THE PULBIC MIND: WHY AREN'T SCHOLARSHIPS AT UNIVERSITY `RACE BLIND'?

To the Editor:

Disgust is too mild a word for the news that Southeast Missouri State University, the University Foundation, and Procter and Gamble are practicing racial discrimination.

It wasn't long ago when African-Americans in Cape Girardeau were allowed at the city's swimming pool just on "Negro day," blacks were required to sit only in the balconies of the local movie houses, and segregated schools were the law. This bias was evil, pure and simple.

Now, however, prejudice is still being taught and practiced with our tax money! Our local university is encouraging racial and ethnic prejudice against white students. There are at least two scholarships which are available to practically everyone except whites. Racial discrimination hasn't stopped only the targets are different.

Discrimination against a person due to his race or ethnic origins is an offensive disease which leads to race hatred. In all seriousness, a college student asked me recently, "Surely there has to be a scholarship available for me even if I am a white male." Any person black, white or any color has a right to feel bitterness when he's discriminated against because of his color.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for a society where we judge people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

I believe that. Why don't SEMO, the University Foundation and Procter and Gamble follow such a worthy idea? Why aren't scholarships at SEMO race blind as they're supposed to be?

Bill Hopkins

Marble Hill