Volume CXXXIII, Number 4 October 3, 2003 f

A harmless, inclusive gesture or racist affront?

BRYANT ANTHONY RICH
COLUMNIST

A very new controversy in race relations has come to light in a small town 50 miles east of San Francisco. A Caucasian freshman girl has set out to establish a Caucasian club at her local public high school.

The responses are heated and have come from everyone from fellow students to the local chapter of the NAACP. At the heart of the issue is whether or not this club is or is not racist. In order to effectively grapple with this we must first outline the facts.

Lisa McClelland, the club's potential founder, asserts that she is not racist. Her contention is that the club would bridge the gap between the races by serving as a catalyst for dialogue between the other established ethnic clubs i.e. the Latino, African American, and Asian culture clubs that are already established. McClelland also says that her club will be inclusive to other races.

Sounds good to me so far, but it is still not that simple especially at McClelland's particular high school. Over the past few years, there have been several incidences of hate crimes at her school. Swastikas and racist paraphernalia were found in a boys bathroom. Nooses were tied and hung from both the door knob of the office of a black teacher and hanging from a redwood tree on the school's campus. These incidents should serve as a reminder that racism is still very much a part of the reality of American life.

Many have compared the establishment of the club to pouring salt on the wound that is race relations. The local NAACP likened it to de facto segregation.

If this club had been proposed by known racists and white supremacists established at a segregated southern high school, this would be an open and shut case of racism.

I do not believe this case to be nearly that far right on the spectrum of race relations. In fact, I believe that if executed correctly, it could prove to be quite the opposite. Let's be honest here for a second. Statistical diversity does not mean anything without mutually desired social interaction which can be difficult to produce.

As much as we like to pretend that we are living in a color-blind society we are not. People of every race automatically assign certain characteristics to people based upon the color of their skin, facial features and the form that their hair naturally takes. People of different races do tend to have different life experiences even if their families live on the same block or in the same apartment building. Though you may attend a very racially diverse school or grow up in a racially diverse neighborhood, you may never have a real conversation about a different race, let alone deconstruct the social barriers that keep people apart.

It is natural for people to gravitate to those that look like them and who have similar life experiences. I don't believe that anyone can or should be faulted for doing what is most natural and comfortable for them. That is why having a "Caucasian" club to promote interaction and understanding among the races and to work with the other ethnic clubs could potentially be a great thing. It would provide a friendly and comfortable way for students of different races to come together.

At my high school, there was a significant amount of diversity. There were students from many foreign countries and continents: Latin America, north and south Asia, and Europe. There were also students from the wealthiest and poorest sections of their respective hometowns. When issues of diversity were raised on campus, those in attendance were overwhelmingly African American, despite the fact that African Americans comprised about five percent of the students. Here in lies the problem: if race relations are perceived to be a minority issue, no true progress will be made.

Perhaps Caucasian students didn't attend those meetings because they were uninterested. Perhaps they felt race issues are the responsibility of the minority. Or, perhaps they believed that if they attended that they would be ridiculed and made to be the scapegoat. The reality is that it is probably a bit of all those things.

Don't get me wrong, I do not want this sort of a club to devolve into some sort of segregationist group. I doubt that many people would come out openly and request that sort of a group. Having a club for the Caucasian students would probably facilitate more freedom of racial interaction and the sort of open dialogue that is needed to foster a more integrated racial community.

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