I am writing this in response to Conor Friedersdorf’s recent letters from the editor. He seems to think that the best way to deal with the problems of current racism is to claim that there is so much racism, that we shouldn’t concentrate on a certain group. I believe that he has assumed the lazy American viewpoint that is so detrimental to our society, typical among whites, of not dealing with past problems. I doubt he would dispute the facts of racism in centuries past, but it seems that he wants to draw the line there and give everyone a fresh start. While this is ideal, it is inconceivable in our society. Racism did not end as soon as the Supreme Court outlawed segregation or approved affirmative action; it simply became better disguised. On top of that, these things did not occur that long ago, our parents experienced them when they were our age and you can’t expect a country of our size to be able to change overnight and right all the wrongs, assuming that everyone bought into that ideal, which is not the case. Admittance of guilt is a very difficult act, but it oftentimes is what’s necessary in order to embark on the road to solutions. Many white people’s response to this claim is that they didn’t do anything wrong, it was the people before them and why should they be blamed and fingered for the problem when they claim not to be racist at all. The simple fact is that you don’t see the racism because it’s so engrained in our society that it’s accepted as a norm unless you are willing to step outside your own perspective and look at things from another vantage point. And if you refuse to admit that there is a problem, you are a part of the problem as well. As a white male, I find myself guilty of a failure to do this from time to time and Emily de Ayora made a great point about how even at a college as "liberal" as Pomona, look at the demographic makeup of the professors and then that of the dining hall workers or the maintenance crews. We can see the lasting effects of racism all around us when we choose to look, in the hopes of bettering our society. The sad thing is that so many whites don’t want to admit that the mistakes of the past have a lasting impression on the present and think that just because they are not using racial slurs or burning crosses that they are not guilty of racism and thereby can excuse themselves from the discussion altogether. We need not only halt the racist acts and ideals of the past but also to make an effort to right the wrongs imposed by the past. The greatest of these is white racism and privilege. Personally, I don’t see African-American, Latino-American and especially American Indian racism as pressing a problem in society today (as Friedersdorf claims) as that of white superiority and privilege. I wrote the following poem after reading the comments by Friedersdorf and the subsequent responses along with some of the quotes posted from the results of the race survey conducted earlier in the semester. I believe we, as white people, need to be proactive in dissolving the institutions that perpetuate the racism and discrimination that plague our country today and not simply leave it in the hands of those directly oppressed. Social injustice affects us all.

The hands of time cut my wrists

And I bleed the guilt

Of my ancestors

A wolf in sheep’s clothing

Among the flock of the ignorant

That is so used to superiority

That they take it for granted

We have been the bullies

And find ourselves to be the spoiled children

Of mother earth

And when we see groups bonding together

To find communal identity

We cry wolf and claim foul play

But it’s simply the snow-colored herd

Upset because minorities don’t integrate themselves

Into our homogenous flock

It is the pot

Calling the kettle black separatists

We need to stop complaining

That they have impeded the progress

Of racial harmony by retreating

To search for the base of their family tree

Which we uprooted

And locked behind bars of segregation

You expect them to run from this persecution

Into the arms of their captors kin

Without trying to find comfort in numbers

Of a common heritage?

You need to step out from behind your veil of ignorance

And extend the hand of friendship

Acknowledgement of problems and compassion

Need to be branded on the herd

We need not impress this upon the outcasts

They have the emotional scars to prove it

The sad thing is that the only ones who volunteer such things

Aren’t the source of the problem

And are a minority in themselves

Get in line, the others say,

We’ve been fighting this majority for years

-Clint Russell ‘03