Before we read Toni Morrison’s Jazz last year our teacher asked us to comment on race relations today. About one month later I finally had the beginning of an answer.

During the second weekend of May, I traveled down state with a bunch of other girls from the track team for the State Invitational. When I got home I had two stories to tell. The first consisted, of course, of every detail about every race. The second story arose from my experience with races off the track. That experience gave me a new perspective on race relations today.

That weekend black and white athletes ran in relays, ate at the same restaurants, talked to each other about guys, listened to music, shared the same showers, and drank from the same water fountain. But we drove in different vans, sat at different tables, talked about different colored guys, listened to different music, and showered at different times. In fact, as we split up into the different vans for the road trip, our coach reminded us of the 1954 case Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

Is racism, like that presented in Morrison’s Jazz, gone? For the most part, yes. Does racism still exist? Yes. But the real question: Are we integrated yet? NO.

That weekend was an extension of the experience that everyone is always talking about: the cafeteria scene. Black students sit at one table, white students at another, and Asian students at yet another. Our gravitation towards people who are similar to us, who share the same culture, is natural. How comfortable to be amongst a group of people in which a common base has already been established without saying a word! Let’s call it self-segregation, but everyone is doing it.

The importance lies not in laying blame for the natural self-segregation but rather in realizing the urgency of true integration. Perhaps self-segregation is not wholly evil. The fact that minority groups can congregate together anywhere they like without being hassled, and the fact that minority groups have the freedom to create their own organizations say much about the progress this country has made in terms of racial equality. Although self-segregation may not appear entirely negative, it does prevent that necessary cultural awareness that lays the foundation for tolerance and acceptance from occurring. People who claim that diversity and cultural celebrations cause division rather than unity are mistaken. Racism occurs because we are afraid of what we don’t know or understand. Integration precludes ignorance. It leads to understanding of difference. And this leads to acceptance and tolerance.

Monday night at the Dr. Martin Luther King celebration, Andwele Jolly said that Dr. King’s dream has yet to be fully realized. Yes-we do live in a country where, for the most part, human beings are not “judged by the color of their skin.” But Dr. King’s dream does not end with the idea of being “separate but equal.” It does not end with self-segregated cafeteria tables. His dream includes integration. How comfortable to be amongst a group of people in which a common base has already been established without saying a word! In his speech, Andwele spoke of exactly this phenomenon. He spoke about the necessity of stepping outside our comfort zones and of making the effort to not only acknowledge difference but to understand it. He offered to help us in this process, to take our hand in his. I hold my hand out for Andwele. I hope you do too.

Popularity: unranked [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2002 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.