A new institute focusing on racism in American society has found a home on Penn's campus, complementing recent efforts to make race dialogue a more prominent fixture of campus life.
The Institute for the Research and Study of American Racism, which is associated with the School of Social Work, will serve as a worldwide resource center for those wishing to learn more about the impact of racism on American society as far back as 1619, when the Dutch are first thought to have brought Africans to the New World.
The institute was officially launched at an April 28 reception hosted by Black Men at Penn, a support group for black males in the School of Social Work.
"This [institute] is about race in American society and the way racism has ravaged the nation and every facet of life," said Social Work lecturer Walter Palmer, who conceived the idea for the institute. "Racism is something that we keep on pretending doesn't exist, as if the civil rights period cured it. ... American racism has not only destroyed the native African population, it has been just as damaging to white people and white children."
The institute will operate out of the School of Social Work research center near 38th and Walnut streets. To get the institute on its feet, supporters have donated books, pictures and shelving.
The Blockson Collection, one of the world's largest personal collections of African and African-American memorabilia, may also be transferred from Temple University to the new institute shortly.
The founders have embarked on a campaign to raise $10 million and hope in the near future to employ a regular staff and a director and to attract visiting professors and student interns.
Palmer said that he envisions the institute having multiple functions.
"We want to create a worldwide, online database where people can turn to deal with the issue [of racism] and stop being so confused," he said. "But it is more than just research. We will also be action-oriented. We'll be training people how to teach courses in racism, trying to enact social change."
The institute will also advocate for the creation of racism courses in Penn's graduate schools, as issues of race span many disciplines.
"If you look at communications, you see the way the media maintains racial stereotypes and myths," Palmer said. "If you look at law, you see the disparity between the way blacks are treated and the way whites are treated. If you look at education, you see how Euro-centric values are pushed down the throats of black children with no appreciation for their [race's] values and struggles."
Palmer said that the institute will examine how "American white racism" has affected blacks, Native Americans and Asians, since all three are considered racial populations.
Issues regarding "darker ethnicities" such as Latinos will also be examined, but to a lesser extent. Palmer said people tend not to realize that there are only six recognized racial populations in the world and therefore often confuse race with ethnicity.
"Race is a social construction that comes out of Europe during the Renaissance period, and that was used as justification for the enslavement of other peoples," he said.
Black Men at Penn President and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researcher Chad Lassiter said that the term "white American racism" refers to how American culture has created privilege based on skin color.
For Palmer, the creation of the institute is a way to perpetuate a discussion on racism that he helped ignite on campus in 1968, when, as a guest lecturer at the School of Social Work, he was involved in two student movements: one to prevent Penn from encroaching on West Philadelphia neighborhoods and the other to make the School of Social Work more responsive to racial issues.
In the aftermath of these movements, the School of Social Work created two required racism courses for its students, setting a national precedent.
Lassiter said that the resources the institute hopes to gather will prove vital in opening people's eyes to the inequalities that still exist in American society.
"Being ignorant is acceptable, staying ignorant is not," he said. "White American racism and privilege still exist. The playing field is not fair, but people want to pretend that it is."
College junior Julija Zubac said that while she is excited to hear about the founding of the institute, she hopes that its scope will expand beyond race and racism. Zubac is a co-founder of the Race Dialogue Project, a group that explores the ways in which race affects students.
"Because race interacts with so many other parts of our identity, I would hope the institute will concentrate on that as well," she said. "Race interacts with gender, where you are from, sexual orientation, everything that makes you who you are."
