ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996                 TAG: 9604190085
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: 2    EDITION: METRO 

EMORY & HENRY WASPS AND WASPS

AS RACIAL conflicts go, the controversy over Emory & Henry College's mascot packs very little sting.

The campus African-American Society complained that the nickname "Wasps" is too often mistaken for the acronym for White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Members wanted a "more inclusive" name.

Given that the nickname was adopted almost 30 years before a wasp was anything but a winged insect with a vicious sting, and that all parties agreed that no implication of racial exclusivity was intended, college administrators have decided to keep it.

Score one for common sense over a political correctness that at times has grown so hypersensitive that it turns the concept of tolerance on its head: Every word and gesture becomes subject to strict scrutiny for possible deviation from egalitarian ideals.

In this instance, actual meaning seems to have mattered less to the offended parties than a possible interpretation that might be construed to offend.

The very real and continuing prejudices working against African-Americans in this society are numerous enough to suggest larger battles. One might be against the hostility of some white students - just a few, college officials say - toward the society's campaign to change the name.

We don't think the name change was needed, or even a very good idea. But black students had the right to push for it. One lesson that still needs learning, apparently, is that tolerance for conflicting ideas is the strength of the nation.

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