LOST IN the shuffle of move-out was another unfortunate racial incident. On the evening of May 3, a Hereford resident called the police to report a suspicious-looking black man outside. A description and warning was e-mailed to Stadium Road residents, and it quickly came to light that the man in question was actually Aaron Jennings, a student and resident of Hereford's Norris House out talking on his cell phone. This epilogue to a school year in which diversity colored every chapter only serves to illustrate how much work lies ahead.
To be plain, the enemy here is the feeling that when a black person is walking behind you, you should be a little more cautious -- a little warier. This is not often spoken out loud, because it is a feeling no one wants to have. But a problem cannot be solved without fully confronting it. Would anyone have thought twice if a white man was wandering outside Hereford?
There have been seemingly endless efforts to address issues of race, and all of them commendable: the Mix, Sustained Dialogue, Kaleidoscope, etc. Unfortunately, each of these initiatives cater only to an already racially conscious bloc; the majority of University students lead busy lives and simply do not choose to take the time to participate in diversity-focused programs.
There is a lesson to be drawn, however, from the method all tolerance-building initiatives share: exposure. A vast number of University students come from middle-class suburbia and traditionally white cities throughout Virginia; furthermore, only around 8 percent of the undergraduate class is black. Middle-class whites are often socialized through the media with the idea that blacks are on the average more dangerous. Much is made of self-segregation, but is that phenomenon so surprising considering the lack of exposure to blacks brought by most incoming students?
While solutions are not easy to come by, all is not bleak on the University's racial landscape. Very few reported hate crimes occur on campus, and the entire community came together after the alleged attack on then-Student Council presidential candidate Daisy Lundy. There are innumerable students and faculty working hard every day to foster better race relations.
The next step is taking the initiatives which have solidified over the past year and broadening them until they touch every student. Meaningful racial dialogue isn't even as important as just getting heterogeneous sets of students to interact. A culture of tolerance is the ultimate goal, a culture where black footsteps provoke as little response as white ones.
If the goal is also to create a lasting institution of harmonious race relations, an emphasis must be placed on first years. Exposure and interaction with new groups needs to become as much part of the first-year experience as learning about the honor code. In the five cities and counties which account for the largest portion of the incoming class, the average black population is a little over 15 percent. It is not hyperbole, then, to say that first years have been underexposed to blacks.
Resident assistants are perhaps empowered with the greatest opportunity to foster tolerance from the very first day students arrive. Organizing suite or hall dinners, setting up basketball games with other RAs -- these are the types of activities that engage the casual student, the one who isn't prone to going to a Sustained Dialogue meeting.
Exposure can happen in the classroom and at the dining halls. It can happen in libraries and in dorms. Tolerance cannot be a course you take 12:00 to 12:50 Mondays and Wednesdays -- it must become a natural part of everyday life, and it cannot be forced into students' laps. The second the word "mandatory" enters the equation, few are going to be receptive or open-minded.
At the same time, complacency is not an option. There are too many incidences of Aaron Jennings, too many cars full of white men shouting racial slurs at black girls. Anyone who says there are no racial problems at the University is either fooling him or herself or simply lying. Talk to a black friend or just someone you meet on McCormick Road; too many have a story of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination.
Creating a University devoid of racial issues is a daunting task, and it will take time. But if we are vigilant, if we utilize a breadth of methods spanning from academics to sports, if we work towards breaking down years' worth of a worldview which made blacks the "other," then we may just achieve true diversity. No one likes that word because it's ambiguous, so here is a definition: Diversity is when someone talking on a cell phone isn't suspicious just because he's black.
Elliot Haspel is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at ehaspel@cavalierdaily.com.
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