If the founders and early leaders of the NAACP, such as Walter White; Roy Wilkens; Thurgood Marshall and Medgar Evers, could see what the current Cornell NAACP is doing, they would all roll over in their graves in disgust. Here at Cornell we're cursed with a woefully misguided, and seemingly racist, generation of African American undergrads, who are being encouraged in their folly by an irresponsible faculty in the African Studies Dept.

The early NAACP leaders had their faults, too, (don't we all) most importantly their subservient support of the united States was in Vietnam. Some faults, yes, but racism was not one of them. In fact, to its eternal pride and credit our country's oldest civil rights organization has always been in the forefront of the struggle against racism.

But now we have a Cornell NAACP which wants to turn the organization on its head -- and facing backwards! Together with apparently all other Cornell African American student organizations, the Cornell NAACP has offered platforms, succor and endorsements to: "Dr." Leonard Jeffries, the voodoo, anti-semitic professor of African Studies at CCNY; The "Rev." Ben Chavism ousted from the national NAACP leadership for misappropriation of funds and sexual harassment of one of his staff members, and now the "Rev." Al Sharpton, con artist and hypocrite supreme, who out of one side of his mouth invokes Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, and out of the other side the extra sick racism of Louis Farrakhan, Lemrick Nelson and Tawana Brawley.

Yes, last Thursday certainly was a "Day of Outrage." A lost and wandering generation of Black Cornellians (with a sprinkling of deluded Jews, Gentiles and Latinos) marched from The African Studies Center and desecrated the names of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in nauseating speeches that those two great martyrs, in the struggle of the human spirit, would most certainly have deplored. It is simply not possible to study the lives and words of Martin and Malcolm and reconcile them with the Machiavellian racism of Al Sharpton, Ben Chavis, Leonard Jeffries and Simba Wachanga. The African Studies Dept. is equally guilty of corrupting the legacy of Malcolm and Martin in its pandering to Cornell Black students' Luddite, reactionary return to self defeating racial war.

The Daily Sun has done a pretty good job of reporting on the issue of Program Housing and President Rawlings' proposals and it has certainly been fair in providing a forum for African American opinion in its pages. Editorially, however, it has been pretty wimpy. A case in point is Friday's (4/26/96) MISSING IN ACTION statement referring to Rawlings' non appearance at Day Hall to participate in a dialogue designed by the Marchers to showcase Sharpton. In fact, NOT Speaking to Sharpton is the right thing to do! It is the policy strictly adhered to by Sharpton's own New York City Mayor, Rudolf Giuliani; It's what President Eisenhower should have done with Wisconsin Senator Joeseph McCarthy; What Neville Chamberlain should have done with Adolph Hitler!

A final very important note and point of personal privilege: The Sun reported (also on 4/26/96) that "Robin Palmer '58 ... marched to the rally chanting: Hey, Hey!, O.J.!, How many women did you kill today?!"

I may be white, but I've got more rhythm than that, and also more accuracy. In fact, I chanted: "Hey, Hey!, O.J.!, How many women did you MURDER today?!" (and "How many men did you MURDER today?!") It should also be noted that this chant is a reincarnation of the 60's refrain against the Vietnam war: "Hey, Hey, LBJ!, How many kids did you MURDER today?!"