BLOG ARCHIVES:
- 2012
- 2011
- 2010
- 2009
- 2008
RECENTLY ON TOL:
TOL Our Town
- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
TAGS:
Discussing Race on Campus
Yesterday morning an effigy of Senator Barack Obama was found hanging from a tree in the quad at George Fox University in Newberg. The accompanying tag read "Act Six Reject." Act Six is a two-year old program at the school that brings minority and low income people from urban Portland to George Fox. They learn leadership skills and are charged with engaging the school in conversations about race.
As I write this the president of the university, Robin Baker, is addressing the student body. This morning on Think Out Loud we began the show by speaking with Joel Perez, the dean of transitions and inclusion at George Fox and the overseer of the Act Six program. Perez described the incident and talked about the university's response.
"We work with students before they enter on campus to kind of prepare them," Perez said. They're trained in leadership, he noted. But they're also told
"Hey, it's a predominantly white campus, and at some point you're going to enter into a conversation in a residence hall or in a dining hall that could potentially be an insensitive conversation. You're going to have to engage in conversations around issues of diversity, and what diversity means, as far as biblical context and those kinds of things."
I think it's fair to say that the conversation has begun.
You can listen to the full seven-minute interview in this MP3 (it's right after the intro).
-
Last night I reaffirmed for the umpteenth time that it is Obama's responsibility to calculate the risks and benefits of his run for president. I visualize Obama's safety as I acknowledge that life is neither safe, sacred or guaranteed. The pursuit of Freedom and Justice will never end. I wonder how many George Fox students empathize with the effigy hangers? How many find the hanging abhorrent, stupid and counter to so-called Christian, indeed human, values? Is the number of "bad actors" in society increasing? We tend to believe it is a minority of people who make life worse for the majority, but I wonder whether the number of rotten apples is decreasing, increasing or holding steady? My gut tells me our society's polarization is book ended on the right by zealous fundamentalists. Can you distinguish between religious fundamentalists in America from those in the Middle East or Africa?
-
Hanging that effigy was a destructive and nasty act of stupidity.
That said, programs like Act Six in particular, and affirmative action in general, generate negative feelings among white people who rightly feel that they're being discriminated against.
The civil rights movement's goal was supposed to be "Black and white together, we shall not be moved." Instead, sometime in the late 1960's, it morphed into "Now it's [i]your[/i] turn to be discriminated against, whitey."
It's unrealistic and wrong to expect white people to take abuse that no one would even [i]think[/i] about handing out to members of other groups. -
[url]http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2008/09/28/blacks_whites_show_prejudices_along_racial_divide/[/url]
-
Affirmative action was developed to provide fairness for those who have traditionally and purposely been denied opportunity. It started as a heavy-handed quick fix and I'm thankful for the jump start.
Having attended both predominately black and white universities, I understand the desire minorities might have to create a place where they can let their metaphorical hair down. It can be challenging for youngsters to assimilate into an alien and sometimes unfriendly environment. It is beneficial to have familiar support as one spreads their wings and learns to fly.
While some whites feel discriminated against due to affirmative action, I empathize with their plight because I've walked many a mile in their shoes already. I don't espouse "let's discriminate against whitey," because it is whitey who has provided me work, education, opportunity, and so on.
But there is still a major divide between blacks and whites. Judging from the few comments here, we don't really want to talk about race because doing so means we're going to have to change more. There is great guilt and denial by whites that slavery and ongoing racism have caused long-term psychoses and hatred in blacks.
I'm frustrated that blacks are slow to throw of their chains of self imprisonment, but I also understand how hard it is to do. If your race has been, and still is, subjugated to abuse, racism, denial, hatred and death, to be a happy and well-balanced contributor to society is anathema to logic.
If I expect blacks to free themselves in a generation or two from their chains of oppression then I know I'm metaphorically spitting into the wind. The damage occurred over 400-plus years, are we realistically expecting things to change within 40?
If you're not a racial minority, you might have trouble understanding the "always look over your shoulder" aspect that detracts from a minority person's quality of life. Further, most whites have no idea what it's like to be a minority. I ask that until you have walked many a mile in my shoes, suspend your anger as I have mine. Seek to empathize with those who have walked a different path. Get out of your preconceptions and ask yourself, "What would life be if I were a minority?" -
Comments are now closed.
