Lily Tsay is a senior journalism major and writes 'Sincerely Yours, Assimilation' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
"Everyone's a little bit racist," according to Kate Monster, a puppet from the musical "Avenue Q." With only three human characters, the rest of the Broadway hit consists of Muppet-like puppets who sing about risque topics ranging from Internet porn to sexuality to the trials of life.
While "Avenue Q" sheds a bit of fun, musical light on the topic of racism, the topic itself causes a bit of discomfort for many of us.
We squirm.
Some deny the existence of racism, while others believe it is the cause of all personal strife.
The subject of racism is discomforting - but even more discomforting is its strain on people worldwide.
We don't see "I'm a racist" stamped on the foreheads of those in line at the bookstore, on professors, on friends or on family members, until that crucial moment when one's seemingly preprogrammed beliefs come into play.
An example of that crucial moment is portrayed in the movie "Crash," set in Los Angeles. The mix of characters this movie tosses together are people generally unlikely to associate with one another, including a Persian family, a Korean couple, a Mexican locksmith, some police officers, a wealthy white couple and two car-jackers. As far removed as they often are from each other, their interactions with each other are the same - brief, harsh and lonely collisions - showing how connected they really are.
Graham, played by Don Cheadle from "Hotel Rwanda," says, "I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."
While "Crash" is set in Los Angeles, we in Muncie play out the cultural construction of race, too. How would the plot of this movie replay at a crosswalk near McKinley Avenue? Each day, we walk to class, passing each other by with preconceived judgments that decrease the possibility we have of associating with one another.
I'm not just getting at race.
We find ways to divide ourselves - with excuses from economics to religion. The cultural constructions of race have made the feelings associated with race a worldwide disease. Some blame racism on childhood preprogramming, saying it's the inadequate "minority" coverage in the media and its misrepresentation of blacks, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans and others, and of course that isn't the case in all countries.
In America, even the term "minority" is under question for its accuracy. The Associated Press reported that Texas is now the fourth state in which less than 50 percent of the residents are non-Latino whites.
On campus, also, the enrollment of minority freshmen has increased slightly. We have 15,903 undergraduates making up the student body: 4.4 percent black, 1 percent Hispanic and less than 1 percent Asian.
While we try to promote multiculturalism on campus and within Muncie, it's up to each of us to educate ourselves.
The campus multicultural organizations - which include the Asian American Student Association, Black Student Association, Latino Student Union and Spectrum - serve the rest of the campus as places to help disentangle misconceptions through awareness.
For example, Latino Awareness week begins today.
Write to Lily at
lily_tsay@hotmail.com
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