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Thoughts on racism
With all the recent controversies on campus, it might be advantageous to initiate a discussion about the multiple meanings of "racism."
I certainly do not claim to have an all-encompassing definition of this loaded term, but I'll offer one suggestion that I commonly share with my students: racism is lazy thinking. Like ethnocentrism, it results from mental impatience, a quick willingness to form judgements about another person based, not on individual qualities, but on peripheral characteristics.
Racists say, "Ah, she is black. She must have grown up in the slums." "Ah, he is Native American. He must have a drinking problem." "Ah, you are white. You are responsible for centuries of slavery and genocide."
Many of my colleagues will cringe at that definition, and counter with the objection of "Wait! Racism is about power; it's what whites use to maintain their privilege." But if holding power is the criteria for whether or not one is a racist, then most KKK members would not be racists, since few Klansmen sit on the boards of major corporations, occupy seats in Congress, or hold any of the important positions from which real power emanates. (This, of course, doesn't make white supremacists any less dangerous.)
As for white privilege, certainly it exists; it would be foolish to contend that having light skin doesn't mean the enjoyment of unearned advantages, at least in this country.
However, it is equally foolish to speak of "white privilege" as automatic and monolithic, since its benefits are not distributed equally. White women enjoy less privilege than white men; white gay men enjoy less privilege than white straight men; poor, uneducated white men with blue-collar jobs enjoy less privilege than wealthy, well-connected white men with ivy league degrees and business suits. To be white makes the road easier, but whiteness alone guarantees nothing.
It is an admirable goal to eliminate racism as a barrier to equality, but don't forget the other barriers too, especially geographical and class prejudice, of which I'm afraid many of us who don't originate from Central Minnesota have been guilty when it comes to the rural and small-town people who comprise the bulk of our student base.
It would help also not to talk about racism like some pathological disease that can be "cured" with more required courses, more sensitivity training and more counseling. If education held the key to stopping prejudice, then Germany � whose university system was once the model of the world � would not have had a Holocaust. Furthermore, if done to the point for overkill, such efforts run the risk of creating a backlash of bigotry.
When I hear students complain about teachers preaching to them, not respecting their right to offer dissenting opinions, and "ramming agendas down their throats," I have to wonder if we're encouraging the very stereotyping, hostility and lazy thinking that we're supposed to be actively fighting.
Jim Leiker
Assistant Professor
Department of History
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