Author: Abiel Garcia
Throughout the past weeks, articles have gone back and forth addressing the apparent “racism” on our campus. Now, when I say our, I do not mean African-Americans, Whites, Mexicans, or any other race that has not been named, I mean “our” as a the student population on campus. Sparked by an incident in Pauley and escalated by the events at Apollo Night, the once peaceful environment at Oxy has been barraged with claims of racism and hatred against certain groups of people. There have been claims recently that people have been discriminated against and that Oxy has been the site of hatred and general problems with certain groups of people.
Being a person of color myself I have not seen this “racism” on the campus. Imagine arriving on campus as a first-year from the South, constituting only one percent of the student population. Knowing no one, I fixed up my room and went to my first water polo practice. Now, in recent articles, these so-called “jocks” have been quoted as frequently using the word “homo.” As being part of their community I admit the word has been thrown around, but neither to the extent nor with the intentions that any reasonable person should label us as homophobes. The people that have stood up and said that they have been hurt by the racism on our campus go around looking for the racism. The supposed “white wall” that was brought up in the campus climate discussion last week has never come to my attention until someone pointed it out. Yet, after looking at the situation, I can see where the thought could come about, but I strongly believe that it as only a coincidence. It is not like the wall shuns people of color; I myself have hung out on the wall on numerous occasions.
Oxy has more diversity than any other school I have heard of. Sunday night, everyone was back on campus, and I had a little shindig in my room. At a point in the night I looked around the room and noticed the perfect example of diversity at Oxy. I had multiple ethnicities in the room sharing in stories, laughing and enjoying each others company. No one focused on color or differences. There were no Cubans, African Americans, Trinidadians, Mexicans, Brazilians, or Caucasians. It was just us, students and friends, a community that looks past skin and just treats each other as humans. Yes, we are different, each one of us from different backgrounds, but putting emphasis that I’m Mexican or any other ethnicity creates a rift. Instead of closing the gap between all people, by denouncing your difference, you create the self and the other. You create two instead of one.
Now, I’m not saying don’t celebrate your heritage, I’m very proud of my Mexican background and it has shaped who I am today. But when I’m around people, I am a human, nothing more, nothing less. I might say “I’m Texan” or “I’m Mexican” but all in all, it’s the same: Human. We all have different opinions and thoughts, but the first step to ending racism is breaking down the barriers of social nomenclature. Diverse friendships are all around us at Oxy, and instead of looking for racism, we need to focus on the thriving friendships that are seen all over the campus and work to create more. Oxy’s opening embrace is seen in every group of friends on this campus. By the way, dressing up like cowboys and Indians does not make you racist, it just is good nostalgic fun. I don’t think five year old kids who dress up as cowboys are trying to make a statement. They just want candy.
These findings of racism on Oxy’s campus can be perfectly summed up by William Shakespeare. ” The Devil can cite scripture for his purpose,” Just as we can find racism if we need to.
Abiel Garcia is an undeclared sophomore. He can be reached at garciaa@oxy.edu
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