Reality is having a dream and dying while trying to realize it. Reality is imagining people living in peace and then embodying that sentiment.
Reality is not simply "imagining" an integrated world. It's not the 1960s.
I am too cynical to believe in the effectiveness of abstract, intangible concepts and reciting quotations from pretentious protest songs or poems. Talk without action is best left unsaid. The Beatles are one of my favorite bands, but we need more than love. We can't achieve anything by holding hands and singing. We need education. We need action.
Last week, I hinted at two undeniable realities: 1) Most people on this campus did not participate in any "Unity Week" events. 2) An obvious racial division still exists, on this campus and elsewhere. Are they related? Maybe, but in both cases, to think otherwise is foolish.
Last week, I offered a possible, eventual solution. Perhaps it wasn't ideal, but I don't think it's wrong. For more information, refer to last week's headline.
This week, I'll be less ironic and more concrete. Admittedly, I may not have been obvious enough and was, unfortunately, taken literally. My tongue-in-cheek declaration of "luxury" and "apathy" was steeped with irony and is entirely untrue, but regardless, my point was missed.
I'm no scholar of racial matters, but I think we need to take a realistic look at our campus and our world. Again, I'll ask for suggestions. But, let's first decide to ignore the vague, bureaucratically disseminated mission statements that don't work. At best, we have only a conceptual understanding of what "unity" might be.
We've yet to experience such a state, and that's true.
My suggestion - educating our children to embrace diversity - is a feasible method for us to achieve a future life closely resembling the yet-to-be-realized ideal of racial harmony. Even if sarcasm obscured my point, my words attempted to give the power of change to the individual (where it should be).
I clearly wasn't justifying inaction. Neither was the Daily News when it printed Nathan Hill's comment. Let's give him a break.
Reality is realizing racism doesn't exist because of a (misperceived) lack of coverage in our student newspaper or because a Ball State freshman slept in on MLK Day.
It exists because we have yet to decide to stop it.
Consciousness, like Unity Week, is a positive start. It's courageous and definitely proper to question the plague of racism. But, awareness alone is not a solution. If it were, we'd celebrate "The Beatles' Famous Song Day."
But, teaching, and the resulting inheritance of diversity awareness is something tangible we all can understand and utilize. It is our generation's responsibility to make sure we do what we can to show our children what we (and stacks of generations before us) have learned the hard way.
One writer urged me to, "Take the time to look at reality." Thanks, but I thought I did. (And yes, I have heard of slavery.)
So, I don't feel the need to justify my actions on MLK Day. I know what I did, and that's enough.
However, I won't apologize for presenting reasonable suggestions that seek to aid our pursuit of racial harmony.
After all, that was the point.
Write to Allyn at aswest@bsu.edu
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