2008 Woodie Awards
Editorial: The Reality of Racism
Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: Opinion
A week and a half ago, in downtown Arcata, two women of color were threatened and racially harassed. The Lumberjack staff feels this type of behavior is barbaric and disgraceful. What gives the people who did this, or anyone else, the right to harass someone? What's even worse that these people felt justified in threatening someone on the basis of race or gender. It is people like this who deter social and cultural improvement.
President Richmond sent out an e-mail regarding this event, and as good as his intensions were, he painted a false picture. He titled the e-mail, "our caring and thoughtful community." His facts were generally correct, in that Humboldt State does not condone active racism and that it is important to consider our roles in other people's lives. However, the picture he painted is that this type of behavior doesn't happen here.
Does anybody remember the situation in Hiller Park when two children had racial slurs yelled at them in September 2007? This is just one example of active racism, though passive racism happens all the time on and off campus.
As a society, we do need to, as Richmond put it in his e-mail, "value our differences," but also learn from them. We have several events every year on this campus, such as the Women of Color Conference, the Campus Dialogue on Race and the Social Justice Summit (March 6-8) to stimulate unlearning of all the -isms we have internalized. These conferences would not be as direly needed if this were a campus where everyone made the experiences of others, "positive and welcoming."
Yes, it is deeply upsetting when a blatantly racist incident like this one occurs. So let's not pretend that racism does not exist, especially that it doesn't happen here. It takes other forms that most people don't want to acknowledge or talk about. There are several things we can do every day to prevent future instances. Watch for our own behaviors, validate and trust the experience of others, go to these conferences, and at these conferences, as well as in between them, listen and try to learn something.
President Richmond sent out an e-mail regarding this event, and as good as his intensions were, he painted a false picture. He titled the e-mail, "our caring and thoughtful community." His facts were generally correct, in that Humboldt State does not condone active racism and that it is important to consider our roles in other people's lives. However, the picture he painted is that this type of behavior doesn't happen here.
Does anybody remember the situation in Hiller Park when two children had racial slurs yelled at them in September 2007? This is just one example of active racism, though passive racism happens all the time on and off campus.
As a society, we do need to, as Richmond put it in his e-mail, "value our differences," but also learn from them. We have several events every year on this campus, such as the Women of Color Conference, the Campus Dialogue on Race and the Social Justice Summit (March 6-8) to stimulate unlearning of all the -isms we have internalized. These conferences would not be as direly needed if this were a campus where everyone made the experiences of others, "positive and welcoming."
Yes, it is deeply upsetting when a blatantly racist incident like this one occurs. So let's not pretend that racism does not exist, especially that it doesn't happen here. It takes other forms that most people don't want to acknowledge or talk about. There are several things we can do every day to prevent future instances. Watch for our own behaviors, validate and trust the experience of others, go to these conferences, and at these conferences, as well as in between them, listen and try to learn something.
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R. A.
posted 4/05/08 @ 3:18 PM PST
I recently found out about a friend who personally came across blantant anti-asian sentiment at Humboldt and googled online to see how prevalent rascism was in Humboldt and Arcata in general and this was one of the first articles I came across. (Continued…)
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