"Only seeks respect," November 12, 1973

Walter C. Cummings, "Only seeks respect," Technician, November 12, 1973.

To the Editor:

This is in reference to the series of articles written about Blacks on campus in the last three editorials of the Technician.

The articles were highly biased against the Blacks, which is an oddity if they were written by highly sympathetic Whites. Perhaps the true nature of our so-called sympathizers has been released. No matter, I feel that it is time that some of the true feelings of the Blacks on campus be released.

There have been more strong statements made about the Blacks on this campus, statements which we “good and silent” Blacks feared to deal with. But I realize that the term Black students in the Technician refers to all Blacks on this campus.

Integration is a means of receiving equality in education, services, ect. I want the right to mingle, to mix with whom I like. I don’t want to be assimilated or subjugated. The beauty of the International Fair is the price and sharing of the different cultures not the destruction of the cultures to form one common culture. The reasoning involved in the International Fair and others prove to me that Pan African does not and should not have to combine with All Campus weekend.

No one who is White nor all Blacks can say that they understand the feeling, anxieties and being of a Black person with any truth. They may believe that they can but they are wrong.

I am no child, but a man. Yet, I feel that I have been treated as a child, pacified, fooled. I don’t want whites to love or fool me. I don’t need that, I demand respect for what I am, and then I will give respect. If I don’t receive the respect I demand, deserve and that is rightfully mine I must seek a means of obtaining it. Power to the unsilenced minority.

     Walter C. Cummings
     805 Sullivan