Racism in the Bubble

Just finished reading all our class blogs about racism on campus. Not surprisingly, there was universal agreement that racism sucks and anyone who does something like the recent incident this is an asshole. But I was also taken by level of frustration many of you feel with Witt itself, more specifically, with the administration. That frustration is understandable, but I'm not sure how fair it really is. From my experience, the faculty and administration are at least as upset as you are about racism (and many feel the same way about sexism and attacks on the gay community). Anyone who saw our provost sobbing at the microphone in Chapel or heard professors like Nancy McCue discuss the issues know that's true. So why then has nothing been done before, and why are many of you sure nothing with be done now?

First, there's some easy excuses: there was never any proof that the gay/lesbian float arson was aimed at them, and individual incidents like Kent and others mentioned are usually isolated incidents involving only the people right there. I know those aren't really legitimate excuses; we all know racism exists at Witt even if we've never heard anyone use the "n" word, and it does seem pretty likely that the gay/lesbian float was a hate crime. But fair or not, those things were hard to pin down, and easy to ignore. This latest incident was not. Tangible proof in crystal-clear language, delivered on MLK Day. This latest incident was right in everyone's faces -- and so we reacted. Who was "we"? Well, CBS and their allies organized a protest in the CDR, our second-highest administrator (Provost Copeland) called for a campus-wide rally, and several faculty, staff and administrators organized the Chapel event. They provided an outlet for everyone's hurt and frustration, and a great many people came. And the Chapel event was amazing -- hundreds and hundreds of people coming together to say, "This is wrong, these are not the morals of this institution." Most of the black students who spoke told us they were taking great comfort and inspiration from that outpouring of emotion. I hope too that everyone in our community who harbors racist, homophobic or sexist beliefs heard that message loud and clear. Maybe it well change some minds; at the very least, they should understand they should keep their hateful feelings to themselves.

Given that, it saddens me that some people, including our friend Drew, were so frustrated and cynical that they couldn't attend what turned out to be a very special event. Anger, bitterness, and cynicism are very understandable reactions sometimes -- but they can also be very self-defeating. In this case, I fear that Drew's understandable anger ended up hurting himself even more.

I'm not saying, of course, that the Chapel event changed everything, or that I think Wittenberg has done all that can be done to stop this sort of evil. I do think the gay/lesbian float was not pursued strongly enough, and even I thought "rise above" was pretty lame. I have to ask though -- what else could the administration do, what can it do now? Form a committee to study a problem we already know exists? Hold rallies that no one will attend except the people who least need to be there, or bring in speakers no one will come see at all? If you've got any suggestions, let the administration know. Or better yet, act on your own, like CBS did. As we've seen, if the administration acts, people question their sincerity. When you students act, the whole world believes.

Personally, I think racism has gone underground to the point that you can't really fight it by enacting new laws or holding bigger rallies. I think the way you fight it is the hardest way -- that is, speak up and change people's feelings one person at a time. When you hear people greet friends with "nigga," ask them to think about what they're doing. If someone tells a racist, anti-gay or sexist joke, tell him that's wrong and walk away. And if someone uses the "n" word with serious racist intent, just throw him out of the game or out of the party or out of your organization. If they keep it up -- forgive me, Dr. King -- feel free to just whack 'em upside the head. This is actually much easier to say than do, but judging by the Chapel showing, if you call out a racist here at Wittenberg you will quickly be supported by everyone else around you. That's the way you set community standards, that's the way you change people's minds -- and that's the way you change the world.