The Michigan Daily -- Friday, September 25, 1992 - Page 5
--,
'A lot o fpeople would like to ignore institutional
racism and say that it doesn 't exist rather than
acknowledge it and defeat it.'
by Mona Qureshi
Daily Minority Issues Reporter
Acertain hush falls over the conversations of
many U-M students and administrators when
somebody brings up a subject as delicate as
institutional racism.
"I really don't want to talk about it," said one
student who wished to remain anonymous. Many
other students and some administrators also
eschewed the subject or asked to be unnamed.
"We haven't developed a way and a lan-
guage to talk about these things with each other
in ways which won't be misunderstood or hurt-
ful," said Shirley Clarkson, director of Planning
and Communications in the Office of Student
Affairs.
She explained the fragility of discussions on
institutional racism and the effects these conver-
sations could have on people.
"People talk within groups, but we haven't
found ways to bridge. We have been able to
accomplish this in the arts," Clarkson said. "But
face to face - it's a learning, breaking new
grounds. But if you can't do it in the University,
where can you?"
Edgar Ho, activities co-chair for the Asian
American Association (AAA) said the univer-
sity environment is not conducive to exploring
these issues.
"Students are really quiet in classroom situ-
ations because they have heard about U of M
liberals and Political Correctness," he said. "A
lot of that has fallen away now."
Ho said some people who are not minorities
do not speak because they are afraid of being
labeled racist.
Additionally, Ho said people of color are
afraid to publicly address institutional racism
because they fear being accused of reverse-
racism and showing constantdissatisfaction with
their social positions.
"People are thinking, 'Here's another one of
those guys who wants to take more' and I don't
thinkthat'shealthy for theclassroom," he added.
Interfraternity Council (IFC)PresidentBruce
Namerow explained his fear of speaking in
public about institutional racism.
"A lot of times I feel like I need to keep my
mouth closed because I'm scaredof being called
racist when I know in my heart that I don't have
one shred of it," Namerow said.
"When it comes to the Daily, your words
take a bigger context. You have to answer to it.
I wish whatever anger each side is feeling could
be discussed," he added.
Some leaders of groups representing stu-
dents of color have said they have no qualms
with expressing their views in public.
Muhammad Mamdani, president of the In-
dian American Student Association (IASA),
said, "When somebody sees a person - Black,
White, Brown, or Yellow - it's not necessarily
bad to say, 'That is a Black person' or 'That is a
Yellow person' or 'That is a Brown person.
"I think it becomes wrong when you look
beyond the skin color and you make stereotypes
about those people and assume all people are
like that," he said.
He explained that while both students and
take kindly to a student pressing them about
institutional racism.
"Your name would definitely be acknowl-
edged by the University," she said.
What is it?
But what is institutional racism?
"I can't tell you what that means. One has to
separate out individual kinds of behavior and
prejudice from institutional
racism," Moody said.
He defined it as a series
of policies and practices
which disadvantage some
social group.
The determining factor,
Moody said, is that institu-
tional racism is a practice
which has developed over
decades and goes unnoticed.
"No one's saying, 'Who
am I going to mess up to-
day?' People can be as.
well-intentioned as possible
and not have any kind of
malice or forethought,"
Moody said. "Institutional
racism happens without=
people even thinking about
it.
Mamdani added he wanted his professors to
be the best in their fields.
"I want to be trained by someone who is
good. If he or she's Indian or Oriental, that's
fine. I want the best-qualified to teach me," he
said.
However, another Asian American leader
said there seems to be a movement at the U-M
and other colleges against Asian Americans.
over the past four years to 2,510 students;
The number of Hispanic/Latino students
has gone up 83% to 1,240;
Asian students have increased 50% to
2,679;
Native American students have increased
47% to 189;
Twenty-five percent of 1991's entering
class were students of color;
"It's not dependent on
the individual's prejudice or
lack of prejudice. The poli-
cies that have been set up are
social institutions," he
added.
Pattrice Maurer, board
member of the Ella Baker-
Nelson Mandela Center for
Anti-Racist Education
(BMC) agreed institutional
racism is not often recog-
nized.
"They are policies and
practices of institutions
which discriminate in effect
whether or not the individu-
Who's to
blame for
the apathy-
who isn't?
