COLUMN: "Pass the Sunscreen"

From Bill Madison's "Crackers In My Soup," Spring '92.From Bill Madison's "Crackers In My Soup," Spring '92.· Dr. Frances Wesling, 1970 · You don't have to look a long time to come to the realization that Penn is a segregated campus. I know there are some students who believe this isn't true, but I equate their disbelief with an inability to see. Beyond forced interaction on campus, such as classes, you will infrequently see different ethnic groups interact on a social level. I have become weary of being the lone integrationist at parties, and I am annoyed at catching the eye of just about every white face when I enter a room. My popularity theory fell by the wayside a long time ago and now I prefer to avoid all-white functions. So, racism is alive and well at Penn; no big revelation. I mean, after all, Penn represents a microcosm of the outside world, and most of the social problems here on campus have real life parallels. If your parents are bigots -- you people know who you are -- then odds are that you carry many of their attitudes throughout your own life. No matter how intelligent you may perceive yourself to be, intelligence alone does not always invalidate racism as an irrational philosophy. So, what do you do? I've reconciled my feelings that as long as there are people on the planet, there will always be bigotry and hatred. But I do have trouble understanding why so many injustices in the world have been committed by European people against people of color. · If fear is seen as a degree of hate, then why does it seem that so few people despise so many? Why does America choose to compartmentalize the African-American experience, highlighting those elements which are enviable -- roles in entertainment, sports, music, etc. -- and downplaying aspects that are more serious: black on black crime, the inner city, inferior education, high infant mortality rates, housing and job discrimination? Why does J. Crew feature black women modeling in their catalogs, but never any black men? Why are models with fuller lips and more curvaceous figures suddenly in vogue among the major fashion magazines, yet the black models featured in Madamoiselle, Elle, and Cosmopolitan are often distinguished as more white than black? Why are tanning salons so popular? Why is public sympathy for the AIDS crisis within minority communites not equal to one-tenth the pathos poured forth for Magic Johnson? · Suppose that racism, at its core, was not an environmental response, but rather a physiological one. Also suppose that this physiological response was directly related to the amount of melanin, or lack thereof, in one's skin. Since color genetically and phenotypically annihilates the non-color white, one could assume that lack of pigmentation is the exception rather than the rule globally. This fact may result in white people harboring a color inferiority, which may cause white people to develop a psychological hostility towards people of color, resulting in numerous historical confrontations between white people and people of color. Hmm, interesting . . . The melanin theory of racism, first introduced in 1970 by psychiatrist Frances Welsing, provides a novel perspective on the nature of racism here in America and abroad. Senegalise scholar Cheikh Anta Diop goes even further to discuss the psychology of those people who were nurtured in the more northern reaches of the globe as opposed to those living in more tropical climates. "The value system of the northern cradle [ice people] . . . that rough survival value system produces a premium on male physical strength and has produced a warrior value system. Whereas the value system of the south [sun people,] where you can look at the spiritual relationship within the human and the cosmic family . . . " · The United States was the last country to relinquish the slave trade, slaughtered native Indians to make way for white homesteaders, forced thousands of Chinese immigrants to die for the great railroads throughout the West, and now practices selective immigration for those people of European origin. · In less than eight years, all white Americans will be a part of a numerical minority in this country -- and yet there appears to be no effort on their part to participate in easing this transition towards the future of the country. · If these facts offend you or leave you feeling uneasy, maybe its time to reevaluate why your race -- not ethnicity or culture -- is so paramount in determining your identity and what you will do when that identity is lost in the 21st century. · Bill Madison is a senior International Relations major from Alexandria, Virginia. Crackers in My Soup appears alternate Tuesdays.