A Thought

There was a story on the front page of my school's newspaper that i have been thinking about ever since i read it. Drexel has a large astro-turf field that students use to play football and cricket and frisbee and soccer and whatever else. The school's teams use it too for practices. And the Campus Activity Board uses it to show outdoor movies. When i came to Drexel the field was ungated and open to anyone. I really appreciated that because i think that it is really important for an institution that is taking up so much space in a neighborhood to give back some of that space for neighborhood use. I was more than a little dissappointed when they put the fence up.

Drexel constructed a large decorative barrier around the field with turnstiles activated by school ID cards. It made me think twice about the type of people that are running this school. Drexel property takes up about a good dozen blocks of powelton village community and now we are taking prohibitory steps in not letting members of the community use the field. I understand that Drexel is a private school and all Drexel porperty is privately owned, but the question in my mind is ethical, not legal.

So this article in the triangle is about how the students are upset because members of the community are using the field and taking up space. They say that they are afraid to use the field sometimes because they have heard that the "outsiders" are hostile. So Drexel has heeded the whining cry of these students and patrols once an hour to evict anyone fromt he field who doesnt have a drexel ID. This is racism pure and simple and i want to show you why.

Racism is an institutionalized set of advantaves and disadvantages based upon race. Its not the same as prejudice or bigotry so when i mention racism keep in mind the definition above. Now, the "outsiders" are members of the community surrounding Drexel. Some are white, but most are black and hispanic. I will venture to assume that the white male drexel students who are filing these complaints and writing these articles in the Triangle would not be nearly as "afraid" if all the people using the field were white. I also venture a guess that they wouldn't have even assumed that these people were not Drexel students if they were all white. Now, under my observations, these complaints would not have been filed for white interlopers and the security patrols would have not been enstated. So i conclude that if these "intruders" were not black and hispanic, they would still be allowed to use the field.

I want you to see why this is a clear example of racism as defined above. These members of the community are at a disadvantage because they are a certain race. This new institution of hourly patrols would not be in place if they were not so. If these members of the community (who have still not caused any notable problems) were white they would still be playing soccer every night without being harrassed. I am not saying that the person who wrote the article is a bigot (though i suspect that he is) that is not my point. The point is that simply being non-white will create a situation where there doesnt have to be one. It is a sad reality but things like this happen all the time. This is the face of racism in today's society. It may not be lynchings and segregated schools (although those things still happen too) but racism is still holding on strong in the minds of people with power. And these people with power, be they drexel students or the dean of student activities, do not even realize what they are doing when they do it.

I want to tack on to this a personal request. We all have power to enstate change. Our words usually have more effect than we think. Please, before you say or write anything, think about how this can effect people. Think about what your words really mean and if they are being used in a purposeful way. Build people up instead of tearing them down and try to always be a cause for positive change instead of the negative kind.

Suggested reading: Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race By Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum. Its an awesome book about racial development and racial dialogue that everyone who lives in a heterogenous society should read (that means you).