THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 21, 1996 TAG: 9606210002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By DAVID A. SPRIGGS
LENGTH: 82 lines
Normally I would have dismissed book editor Ann Sjoerdsma's social essay, ``Boxes: Lack of awareness of how other people live'' (Sunday Break, June 9) as just another nostalgia piece by an aging ``boomer'' who laments the social apathy of today's college students and longs for the good old days of protest marches, lists of demands, occupation of university administration buildings and riots. I should point out that I, too, am a ``boomer'' who was a student in the late '60s, arguably a far-more-socially volatile period than the '70s of Ms. Sjoerdsma's (in her own words) ``politicized peers.'' But when she gratuitously uses my Navy as an example to prove her point, I am compelled to respond.
Ms. Sjoerdsma's essay expresses disappointment at the inability of a group of ethnically and gender-mixed students in an ODU undergraduate developmental psychology class to recognize ``racist caricature,'' ``sex-role stereotyping'' and ``race exclusion'' in a series of TV commercials and a 1950s-vintage Tom and Jerry cartoon. It is not explained by what criteria or by whom the commercials and the cartoon were selected for viewing by the students. One commercial shows a young boy in a business suit extoling the merits of a cookie at a factory while a young girl dressed in a chef's uniform acknowledges her cooking skill. In another, two 8-year-old girls in grass skirts are stroking a Barbie doll. All the characters are white and some are blond. In the cartoon, there appears a black ``Mammy'' character who is easily duped by Tom, the cat.
Ms. Sjoersdma's reaction to the students' failure to become socially outraged is, in her words, to conceptualize it as a ``box,'' which she defines as ``that damnable lack of awareness of the way other people experience life. A lack of awareness that leads to a lack of empathy and concern for people outside one's own orbit and ``culture.'' To alienation. And eventually ``otherness.''
Perhaps those students have a more-mature outlook than Ms. Sjoerdsma would like to believe. Maybe they just saw some kids who happened to be white in a commercial aimed at kids. Maybe they saw young girls playing with a Barbie doll without any young boys present. (One wonders how many Barbie dolls would be sold as a result of a commercial featuring young boys playing with the doll.) Maybe they saw the Tom and Jerry cartoon in the social context of its time, unacceptable by today's standards, but existing, nonetheless, in the social history of our country. And maybe they are more-aware of and empathetic to the social importance of these images than Ms. Sjoerdsma realizes.
It is not necessary to engage in public self-flagellation to demonstrate one's social consciousness. That the students did not rise from their chairs in righteous indignation and proceed to trash the classroom in a frenzy of racial and gender awareness may say more about the students than it does about Ms Sjoerdsma.
In one paragraph, she declares that she ``dare not generalize from 25 undergrads at one university to a generation.'' Fair enough. But several paragraphs later, she ignores her own counsel. Perhaps where the military is concerned one is permitted to generalize. To wit: The U.S. Navy ``culture,'' much in the news lately, is a box, a box that holds white male heterosexuals who know when and why boys will be boys and when girls aren't allowed. But, not all sailors are cramped. And some, like the late chief of Navy operations (sic) Adm. Jeremy Boorda, sincerely, if not always effectively, try to expand the space in the box.
This gross mischaracterization of the entire Navy as a racist, sexist and misogynistic organization is an affront to all members of the Armed Forces.
Of course, we are all aware of the negative publicity which the Navy has received. Indeed, some of it was based on fair and accurate reports and was, therefore, deserved. But I defy Ms. Sjoerdsma to produce sufficient evidence to warrant the stereotyping statements which she made in her essay. As an attorney, she would likely be among the first to file suit if I were to publish remarks about an entire gender or race similar to those which she has written concerning the Navy. She owes a sincere and public apology to the military and should try to remember that members of both genders and many races have willingly fought and died so that she could exercise her right to publish her opinions. Fortunately, I enjoy the same right to challenge her observations, her logic and her conclusions.
I believe that Ms. Sjoerdsma has neglected to include one last, but very important, box. That would be the ``Victim Box,'' the inhabitants of which are expert at confirming their suspicions that every adverse or disagreeable event which occurs in their lives results from a conspiracy of others to discriminate against them based on gender or race or (fill in the blank for your favorite special-interest group).
I urge each of you to ask yourself whether you live in the ``Victim Box.'' MEMO: David Spriggs is a resident of Norfolk. by CNB