I have been disturbed by a number of letters and columns that have shown up in The Heights recently concerning the UGBC UNITY Initiative, the AHANA program, and the AHANA Leadership Council of UGBC. These pieces by Ryan Brown, Nathaniel Campbell, and John Kanca downplay the importance of using proactive programs to compensate for the effects of our national history of human rights abuses.
Each of the letters and columns by the authors I mentioned above have the common theme of naivet regarding the state of our nation with respect to race issues. We as a nation are not colorblind, as evidenced by the disparity that exists between the employment and educational opportunities of the Caucasian and minority general populations. This means that a set of policies meant to deal with a colorblind world will be ill-founded and counterproductive. There is still a prevailing attitude of us-versus-them when dealing with race, not brought on by policies such as affirmative action, but by the victim mentality suffered by those middle to upper class white folk who believe they are being unfairly treated by such policies. I was painfully reminded of how prevalent this us-versus-them attitude is within certain portions of the population when, sitting behind the staff of The Observer at the Michael Moore talk last semester, I had to listen to Chris Pizzo, editor of that paper, explain to a colleague that AHANA students and their supporters were staging a protest because that is "what they do."
Attitudes such as this, which are perpetuated by ignorant people who are blind to the unearned privileges bestowed upon them, are at the root of the disparity of opportunities afforded to people of different backgrounds. Yes, Dr. King dreamed of a colorblind world, but he was surely not deluded into believing that this goal would be realized by simply denying or ignoring parts of history and its effects on the African American, Latino and other populations in our society. He wanted the world to achieve colorblindness through the elimination of inequality, not through a self-imposed blindfold of selective memory and indifference. The word ignore is at the root of ignorance.
But, for those that for reasons of guilt, hatred or ignorance choose to wear this blindfold, perhaps a more pragmatic argument will be of interest. Boston College is an elite university because it seeks to prepare its students to be leaders in the business, academic and political arenas of the United States and world. Without knowledge of different cultures and peoples, both domestic and foreign, a BC graduate cannot successfully compete in any of the aforementioned fields. Can this knowledge be obtained from a university with no leading faculty members of color? Can it be obtained without a prominent population of students of color?
As a leading educational institution, it is the responsibility of Boston College to help to even the playing field in this country with respect to race and to provide its student body with a high quality, competitive education that can only be accomplished with faculty and students of broadly diverse backgrounds. Our school, along with our country, has not yet completely fulfilled this duty, but it is moving in the right direction with programs such as AHANA and the ALC, thanks to socially conscious student organizations such as AHANA and UGBC. For those of you who choose to, it is your privilege to wear your blindfold, but please do not force it on the rest of us.
Ryan Rutzke is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences.
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