Letters for Nov 5

TO THE EDITOR:

I enjoyed Thursday’s article “Hispanics’ economic impact increases.” The piece is well-written and provides important information on a pressing issue.

 

That said, I found the presentation of this information to be unclear and confusing. In regards to the study and the various experts the article cites, the authors do not lay out a definition of who, exactly, is a Hispanic immigrant. A Cuban-American who moved to NC from Miami? My Mexican-American friend from LA? Not all Hispanic people are foreign born. It seems odd that they would fall into this category and, following this logic, we might propose a study on the economic impact of northeasterners studying at the University of South Jersey at Durham. They would also qualify as immigrants.

 

That said, the bar graphs are inflammatory. The one on page four merely provides an employment comparison between Non-Hispanics and Hispanics for jobs in which the latter are stereotypically employed. Educators? Small business owners? Where are they? The one on the front page, however, is disturbing. Next to quote that says the state receives 9 dollars back for every one spent on public services, the graph proclaims it shows the “Hispanic cost to North Carolina.” It even counts this cost, $61 million, next to the bar segment labeled “corrections.” Theses decisions to graphically represent Hispanics as wage laborers and a drag on the economy contrast sharply with the study’s findings that they contribute $9.2 billion to the state economy. They also muddy a fine, important article.

 

Paul Worley

Graduate Student

Comparative Literature

TO THE EDITOR:

To the girl who wrote that men should respect women on Halloween (11/1):

Females tend to use Halloween as an excuse, in the words of Jim Gaffigan, “to dress like complete prostitutes.”  In order for women to be respected by men, they must first exhibit some self-respect. Dressing up like Britney Spears in her Catholic schoolgirl uniform just screams to everyone, regardless of gender, “I’m going to be slutty like Britney tonight, in a crowd of 40,000 drunk horny males, yay!”

I understand that no matter how a woman is dressed, it doesn’t give men the right to grope as they please.  But surely, you must realize that dressing like a slut gives others the impression that you are a slut, and that you wouldn’t care that you were being groped as much as women who wore tasteful costumes that covered up their own asses for Halloween.  According to the great philosopher Dave Chappelle, “you may not be a whore, but you sure are wearing one’s uniform!”

Maybe the freshmen will learn their lesson from their first year on Franklin and choose costumes that don’t scream “look at me in my skimpy skanky ‘costume’!”  If you decide to go with the slutty outfit anyways next year, then your right to complain about being groped should be revoked.  It’s not like you can claim you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into again.
Roshni Bam
Sophomore
Economics and Political Science

TO THE EDITOR:

Student Academic Advising Board Seeks Junior-Senior Input Dear students, The Student Academic Advising Board is seeking ways to improve the advising experience specifically for juniors and seniors. We need to hear about your expectations of and experience with advising so that the program can be improved to best address your needs. SAAB will be in the Pit Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to have conversations about advising with juniors and seniors. We need to hear about how advising has worked for you and what can be done to improve the process. Please stop by! SAAB has also created an advising reform blog on the Student Government website which enables students to provide and discuss their experiences and expectations. The blog can be accessed at www.unc.edu/studgov/advising. We will deliver junior-senior thoughts directly to the Academic Advising Implementation Committee which is charged with restructuring advising to better serve upperclassmen. Without your input, the committee will not have an adequate insight as to what needs to be maintained or improved in a new framework for Academic Advising. Thank you, upperclassmen. This is your chance to be heard on the committee!

Todd Dalrymple

Student Academic Advising Board chair

TO THE EDITOR:

I write in response to the 10/31 op-ed regarding clothing choices on
Halloween, Alyson Culin’s thoughtful response to this piece, and the
hostile comments that have been directed on-line to Ms. Culin in reaction
to her letter.

Groping ? which is by definition unwanted sexual contact ? is one
manifestation of sexual assault.  There is no excuse for it, regardless of
what anyone is wearing or doing, and it is a criminal offense.

As Ms. Culin pointed out, the responsibility for eliminating groping rests
on the men who are doing the groping (the perpetrators), not on women who
are entitled to dress as they please.  The fact that society has encouraged
and favorably views sexualized costumes for women on Halloween should not
result in women being accused of “dressing like a whore,” as one of your
respondent argues, or of using Halloween “as an excuse” to dress in
“revealing clothing,” as your op-ed suggests.

Those who see groping as harmless play, or as something women “deserve”
because of their choice of clothing or costumes, ignore men’s
responsibility to work to end violence against women as well as the
expectation that men obey the law.

The hostile anonymous responses to Ms. Culin’s letter indicate that the
campus community as a whole does not understand what constitutes sexual
assault under the law, or how societal pressures and conditioning of this
sort create an atmosphere often known as the “rape culture.”

The Carolina Women’s Center and its staff are available to talk with anyone
in the campus community who has questions or concerns about these issues.
Please feel free to call us at 962-8305.

Donna M. Bickford, Ph.D.
Director, Carolina Women’s Center.