Letter to the editor: Prof looks at I Care week

Letter to the editor: Prof looks at I Care week

"I care" week

This letter to the editor is a scathing and satirical condemnation of "I care" week. The author, Professor Martin Watkins, declares the week as inherently racist and supports the BSU's decision to boycott it.

Martin A. Watkins

The Quad Vol. 46 No. 9

Special Collections, Francis Harvey Green Library, West Chester University

1977-11-08

Maria Marabito

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Prof looks at I Care week To the Editor: Admittedly I Care Week at West Chester State College was sponsored by well-intentioned people interested in improving race relations. Its success — or failure — can be measured perhaps by the following. 1. Those who needed most to improve their attitudes towards non- Whites were conspicuous by their absence from the events of I Care Week. 2. The relationship between the selling of hoagies, cakes, and cookies and improving race relations was difficult to see. 3. The singing and playing of warmed-over songs of the 1960's was like eating yesterday's warmedover boiled potatoes. 4. The entire concept of I Care Week is reminiscent of — and, indeed, a relic of — the patronizing attitudes of the White community which during slavery and postslavery days smugly complimented itself and went to sleep contented after having given to our "unfortunate Black brothers and sisters" work-out clothes that were two sizes too small or two sizes too large for the "darkies" without in any way changing the status of Black people in America. 5. The refusal of the Black Student Union to participate in I Care Week was based upon the BSU's recognition of the racism inherent in the concept of I Care Week. 6. The fact that only two White people, both professors, joined the Black Student Union's protest was perhaps the real measure of how many White people really care. 7. The entire campus security police was on duty — armed with guns — in violation of written policy that they are not to wear guns during the day. Was this the true measure of how much we really care? 8. The police force of the Borough of West Chester was placed on alert. What did the "powers that be" expect? Riots? Burned buildings? Or does this act also illustrate how much we really care about the non-Whites? What White America really needs is not a meaningless I Care Week, but rather a meaningful, soul-searching Week of Atonement. And because of their history of bigotry and political oppression, West Chester State College and the Borough of West Chester would be ideal places to inaugurate such a week. Sincerely yours, Martin A. Watkins