the

Biter Press

Volume 22 + Issue 21 *March 11 1998
Room 1020-700 Royal Avenue
New Westminster, BC V3L 5B2
general@op.douglas.be.ca
Phone 525.3542
Fax 527.5095 or 525.3505
David Lam Office
Room A3107
Phone 527.5805

he Other Press is Douglas
College's autonomous student
newspaper.

We've been publishing since 1976. The
Other Press is run as an anarcho-syndicalist
commune. We take turns acting as sort of an
executive officer for the week, but all the
decisions of this officer must be ratified at a
special bi-weekly meeting, by a simple majority
in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a wo
thirds majority in the case of...

The OP is published weekly during the fall
and winter semesters and monthly [as a
magazine] during the summer.

The Other Press is made by Douglas College
students. All DC students are welcome to join.
(Bored, Lonely, creatively repressed, need
something on your resume, or??? Come down to
room 1020. We're usually friendly and we have
lots of toys. No experience required.)

We receive our funding from a student levy
collected every semester at registration, and from
local and national advertising revenue.

The Other Press is a member of the
Canadian University Press (CUP), a cooperative
of student newspapers from across Canada. We, -
generally speaking, adhere to CUP’s Statement
of Common Principles and Code of Ethics.

The Other Press reserves the right to
choose what to publish; however, we'll print
most things, unless they're racist, sexist,
homophobic, libelous or illegal.

All opinions appearing in the Other Press
are the responsibility of their creators and are
not necessarily the opinions of all members
of the Other Press. We try to believe in the
freedom of the press.

We want you to be part of the publishing
process, so when you submit a letter or article to
us, include a way we can contact you. We realize
that you've already spent a good deal of time
preparing a submission, but typos happen,
tenses change, participles dangle; we need to
know if it is deliberate or if it was an error.
Phone numbers are not published and
pseudonyms are accepted. Everyone has an
opinion, and we'd like to make sure yours is
clear.

Letters may be proofread, but are not edited
except for length, Keep in mind that if you dont
submit it on disk, some poor soul will have to
type it for you.

Athletics - Hamish Knox
sport@op.douglas.bc.ca
Coquitlam - Lorenzo Sia
coq_coordinator@op. douglas. bc.ca
Creative - Gweny Wong

others@op.douglas. be.ca
Culture - Elijah Bak
a&e@op.douglas.bc.ca
CUP Liaison - Johnson Tai
cup @op.douglas.bc.ca
Distribution - Geoff McDonald
advertising@op.douglas.be.ca
Features - Monique Tamminga
features@op.douglas. be.ca
News - Jim Chliboyko
news@op.douglas.bc.ca
Opinion/Editorial - Tom Laws
opinions @op.douglas.bc.ca
Photography ~ David Tam
photo@op.douglas.bc.ca

Production - Susanna Kong, acting

production_co@op.douglas.be.ca

Systems Operator ~ Michael Pierre
op_web@op. douglas. be.ca

Tero

lly Keyes, Omar Tapia
Liebowitz, Jason Kurylo, Johnson
CH. Tai, Trevor Hargreaves, Homan
Sanaie, Kristina Holtz, Joyce
Robinson, Kevin Sallows, Cathy Tan,
Angela Pacienza, Jesse Clarke and
Sarah Schmidt, Sonia Verma, Eric
Milner, Reverend Tom, Jeremy Nelson

Advertising - John Morash
ad@op.douglas. be.ca

Bookkeeping - Ana Yu

Production Resource - Trent Ernst
production@op.douglas. be.ca

Editorial Resource - Corene McKay
ed_res@op. douglas. be.ca

All materials appearing in the Other Press are copyright
their creators and may not be reproduced in any form
without their creators’ express written consent,

 

 

 

Devil's

Advocate

“ists HOF da cone
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pireets in terr s of
las

