October 16, 2006 at 08:40:32

University response to racist "ghetto fabulous" party is less than fabulous

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By Robert Jensen (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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But whatever the case, should we be stressing to students that the reason they should not be white supremacists is that it might hurt their careers? What does such a message convey to students and to the community?

Framing the problem of oppressive systems as a question of offensiveness often leads people to argue that the solution is for the targets of the offensive speech or actions to be less sensitive, rather than changing the oppressive system. Sager's e-mail doesn't suggest that, but it could play into that common feeling among people in the dominant classes by focusing on offensiveness instead of racism and white supremacy.

What's missing in this official response is a clear statement that these law students, many of whom go on to join the power elite running our society, have engaged in behavior that is racist. Whatever their motivations in planning or attending the party, they have demonstrated that they have internalized a white-supremacist ideology. When these students are making decisions in business, government and education, how will such white supremacy manifest itself? And who will be hurt by that?

Here's what we should say to students: The problem with a racist ghetto party isn't that it offends some people or tarnishes the image of UT or may hurt careers. The problem is that it's racist. When you engage in such behavior you are deepening the racism of a white-supremacist culture, and that's wrong. It violates the moral and political principles that we all say we endorse. It supports and strengthens social systems and institutions that hurt people.

These incidents, and the universities' responses, also raise a fundamental question about what we white people mean when we say we support "diversity." Does that mean we are willing to invite some limited number of non-white people into our space, but with the implicit understanding that it will remain a white-defined space? Or does it mean a commitment to changing these institutions into truly multicultural places? If we're serious about that, it has to mean not an occasional nod to other cultural practices, but an end to white-supremacist practices. It has to mean not only honoring other cultural practices but recognizing that the wealth of the United States and Europe is rooted in the destruction of some of those cultures over the past 500 years, and that we are living with the consequences of that destruction.

We white people can't simply point to the overt racism of neo-Nazis as the problem and feel morally superior. We can't slap a few law students on the wrist with a warning about being thoughtless and think we've done our job. The problem is that most of us white people, myself included, are reflexively hesitant to surrender control of institutions which, presently, are predominately white. Real change - the process of truly incorporating a deep multiculturalism into our schools, churches, and businesses - is a long struggle. The more I make some progress in my own classes, for example, the more I see how much I have left to do and the more aware of my mistakes I become.

An easy place to start is by clearly marking racist actions for what they are: expressions of white people's sense of entitlement and privilege that are rooted in a white-supremacist system. We can start by saying - unequivocally, in blunt language - that such racism is morally wrong, that white supremacy is morally wrong, and that we white people have an obligation to hold ourselves and each other accountable until we have created a truly just multiracial society.

We'll know we are there not when white people have stopped throwing ghetto parties, but when we have built a world in which there are no ghettos.

We have a long way to go.

An edited version of this essay ran in the Daily Texan on October 16, 2006.
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Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. His latest book, All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, was published in 2009 (more...)

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