Deans Call Flyer `Insensitive'

Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57 yesterday issued a letter to the undergraduate community condemning "insensitive language and innuendoes" in a recent flyer posted by the conservative magazine Peninsula.

The letter, co-signed by Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III and Assistant Dean for Race Relations and Minority Affairs Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle, acknowledged the magazine's right to free speech, but called the language in the Peninsula poster "offensive, hurtful, and insensitive to the feelings of Black students."

The conservative magazine posted the flyer last Thursday in Cabot and Mather Houses to advertise a forum entitled "Spade Kicks: A Symposium on Modernity and the Negro as a paradigm of Sexual Liberation."

The forum will take place tonight as scheduled, according to Christopher B. Brown '94, a Peninsula council member.

Peninsula magazine officials voluntarily removed the flyers after a face-to-face meeting with the deans last Friday--an action which the deans' letter called "a first and important step in lowering the level of anger and tension caused by the original poster."

"We had complaints from students about the poster, which we found offensive," said Epps, adding that these complaints prompted the deans' meeting with Peninsula.

But members of the magazine's executive council said yesterday that the flyer, which also showed a picture of a Black woman performing a striptease for a white audience, was not racist when put in the proper context. "The deans' letter didn't really make it clear that the language used in the poster was offensive when taken out of context," said Senior Council Member Chris G. Vergonis '92.

"The poster was actually criticizing white liberal stereotypes of Black people in the 1960s."

In a recent letter to The Crimson, Vergonis said that tonight's symposium speakers, Chicago Social Worker Gloria G. Hardy and Fidelity Magazine Editor E. Michael Jones, would address these stereotypes.

"The speakers ... will present the thesis that the breakdown of the Black family ... resulted largely from the actions of white liberals of the 1950s and 1960s who saw in Blacks a paradigm of sexual liberation," read Vergonis's letter.

The Black Student Association (BSA) planned to decide its official reaction to the poster in a meeting this week, Vice President Zaheer R. Ali '94 said last week. Ali and BSA president Art A. Hall '93 were unavailable for comment yesterday, however.

But Mecca J. Nelson '92, one of the studentswho brought the flyer to the attention of Collegeofficials, said she was not satisfied with thedeans' response.

"It's pretty standard--it's not going to changethe hurt that Black students feel," said Nelson,who denounced the flyer's use of the terms "spade"and "Negro" as "hate speech."

Nelson, who said she may pursue further action,cited a Faculty of Arts and Sciences pamphlet onfree speech guidelines which was adopted in thespring of 1990.

One section of the guide, entitled "Resolutionon Rights and Responsibilities," characterizes"intense personal harassment of such a characteras to amount to grave disrespect for the dignityof others" as an "unacceptable violation of thepersonal rights on which the University is based."

"And as far as I'm concerned," said Nelson,"that's what happened here."

Epps said the College needs to develop anagenda to deal with similar issues.

"I am very concerned that we have a number ofrace-related issues before us, and I hope coolerheads will prevail," said Epps.

Jewett and Hernandez-Gravelle could not bereached for comment yesterday

But Mecca J. Nelson '92, one of the studentswho brought the flyer to the attention of Collegeofficials, said she was not satisfied with thedeans' response.

"It's pretty standard--it's not going to changethe hurt that Black students feel," said Nelson,who denounced the flyer's use of the terms "spade"and "Negro" as "hate speech."

Nelson, who said she may pursue further action,cited a Faculty of Arts and Sciences pamphlet onfree speech guidelines which was adopted in thespring of 1990.

One section of the guide, entitled "Resolutionon Rights and Responsibilities," characterizes"intense personal harassment of such a characteras to amount to grave disrespect for the dignityof others" as an "unacceptable violation of thepersonal rights on which the University is based."

"And as far as I'm concerned," said Nelson,"that's what happened here."

Epps said the College needs to develop anagenda to deal with similar issues.

"I am very concerned that we have a number ofrace-related issues before us, and I hope coolerheads will prevail," said Epps.

Jewett and Hernandez-Gravelle could not bereached for comment yesterday