So, the other day I attended this school function pertaining to diversity and race. It was put on by some of my fellow students most of whom I have had classes with or at least seen around campus and hold in high regards. This function consisted of a panal of students from diverse backgrounds where they were presented with questions about race and their experiences in their lives which related to that issue. Some panelists were very bright, intelligent, and thoughtful even suprisingly intellectual. Others were predictable, arrogant, and close minded and a few seemed a little unsure. I probably took issue with at least one thing every panelist said to some extent, but that kind of thing is to be expected when dealing with this issue.

-I didn't mind the "white" panelist who apparently has never experienced any racism in her life, I find that difficult to believe... but she said she feels her community is an invisible one anyway... sure.
-I didn't mind the half "white" half "black" panelist who considered herself more "black" and implied that whites really don't have any problems nor do they need any help... you can believe that, thats fine.
-I didn't even mind the Mexican-American panelist who in my mind perpetuates the racism he feels so victimized by when he stated "I stay away from the west side of Greeley... (which is predominantly white and upper class) I don't get along with those people." Good, you have that right.

I did however take issue with two common threads woven into many of the panelists comments.

First we have this common answer to the question "what are you" or "what do you consider yourself?" At least three panelists said they do not consider themselves American because they have not been treated like Americans. I was taken aback. If there happens to be a soul out there reading this now that can tell me a) just what exactly an American is and b) what is the historical standard for how they are supposed to be treated, I may consider discussing how the issue of race has excluded some from feeling like Americans. The fact of the matter is, it is a pretty common feeling to be excluded, ostricized, and opressed in this country and it transcends skin color. In fact it is so common it could literally be considered a quintessentially American phenomenon that everyone doesn't quite fit into their given community. I can think of only a half of a handful of places on this Earth let alone this country where everyone is included in every aspect of a given society. To say you are treated differently because of one of your differences, is what it feels like to be an American. Try being a woman, throughout most of American history. How about an Irish immigrant, even an Italian immigrant, or Russian, or Polish. Same race... hardly. Try being an English immigrant of the middle class with no land for much of American history, its not slavery but all these things factor into being what it means to be "treated like an American" and the misperception of some of the panelists that all "whites" in this country have it much easier. Hell, try being a southerner who has to move to Chicago, and see how you're stereotyped there. Some fates are worse than others, but being treated poorly by the society you live in is not purely a function of race (although it often is), and it is not something that upper class "whites" never experience (even if race A has experienced it more than race B).

My second issue with the panel is their inability to answer the question about their self-fulfilling prophecies. Their inability to comprehend this question was not surprising, but their answers were kind of fun to listen to because all but one panelist referred back to how what they percieved themselves as affected how they percieved a given situation or experience, further entrenching their belief in what they had already decided was their fate based on their race. That is the self-fullfilling prophecy and they inadvertantly displayed how it works quite well. The astute would have been entertained.

My last issue, and likely the biggest is with the key note speaker. For my readers, I must first comment that I did not stay for longer than the opening thirty seconds of his speech. I had some things to do that evening which probably could have waited, but I found him distasteful and highly prejudicial and errands seemed to me the more worthy endeavour. The speaker was Dr. Hermon George Jr., a professor of Africana Studies at the University of Northern Colorado. I was lucky enough to be seated near enough to him to catch him looking at me with disdain rolling his eyes when I commented to one of my peers on the racist attitude of the Mexican-American panelist. At the time I thought nothing of Dr. George's telling gander and continued the criticism of the panelist. About a half an hour later that moment was used as the opening to his speech, insisting that racism in the United States is an issue he will only discuss under the umbrella of white supremecy, and that had his seatmate (me) who had accused a panelist of being racist (I did) known the actual definition of racism (I do actually... 1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2 : racial prejudice or discrimination... Thank you Merriam Webster) that his seatmate (again me) would not have made that comment. It was at that moment that I pushed the eject button on seat four in row two, in an attempt to save as many brain cells as humanly possible and escape the sweeping arm of his ridiculous agenda driven ideology.

Now, it is important to note that I am just as much against white supremecy as the next liberal activist. It is an awful ideology and goes against everything I believe in and stand for. I admit that historically and contemporarily it is a major issue in the United States and I am in agreeance with Dr. George that it is an issue. It being an issue does not make it the only issue, even if it is the biggest in his life or even if it is the biggest in the country. There are those among us of all races that feel the need to "fight the white." However, it is recklessly irresponsible and blatenly ignorant for a Doctor of Comparative Culture to say that the only racism in the United States is the racism in the context of white supremecy. No, I did not stay for his speech I refuse to listen to any nonsense based on his premise. Even when I tried to consider where he would go with it logically in the possible sense that white racism causes more racism among the races and the possibility for reciprocal racism, it still could not account for the numerous happenings in my life and numerous possibilites I and any thinking human could possibly think up as a scenerio. His premise implies either that it is only white people in this country who are capable of racism, a racist remark in itself, or that socialization in this country due to the overbearing white supremicist attitude has proven that whites in general are racists toward non-whites and non-whites only react to that pressure. This is a gross, broad, hasty, sweeping generalization of all the people in America, all the people are the necessary population for this question because it is all the people that make up the problem and which the problem affects. In the end Dr. George has the right to believe what he wants to believe, and as long as the University of Northern Colorado wants to write his checks he will have his pulpit. However, I do consider these types of views and that type of speech to be harmful to impressionable students, students looking for excuses, and students who unwittingly will fulfill their self-fulfilling prophecies. But that seems to be his agenda, and that seems to be what he wants.

"The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice." Mahatma Ghandhi