Show Racism echoes strong on nationwide campuses I Christa McKinnon Staff Writer HERE is something wrong with Americas America's T THERE heart said David Miller He echoed the sentiments of other students at North Carolinas Carolina's AT that had gathered for the Collegiate Collegiate Collegiate Col Col- Black Caucus America has had an alarming rise in race related hatred across nationwide campuses The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement Advancement Advancement Advance Advance- ment of Teaching said in their report that the idyllic vision of college life often masks disturbing realities including racism semitism anti-semitism and sexism Not only do whites at the University of Virginia and other Southern schools seem to think its it's okay to call blacks derogatory names but racial incidents have also contaminated contaminated contaminated con con- such Northern institutions as Harvard Harvard Harvard Har Har- vard and the University of Massachusetts For example the University of Washington published a cartoon in the school newspaper that many felt was strongly racist The cartoon depicted a white man painting himself black with paint called Minority in a Minute The caption on the cartoon read Who needs to work so hard to get a perfect or money for tuition when you have this stuff the black paint In January of this year an Emony University University University sity freshman Sabrina Coli Collens ens came home to find her teddy bear slashed her clothes soaked with bleach and Hang written written written writ writ- ten in lipstick on the wall When death threats began to arrive in the mail college officials supplied extra locks and an alarm system In May Collins got ready to move out When she lifted a rug she found Die Die written in nail polish on the floor Collins collapsed and was hospitalized for Jor emotional onal This past fall at Bryn University freshman Christine Rivera found a note slipped under her door that said Hey if you and your kind cant can't handle the work here dont don't blame it on a racial radal thing Why dont don't you just get out Wed We'd all be a lot hap hap- pier In another incident at the University of Kansas a letter was taped to the door that read Jew Boy get out Im I'm going to burn your Torah Many American campuses seem to trickle the free floating bigotries of American Society At Cornell University students wear T-shirts T reading SLAP A SLAP JAP JAP and Back off Bitch Im I'm a Jap Buster According to the Baltimore based National Institute against prejudice and violence colleges and universities have reported racist t incidents Colleges such as Brown Smith an and d Stanford have reported incidents such a as s swastikas painted on walls to death threats threat s and violent attacks One of the causes of these problems is that tha t many students have had no firsthand ex ex- w with different cultures until they arrive arrive arrive ar ar- rive on college campus Then students enter a dimension that is much more heterogeneous than most high schools or neighborhoods Itis It Itis Itis is in these diverse conditions that has had explosive effects The act ad o of f constant racial radal friction on student life is profound For blacks they may find themselves themselves themselves them them- selves viewed as beneficiaries o of f lowered stand stand- ards For example last fall fail the University of Virginia accepted more than half the blacks that applied However they only accepted one third o of f the whites even though the whites whites' Scholastic Aptitude Test was points higher Some whites disagree with the University of Virginias Virginia's Applied Affirmative Action As one white student put it Individual merit should be the only criterion As blacks are attacked for being beneficiaries benefi aries of lowered standards Asians face the opposite Asian students are attacked for curve busting on grade scales and raising the level of competition in math science and engineering fields And as blacks and Asians are being attacked attack attack- ed so are Gays and Lesbians In 1988 there were 1411 reports of gay bashing on college college college col col- lege campuses Two twenty seven were classified as AIDS related As all of these minority battles are taking place colleges nationwide have begun to combat the problem in their own classrooms classrooms' Many colleges have revised their curriculum to include courses in Western non-Western culture and values and fewer courses focusing solely on the Western European heritage According to Carnegie Foundation President Earnest Boyer These changes have made universities dramatically better places |