Dialogue On Racism

3/24/09

Writing my "State of Dialogue On Campus" paper really made me think a lot about how much I have grown since taking this course. Before taking Psychology of Racism, I knew that racism existed, but I just didn't know how much it actually affected me. I've become more perceptive about conversations about race and racism. And racist comments and jokes bother me. A lot. But, as we talked about in class, I still don't know how to respond when I hear an off-color comment. I hear someone say something and there are so many things buzzing through my mind: "that's rooted in old stereotypes," "that's completely incorrect," "totally ignorant." Keeping silent maintains the status quo that is racism. I can't just keep silent anymore. Well, I can - I just don't want to. But I need to think about how I can have some sort of response. Someone in class said that when they're caught in this situation they just tell their friend to "quit being an asshole." That works - when you're with friends, or friends who have a sense of humor where that would be appropriate. But what about in the context of work? When you're with someone who you just know as an acquaintance? Totally inappropriate. How would you respond?

See, this is where I'm stuck. I hate offending others, but I hate staying complacent. Ugh. I'm so frustrated. Maybe this is something I can keep thinking about for my action plan?

I read the articles for class this week after completing my paper, and I realized that so many of the things that I had noticed on campus were exactly what these articles were talking about. The Worthington article "Color-Blind Racial Attitudes, Social Dominance Orientation, Racial-Ethnic Group Membership and College Students' Perceptions of Campus Climate" found that unawareness of racial privilege was associated with more positive perceptions of both Racial Ethnic Campus Climate and General Campus Climate. These students were more likely to perceive that everything is all good and dandy for ethnic minorities because they don't perceive that racism is happening in their world. I could definitely see how this could happen - I didn't even THINK about race and racial relations on IWU's campus until I was educated in this course. White students were more likely to rate RECC as higher than minority students because they simply don't have the same background of discrimination as students of color.

Also, I found the Hogan article interesting. One thing that the authors point out is that "students who enroll in diversity courses relatively early during their tenure are possibly more tolerant than students who delay completing the requirement." I definitely see how this could be true. My freshman year (I went to the University of Illinois freshman year, and then transferred) I completely avoided my US Diversity General Education requirement because I thought it would be "boring." I did a lot of growing up between freshman year and now. I was very conservative and ignorant coming into college. It's not that I was intolerant, I just wasn't really interested in learning anything about different cultures - or even my own culture. I was kind of in my own little bubble. Anyway, sophomore year, I didn't get into any of the classes I wanted to second semester, and as a result, I was forced to take my US Diversity class. The only one that was open was Women's Studies (ugh). I was kind of an anti-feminist going into the class, but the class actually changed my outlook a lot. In the end I'm really glad I took that class because it increased my interest in learning things about oppression, and sparked my interest in taking this course when I saw it listed.

The Spanierman article and the Hogan article talked about diversity classes as general education classes, and how they help students realize that there is a need for change (unfortunately all of the effects don't last). This makes students want to change, and I think more students need to be exposed to classes about race and racism to open up dialogue on campus about these topics. Making this class a general education credit (US Diversity?) would encourage more interest in the class, which would result in more students interested in gaining exposure to the problems of racism.

I don't have dialogues about racism like we witnessed in the Color of Fear video. That conversation was so moving to see everyone so open about their feelings and experiences on the topic. I was thinking about why I don't engage in conversations about race more often. Is it that much of a "touchy subject" that no one wants to go near it? No one wants to offend others? Or is it that I'm just so sheltered and all of my close friends (except one) are White?