Page 196 - ThePhoenix1995-96

Thursday, May 9, 1996-Page4 COM MEN TAR Y SORRY, YOU'VE BEEN DISCONNECTED ----------------------------~I~Af~e~I~B~r~e~n~n~a~n~I---------------------------- A column on campus lifefrom a decidedlydifferentperspective African-American Studies major at most liberal arts colleges, including Western Maryland. RACE AND THE LIVING POLITY Being an African - American on a predominantly white campus is an experience really In addition, it is my experience that students here seem to have lived life in places and in unlike any other. Race (which has no real scientific or culturally anthropological meaning contexts that help make them almost absurdly comfortable with their belief systems. So but will be used here in the absence of any other term I can think of that most everyone much so, in fact, that the filter through which they process life is almost unapproachable embraces) and racism have their hands in shaping that experience, and in an unwelcome w~en bringing t? the table new ways of seeing. Yet these persons see themselves as open- way convolute and complicate every interaction I have here. minded, or as cntical thinkers. when in reality they have yet to begin any thinking process. Instead, they engage in the rote memorization of ideas that happen to weave their way Now before the Phoenix is deluged with responses to this column by well- intentioned persons who submit that they are not racist, or that they are "colorblind," allow me 10 first through the defenses of their comfort filter due to "tried-and-true" agents of socialization. of ethnicity in America say that I would refuse to draft a column that prevents The reality and others to ever rest re- myself invalidated the experiences, both positive and plete within that type of limiting perspec- negative, of students on this campus, and this In America we think that we can address racism tive. Indeed, the ability to only see what column will not do that. Thinking can be with the swiftness of a Pentium processor, wiping you want to see isn't really an ability at all, discredited, not experiences. but rather a handicap, a severe disability that Racism exists here, period. My own ob- away the memory of the history of this nation and servations and experiences have borne this keeps those individuals from embracing as- out innumerable times. To debate that point substituting it with a media-induced sense of the pects of the truth until it is beyond them to is to minimize the effect that racism among American dream, a dream that remains just that for see anything. Obviously we all have our the campus community has on the racist, the filters, but some of us have the luxury of person subjected to that racism, and others most of us, even for those who might think they've being able to be more comfortable with the exposed to it as a phenomenon. Let us agree almost reached it, filtering ofthe truth than others, and therein right now that any discussion of racism ought lies many of our nation's problems, includ- ing persecution from prejudging due to to both go beyond the typical rhetoric, and "race." avail us of atypical responses. And while I One realization that may aid under- recognize that my approach is not "the an- standing is that only in the venue of the "isms" (racism, sexism, ageism, etc.) do people swer," I do know that what we have tried, lived, thought, and believed with regard to attempt to divorce the history of a phenomena from the reality of that phenomena today. racism is not working. Not even with something as volatile as the stock market do we fail to observe historical When racism was enacted on this campus last year, it motivated students and others to tribes, the truth of hold a candlelight rally in Red Square. Of course, any' rally against racism allows the trends, but with the various Diasporan members of mainly West African For example, people fails to matter. their history their time in America before and during campus community to see that among many of its members racism will not be tolerated. scramble to know their family tree because it has an inherent significance for them to know Yet, the rally as a response was typical in that it did not move us in any real way closer to from whence they came. But many of those same individuals submit thai being denied that a methodology of understanding and assailing those locomotive agents within cultures nor and societies that move persons towards racist behavior. Rallies such as the one described type o.f knowl~dge about oneself should have no real bearing on why Africans divorced have a God, culture, o~ly from their families, but from their language, and community are made up overwhelmingly of individuals who are already opposed to racism. Hardcore difficult time knowing and maximizing themselves here in America. racists rarely say to themselves "Hey, there's a rally against racism tonight; let me attend In America we think that we can address racism with the swiftness of a Pentium proces- and subject my views to potential change." America has had well over thirty years of sor, wiping away the memory of the history of this nation and substituting it with a