Implementation and Solution

Dear Editor:

Congratulations to the signers of the state­ment concerning racial incidents on Ameri­can campuses in the September issue and to you for printing it. The statement is both academic and activist. Most valuable are the proposals for action to get at the causes of the racial incidents and to eliminate them.

However, action must not be limited to the campus and the university. The educational content of the public schools and the struggle for equal, quality public education are essen­tial components of the anti-racist agenda. This effort must unite the cause of democrat­ic race relations and expanded minority stud­ies on the university, teacher training, and secondary levels. To implement the propos­als of the statement, a coalition involving scholars, school workers, organized labor, and minority communities must be brought to bear on the policy level of boards of trustees and boards of education. Such a broad campus-community effort can help implement the proposals for a rapid increase in black faculty, a major increase in scholar­ships and stipends for black students, and greater attention to Afro-American history as part of American (and world) history.

The implementation of the proposals must also be related to the need for addressing the underlying socio-economic malaise that the racist forces exploit. Implementation and so­lution require addressing the  militarization of education, the out-of-control military economy, and measures to assure the surviv­al of the world. The urgent need for world peace, nuclear disarmament, and US-Soviet friendship at the summit and after are inter­ twined with the needs of a healthy economy, multi-ethnic education, and democratic race relations.