The lack of a progressive race relations dialogue in this country is perfectly exemplified by the lack of a progressive race relations dialogue on this campus. While political correctness has allowed racism to continue undisturbed, the current race discourse is pitting federally mandated ethnic groups against each other without allowing individuals to sit down and engage in an intimate and non-confrontational setting.
Reports show that the United States currently has the highest rate of incarceration in American history with 12 percent of black males between the ages of 20 to 35 in jail or prison. Only one percent of white males in the same age group are incarcerated. Compare this to the national percentage of college graduation rates for black students at 38 percent, which is 22 percent points below the national white average, and the problem quickly exposes itself.
However one looks at the progress made in the civil rights movement, racism in this country is just as prevalent as it ever was. Political correctness has simply made it more difficult to point a finger at bigotry and therefore more difficult to fight it in a public forum. It seems easier to get a job if you are a white male with a criminal record than a black male with a clean record because it does not matter if a white owner checks the \African American"" box on the application. If he's calling the applicant a ""nigger"" behind closed doors he still will not get the job.
Occasionally a high profile figure will slip up and say something to expose himself. But the Senate majority leader would definitely still be a bigot, and probably still is, even if Trent Lott had not slipped.
During the 1960s and 1970s the entire country struggled to come to terms with the hypocrisy of the abhorrent inequality in our system. The civil rights Movement was one of our most profound accomplishments but now we need to move into a higher state of understanding racism and its prevalence today. Even if the law says this is an equal system, the reality is that to be white is to be privileged and no matter what society calls a black man in public, if he is still viewed as a ""nigger,"" then either as a slave or as a criminal he is still in chains.
It would be a shallow misperception to place the blame of poor race relations solely on the racist white man. On this campus, there have been a lot of failures within diversity initiatives which have alienated the white majority from the dialogue and thus alienated a diverse minority from the campus.
There is a lot of prejudice but not nearly as much racism as many think. Racism stems from hatred while the nature of prejudice is found in ignorance. Many white students came here without ever knowing a person of a different race, ethnicity or religion. They truly believe that this is a land of liberty, justice and equality for all but when it comes to interacting with diversity it can be frightening.
The more enlightened students need to show a little more patience if their main objective is to make change instead of only to make noise. Our generation is experiencing the new and improved ""voluntary"" segregation where students of color unite under one camp and white students walk around oblivious to their existence. The few encounters that many white students have on this campus with minority students is to be confronted as racist. This tactic elicits two equally unproductive reactions from white students. They either feel massive white guilt, and constantly try to overcompensate or they become stubborn and refuse to engage at all. In either case they remain stuck in the ""racist white person"" box.
Prejudice is a two-way street and everyone has something to lose in a collision. It may seem ideal but they need to reach a point where race relations are no longer an issue, and we can enjoy our diversity without it bearing any relevance to our interactions with others.
White students need to see that it is a privilege that race has never been an issue in our lives because we have never experienced ill treatment based on the color of our skin. On the flip side, however, students of color need to be more patient and more willing to engage. Differentiate between prejudice and racism and if a white student says something ignorant try to rise above them. Explain to them their error without lambasting and patronizing them. We can not continue to alienate each other if our higher objective is to rise above the inequality in our system.
