Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 5, 1993 TAG: 9305050195
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Hai Pham was a freshman - a newcomer to tradition-rich William and Mary - trying like other freshmen to fit in at Virginia's oldest institution of higher education. He'd just walked past a group of students when he heard the whisper.
"It was something like, `There goes the chink,' " says Pham, who is Vietnamese. "You hear that and you tend to close up. It really made an impression."
Mikael Davis heard it in the cafeteria.
"A white guy asked, `The basketball team isn't winning, why are the blacks here anyway?' " said Davis, a black student from Newport News. "That kind of thing is like a slap in the face."
Slaps that Davis and Pham didn't forget.
So when a college satirical magazine recently ran "The Adventures of Mighty Whitie," a comic strip that depicted blacks as drug-dealing "homeboys" and Asians as "the yellow peril," they and dozens of other minority students felt they'd had enough.
In meetings with top college officials and in angry letters to the campus newspaper, students blasted the magazine, its editor and staff as racially insensitive. A forum sponsored by the Black Student Organization drew almost 100 people, many of whom criticized the cartoon and the college for funding the magazine, The Pillory.
The magazine's editor issued a public apology, explaining that the intent of the cartoon was to ridicule all racial stereotypes. But that was "too little, too late," said Pamela Hampton, a law student at William and Mary's Marshall-Wythe School of Law.
The uproar, which has been splashed across the TV news, local newspapers and The Washington Post, has stretched on for more than two weeks and threatens to overshadow final exams and the school's upcoming graduation. Along the way, it has dredged up racial issues many students say have been glossed over at William and Mary and raised uncomfortable questions about free expression and First Amendment rights.
The college administration responded quickly with strongly worded letters to the campus community, denouncing the cartoon. President Timothy J. Sullivan, who was traveling in Scotland when the issue exploded, also has established a panel to review the rules governing student publications.
But so far, Sullivan has not dealt publicly with the question of college funding to the magazine. The Pillory received about $2,000 in school money this year.
Several students leading the charge against the magazine said Sullivan should make a statement by ending that contribution. The bylaws of the school's Publications Council prevent it from taking that step.
"This is the administration dragging its feet again," said Walter Preston, a government and economics major. "We've got to do more than pay lip service to racial harmony. We've got to do more than set up another committee."
More than 100 other students agree. They've signed a petition asking that funding for The Pillory be stopped. A group of graduate students also has lodged a formal complaint with the campus Publications Board, asking it to investigate.
Last Wednesday the board set up a meeting between the magazine's editor and those seven students. The editor, Brad Reed, didn't show, and he hasn't returned phone calls. Thursday, a message said his phone had been temporarily disconnected.
At the heart of the matter, many students say, is the belief that a subtle racial tension permeates the Colonial buildings and tree-lined walks of William and Mary. The school has boosted minority enrollment to about 17 percent over the last few years, but William and Mary remains largely white.
Preston, who is black, said he's felt that tension in the looks of local police when he's walking home after leaving work at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. Or when a white student goes out of his way to avoid passing him in a darkened area of campus.
Some say punishing The Pillory by cutting off its money is a step toward establishing a speech code - a set of rules for what can and can't be said. William and Mary has long fought that approach, saying the best weapons against stupid ideas are intelligent ideas. Mark Goodman, executive director of the Washington-based Student Press Law Center, said any attempt to silence The Pillory by killing it financially could backfire.
"If the school can do it to this publication, what's to stop them from doing it to The Flat Hat?" he asked, referring to the student newspaper. "That's a pretty scary proposition."
Likewise, the school's vice president for multicultural affairs says she, too, would stop short of taking away the magazine's money, at least for now. The best answer, says Carroll F. Hardy, is for blacks and other minorities to become part of The Pillory's staff. Their presence, said Hardy, would likely end the exploits of Mighty Whitie.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.