Blasting bigotry
We here at Women’s Studies were appalled by Russ Rizzo’s JewishAmerican Princess piece in the Orientation Guide (What your CI leaders don’t want you to know, June 12). To distribute to all incoming students a gratuitous slam against Jewish women at GW is unbelievable in these times – and at a school known for studies in international relations. As a Jewish woman and a professor whose specialty is Jewish women’s history in America – a subject on which I have written two books, I take quite personally the inaccurate and unkind depiction of my tribe. And I wonder why none of the nice Jewish students on the Hatchet staff protested. Lack of pride? Can you imagine an Orientation Guide beginning with an attack on black or Asian students?
With the first Jewish candidate as a running mate in the fall presidential election, I wondered when American anti-Semitism would rise to the surface. At my beloved University, it seems that Jew-bashing is already institutionalized.
-Bonnie J. Morris
Women’s Studies professor
Student saviors
I wish to express my appreciation to five GW students who rescued me earlier this summer. I was in my car – which is as ancient and venerable as I am – headed for a July 4 weekend at the beach when some invisible, mean-spirited gremlin caused us to stop dead in front of the Foggy Bottom 711 store. What to do?
I stopped a young man in a GW jacket who surveyed the situation and said, I’ll call my buddies.
The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by five stalwart students who quickly self-deployed: one to steer and three to push. I sat in the passenger seat, and my fifth hero sat on the trunk facing traffic and waving as he announced, Okay folks, the rest of the parade will be along in a few minutes.
In that mode, my car and I traveled the two blocks to my house. It was all done with speed, efficiency and great good humor, and after administering a little water to the car radiator, I continued on to the beach for a memorable Fourth. My five knights in shining armor were Sidd Vivek, Kali Hislop, Ozan Jaquette, Matt Ching, and Phil Gruber. Thanks guys!
-Olga CoreyFoggy Bottom resident
Satire or slander?
Columnists attempting to display attitude and wit sometimes write mildly offensive material. However, there’s a difference between satire and slander.
The current ethnic slur in the June 12 issue of The Hatchet (What your CI leaders don’t want you to know, p. 2) crosses the line and is all the more troublesome because Russ Rizzo seems oblivious to the insult. His editor in chief is also to be faulted for not stopping him short. I’m offended and disappointed by this slur, which singles out Jewish American students, as I would have been whatever the ethnic or racial target – African American, Hispanic American, Irish American, or Italian American. Not because I don’t know that students can be bigoted and thoughtless but because this sort of type-casting found its way into the school newspaper where I would expect a more sensitized intellect to reside.
I know that The Hatchet is an independent paper. However, that independence doesn’t give the editorial board the right to print racial and ethnic slurs.
-Rhoda Fischerspecial assistant to the president
