(NAME-MCE) Racial Tension Becoming Hot Topic At Many U.S. Colleges

[Bill Howe]

Racial Tension Becoming Hot Topic At Many U.S. Colleges
By Susan Kinzie , The Washington Post


Published on 9/27/2007 in Home »Nation, World »National News
A couple of weeks into classes at the University of Maryland, a rope
tied into what looked like a noose was found hanging outside the
campus' African American cultural center. Campus police reports this
month included two incidents of racially disparaging remarks, one
written on a workstation and one on a bathroom stall in the student
union.
This weekend, a swastika was spray-painted onto the car of a member of
the Kappa Alpha fraternity, which one member described as a Christian
fraternity.

It's not the only campus that has seen intolerance. A Maryland
congressman is asking for an investigation into nooses left among the
personal effects of a black cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in
New London and on the office floor of a staff member doing
racial-sensitivity training after the initial incident.

This month, more than 200 students at the University of Virginia
protested cartoons depicting starving Ethiopians and a slave that ran
in the student paper.

Because so many colleges are more racially and culturally diverse than
ever, with students hanging out, dating and studying together, such
incidents have left many wondering: What's going on?

And what are schools doing about it?

Some professors think there are more incidents than ever. Others think
people are just more aware of them thanks to YouTube, Facebook and
e-mail.

Either way, the incidents come as a shock in part because many people
expect colleges to be oases of tolerance and understanding. But school
officials and scholars say it's natural that racial tensions sometimes
flare on campuses because colleges reflect what's happening in the
world around them; they're not isolated from economic and social
rifts. And for many students, college is the first time they've met so
many different types of people.

"Many people don't make that transition well," said Beverly Daniel
Tatum, the president of Spelman College. She said she doesn't expect
that to change any time soon, with public schools less integrated than
they were 20 years ago. In 2005, for example, according to the
National Center for Education Statistics, more than half of black
students but only 3 percent of white students attended public
elementary and secondary schools that were 75 percent or more black.

Some students arrive with prejudices and stereotypes they don't even
know they have, said William Harvey, vice president and chief officer
for diversity and equity at the University of Virginia.

Some incidents clearly are meant to intimidate or anger; some are
meant to push buttons or make people laugh.

Sometimes students don't realize that an offhand comment or a
Halloween costume could offend someone, several professors said. At a
party on "politically incorrect" night last year at Macalester College
in Minnesota, one guest came in blackface, another wore a noose and
another arrived in white as a Ku Klux Klan member. Johns Hopkins
University, the University of Texas at Austin, Trinity College and
Clemson University, among others, also had parties that offended other
students with racial stereotypes.

In some cases, "the power is in the silence that surrounds these
symbols," said Sherrilyn Ifill, professor of law at the University of
Maryland. "We don't talk openly about why a noose is such a
provocative symbol because we don't talk much about our history of
lynching."

Young people can sense it's a powerful symbol, she said. "I think they
know it's racially charged, but they don't know its full history ...
how many lynchings there were, how many were there watching —
sometimes whole towns, including here in Maryland."

The rope at the University of Maryland made many think of the six
black teenagers in Jena, La., who were charged with crimes after they
fought a white student in December. The town had been through weeks of
racial tensions; in September, white students had hung nooses from a
tree.

"My question is: What happened between September and December" as the
events in Jena escalated, Tatum asked, "in a proactive way, to improve
race relations?"

Schools aren't doing well at this, said Harvey, who came to the
University of Virginia from the American Council on Education. "I
don't know of a single place that's doing as well as it could be, or
should be, doing."

Robert Moore, associate professor and chairman of the sociology
department at Frostburg (Md.) State University, said too often what
administrators do is "just try to keep the lid on things. ... They do
sensitivity stuff, orientation classes that all students are required
to take, to be sensitive to the differences in other people in our
society." That's good, he said, "but it doesn't go far enough" and
doesn't deal with the tougher issues.

Some school officials said those kinds of talks need to be done well
to engage students rather than make them feel as if they're sitting
through a canned lecture or being told how to think. That can backfire
— like the "politically incorrect" party with students making fun of
the whole idea.

Still, several professors said college is the perfect place to
challenge people to talk about difficult subjects and learn about the
unfamiliar. Studies have shown that students are more tolerant after
they graduate, Moore said. At Frostburg, he said, administrators have
shown a commitment by embedding these topics in the curriculum.

The University of Maryland has had two forums for students and others
to talk about race since the noose was found, with about 50 to 70
people at each forum. A student group is asking people on campus to
submit stories online about their experiences with discrimination.

At Johns Hopkins, the school year began with new students discussing
Tatum's book, "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the
Cafeteria?" It was the first time all freshmen were given a summer
reading assignment and was part of an effort to get students thinking
about diversity issues as soon as they got to campus.

After its party last year, administrators set up a commission, wrote a
set of principles on equity, are working with faculty to add more
race-related content to the curriculum and are talking with student
groups about these topics. Some schools, including the University of
Virginia, have added a "chief diversity officer." Harvey started after
a series of incidents two years ago — including threats targeting
blacks scrawled on walls and a racist note left on a black student's
car.




    By T. Ortega Gaines,
• Members of the student government at Johnson C. Smith University
gathered recently in the main courtyard in Charlotte, N.C., for a
rally in support of the six black teenagers in Jena, La., who were
arrested in the beating of a white classmate. Students hung a noose
over a branch to represent no tolerance for racism as they prayed.





-- 
Bill Howe
http://www.billhowe.org

China in 2008 - http://www.billhowe.org/China2008.htm
*Past-President - National Association for Multicultural Education
(NAME) - http://www.nameorg.org