Every year, new students arrive on our campus for fall orientation, where they will attend a variety of mandated events and activities. One of these events includes Grounds for Discussion — a theatrical performance that focuses on issues of “high-risk drinking, the honor code, roommate disagreements, eating disorders, and sexual assault.” Though not explicitly mentioned on its webpage, the event also contains a skit on racism. The program aims to encourage students to act decorously and refrain from imprudent behaviour, but it falls flat with respect to racism.
If you expect to rid students of their biases against others by essentially telling them “Don’t do this because it’s bad and hurts people’s feelings,” then you clearly misunderstand the nature of bigotry. Grounds for Discussion’s audience does not consist of malleable toddlers. Rather, its constituents are young adults who have experienced nearly two decades of nurturing and stereotypical propaganda (i.e., relentlessly negative and parochial portrayals minorities). The biases are deeply ingrained subconscious and/or conscious beliefs, not gossamery bric-a-brac that can immediately be flicked off and shattered.
In order to combat racial bigotry, our first step should be acknowledging that we all have our biases. Some may read that previous sentence and feel they do not racially discriminate. But we all discriminate against others. In the same manner that we have been taught to treat others differently on the basis of gender, we have also been programmed to have implicit biases and, thereby, treat others differently according to race. Nonetheless, despite being deeply imbued, our internalized discrimination can be combatted by taking the appropriate steps.
One measure the University can take is to expose students to literature on racial and power dynamics. Brown University has set a great example for this idea. For its incoming class of 2019, Brown University mandated that students read “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander. As its title suggests, the acclaimed book elucidates how mass incarceration effectively strips opportunities from minorities by maintaining a racial caste system. In fact, at its recent convocation, Brown generously gave its class of 1600 students a copy of the book. Two years ago, Tulane University also required that incoming freshman students read Alexander’s book. For its opening convocation, Brown also invited the esteemed cultural scholar Tricia Rose. Rose spoke both about racial inequalities and our ineptitude to openly discuss race, and the ways in which it hinders our progress in closing racial gaps. After the convocation, professors led discussions about Alexander’s book and issues it raises. Brown’s actions demonstrate that having our future leaders (i.e., current students at top-tier institutions) recognize and act on social injustice should be essential to a university’s mission.
Additionally, as I argued in a previous article, the University should require a diversity requirement that primarily includes classes in the areas of African-American & African Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies. What stands out about these disciplines is that they go beyond one-dimensional discussions on the cultures of different groups. Instead, their courses challenge students to think critically about how actors (e.g., communities, people and institutions) construct cultural views, act upon them, enforce them and impact their own lives and that of others on account of learned values.
Though well-intentioned, Grounds for Discussion is a shallow and banal attempt to foster dialogues on race (and other issues). Discourses on race require much more than a cursory glance offered by a short skit. Racial discrimination — intentional and unintentional — threatens our American values of fairness and equal opportunity by disproportionately harming many of our own fellow Americans. If the University seeks to produce upright and outstanding citizens, then it must take bolder actions at combating implicit biases.
Alexander Adames is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at a.adames@cavalierdaily.com.
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