6
Monday, April 11, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Cases
Continued from p. 1
The compassion for minority problems that grew during the civil rights movement was sometimes lacking today, he said.
"I think there is much less sensitivity on the part of white students today about issues of race than there was 15 to 20 years ago," he said. "I think they perceive what they perceive to be preferential treatment for blacks."
Yetman, who has taught the course American Racial and Ethnic Relations, for about 20 years, thinks some students just don't understand people with backgrounds different from their own.
"Most students go through this University with no understanding of the diversity of cultural and ethnic and racial groups that exist in our society." Yetman said.
Cardona said it was difficult to find a reason why racist attitudes persisted decades after the civil cights movement.
She and other students said they saw few cases of interaction among races. Whether it is in social situations, groups, races often remain separate.
"When we're younger, we all play together," she said. "Then society begins to make one group feel inferior to another."
Anna Osborne, Colorado Springs,
Colo. sophomore, said she saw few
examples of blacks and whites socializing together.
Not many blacks get invited to white parties and vice versa," said Osborne, who is white. "That's obvious segregation."
Social segregation is just one new situation minorities must face when they come to college. When combined with the usual transitional changes, problems. Some students are more prepared than others for the changes.
rosita Dorsey, new director of the office of minority affairs, said many minority students came to a university with little experience outside their own racial group.
"When they become students on a predominantly white campus, this is a whole different environment," she said. "They experience a degree of culture shock."
That shock would be milder if the minority enrollment were greater, say students and officials. Black students say it is common to be the only black in a class.
Working to increase minority enrollment is just one way the University can improve race relations, students and faculty say.
In addition, race relations might be better if students simply knew more about societal divisions, said Yetman. He said that he thought students should be required to take courses about the many cultures that exist in the United States.
Wayne Webb, president of the Black Student Union, said that if all students made an effort to learn about each other, racial tension would be eased somewhat.
"It would alleviate many of the racial questions, and people would understand the contributions of all those who did not." You fear what you don't know.
But beyond learning, students must also try to understand each other, said Darrin Johnson, Kansas City, Mo., sophomore and president of McColm Hall's Black Caucus. Right now, many white students can't comprehend the effects of racism.
"It's not a matter of not caring. It's just a matter of not knowing," he said. "You can't be there unless you're in the other man's shoes."
These shoes have led a path to predominantly black universities for some of Johnson's black friends, who chose to attend a university where they could have a greater sense of belonging.
But students need to directly confront their problems, said Dorsey.
"Minority students have a major responsibility to reach out when they have problems," she said. "But they have to have something to reach out to."
They must be careful not to internalize their problems.
"If whites believe that the status quo is going to remain that way without some kind of conflict, it seems to me that is naive," he said.
Directly dealing with the problem has been effective in the past, Yetman said. Confrontation does not have to be violent, though. The civil cights movement forced people to directly confront racism issues in a non-violent manner.
Ramaley agreed that race problems can't be ignored. Different strategies need to be developed to remedy racial problems, whether they are due to ignorance, insensitivity, or overt racism, she said.
She said she hoped that the minority task force she appointed would examine all levels of behavior to get a better understanding of the feelings of minority faculty, staff and students.
Ramaley also hoped minorities would be willing to discuss their experiences with the newly-formed task force. She said everyone on campus could benefit by listening.
"Every single person at this institution has some responsibility to try to understand a little more tomorrow than you did today and to do whatver you can to make this place a place where learning and honesty and creativity are supported and protected," she said.
By keeping the racism issue in focus with projects like the minority task force, problems have a better chance of being solved, Ramaley said. It is a long-term learning process.
"We all have to be students," she said. "And for people who are students already, you have to add another subject to your studies."
Nation
Continued from p.1
"In the 1960s, that generation was part of the progressive movement." Wilson said. "There was strong national support for progressive issues, and the overwhelming mood of students was that of supporting social change."
"Now you have just the opposite," he said. "This generation has national leadership in the Reagan administration that is actively opposed to most of the social advancements made in the 60s."
Wilson cited the recent congressional override of President Reagan's veto of a major civil rights bill, ending a four-year battle to restore broad protection for minorities, women, the elderly and the handicapped.
He said that Reagan's veto had a negative impact on the cause of minorities. He said that if there was not a change of federal policy in the future, the states would have to bear the burden of supporting minority participation in higher education.
The conservative Reagan administration was not as supportive as the Lyndon Johnson administration on affirmative action and school desegregation, Wilson said.
In 1964, during Johnson's presidency, Raymond Mack, professor of sociology at Northwestern University, dull research on racial and social differences predominately white and black colleges.
"At that time, there was little opportunity for students to cross the line to bring whites and blacks together," Mack said. "Now we have black and white students that have experienced the same environment."
Because society is still changing, there are bound to be problems, he
But, Mack said that his outlook for the future was positive.
"Fifty years ago anyone would have told you that desegregation was a romantic idea, but look at what you've done to off the younger generation," he said.
Mack said that students were effective in assessing the problems of society and voicing their opinions.
But a school administrator from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst said that student-voiced protests did not always help the cause of minorities.
Joseph Duffey, chancellor of that university, said that student protests could be an appropriate response to incidents of racism, but that they
were not always articulately voiced.
(So, carefully the question is on.
"One can't use the occasion to cry out against society and mouth slogans," he said. "It is a case of using occurrences to denounce authority."
Duffey said that sensitivity to prob-
lems in the groups had diminished since the 1990s.
"I think it has to do with this generation that did not have to live through the 60s," Duffey said. "There was more maturity in the time of reaction whereas now there is less maturity in the time of reaction."
Charles Morris, chairman of the Illinois Committee on Black Concerns in Higher Education, also attributed the insensitivity of this generation to the federal government.
"If we get the right signals on the federal level the process will be much more effective and there will be more concern and sensitivity." Morris said.
"Most of the programs that have been in place since the assassinations of King and Kennedy are treating the symptoms of racism, not the causes." Morris said. "We need to get at the causes of racism before a change can take place."
COMMENCEMENT The University of Kansas
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