WITH SO many students and administrators throwing out the words "racist" and "racism" around Grounds, I think we all need to take a step back and look at the meaning behind the words we use so freely. Many students are quick to invoke the historical power behind the word "racism," and an equal number of students are just as quick to point a finger at those who are desperately searching for "phantoms of racism."
Webster's Dictionary defines racism as "the assumption that psycho-cultural traits and capacity are determined by biological race and that races differ decisively from one another, which is usually coupled with a belief in the inherent superiority of a particular race and its right to domination over others."
The Cavalier Daily lead editorial on Nov. 21, "The ignorance of a few," asserted that recent Halloween costumes, which included individuals in blackface, demonstrated a "deliberate act of racism." Anthony Dick recently claimed the Griot Society's Web site contains "racist" undercurrents ("The Griot Society's mixed signals," Oct. 23). Joseph Obi, the Griot Society's Vice President, equally claimed Anthony Dick's column to be symbolic of America's greater problem of "racism" ("Column symbolic of greater racism," Oct. 24).
Although students who act offensively against blacks may not believe in the "inherent superiority" of the white race, they are exercising that superiority and "right to domination" through white privilege by acting in an extremely offensive way without being forced to think twice about their actions.
I would, however, argue that there is a difference between "deliberate racism" and institutionalized racism. When a group of white males stopped their car as I was walking on Alderman Road last year to call me a "nigger," a term used by white supremacists for 300 years to promote mentacide and self-hate among blacks, that's deliberate racism. When two students paint their faces brown to dress like the Williams sisters or students throw a "Medallion party" in their own ignorance, we shouldn't be so quick to throw out the words "deliberate racism." Although these actions are offensive, I don't believe the students who chose to act in this demeaning manner were asserting their belief that whites are superior to blacks, but I believe they are victims of a society that does not value black culture and history. To combat this ignorance allowed through institutionalized racism, I would ask that we educate each other in the spirit of understanding and love, and respect the power of the word "racist" or "racism."
I do, however, want to give students a perspective on why some African-Americans may find actions like these offensive. As an analogy to the black experience throughout the history of America, take a student entering the American educational system in kindergarten. As he enters his class, he is held equally among his peers, just as the first black was born free in America in 1624 (http://www.tmpf.org/1619.htm). It is not long before this child is separated from his classmates as an inferior and substandard human being. Entering the first grade, he is mistreated and bullied as the administrators, conscience of these actions, turn the other way.
For seven years, he is consistently abused, forced to learn in a separate class, and taught to hate who he is as a person. It is not until the eighth grade, after his self-image has developed, that the administrators at the school decide to put an end to institutionalized physical abuse and servitude. For the next three years, he is no longer assaulted by the other students, but he is continually ridiculed and certainly not held as an equal among his peers. Where many would have given up, this child decides to stand up for his rights, and as he enters his senior year of high school, he is finally liberated from 12 years of mockery and complete institutionalized discrimination.
When the child enters his freshman year of college, only one year removed from overt discrimination, he absolutely has a right to be sensitive about being mocked by peers who enjoyed their privilege as non-discriminated students for those past 12 years. The group that has conditioned him to hate himself also has a definite obligation to hold those things in the past that have been used to fuel his self-hate as societal wrongs. In the same manner, blacks have the right to be sensitive about offensive actions like blackface that have been used to promote self-hate and to mock and ridicule blackness and black people, and the University has an obligation to recognize these actions as wrong.
If you get nothing else out of this column, I would hope you would at least recognize the power of words, and think twice before you speak on things you do not fully understand. Benjamin Franklin once said, "The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance." Let us not pay the price of our ignorance, but rather take the time to become educated.
(Justin Steele is a third-year Engineering student. He is a moderator for Sustained Dialogue.)
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