Minnesota - USA: A year after UMD Facebook racism incident, still haunted by a quest for equality

While leaders of our society must continue to strengthen policies and guarantee rigorous oversight, the colossal task of creating multitudes of equal-opportunity hearts must begin at the individual level. A starting point for each of us could be what Black suggested at the beginning of his tenure at UMD.

A march against racism was held in May 2010 in reaction to a racially
charged Facebook conversation two white UMD students had about
a black student. The march began at the Washington Center.
An estimated 350 students and others carried signs and silently made their
way to the UMD campus. (2010 file / News Tribune)

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Duluth News Tribune
By M. Imran Hayee | April 25, 2011

Almost everybody at the University of Minnesota Duluth remembers the despicable Facebook incident a­ year ago this month. On April 14, 2010, two white female students exchanged derogatory remarks on their Facebook wall about a black female student while all three were in the same study room.

That callous but highly atrocious act of racial profiling mobilized the university administration and faculty to re-evaluate their stance on the status quo of equity, diversity and social justice within the campus environment. Incumbent Chancellor Kathryn A. Martin vehemently denounced the incident and promised to be “more vigilant” in the future while acknowledging that, “UMD hasn’t been as consistent as it should be about following up on racial incidents through the years.”

Unfortunately, the retiring Chancellor Martin did not have time to fulfill her promise.


Newly appointed Chancellor Lendley Black echoed similar sentiments, however. While showing an unremitting resolve to do his best, Black correctly pointed out the difficulty and complexity of the task ahead.

“There may not be a way to prevent things like the Facebook incidents from happening, but we don’t want to just settle for where we are,” he said.

Why is it so difficult to prevent the recurrence of such incidents?

To answer this question, an analysis of American history is required. The origin of Facebook-like incidents can be traced back to the Civil War, which began 150 years ago this month, in 1861. The war’s root cause was slavery. As President Lincoln himself put it, “One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended while (another) believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute.” After more than 600,000 deaths over a period of four years, slavery officially was abolished with the passing of the 13th Amendment in 1865. People of color were no longer a commodity in America, but free like their white counterparts.

But was a constitutional guarantee of freedom enough without having equality in social and economic status?

Perhaps not.

It took many more sacrifices and another 100 years to practically implement that concept of equality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 finally granted all citizens equal rights, prohibiting discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion or national origin.

What resolved the issue of basic human equality: the 13th Amendment of 1865 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

While the 13th Amendment was a phenomenal step forward, setting all slaves free, it could not do much to equalize the deeply embedded economic and social disparity among newly freed slaves and free men. The Civil Rights Act, on the other hand, attempted to eliminate this disparity by legally requiring all states and corporations to treat America’s workers equally, regardless of their race, color, religion or national origin. Over the years, the Civil Rights Act has been somewhat successful in mitigating the social and economic disparity in our richly diverse society.

The same question of equality haunts us today. Is achieving social and economic parity sufficient without embedding the spirit of human equality in the souls and hearts of people?

Perhaps not.

So how do we instill this fundamental human value in the hearts of people? Will another massive legislation do the trick?

I am afraid not.

Legally sanctioned rules have their limitations in changing social and moral values; they can require human beings to do something but cannot create an innate desire and love of doing the same. We all pay taxes because it is legally required. Do we love paying taxes? Probably not.

The real answer is to create an equal-opportunity heart in each and every citizen of our society. Such a heart would be driven by one rule: love for all, hatred for none. Unless we possess equal-opportunity hearts, there always will be a way to craft our words and actions to dodge the spirit of the Civil Rights Act.

While leaders of our society must continue to strengthen policies and guarantee rigorous oversight, the colossal task of creating multitudes of equal-opportunity hearts must begin at the individual level. A starting point for each of us could be what Black suggested at the beginning of his tenure at UMD.

“Part of doing work with diversity is having people do some self-examination on where they fit, in terms of dealing with people who are different from themselves,” he said.

All of us have an equal-opportunity heart hidden somewhere within our souls. To reach out to it we might have to pierce through walls — sometimes thick and sometimes thin walls — of baseless egos and hollow misunderstandings. Once a majority of us does so, remnants of prejudice will be defeated and things like the Facebook incident will be history.

M. Imran Hayee is an associate professor and director of graduate studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He wrote this exclusively for the News Tribune.


Read original post here: Local view: A year after UMD Facebook incident, still haunted by a quest for equality