The University of California system has had a rough couple weeks. First students at the University of California-San Diego held a "Compton Cookout" party to make fun of Black History Month. Then a satirical campus broadcast program used a racial epithet in its description of the party. On February 22nd, a student at UC Irvine wrote a column in the student paper advocating for the elimination of Black History Month. And last Thursday, the straw that broke the camel's back: A student hung a noose in UCSD's main campus library.
According to Leah Finnegan of The Huffington Post, the student responsible for the noose has since been suspended and faces subsequent punishment.
All of these events were decried by faculty and students alike. The New York Times reports UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox detailed measures to improve the campus atmosphere on a Web site, while students occupied the chancellor's office Friday afternoon, chanting and drumming and participating in a debate about race relations. According to the blog Occupy California, students at the University of California-Los Angeles took part in a sit-in to show their support for UCSD.
These events are awful, to be sure, but they are just as eye-opening as they are racist and insensitive. We claim prejudice and discrimination have lessened through the generations, to the extent that today's college-age adults don't even notice race. We are more open to interracial dating and marriage, and most of us wouldn't even think twice before sitting next to a student of a different race in a lecture hall.
Does that mean we are free of negative stereotypes, racial bias and bigotry? Not even close.
As a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior who hasn't left campus for more than one week in four years, I can attest to the sort of racial prejudice percolating below the surface of my school. Before the legendary "Freakfest" Halloween party my freshman year, all of the dorms had to lecture their residents on appropriate and inappropriate Halloween costumes. They didn't show us Powerpoint slides of slutty nurses or a "Dick in a Box" costumes. No, we were shown pictures of gangster costumes, samurai costumes and ranchero costumes. Sitting in the main lounge of my dorm, we were told these costumes would be offensive and hurtful, yet the room filled with laughter at each passing slide. And sure enough, blackface traipses down State Street every Halloween.
The more subtle forms of racism can be found daily: When a girl's Starbucks cup breaks on the way to class, she yells, "These lids are SO ghetto." When a black man walks into the Nitty Gritty bar on a Friday night, drunk and sober alike immediately start guessing what position he plays on the football team.
These instances aren't as severe or negative as hanging a noose or hosting a "Compton Cookout," complete with gold teeth, nappy hair and cheap clothes, but they prove that our generation is far from "beyond race."
UC San Diego's events may have been extreme, but they don't exist in isolation.
Photo Credit: The Associated Press
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