COLUMN: One Nation, Indivisible

From Chris Iorillo's "The Buck Stops Now," Fall '95 From Chris Iorillo's "The Buck Stops Now," Fall '95Racial injustice is the most threatening and dangerous problem facing our country today. Perhaps not surprisingly, over 75 percent of Americans rate race relations as "only fair" or "poor." As we watch the trial of O.J. Simpson, witness the beating of Rodney King and follow the slander of our own Lani Guinier, the specter of racism is present at our every turn. In a country which has long sought to bridge the gap between its ideals and reality, racial intolerance will perpetuate the great divide in America until we pick the civil rights movement up where it was left off. While we can look to government to lead the charge for civil rights, civil liberty will never exist until a commitment is made to realize the founding principles of this nation. Exorcising racism will require more than legislation, lawsuits and national leadership. Today's racism must be conquered by changes made on an individual level in the pursuit of a common national goal. The impetus and leadership should come from the President and Congress, but empowering the movement will require a broad-base of support reaching to virtually every social group in America. While sit-ins and demonstrations successfully countered the brutal furor of racism three decades ago, a new national consensus dedicated to our common culture and set of goals is required to overcome the entrenched racism of today. The current impasse can only be crossed by redressing our gross ignorance of each other. Our inclination to judge and stereotype on the basis of gender, race, nationality, religion, social class and dozens of other criteria has left us pitifully divided. Ignorance has bred confusion, anxiety and outright hatred. Tolerance of "different" people requires patience and understanding. As Jeremy Knowles advises, "If you don't understand something, the reason may be that you're standing in the wrong place." In the current climate, though, standing in the right place is often hard to do. At the University, the racial divide is painfully obvious. In a vicious cycle of misunderstanding, the minority and majority groups are socially segregated. Locust Walk fraternities, the Big-C, Latino societies and groups such as KSA don't interact. University life provides the perfect opportunity to conquer ignorance, but despite the fact that ignorance is not bliss, our divisive behavior persists. Multiculturalism has not been tempered by an emphasis on mutualism. By celebrating our different-ness and ignoring our joint desire for social harmony, we have fallen from the unity which is a mandatory prerequisite to achieving such lofty goals as civil liberty and equal rights. The union of ideals, values and a common goal will only come if our perspective on each other changes. Understanding the problems facing the minority communities is the first step to dealing with racism. Disproportionately, rampant crime, drug and alcohol abuse, inadequate housing, unemployment and poor education plague the minorities in America. Claims that affirmative action has stolen jobs from qualified individuals are unfounded. Recent studies of the working class job market show that minorities are more likely to suffer discrimination and racism in the hiring process than whites are to encounter reverse discrimination. While race quotas and preferential hiring seek to level the playing field later in life, reliance upon these policies alone ignores the problems which perpetuate inequality. Despite these facts, measures such as the California Civil Rights Initiative, which will end preferential hiring on the basis of gender and race, will probably pass according to most pollsters. And more, the issue is likely to dominate the 1996 Presidential campaign. With the communal spirit of the civil rights movement of the 1960's, the government should begin to implement programs aimed at providing the level playing field at birth. Early intervention by an enlargement of the Head Start program, financial incentives to encourage more and better teachers, and an expansion of President Clinton's national service act are only a few of the weapons we have at our disposal. The rallying call for all groups to unite behind should be the reform of the public education system. No other arena offers the chance to develop understanding and perspective while still in the innocence of childhood. In addition to learning the skills necessary to succeed in life, a proper education gives children from all walks of life the opportunity to experience each other before prejudice has the opportunity to set in. A commitment to equal rights must include, if not begin with, a commitment to providing equal opportunity to quality education. If the civil rights revolution of the 1990's is to make lasting change, the youngest Americans cannot be abandoned. As Marian Edelman said, "It is our responsibility to reach out for our children, speak up for them, vote, lobby and struggle for them wherever and whenever we can." When the civil rights movement began, the dragon the freedom fighters battled seemed invincible. Against great odds, small victories were made but the final blow never came. The best contribution to the national will for social change will come from individual willingness to understand others from a different perspective. As the generation witnessing the explosion of social problems, confronting racism is the first step we must make towards reversing decades of apathy. Assuming we want to live in a society blind to our differences, the fight for civil liberty must resume with more intensity and fervor than it witnessed in the 1960's. The period of challenge and controversy in our future should not deter our efforts, for it can be a time of great opportunity.