Posted: 2/6/07 Section: Opinion Columns

It's so hard to look around this campus and view a sea of people from all around the world and still feel alone. We know that the brighter their skin, the farther removed they are from our reality. It hurts because even though some of us aren't educated to the specifics we know, deep in our bones, that the scale is tipped in your favor. These universities are an amalgam of opportunity for the majority of the non-colored, but for us, they challenge our intellect and question the fact of our being here is a favor or a government handout.

There is no affirmative action for us because just the concept seems to insult you. These are opportunities that you take for granted in different venues everyday, and then you cry because we were given an "unfair" advantage. You commit to the argument "I'm not a racist" - of course you're not, but society is, and you belong to that part of society that reigns supreme, and we don't. "It doesn't matter how good you are, as a person, if the institutions of the society provide privilege to you based on their group oppression of others. Individuals belonging to the dominant group can be infinitely good because they are never required to be personally bad," said noted author Aido Hurtado. So to deny that institutional racism doesn't exist is the equivalent of walking through life with your eyes closed.

"There continues to be racism in America and our campus is not an exception," said University President B. Joseph White during our phone interview after the forum titled "Racism, Power and Privilege at UIUC." "However there continues to be evidence of great progress of our University to be more inclusive." And he's right. We are moving forward. Just not that fast, because if we were, we wouldn't have had to have that forum, and, the Chief would be gone.

"The forum was effective in creating an opportunity for people with strong feelings and views to express them overall, however, a session like that never produces immediate change, but contributes to personal improvement," said President White. Someone would be hard pressed to argue that the session wasn't an overall good. It gave the voiceless, especially those of our indigenous brothers and sisters, a voice of protest that is conveniently ignored by those who would bastardized their image in "their" interpretation of honor.

Continued...

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