Staff Editorial: Ashwood incident shows need for greater efforts to combat discrimination

Like the incident that occurred last October in McShain Hall, the discovery of racially-charged graffiti in an Ashwood elevator before break indicates that the struggle to overcome discrimination and ignorance is far from over at St. Joe's.

Though many students may attribute this incident and similar ones involving discrimination-sexism, homophobia, class issues-that go unreported to the actions and ignorance of a small group of individuals, the issue stems from all of us here at St. Joe's. While each of us may not consciously harbor the biased tendencies of those students who wrote sexist and racist graffiti in McShain or those responsible for this latest incident, many of us unconsciously do.

Project Implicit, a virtual laboratory sponsored and maintained by Harvard University, the University of Washington, and the University of Virginia, has revealed that many whites hold hidden racial biases. Launched in 2000, the site surveys individuals and studies a variety of unconscious biases, ranging from skin tones to sexual orientation to weight. Through hundreds of thousands of online responses, researchers have found that 75 percent of whites hold pro-white/anti-black tendencies. Interestingly enough, blacks also showed racial biases, but were split almost evenly between pro-white and pro-black tendencies; blacks were also the most likely to exhibit no racial biases at all.

What do these numbers reveal? First, they show that racism is far from dead in our society, though outward signs of it may be on the slow decline. The findings also show that addressing the issue of discrimination at St. Joe's will be difficult because it will require many of us to come to terms with biases that we may subconsciously hold.

Whether we're aware of it or not, the majority of our predispositions to those different than ourselves-albeit racial, sexual, or what have you-are largely shaped by our environments. We are a product of what information we choose to take in and we assimilate the information given to us by people who are close to us-parents, family and friends, etc.-or people of these "other" groups whom we are exposed to, such as sports or media personalities.

When it comes to the case of St. Joe's, a student population that is mostly of the same demographic (89.5 percent of undergraduate students at St. Joe's are white) makes for a lot of people who have created their prejudices by exposure to similar factors. The fact that most students on campus are white kids from fairly affluent backgrounds helps shape similar prejudices. A good portion of these students also attended Catholic or secular private schools that were less likely to have a substantial percentage of minorities or socio-economically disadvantaged students than their public counterparts. Even those who attended public schools generally hailed from areas where minority populations weren't very prevalent.

There are not going to be easy answers when it comes to improving race relations and perceptions in America-and, consequently, at St. Joe's. If the problem lies, oftentimes hidden, within us, conventional methods of approaching racism ultimately will not work. In order to prevent incidents like the ones in Ashwood and McShain, we as a campus community are going to have to get creative.

Though all of us did not write words in an elevator or on a whiteboard, we are all culpable to some degree as a campus community. These incidents, while they appear to be isolated, are far from uncommon on our campus-and we need to consciously consider the consequences they bring.

Conversations about racism and sexism and all the other "isms" that plague our society are never going to be easy or comfortable. But they are as necessary as ever. Attorney General Eric Holder's comments last month about race relations in America left many in this country angry and upset. But though the language Holder chose may have been harsh-he characterized an admittedly proud American nation as one of "cowards"-his call for "frank" conversations about race across America could not be more relevant.

These conversations may be uncomfortable for many students at St. Joe's who hail from largely white areas. While increasing "numerical diversity" alone will do little to prevent incidents like the ones in McShain and Ashwood from occurring, students who come from more diverse areas are generally more familiar and comfortable with conversations about race, gender, and cultural issues. At St. Joe's, we must keep in mind that the answer to these incidents cannot come exclusively in the form of calls for greater diversity. Honest and frequent dialogue, combined with willingness on the part of the student body to reflect and act on the prejudices they come across both on Hawk Hill and elsewhere, is absolutely essential in moving forward.

While it's tempting to suggest creating an education initiative to combat implicit bias, the situation requires much more effective tools than a program comparable to AlcoholEDU. Along with open dialogue between students, faculty, and administrators outside of the classroom, St. Joe's should encourage willing and passionate professors to incorporate discussions on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., into their syllabi-particularly those professors who teach GER courses, especially in disciplines such as philosophy, theology, and the social sciences.

Though it's not a guarantee, incorporating these conversations into the curriculum at St. Joe's could reach students that would otherwise feel uncomfortable discussing such topics amongst peers. Though increasing the number of courses offered discussing race and gender would be a great endeavor, GER courses would provide an ideal opportunity for the largest possible amount of students to engage in these topics since they are required to take the courses to graduate. The classroom could provide a pressure-free environment for students to engage with people their own age as well as faculty members concerning difficult topics. The nebulous nature of the topics discussed in these courses provides teachers with the freedom to insert the subject matter they deem necessary, and is an ideal platform for initiatives in diversity education to take hold.