Paula Zahn, a noted journalist, recently focused on the topic of racism on college campuses. Galvanized by Michael Richards' racist tirade, Zahn has been investigating racial attitudes and racism throughout the nation. The Feb. 13 edition of her popular broadcast revealed some disturbing truths about race and college campuses.
Leslie Picca, a University of Dayton sociologist, analyzed journals kept by 626 white college students. She found that white students behaved very differently in the company of other whites than with other races. According to Picca, 75 percent of the students who were asked to record their interactions with other people commonly used racist language and racial stereotypes.
The most common sentiments noted when Picca appeared on Zahn's show: "African Americans are criminals;" "African Americans are lazy;" "Latinos are dirty." The n-word was used repeatedly. One student reported hearing that word among white students 27 times in a single day. This is the "real world" that our peers idealize in response to those angered by The Primary Source.
This is the truth. We have a legacy of racism from which the majority of white America never broke away. We have a generation which does not understand what it means to be racist.
Recently, Clemson University confronted its own latent racism due to a party thrown over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. I assure you that not all individuals who attended this party considered themselves racist or bigoted. The students who planned the party never intended to hurt anyone. They didn't consider that wearing black face paint or placing pillows in their pants to make their butts look bigger racist ... but it is. These demeaning categorizations and objectifying stereotypes are part of the same racism found in the nation before the Civil Rights Movement.
Many are calling for the end of affirmative action. Many call it racist and unfair. Few know the exact titles of affirmative action legislation, the history behind Executive Order 11246, the wording of Title IX or who it helps. Moreover, it is no guarantee of acceptance to a job or to a school. Rather it allows for opportunity (and we desperately need those opportunities).
When racism is so rampant that managers at a New York cable installation company, 180 Connect, put up a noose "to hang two black employees" in January as reported by the Associated Press, or when the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King prompts students to celebrate by wearing black face make-up, there is clearly a deep and troubling problem.
Make no mistake: it is not college admissions practices that divide and segregate. That was done long before many of us even considered college. Moreover, a significant part of this division comes from the fact that in white America, the ideas of black people as lazy, shiftless, unworthy and sub-equal were never truly discussed and dismissed. The bigoted notion that Latinos are dirty has never fully been stamped out. Many of our peers have grown up with a dual concept of race - practicing political correctness but believing consciously or unconsciously that racial minorities, particularly blacks and Latinos, are inferior.
I want to make a very important point: Not every white person is racist. Not every white student on this campus is a bigot. To promote that line of reasoning is grossly unfair, and in itself biased. My purpose is not to attack the white-student community. Rather I urge this community to look deep into the heart of the issues we are grappling with. This strikes at the heart of the Primary Source's carol.
It's time to move past the Primary Source's constant defense of the carol as a statement about affirmative action. It's time to go to the heart of the matter. Many have problems accepting that racial minorities deserve to be at Tufts. Does a "criminal" deserve to walk the prestigious Hill? How can you truly accept the right of your classmate to be here if you inherently believe that they are somehow inferior?
You cannot promote diversity, racial and cultural understanding if notions of inequality exist. Quite frankly, our society has tolerance, but barely leased tolerance held within two-sided racism. It is the reason why we have a university filled with large multitudes of racial, cultural and religious groups that shimmer in an ocean of hatred. It is the reason why we can sit in class, learn and study with minorities, go home, and spout the n-word. It is the reason why there can be outrage about the carol while there are still countless whispers that The Primary Source had a point, as shown by the Feb. 13 viewpoint, "The hypocrisy of diversity."