From time to time, editors of
other college newspapers call me
to ask what's going on at the
University of Michigan. Lately, I
have been having a hard time '
finding an answer to this question.
What is going on here?
This is a
dynamic,
cosmopolitan Matthew
university,
which offers a Rennie
variety of
opportunities
to every
student who
comes here.
And you
know what?
Nobody cares.
I don't
mean nobody
outside of the university. I mean
nobody in the university.
Students no longer come to this
school to savor the unique experi-
ences it can offer. They come to
get a diploma. The school has
become a drive-thru window. Get
in, get out. And with any luck, do
it as quickly as possible.
People no longer see the
university as their home and
community for four years. They
see their tie to the school as a
patron-client relationship. Who's
to blame for this apathy?
A better question is "Who
isn't?"
The easy argument is that
students feel so marginalized by
the university administration that
they don't think they can make a
difference. History lends some
credence to this theory.
Despite two years of protests
over the deputization of the
campus police force, the school
moved ahead with its agenda, and
we now have 'M'-Go-Blue-Cops
on every corner.
So students are justified in
feeling helpless, but we must
understand that without students,
the university ceases to exist. We
have power, but only as a group.
People at this school currently
marginalize themselves by not
supporting the handful of people
who do speak out on their behalf.
Students can complain that
their voices aren't being heard. Bu
it's not possible to hear words that
are never spoken.
Earlier this week, students had
two opportunities to give their
opinions on the proposed student
code of conduct. Neither meeting
drew more than 50 students.
That the university decided to
hold these "public" meetings at a
time when 25 percent of the
campus was busy with fraternity
and sorority rush is rather curious.
Why would Greek students care
about the code anyway? All it does
is allow the university to repri-
mand students for what occurs at
off-campus Greek functions. I
imagine most fraternity houses
must love that idea.
However, this poor timing
doesn't excuse the sparse atten-
dance at both forums.
Rackham student Colin Leach
said at Wednesday's hearing, "It's
completely unacceptable to wait
for people to come to you to make
comments."
He may be right. But as one of
the few people on this campus who
is willing to take a public stance on
student issues, Leach should know
that the only way to make one's.
voice heard is to keep yelling.
If MLB Auditorium 3 was
filled to capacity Wednesday night
with students blasting the proposed
code, then we would have a right
to complain if the administration
adopted such a policy.
Instead, the room was only
about one-quarter as full as a 9
a.m. Great Books lecture. The
administration can interpret this
apathy by saying, "Students don't
really care, so we can do whatever
we want."
So when the day comes that
you're kicked out of school after
being accused of a crime of which
you were later acquitted, think
about the sitcom re-run you
watched on television Wednesday
night.
But this isn't about the code. I
don't care what you think about
the code or any other issue, so long
as you care enough to do some-
FILE PHO TO/Daly
Students have been calling U-M administrative policy racist for decades. Protests heightened during the third
Black Action Movement in 1987, resulting in the implementation of the Michigan Mandate.
Shown below is the total enrollment o
American, Native American, Hispanic/
American) at the U-M's Ann Arbor canr
the Michigan Mandate (1987-1991).
als involved hold biased
attitudes," Maurer said.
Students and community members founded
the BMCin 1988 as asupportmechanism for the
third Black Action Movement (BAM III) cam-
paign, which began in 1987.
During BAM III, the United Coalition
Against Racism (UCAR) - a group of Black
and progressive students - brought to the U-M
administration a list of 12 demands to make the
university more comfortable for students from
different social backgrounds.
Maurer said some of the demands have yet to
be met.
Institutional Racism on Campus
Maurer said while institutional racism exists
in many forms at the U-M, it is most prevalent in
the admissions process.
"In education, the perfect example is testing,
which has repeatedly shown to have cultural
bias, yet it continues to be used as an admissions
criteria for this
universit y,"
f , Maurer said.
She added
f students of color (Asian that the admis-
Latino, African sions process
npus during the years of unfairly gives
benefits to those
who are children
of alumni.
,636 "TisUniver-
6, 3 sity once used to
be all white," she
said. "Applica-
tions now
disproportion-
ately benefit
white students."
