THE SETTING is familiar, predictable like a bad horror flick: A racially-charged incident occurs, massive community outcry ensues, condemnation rains down from all corners and renewed calls for tolerance resound. Unfortunately, just like the horror movie, this scene has endless sequels. If the University is going to actually stop racism, the community needs to reevaluate how it responds to racial episodes.
The dashing of that terrible word on fourth-year Amey Adkins' car is but one in a long string of racial events. Between students parading around in blackface, the alleged attack on Daisy Lundy and now this, it is clear that efforts to combat intolerance have thus far proved ineffective. While there are innumerable initiatives laudably trying to foster race relations, this latest incident should simply drive home the point that no amount of Sustained Dialogues, Mixes, Cultural Fluency Centers or Mosaic Houses are going to ultimately solve the problem.
Moreover, our community's response to the Amey Adkins incident typifies the problems with the standard reaction. Generally, this reaction takes the form of a large gathering in which students express anger and shock and produce demands for change. Appropriate as this response seems, the questions must be asked: What is the end-game? What is the best-case scenario that comes from such a response?
Education is the first answer that jumps to mind -- both educating the rest of the public about the reality of racial problems and demonstrating solidarity and unity. Myra Franklin, president of the Black Student Alliance, agreed when she said that the point of Thursday's forum was to "get everyone together and let them know what happened, and to pool our emotions and creativity." Yet this forum was organized by the BSA, not Student Council or the administration, and the majority of attendees were black. Pushing all of that aside, history has proven that these gatherings simply bear little fruit; what results have come of the Daisy Lundy-related forums?
In many ways, fighting racism is like fighting terrorism; the foe is shadowy and unseen, and changing your daily life because of it is an implicit victory for the enemy. How rewarding it must be to the bigot who smeared Adkins' car to see what fear and commotion he or she has caused.
Certainly, the community should not stand by and do nothing. If for no other reason than to support the victims of racial attacks, there must be some response. But looking back on so many years of incident after incident should make one point starkly clear: There is nothing about the past week's reaction that is going to prevent another episode. It is nearly impossible to think that a Daisy Lundy or Amey Adkins incident is now less likely to occur.
It is time for the University to take a hard look at how it reacts to racial events and develop new strategies for combating racism. What other options are available save massive community outcry? As a basic paradigm, incidents can be used as a jumping-off point for racial discussions among "lay students," those who aren't likely to be found at a Straight, No Chaser forum. Exposure is the key; so many students are coming from areas where they did not know many blacks and where the media subtly spread the false idea that blacks are dangerous "others." While few people harbor overtly discriminatory feelings, too many have been socialized with subconscious racism.
Franklin said that the goal of the forum on Thursday was to "change the climate." But instead of just condemning an episode or using it as impetus for something like a mandatory expulsion for hate crimes, the entire University should be focusing on the root causes of our racial problems. Unfortunately, it is much harder to quantify the success of such a program; the next time the "N word" is scrawled on someone's door, the immediate reaction will be that we need more diversity initiatives.
What I am about to write is difficult for a diehard liberal, but it needs to be said: In the process of solving racism at the University, racial incidents are going to occur, and that fact must be accepted without fanfare. Ultimately, it is only the consistent, inglorious effort of increasing the exposure of white students to black students (and vice versa) that will create a climate of tolerance. Even with that climate, once every so often someone will enroll who is simply afflicted with the evils of racism, and nothing -- nothing -- is going to prevent him or her from acting upon those feelings.
Every time a racial incident happens at the University, the reaction should not be to work ourselves into a lather or lash out at the administration for not doing enough. Instead, that incident should provide the opening for a new script, one which -- unlike the tired repetition of meeting after meeting -- just might have a happy ending.
Elliot Haspel is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at ehaspel@cavalierdaily.com.
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