Manners

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Upon reaching the conclusion of Lisa Taggart's editorial ruminations about her recent experience in an elevator (August 8), I was astonished to find that she and her friends had completely missed first base in attempting to understand the Black man's refusal to push the elevator button.

Did no one have the presence of mind to reflect that Karen's "Thirteen" (the floor number) was uttered more in the style of a hierarchical demand than a request from an equal? Did no one conceive of the presumptuousness of speaking that way to anyone, regardless of color or gender? Did no one even notice the absence of so basic a courtesy as "please"--or blush for the tone of despotic privilege that omission almost invariably conveys?

Under the circumstances, the man can hardly be adjudged "rude" for having courteously refused to execute what amounts to a command, no matter what inflection Taggart's friend may have used in uttering it. No one can say how the man might have reacted to a different approach. But the likelihood of his punching the button could only have increased, had the friend remembered her manners and said, "Could you press 13 for me please?" Marvin Hightower '69