Thursday, Jan. 30, 1992, I glanced at the front page of The Northern Star while riding the Huskie bus to class. I couldn’t help noticing the “In Focus” section which was entitled “Four Months of Violence.” The section cited seven occasions of assault, where a total of 33 black men were said to be the assailants. Now I appreciate the fact the Northern Star takes time out to recognize the violent acts that occur in this (here comes a little sarcasm) non-racist town of DeKalb, but I find it hard to believe that 33 black men would be responsible for committing these violent acts for no reason at all.

I’m not saying that it could not have happened, but I strongly feel that something had to be done for them to resort to violence. The Northern Star made it sound as if blacks are totally losing their minds and are assaulting innocent people for no reason. Someone could have read that section and could have easily received negative feelings toward blacks. I’m sure that this was not intended. But then again, who really knows? Maybe Bo does.

Also, I would love to know the reason why the color of the last three assailants was not stated. Since there was no problem with calling the first 30 assailants in the first six incidents black, then what was it that prevented the color of the last three assailants from being printed. I wonder if the assailants were “Black or White?” You tell us. I hope that this article does not cause problems between the black and white students here at NIU, but if it does I’m sure that enough people read the “In Focus” section that day and would have no problem with recognizing the responsible source. I personally feel that whoever was responsible for printing that “mess” lacks professionalism and should take another introductory class in journalism. But maybe it’s just me. Maybe the controversy of the article was not intentional. Maybe it was. That’s just something that makes students here at NIU stop and think about the Star’s class and say … “hmmm?”

Shanton Russel

Freshman

Journalism