media- rallies, marches, movements, and deaths; and while we have made strides in addressing the legality of racist behavior, we have never spoken to the hearts and minds of racist individuals, and that is clearly the key. Rallies such as the one described above, in that Understand that the concept of "deep structure" which regard, seem to fail outright, but again, that may be neither their goal nor their agenda. How does an individual, a community, or a nation enact an agenda with regard to connects me to my overall history has nothing to do fundamental changes in ways of seeing ethnicity? One method might include including in with the fact that my personal history is right here in a comprehensive way, throughout all our institutions. the reality of those things that have taken place (and continue to take place) to create and maintain mind-sets that foster in America, so forget-about me running away, forget people racist behavior. In other words, to begin at the beginning. Oh boy, there they go again. I thought he was gonna tell me somethin 'new. Blacks are about me hiding, and forget aboutwe'just leaving all always doin' thor. Always bringing up the past. this alone. I have had people say to me, "Why bring up the past?" or "It's over, nothin' we can do about it now." Notice this. When Jewish people remember the Holocaust, and want the horror of it to reside for- induced sense of the American dream, a dream that remains just thai for most of us, even ever within the world's memory, it is for, among many reasons, this: Because Jewish for those who might think they've almost reached it. In America, we believe that we don't people want the world to continue to recall how it turned its back while Jewish persons need to ~ responsible to our own truths because somehow, down the road, our own inge- were being murdered, take responsibility for that failure, and join Jewish persons in say- nuuy will. save us. Yet what one might consider is that technology, "progress;' and the ing "Never again." perperuatmg hope of a "better tomorrow" have only forestalled the process of enlighten- ment we must go through to become a living polity, and not just a theoretical one. One method might include including in a Or maybe, it is the more insidious, more unspoken answer. Maybe it is that America's want these "minorities" to just go away. To hide in some dark comer comprehensive way, throughout all our institutions, various institutions in a very palpable sense most Americans not only don't care about minori- and die because the reality of those things that have taken place (and ties, but actually resent minorities for making them have to at some level become aware of ~nfor.mation that submits that t,he foundations upon which their family's ~istory in America continue to take place) to create and maintain mind- IS built might ~e rotten and universally unsound. These are the same individuals who, right sets that foster in people racist behavior. now, are reading this and saying, "If you hate it here so much, then get the hell out!!" I probably have as much natural behavior Agreed, right to a place and a due.to America's space III Afnca as I do right here. But I'm not going anywhere. You're going to have to deal with me, and with the truth, because I'm not going anywhere. Understand that the concept of "deep structure" which connects me to my overall history has nothing to do with For America to move towards becoming a nation that maximizes the potential of its citizens, it must hold itself accountable to its principles in a very spiritual and historic way, the fact that my p~rsonal history is right here in America, so forget about me running away, and face the fact that it has NEVER embraced people of color here. Only then does racist forget about me hiding, and forget about me just leaving all this alone behavior even have a chance of being changed, and only then does America have a chance The idea of a living polity. IfWMC is prepared, we c~n begin right here; if America is of recognizing its failure, of saying to all of its citizens, "Never again." prepared, we can begin right now. How? Accept the responsibility our history creates. This applies to WMC in a very particular way, because it is institutions like WMC Face the truth about where you are economically and socially, and why. Live within the which represent themselves as beacons of academic light, shining us a way through the fog knowledge that life is short, and the search for aspects of the truth can be costly, yet is vital. of agenda-laden interpretations of history and politics. All that preening and posturing And finally, know that none of us need walk around "colorblind." What we need is to be notwithstanding, WMC ends up falling into the category of most other institutions (one able to attend a college, live in a community, and inhabit a nation that sees most clearly all notable exception being Temple University) in failing to recognize the long-term impor- our different colors, but doesn't attempt to spiritually, economically, or physically lynch us tance of an understanding these failures. A clear example of this is the lack of an African! for being the "wrong" one.