oe)
WE ARE NOT GOING TO DISAPPEAR FOR YOU OR ANYBODY!!! It is our
Campus as much as it is yours.
People are selectively choosing to call for the removal of the pink triangles and
not some of the other, more malicious and dangerous forms of racism, sexism and
classism that appear everywhere from bathroom walls to the Bi-Co News. I find it
hypocritical that more controversy is not made when certain teams advertise their games
or matches with sexist language and thought; that no one called for the immediate
removal of the huge paint spill last year in front of Hall; that no one would probably
object to someone who, in removable paint, were to write "Beat Swarthmore" all over
campus grounds.
~‘But wait, there 1s more:
Pink triangles were originally used in Nazi death camps to distinguish gays in the
same way that yellow Stars of David were used to distinguish Jews. It has recently,
though, been re-claimed as an international symbol of lesbian and gay pride and support.
It is no longer a symbol of death and destruction, but a symbol of freedom and a call to
end discrimination against all groups, but especially gays and lesbians, currently
American society’s least understood yet most stigmatized and much hated group.
Many of America’s most oppressed groups --from the Americans who opposed
the British in 1776, to those who opposed slavery, to the women’s suffrage movement, to
those who opposed McCarthyism, to the Civil Rights Movement, to those who opposed
the Vietnam War, to the Women’s Movement, to now-- have had to go beyond the
accepted means of protest because there were no alternatives. Just as society (and
some in the immediate community) has tried to deny these groups their basic human
rights and tried to ignore, stifle and oppress them, lesbians and gays are now so targeted.
Perhaps if more people in the community were understanding enough to realize or even
care about or be aware of this fact, and if they did not tear down, ignore, malign or
