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Black Ink February 25,1991 10 I/J Combatting Subtle Racism Avoiding ignorance and negative attitudes a great start in the improvement of race relations By Seymour Hardy Floyd Contributor “Let me ask you a question about the race issue since you brought it up. You talk about a level playing field, but given the history of blacks in America- slav ery and then the Jim Crow era of discrimination- do you really be lieve the field is level for blacks today?” “Of course, precisely the op posite is true. White males are at the disadvantage now, and 1 don’t th ink anyone challenges that—it’s created worse than necessary race relations, because you’ve ended up making a lot of white males angry at blacks when they’ve had no reason to be angry at blacks.” It was very disappointing that Harvey Gantt lost his bid for the U.S. Senate last November. That Jesse Helms was the victor—well, one can only hope that this is Helms’ last term; with him repre senting North Carolina, race rela tions in this stale will only be able to progress so much, and more likely, race relations will continue to worsen as they have been for some time now. In response lo a letter to the editor printed in the Greensboro News & Record, in which a Siler City citizen called “race-mixing” a sin, a Reidsville reader wrote, “I hope they bury yoiy old ideas the same time they bury you.” That is a proper response to Jesse Helms’ “old ideas.” 1 would like to think that when Jesse Helms dies- or at least when he is no longer in office- this state will not have elected representatives of the people who share Helms’ altitudes about race. Such hopeful thinking would be naive, however. By read ing letters to the editor in The Daily Tar Heel alone, you can learn that many who are our age- repre senting the FUTURE- have atti tudes at least as backwards as Jesse Helms’. And in Guilford County, while so many in this state worried about Jesse Helms, a “no name” slipped through and found himself elected onto the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. And among the Commissioners, he was selected as their new chairman. His name is Steve Arnold and his name can be attributed to the second quote I presented at the beginning, a re sponse to one of several questions fipooi an interview printed in the Jan. 13 News A Rerard. To further develop an image of Arnold for you, I can simply say that that quote was a very mild view of his. It would not be a waste of your time to pull a copy of that newspaper and read the interview that begins on the front page of Section E, Commentary of that edition. Hopefully, nothing will be too shocking. Arnold is not alone in his views. While he has many critics, he has also enjoyed very strong support by many who are impressed that he seems so committed to combatting the abuses of government— particu larly concerning spending. It is easier to accept that people like Arnold and Helms exist than it is to accept that enough people ei ther share or condone their views to assure that they are in positions of power. It is a sad and painful reality, but any efforts you might have made to combat racism on this campus will probably have to be increased to assure any kind of change in environments that might be worse than the situation on this campus. You may be ahead of those who attended traditionally African-American institutions of higher learning, if only because you will be prepared to face and challenge the attitudes that exist among the white majority. (This probably depends most on the individual.) At the over 90 percent African-American high school I aaended, racial incidents against African-Americans did not occur to my knowledge. At worst, white students kept to themselves. That is not to say that I was not aware of racism. My initial expe riences with James B. Dudley High School in Greensboro made me aware of racism. From my major ity white neighborhood, in which all students were assigned to the same high school- Dudley- very, very few whites actually attended. I do not know actual percentages, but when I graduated, no other white students from my neighbor hood graduated with me. So what did these students do? Many trans ferred to different school systems, their parents paying for their edu cation. Other parents decided that such an awful fate merited a move to any other neighborhood where their children would be assigned to a predominantly white school. Several lied about their residency, indicating that they lived some where other than w here they really cial attitudes, in addition to a po litical cartoon depicting stere otypes that offended many stu dents. And yet at Dudley, I do not remember any exposed incidents of racism by white students to ward African-American students. And my personal experience found only very isolated incidents of racism toward me—always subtle although I did hear about some other white students having prob lems. To an extent, the environ ment probably served as a shelter for African-Americans. When I informed some students that whites had transferred by the means de scribed above, to avoid attending Dudley, some actually seemed surprised. My experiences here at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have been revealing. I have undergone transformations in much of my thinking about race relations. Before I became aware of the number of white students on this campus who held negative views toward African-American students and about race relations (to put it mildly), I thought that African-American student leaders Commentary lived to allow them to attend a different school. And in the worst case scenario I heard about, some parents paid for their children to see a psychiatrist who would pro vide documentation that the stu dents could not function in such an intimidating, lesser environment. (Probably, if these students at tended UNC, they would be the first to accuse you of being oversensitive to racism.) Thus was I enlightened about the world of “subtle” racism. And during my high school years, I was equally aware of ra cism. I read about Tawana Brawley; Bensonhurst; Howard Beach; the white Boston resident who killed his pregnant wife, in forming police of the “black male” responsible; Jimmy “the Greek” and David Duke to mention a few of the incidents and people that cometomind—not to mention the local incidents, such as discrimi natory practices revealed within the Greensboro Coliseum and a (Hotest staged by African-Ameri can students at Page High School where the school newspaper f^led disturbing, yet revealing quotes that exposed negative ra responded to some racial incidents early in the school year a little too strongly. I did not cany those opinions to the extentof not under standing why certain incidents (like Harvey Gantt’s campaign poster being defaced with racial slurs) should be labeled “racist.” But when students attacked the “innocent” administration, I thought they were a little too ex treme in their stands. The administration does always issue positive quotes about inci dents, saying that if found those responsible will be punished fully and that such incidents are “intol erable” and “to be condemned.” I cannot disagree with such think ing. But during the very brief lulls between racial incidents on this campus, the University is very enable of ignoring very relevant issues related to race relations. The University has its pet projects, and consistent e^orts against racism and in favor of positive race rela tions and an expanded, more in clusive curriculum are not evident Funny enough, such an ap- sce "SabUe Radsm,” p. 12
Black Ink (Black Student Movement, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
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Feb. 25, 1991, edition 1
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