THE PUBLIC MIND: SILENCE CONTRIBUTES TO CONTINUED DISCRIMINATION

To the Editor:

On Dec. 15, 1991, Americans celebrated the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments of the Constitution of the United States. This document further supported the formation of a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. ~Initially only White males had Constitutional Rights. Additional amendments sought to actualize the process of inclusion of all people. Today we, as a nation, still strive to form a "more perfect union," but our current efforts seem akin to those of a mule trying to win the Kentucky Derby.

The Human Rights issues today transcend America, thus a global warning is in order. The 500 year celebration of the voyage of Columbus, who was found and befriended by Native Americans, has been highlighted by: David Duke of Louisiana; the tragic loss of life by fire in the workplace in Hamlet, North Carolina; nationwide campus incidents on race, ethnicity, gender, and religion; public denials that the Jewish Holocaust ever occurred; cross burnings in Dubuque, ~Iowa; hate crimes taking place in both large and small communities throughout the United States; and, yes, acts of hate and attempts to deny basic human rights right here in "The River City."

These kinds of incidents remind us of our unresolved problems, and the new faces of racism and hatred. Other places, too, contribute to the global warning: ongoing apartheid in South Africa; the unraveling of the USSR/growing ethnic tensions; the open return of neo-Nazism in Germany (highlighted by beatings of non-Aryans there); and violence between different ethnic groups in Africa, Asia, and Europe. These contribute to widening rather than closing our gaps.

Sexual harassment entered the Supreme Court hearings in which racism was already a factor. Date rape has become more visible. AIDS took on a different perspective when "Magic" Johnson announced he had tested positive for the HIV virus, but gay-bashing related to AIDS continues. Political correctness has not hampered the chilling effect of rudeness, racism, sexism, or ageism. Civility and courtesy are scarcely noted in interchanges related to race and human relations. The code words of diversity, multiculturalism, minority, biculturalism, ethnicity, cross-cultural and other words fail to adequately address race, gender, or poverty in the context of the American reality. These issues resonate throughout the land. The infrastructure of race relations has been touched only at the outer edges, thus the systematic exclusion of people by factors such as race, ethnic origin, and gender continue. The resulting restraints form not only a glass ceiling against equity, but a concrete ceiling. There are "man-made" barriers affecting African Americans which influence their lives in harmful ways as men, women, and children whose civil, social, economic, health, and welfare have been impacted.

To those of us who have set limits on the opportunities of others because they were "different" in some way (and few of us are guiltless in this respect), I caution you to be aware that whenever we limit someone else we also limit ourselves because we miss out on the opportunity to expand our horizons by gaining what that "different" person has to offer us.

Finally, to those of us who soothe our consciences by convincing ourselves that ~discrimination is not our concern because "we don't discriminate," remember that anytime you recognize such acts and fail to make legitimate efforts to combat them, your silence contributes to their continued occurrence.

William I. Thompson

Acting Chair, Department of Social Work

Southeast Missouri State University