For instance, a black man cannot be
racist. A black man walking around a
crowded mall wearing a black T-shirt
with a fist and a slogan of “Black
Power!” written on it is considered not
racist, but in tune with his black roots. A
white man walking around with a white
T-shirt with a white fist raised and a
slogan saying “White Power!” is
instantly a white supremacist, and to be
hated for what he thinks. Television
shows use this to their advantage. The
“Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” has “whitey”
jokes on all the time, with Will Smith
going around spouting black culture and
becoming a role model for black youth.
Put a white show on with “blackie”
jokes, and it would be pulled off the air
for being racist. “Ebonics,” the pseudo-
language of black Americans in
Oakland, almost became an official
language. Ebonics is the street language
used by African-Americans with words
such as “Yo” and the like, that a school
system tried to get funding for as a
second language, and nearly succeeded
because they claimed it was an official
language of the black populace.
However, no one even tried to create a
White Anglo-Saxon Redneck language
to get federal funding. Not that it would

sed i

shave passed anyway. You cannot be racist

if you are a minority.

You cannot be “heterophobic” if you
are gay either. If a heterosexual does not
agree that the gay lifestyle is the best on
the planet, they are homophobic. Yet, a
gay person saying the heterosexual
lifestyle is not the greatest is standing up
for what they believe. They are taking
pride in their community and standing
together, but certainly are not
heterophobic. You can’t be if you are a
minority. But you are homophobic if
you have a “Straight pride day” parade in

A com about why a pused off Deuglas Student
Should be careful whet he Seys in an A Serual

Eavitoumert,

  

the middle of the street. In fact, the
dictionary in Microsoft Word 6.0.1 does
not even have “heterophobic” in it, but
does have “homophobic.”

You cannot be sexist if you are a
woman. If you hire only men for your
company, that is certainly sexist because
you are not giving women an equal
opportunity. However, if you hire only
women (like Hooters does), you are
revolutionizing an industry dominated
by males. You are definitely not sexist
because women are a minority. Men
tried to take Hooters to court for not
hiring them, and Hooters won. No
males were hired for waiting positions
strictly because they were men. Not

sexist, though. Just as men looking at the

female cheerleaders at a football game in
front of their girlfriends is sleazy, but
women looking (and openly fantasizing)
about how great football players butts
are is not sexist. It’s just a point of fact.
The culprit is the politically correct
society we have carved out for ourselves.
We have decided as a people that an
individuals opinion is not as important

as the opinion of a lobby group.
Apparently everyone needs to have their
own special interest group to have a
right to say anything, otherwise you
simply do not count.

Like every other cause poised for
greatness, political correctness became a
corrupt system of closed mindedness
that allows people to spew forth their
own brand of garbage and disguise it as
“in the interest of my fellow man.”
Today, you cannot say anything without
offending someone. “My shoelace is
untied” can be construed as offensive to

those who do not have feet on which to |

place shoes. “I don’t like Rice-A-Roni”
can be taken as offensive to people from
San Francisco where it’s “the San
Francisco Treat.”

Even a basic human emotion, that of
hate, has been thrown to the wind. It is
impossible to hate someone different
from you. You cannot hate a gay person
if you are heterosexual. Despite the fact
that you do not agree with his/her
position on topics, and cannot stand
their personality, you will be taken as

BwuToxicarsO CRanvlay
cen tes

     
  

hating them for being gay. “Ic’s” and
“jsm’s” never let facts interfere. There is a
wonderful saying that has probably been
said before, but was reincarnated by
Hank Hill from the cartoon series King
of the Hill, saying: “What the hell kind
of a country do we live in when I can’t
hate a man unless he’s white.” Which
states the obvious: no longer can human
beings not get along with one another,
because it is against some obscure law of
the jungle (which may be offensive to
people from an urban environment).
Truly, we have become super-

sensitized to anything someone can say.
If you are not a minority, you are
wrong by default. If you do not like
Margaret Atwood, you are a sexist
because she is a strong woman writer. If}
you don’t agree with a gay pride day,
you are homophobic. It doesn’t matter
what you say or do, you will be wrong,
so just get used to it.@p

“T disapprove of what you say, but I wit

defend to the death your right to say it.

—Voltai:

 

 

 

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Tuesday, March 17°, 1998
4-10 p.m. Gargieen

KARAOKE, DOOR PRIZES,

50/50, FESTIVE (CHEAP)

GREEN BEVERAGES
(1.D. REQUIRED)

SPONSORED BY THE PRIDE
COLLECTIVE
HOSTED BY SALIM O'CONNOR

 

 

2 March 11, 1998 The Other Press