Moody said
that U-M repre-
sentatives bring
racial stereotypes
with them when
they recruit fac-
ulty and students
of color.
"When the
1 1990 1991 University re-
cruited before, it
would say it's re-
cruiting in Chicago and New York," he said. "It
never mentioned that it was primarily recruiting
in the suburbs and not the city. You respond and
behave toward people based on experience."
Clowney agreed, "People think we're here
because of Affirmative Action and our testing
score standards had to be lowered.
"R ntnennlp aren't nnderctandin thatn nonle
"The main problem is that all Asian Ameri-
cans are placedin the same boat. The Vietnamese
population is very different from the Japanese
and thus they all have their own needs," Ho said.
Ho said U-M administrators do not try hard
enough to communicate with Asian American
group leaders.
He said Vice President for Student Affairs
Maureen Hartford has overlooked this group
when speaking to student leaders of color.
"It seems strange the administration does not
make a stronger effort to meet with us," Ho said.
"BAM and UCAR were only five years ago."
Hartford was not available for comment.
But student leaders do not have a hard time
agreeing that Blacks have the hardest time break-
ing through institutional racism at the U-M.
"The administration has had problems show-
ing African Americans the University is a good
place to come. If I were an African American, I
wouldn't want to come here. I wouldn't feel
welcome," Ho said.
Namerow agreed.
"African American students haven't gotten
fair treatment all the time," Namerow said.
Clowney said, "There's a large need for
social outlets. There's not an outlet for Black
people on this campus," Clowney said.
She noted two events lastyear-Africenergy,
a celebration of African culture and music, and
the B SU leadership conference - which the U-
M attempted to cancel days beforehand.
Clowney said Africenergy was canceled
when the university asked the campus building
where the event was supposed to take place to
cancel the BSU's reservation.
"At the first Africenergy, there was not one
problem, notone fight. And when you're talking
about the BSU leadership conference, Black
students personally went out to prevent any
altercations as student deputies," Clowney said.
She said the policies implemented by the
Michigan Union Board were very discrimina-
tory toward students of color, but she noted a
particular lack of respect toward Blacks. -
"The Board is implementing a Union policy
that is not even on paper," Clowney said.
Student leaders agreed that the lack of a
documented Union policy was wrong.
"They do not have any policies in writing.
We found them to be cooperative towards us,
but wehave seen bad treatment towards others,"
IASA President Mamdani said.
Solutions
With the Michigan Mandate - a plan estab-
lished in 1988 to increase diversity in the student
and faculty populations - the U-M has taken
stens to addrae these isses.e
0 Graduate students of color have increased
66% since 1987;
Professional students of color have in-
creased 43%;
Currently, 68% of Black students and 64
percent of Hispanic/Latino students graduate
from the U-M, and;
159 new faculty of color have been added
to the U-M's tenure track ranks over the last four
years.
Student leaders said they are happy the Man-
date was drafted, but hope to see it implemented
effectively.
"I'm pleased the administration made this
move, but they were forced to do this," Ho said.
"The intention is there, but to follow through
.. (the) increase of minority students in the last
5 years is positive," he added. "The danger is
they may look at this and say, 'Oh, we're done.'
Everyone looks at numbers of people of color."
Mamdani said the U-M is doing well in its
effort, but it needs to expound on a communica-
tion gap.
Namerow agreed, and added that students
can also make their own efforts to reach out to
each other like they did when they brought
filmmaker Spike Lee to campus last year.
In an unprecedented show of unity, several
campus groups - including the University
Activities Center, Hillel, the BSU, and the IFC
- worked together to make the event possible.
"We need open and honest communication
from student to student and student to adminis-
trator. Spike Lee was an extremely mixed
audience. A lot of Black students were open
against the University," Namerow said.
"In bringing Spike Lee to the University, the
students were a group of individuals no matter
what color they were. That's all we focused on.
That's an experience which I wish I could have
had otherwise," he added.
7,000
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5,000
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1987
1988
administrators are willing to speak in public on
many issues, they try to avoid certain topics to
escape being misunderstood and thus penalized
by others.
Office of Minority Affairs Vice Provost
Charles Moody said, "People have a tendency to
deal with racism on an individual level, not an
:.-t4:ntin:-a 1P-1 "