in years” Green is invit¬
ing the six members of the board
of white people, planned the cur¬
riculum for black studies. There¬
fore, he suggests that right from
the start, the result of black
studies is white racism.
The result is, “somebody put¬
ting a trick over on somebody and
I think they are putting it over
on the blacks,” he added.
He noted, too, that if the white
authorities did not want a black
Programming
Students on probation may pro¬
gram now unless they have
other “holds.” They may be
disqualified on final grades if a
grade point average of 1.5 or
higher is not achieved, and
their programs may be cancel¬
ed. Any student on probation
may program and attend sum¬
mer sessions only, despite his
final grades. Grade point ra¬
tios below 1.75 for three con-
escutive semesters are also
cause for disqualification.
Library Hours
To aid students in preparation
for final examinations, PCC’s
library will be open Saturdays,
June 7 and 14, from 9 a.m. to
3 p.m.
who voted against it to resign
from their posts “so as to allow
responsible students to take their
places and pass acts beneficial to
the PCC student body.”
Bowler explains that the major
issue is placing the amendment
on the ballot through the ASB
Board, and does not believe it
would give the president too
much appointive power, since the
Board and concerned groups
would have the final decision.
Bowler expresses the view that
all must work together, and that
the measure would have helped,
in that it would encourage in¬
volvement of all minorities.
“I feel that it is absolutely nec¬
essary to maintain the lines of
communication open,” said Bow¬
ler.
Green intends to re-introduce
the measure to the Board until
it is passed.
Swahili Hour
Good Review
The Foreign Language Depart¬
ment’s Swahili Cultural Hour was
presented last week.
Mrs. Beverly Coleman’s Swahili
class presented the program, be¬
ginning with skits showing the
everyday use of the language.
Then each student related a part
of the history and development
of Swahili; some told what it
meant to them as individuals.
Some of the women of the class
did a dance to guitar and drum
music provided by other members
of the class.
A poem called “Simba,” the
Swahili word for “lion,” was read
and illustrated with remarkable
slides of lions. The pictures were
taken by the husband of one of
the students. Two men, dressed
in the costume of warriors, acted
out the motions of the hunt
against the background of the
slides.
Mrs. Coleman, accompanied by
guitar and drums, sang a song in
Swahili, which she said had been
on the top 10 in Tanganyika when
she was there with the Peace
Corps.
Some of the students demon¬
strated similarities between Afri¬
can and American rhythms. As
a grand finale, the record “Do
Your Thing” was played, and the
drummers added an African rhy¬
thm to the recording. Before it
was over, the performers and
audience were all dancing togeth¬
er in the aisles and between the
seats.
studies program, no amount of
violence from blacks would in¬
fluence the whites’ opinion.
Brock defined black studies as
“Fabricated mythologies and an¬
thologies purporting to reveal as
truth the enslavement in several
forms, including chattel slavery,
female prostitution, rape, robbing,
thievery, deception, and mental
and physical genocide practiced
daily against slave descendants by
the government styled by the
United States of America.”
“It is something you have seg¬
regated out of the history courses
because you don’t want little
white children to read about it.”
White Racism
He used PCC’s Afro-American
history course as an example of
white racism in the black studies
program. He thought it ironical
that whites should teach blacks
about ther history. Brock con¬
cluded that whites were still en¬
slaving blacks.
White politics was brought into
his talk. He noted that the whites
were united when fighting against
the blacks; there was no distinct
left or right wing.
Brock also pointed out that ac¬
tually there is no Afro-American
history.
• Continued on Page Four
Black Nationalist Robert Brock
Calls for Black-Taught Black Study
