The Louisville Cardinal
JANUARY 20, 2009
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By Kara Augustine
The Louisville Cardinal
kaugustine@louisvillecardinal.
com
"To say that we are on the
brink of a historic occasion by
now is cliche. Nevertheless, cli­che
though it may become, the
election of an African-American
as president is a stunning fact,
with all matters of implications,
even globally," said Milton Metz,
retired radio personality.
Metz moderated the event,
"On the Eve of a Historic In­aug4ration:
Covering Race and
Politics in 2009," which was
held at the Chao Auditorium
Thurs., Jan. 15.
The panel included AI Cross,
University of Kentucky com­munications
professor; Betty
Baye, columnist for The Courier­Journal;
and Ricky L. Jones, Uni­versity
of Louisville Pan-African
Studies associate professor.
The event co-sponsored by
the Louisville chapter of the So­ciety
of Professional Journalists
and the College of Arts and Sci­ences.
"The idea here is that with the
election of Obama, we are going
John Ferre
to have routine, daily coverage of
a president who is African Amer­ican,"
said John Ferre, associate
1he independent weekly stud~nt newspaper at the University of Louisville since 1926
www.louisvillecardinal.com VOLUME 83, ISSUE 16 • 8 PAGES, 1 SECTION
History brings a brighter future
dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences. "We are now looking
at perhaps a shift in the way the
African Americans are reported
in the media."
In her opening statement,
Baye said: "I would like to say
that there is a lot about Barack
Obama that I like, but he is not
the magic Negro. I say that Sa­rack
is not the magic Negro be­cause
I do not think that is going
to end whatever the discussion is
about race."
Cross explained that there has
been a 17 percent increase in the
number of people who think race
relations are good or very good.
But, the fact that President-elect
Barack Obama was not the end
of the race problems in the Unit­ed
States was a prominent piece
of the discussion at the event and·
throughout U of L.
Blaine Hudson, Dean of the
Blaine Hudson
College of Arts and Sciences,
said, "While the election of Sa­rack
Obama is a great thing, it
doesn't symbolize the beginning
of this so-called post-racial era.
It doesn't mean that racial prob­lems
have just miraculously dis­appeared.
It is a sign of progress,
but it is also a challenge to make
as much progress in all these oth­er
areas, like eliminating poverty
SPORTS
Lady Cards
continue their
1hot streak'
Lady Cards have won 17
straight games, behind
senior guard Angel
McCoughtry.
See page 3
and improving educational op­portunity."
Freshman music performance
major Andrew Witten attended
the event and agreed with the
panel on some of their points.
"They did bring up a good
point that the worst mistake we
can make is to assume that ev­erything
is going to be OK once
Barack takes office. There will be
change, but nothing will be per­fect,"
he said. "There will still be
race problems. Obama is not go­ing
to be the perfect person who
is going to fix everything."
Although Obama's presidency
is not believed to solve all prob­lems,
the issues of negative for­eign
affairs and the economic
recession are hoped to improve
.... ,,T.wO"I:ild····llke .. t:O" ... ·
say that there is a
lot about Barack
Obama that I like,
but he is not the
magic Negro:'
Betty Baye, Columnist
Courier-Journal
for the better.
"George Bush has not helped
and I think he has actively
harmed the image of the United
States abroad. And, I think we
are beginning to reverse that pro­cess
with Obama," Ferre said. "I
am hoping, like everyone else, is
that he and his team will begin to
help pull us out of the very deep
and scary recession. I am confi­dent
that we have a very good
leader who can. If anyone can, he
ought to be able to help us."
With Obama's inauguration
occurring today, U of L his­tory
professor John Cumbler
explained that he hopes students
also pay close attention.
"I think it is important to
pay attention to the inaugura­tion
if for no other reason that
students should understand what
this means for the histOry gf our
John Cumbler
country. It was inconceivable
twenty years ago that an Mrican
American could be elected presi­dent
of the United States. I think
that is hugely important," Cum­bier
said.
Ferre also believes this is an
event that is very significant.
"This is the only time ever in
the history of human kind that
the first African American presi­dent
will be inaugurated. That
will never happen again. What
a historic opportunity. There are
not too many opportunities to
see something as important as
that," Ferre said.
According to Cumbler and
Hudson, young people in Amer­ica
had a large influence on
Obama's election.
"The strengths in his victories
were amongst young people,"
Cumbler said. "It gives me real
hope in the future of this coun­try.
It was a rainbow of people:
black, whites; young people that
made this election possible."
Young people also support
another historical African Ameri-
THE BEAT
How would I
spend $250?
Students express how they
would spend meal plan
dollars.
Seepage7
can figure that was celebrated
on Monday: Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. ·
"You hope that students will
see in some of this, the kind
of roles they can play," Hud­son
said. "Young people were
the backbone of the civil rights
movement. When you look at
the voting patterns for Barack
Obama in this past election and
the role young people played in
electing him is very significant.
Young people have not played a
big role politically in this coun­try
in a long time, until now."
Hudson held a commence­ment
on Monday honoring
King.
"If you think of King as a
person who opened a door, men
like Barack Obama represent the
folks who move through that
door," Hudson said.
"King was in an unwavering
way committed to the issues of
race, racial reconciliation and ra­cial
equality. Obama is not that
type of person. Obama converse­ly
avoids issues of race as much as
possible," Jones said.
"I think many things King
Ricky L. Jones
did in his life paved the way for
Obama, but Obama is not nec­essarily
the ideological child of
OPINION
There's still a long
way to go.
University minorities
attendance still low.
Seepage4
ILLUSTRATION BY THOMPSON PERRY
Martin Luther King."
Cumbler explained that Mar­tin
Luther King, Jr. Day should
be one day in which students
should note what it means to be
black and white in America.
"I think that most important
thing about Martin Luther King
was that he was a revolutionary
thinker. That he was an absolute
fighter. He was not just a passive
person who just delivered the, 'I
Have a Dream,' speech," Jones
said. "What most Americans re­member
about King was not even
that speech; they remember those
four words from that speech.
They know nothing about his
life. They see him as some really
passive individual who didn't do
very much outside of some non­violent
sit-ins. That is absolutely
not true. I think people under­estimate
King's toughness and
dedication."
Along with King's holiday
and the inauguration, Feb. 12
will be the bicentennial of Abra­ham
Lincoln's birth. The African
-American Theatre Program will
perform the play, ''Abe Lincoln
and Uncle Tom in the White
House," by Carlyle Brown. The
dates are Feb. 4th to 8th and
12th.
With all of the celebratory
programs, Hudson hopes stu­dents
will receive good informa-cion.
"We want to be sure we edu­cate
as best we can. With the play
and that, we hope to entertain as
well. [The hope is] really to help
folks to enjoy a very celebratory
occasion," Hudson said. "This
confluence of President Elect
Obama's inauguration, the King
holiday (his eightieth birthday)
and the Lincoln bicentennial is
kind of li1{e a triple conjunction
in astronomy. These things will
not come together like this again.
I think it is a very special time."
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