On Sept. 27, a black Witte housefellow, Daniel Steinbring, found that someone had written the phrase
igger sucks,"" by his room. A week and a half later, he received two phone calls telling him that, because of his race, he was not welcome on this campus.
Thankfully, we live on a campus where most students find these events to be unacceptable and unsettling. When the initial outrage subdues, however, the incident will likely be written off as an isolated one and students will move on.
Realistically, few students will take action based upon their anger; meanwhile, the masses will not rally around those who do. In the end, we almost certainly will not see a stronger student-led movement toward increasing diversity.
In fact, diversity programs are at best met with indifference by students who, while outraged by racism, do not perceive themselves to be directly affected by it. While most students would like to see less racism and more diversity on campus, very few take direct action to change the climate.
Many claim that the beliefs of those with racist viewpoints have already been determined and cannot be changed. Racism can indeed be overcome by integrating the races, thus allowing for preconceived negative stereotypes to be dispelled.
The university can, and even has an obligation to, provide an environment for this integration to happen in.
Last night's forum discussing race relations on campus was also a small step toward improving the campus climate. But the university also needs to work on increasing minority enrollment, and perhaps equally importantly, minority retention rates.
It shouldn't require an event as jolting as what happened in Witte to call attention to this subject, especially since these incidents have everyday implications. To claim to be shocked by these events is to demonstrate ignorance of what happens to minority students on campus daily.
Racism occurs on both covert and overt levels, and that is precisely why the entire university community'students and administrators'need to move from outrage to action.
