JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, February 24, 2006 6:00 pm
The two words seem at odds. Racism. Politeness.
But that’s the way it is these days, said Jose Soto, the Southeast Community College vice president of diversity, multicultural education and affirmative action.
Racism has taken on a more polite tone, he told students gathered Friday at Lincoln Southwest High School.
Now it is symbolic, unintentional, passive.
Speaking at Southwest’s first annual “One World” cultural celebration, Soto said racism is hidden in the workplace, schools and public places.
People believe they are open and inclusive.
But racism is real.
“And being on the receiving end, whether it’s intended or not, it hurts,” Soto told the students.
The school’s multicultural club designed the “One World” day to create more understanding of diversity at a high school that has 1,763 white students and 122 students of color, said David Tien, Southwest special education teacher. They brought in six speakers from different cultures to talk about their experiences in Lincoln and other areas of the world.
It is hoped, Tien said, that teachers will continue the discussions of diversity after the day is over.
Racism was a necessary topic, Soto said. To illustrate his point, Soto told the students about his experience after an article appeared in the Journal Star on a speech he gave on diversity.
He got a letter in the mail containing a copy of the article with the words, “Soto Sucks,” written on it. A balloon was drawn over his picture with “I’m so cool,” written in the balloon. Across the bottom of the article the sender wrote: We have come up with a solution to make us all happy. Move your pompous ass to New Jersey.
Talking about race relations, one of the biggest challenges facing the United States, makes people uncomfortable, he said.
Many just don’t even see the problem.
They won’t admit race plays a role in the decisions people make everyday.
They say the Civil Rights Act cured the problem.
They say great progress has been made.
They say they don’t discriminate. One of their best friends is African-American or Hispanic or Asian.
But racism is a current event, he said, in classrooms in every school in the city, the state and the country. In every workplace.
Most Americans say they are opposed to school segregation, for example, he said. And while they would allow their kids to be bused to another white school, or welcome a few black children at their school, most white parents would oppose busing their kids to a black school.
They are able to disguise their racism, he said. But it is real, nonetheless.
Soto advised the teens to recognize that race still matters and to accept the differences in people not only in their heads or with their mouths, but also in their hearts.
“Get beyond the head and mouth, and really mean it,” he said.
Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.
Carleen Sanchez
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Assistant professor of anthropology, geography and ethnic studies
Sanchez’s ancestors became American citizens in 1848 when a treaty with Mexico granted Texas, New Mexico and part of California to the United States.
Over the years, her people have been punished, she said, for speaking Spanish on the playground. For not looking or living right.
“We’re problematic,” she said.
But the professor, who has 16 piercings — in her ears and in her nose — loves being different.
“I assert my differences every single day,” she said.
The freedom to be different is one of the primary reasons people live in the United States, she said.
Difference doesn’t mean hostile.
“Difference is powerful,” she said. “If we’re all the same, it’s dull.”
Diversity is the way species have been able to endure throughout time.
“We should not just celebrate (diversity) on a single day or week,” she said. “We should embrace it daily.”
Kalenda Eaton
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Assistant professor English and ethnic studies
Eaton, who has been in Lincoln less than a year, said she was prepared for anything when she moved here.
She was prepared because she lived in communities in the San Francisco Bay area, New Orleans and Miami that were cosmopolitan and diverse. She came into contact daily with people who think in very different ways.
Her experiences, she said, prepared her for anything in the world.
People in the Great Plains are friendly, she said. But they are fairly homogenous. They think in very similar ways.
If you know nothing about people who live across town, she told the Southwest students, how can you know about people who live across the ocean?
Patrick Jones
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Assistant professor of history and ethnic studies
Jones said the “white” race was not created by biological differences but as a way to justify inequality and create distinctions, he said.
In the beginning, races were identified by the countries people lived in: the French race, Norwegian race.
As concepts of race changed, white people were associated with Christianity and civilization. By the beginning of the slave trade, he said, race distinctions were associated with whiteness and blackness.
“The fiction of the white race, we created it,” Jones said.
People have even used bad science to try to distinguish the white race, he said, by measuring the size of people’s skulls and declaring the white race as superior.
Today, white people don’t see the privileges they have, he said. Many will deny any benefits from their skin color.
“We need to take the opportunity to untangle that knot and recreate it,” he said.