Recently in Ithaca, a series of racist incidents have (miraculously) reached newspaper headlines. Amidst the resulting wave of racial tension, the College of City and Regional Planning has recently approved a new concentration, the Social Justice Studies and Public Scholarship concentration (SJS&PS). The concentration “seeks to cultivate inspired civic leaders prepared to lead significant social reform efforts addressing the structural causes and consequences of social inequality and persistent poverty at home and abroad.” Most importantly, however, it seeks not to speak on behalf of underserved communities, but rather work with them as allies and to provide resources that make self-determination not a distant dream, but an immediate reality.

Although many classes, concentrations and departments study debilitating issues like racism, sexism and inequality, the SJS&PS concentration takes a unique three-pronged approach to understand and dismantle the roots of these problems. It employs 1) a field-based service-learning aspect complete with cultural/historical/contextual preparation; 2) community-based research opportunities for undergrads; and 3) significant writing work aimed at addressing policy and institutional factors that influence social problems.

To many within the Cornell community, the concentration comes not a moment too soon, but others see it as a colossal waste of money. Summing up the latter position, one student told me: “The Jim Crow Era ended 50 years ago, racism is dead, and it’s time to let go of a past that is used to justify reverse-discrimination.”

Another student echoed this sentiment. Speaking on the Jena Six and the racist-sexist incident that recently occurred at D.P. Dough, he claimed that: “You can convince yourself that anything is racist if you’re bent on finding racism everywhere. A lot of what people call racism is really just oversensitivity.”

Thus, many Cornellians are in denial. Like stumbling drunkards who half-spit and half-slur, “We don’t have a problem,” so too do many of us refuse to acknowledge the persistent and pervasive racism in American society. Many of you probably agree with the above points, but let me quickly respond to these beliefs:

No. The Jim Crow Era has not ended.

Yes, this is 2007, and, no, the Jim Crow Era is not over. Precisely because the Supreme Court is attempting to chip away at educational affirmative action and public school integration, precisely because Congress refuses to require equitable education regardless of one’s neighborhood, precisely because the state has trapped entire communities of poor black and brown people in ghettos and reservations and locked them up in plantations-turned-prisons, the Jim Crow Era is alive and well. Thus, legal separation and subjugation of people of color continues.

OK so there is inequality, but not racism. Just look at Cornell. People of all ethnicities and races live and study side by side.

Wrong. Racism thrives at Cornell University.

Just consider what Cornell’s very own had to say about their experiences with racism on campus. During Ujamaa Residential College’s Unity Hour this past Monday, students of all ethnicities and races engaged in an emotional dialogue about the racism they experienced at Cornell and off-campus. One Cornellian of color told about an incident in which a group of white C.U. males drove by, threw snowballs, and shouted, “Go back to where you came from!” A Native American student recalled an instance when white students, passing by Akwe:kon, the first residence hall at any U.S. university built to celebrate Native American heritage, cupped their hands over their mouths and wailed out a malicious battle cry. Yet another group of students of color recounted an incident that occurred two weeks ago at D.P. Dough restaurant, in which two white men called them “ignorant ass hos.” When the females protested, the management called the police on them (yes, the women of color) and demanded that they “act civilized.” (As opposed to what? Barbaric?)

Another student of color spoke of a Cornell professor who had questioned her academic integrity after she outperformed the rest of her class on a test earlier this semester. How could a black girl be at the head of the class???!!! he must have thought. Numerous others recounted times they were victimized by racial epithets and made to feel frightened, angered and out of place at Cornell. And don’t forget Charles Holiday, the black Union College student who was called n***** and stabbed by Nathan Poffenbarger ’08 just two years ago. That Poffenbarger was widely recognized as a progressive goes to further my point: racism is intertwined in the social fabric of Cornell.

So why dwell on it? The more we talk about it, the more we divide ourselves.

Wrong. Racism divides us. Ignoring it perpetuates it.

How are we supposed to end racism without addressing it? Pretending it doesn’t exist can only allow it to infect future generations. No longer can we excuse ourselves and say, “Well I’m not a racist,” or “Well I didn’t know racism still exists.” The only way to make racism a part of history is to take a firm, conscious, anti-racist stance.

The first step is to begin dismantling White Privilege. White Americans enjoy the privilege of being white, but are too often unaware that whiteness is privilege or are unwilling to admit it. For a quick introduction to the topic, let me ask my fellow white students: are you regularly asked to speak on behalf of your race? Are you frequently watched with a vigilante eye at department stores? Do people cross the street at night so that they do not have to pass next to you? Does anyone think you got into Cornell because of the color of your skin? Most likely, you answered in the negative. And these are but a few examples of White Privilege.

So how has it come to be that so many white Americans refuse to acknowledge their privilege? Why is it so hard for us to admit that white men acquired financial and human capital while holding other demographics legally inferior? Why do we insist that affirmative action policies have disproportionately served people of color, when white women are (and always have been) the biggest beneficiaries of these statutes? Why do we feel that we have to deny the historical struggle of racially oppressed peoples to justify the achievements of our parents and grandparents?

These questions require answering, but before that, they must be asked. They must be asked daily, and we must seriously meditate on them if we are to create a just society.

Long overdue is such an academic concentration that problematizes privilege and employs innovative ways of understanding. Long overdue is a concentration in which students simultaneously study racist policy and ally with underserved communities so that they may realize their own dreams on their own terms. By no means am I touting the SJS&PS concentration as the panacea to all the social ills that plague our campus, but the concentration seems to be a necessary step toward creating social justice at Cornell.

Evan Baker Smith is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at ebs34@cornell.edu.