One of the many things that still irks me about The Universityof Memphis is how everyone can call it such a racist, prejudicedplace. Are we searching for discrimination nowadays?
A letter to the editor in Wednesday's Helmsman said, "It appearsthat non-white people at The University of Memphis aredisappearing." This person obviously hasn't walked through campuslately.
He decided our "lacking" coverage of black people was asignature of racism. That's like saying that because I ate a saladtoday, I'm a vegetarian.
Then he cited one (singular) case where the staff covered awhite speaker over a black one. The thought that we should coverone person over another because of his or her skin color seems morelike the signature of prejudice to me.
One of the things I absolutely love about this campus is thediversity in every nook and cranny. It's when you attempt to callit a discriminating place that the confused, "you're psychotic"look melts over my face -- mainly because it's not.
I'm not wearing rose-colored glasses through my everyday life.Prejudice and discrimination exist (as I made evident in lastweek's column), but don't jump to conclusions every time somethingdoesn't give account to race. Isn't disregarding the color of thespeaker's skin actually the opposite of racism?
One of my friends even has a weird attitude toward race: "I goto the UC everyday just so the black people will see that it's notjust their building," she said, with a smile.
I squinted at her, searching to see if she was serious or not inher self-proclaimed step toward integration. I don't recall "blackpeople" cruelly and maliciously annexing the UC.
That brings me to another "prejudice" situation. Even with aprofessor taking down BGALA banners (which was wrong), does thatqualify him as ignorant or prejudiced for thinking theminappropriate? I don't recall him saying he didn't want themhanging, but until we learn to read minds, I can accept the factthat the man is simply dumb -- not prejudiced, like another letterto the editor implied.
Sometimes we jump the gun, saying people are being biasedwithout enough information. This happens, but does that mean ithappens every time something rubs a minority group the wrong way?Are we being too sensitive?
In my time at The University, I've managed to accumulate a largegroup of friends. I don't describe them as gay, straight, black orwhite when trying to bring them up in conversation -- because it'sNOT normal. You have to learn to get past those simple differences.They don't define people.
With all the diversity on campus, I don't think prejudicedpeople are that way because of hate -- it's stupidity. Make sureyou've got solid proof that someone's being discriminatory beforeyou sound the alarm. It's a serious accusation.
