March 2, 1995
I am writing in response to the article entitled "Police take AS representative from campus in handcuffs," (Gater, Feb. 23). First of all, I would like to express my disappointment with the lack of sensitivity with which the story was written. Although the Golden Gater concentrated on discrediting Quddus Archie's image as a public officer, his civil rights were violated because the article gave a detailed summary on his personal background. The article, which concentrated on the sensational aspects of his past, violated his privacy. The staff writers displayed a lack of sensitivity in dealing with the issue and the reason for his arrest. The true reality that is being ignored is: The University does not want to be held accountable for its racist animosity toward students of color. Instead of taking the time to speak with the faculty member who had a confrontation with him, the campus community has made it clear that they are reinforcing and participating in a very imperialist institution where those who speak to defend their interests are taken out. On this campus, faculty have more credibility than students, and since they have the colonizers' mentality, there is no way in which working relations can be established.
Secondly, the Golden Gater lacks professionalism. Not only did this article contain sentence fragments, but people were misquoted and names were misspelled. The article was poorly written.
The issue here is: How can university officials abuse their power by ignoring university procedure and get away with it?