The Optimist

Natasia Jackson wouldn't say ACU is a racist university.

She couldn't form the words, even after a group of white students harassed her while she and her Vietnamese roommate ran around the track.

When white men in a white pick-up truck pulled over and began yelling demeaning slurs at her as she ran, she said she was scared. Her roommate did not understand what it meant, but Natasia did.

She's heard those words her entire life, even though she is white. The junior history major from Cherokee has a white mother and a black father. She grew up with her white family but is still considered black with all the black stereotypes because of her light caramel complexion.

She doesn't mind, though. Part of her is black, she said.

Despite isolated incidents with racism on campus, Jackson said, "as a whole, ACU is trying."

Jackson's story is not unique to campus. Many students, even students of color, say ACU is not a racist institution, but since SA secretary Matt Worthington's Chapel speech about racial reconciliation on the first Thursday of the semester and his apology address the following day, racial discussion has surged.

Students began to question the lack of diversity in faculty and staff, the racially uniform social clubs and even pointing out their own prejudices.

LaShae Grottis, director of Student Services and Multicultural Enrichment, said a racial reconciliation movement as large as the current one hasn't happened since Dr. Royce Money, president of the university, made an apology in 1999 at South West Christian College.

"That really began healing problems of race issues at ACU," she said.

In the early 1960s, ACU would not admit black students, even though the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ruled segregation unconstitutional nearly 10 years before.

Leaders formed South West Christian College to give black students the opportunity to get a degree at a Christian institution.

Grottis explained in a meeting with faculty members, administrators, student leaders and racial reconciliation consultant Alex Gee that leaders with SWCC invited ACU to the "One in Christ Conference" as a means of reconciliation. Dr. Money made an apology on behalf of the university.

As a result, University Trustee Don Williams donated $4.5 million dollars to build the Office of Student Multicultural Enrichment in 2000.

The university hired more teachers and staff of color. Now the school has about 19 percent diversity including international students, Grottis said.

The movement had "lost some momentum in the past couple of years," she said. "But for some reason, this semester, Matt got up there and said a few words and things got started."

In the meeting Alex Gee, who has spoken in Chapel, led a forum-style luncheon and an evening forum to help students, faculty and staff make plans to help the reconciliation process.

"Some of the most powerful movements started with grass root stirrings, with students," Gee said.

His words resonate with Christian Francis.

"We can't ignore it anymore," said Francis, junior biochemistry major from New York City.

Francis, who is a member of Jesus and the Hip Hop Prophets, said discussions of racial reconciliation should continue, even though personally as a black man, he has never felt alienated on campus.

Francis grew up with a Caucasian family in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, but he is African American. Even so, he said, he feels more comfortable in the white community at ACU than in the black community.

"I feel I have inadequate knowledge about black culture," he said. "When I'm around the black community I feel a little out of place."
He is not the only minority student to say so.

"My whole life, I couldn't say my last name right," said Melina Rangel.

When she's at home with her Hispanic family, her name is pronounced RAWHN-HAIL. When she's around her non-Hispanic professors and friends it's pronounced RAN-GUHL.

She doesn't like that sound, she said, but she doesn't make a fuss.

"I grew up having a stronger stereotype against my race and blacks because my race and blacks are supposedly the ghetto group," she said. "At my school I thought most of the black and Hispanic people were the ones who were going to get me in trouble."

Rangel said her mom would keep her from spending time with Hispanic women in her own family because "they were promiscuous" and most had children out of wedlock.

"I guess I was really sheltered from being around minorities," she said.

When she was younger, her parents moved from the poorer neighborhoods, which consisted mostly of black and Hispanics, to a neighborhood that was "nicer" and mostly white, and she began to spend her time with only white students.

Naturally, she felt most comfortable with them, she said.

Jaz Maranca, senior exercise science major from Rowlett, said her parents are the same way.

"Growing up, they were so strict about who I hung out with because of those stereotypes," she said.

Maranca is Filipino. In her particular Asian culture, her family values respect and honoring the family. She was forbidden to spend time with people of other races or to challenge her parents' opinion because expressing her feelings to her parents as an American is considered disrespectful.

However, Maranca said, she is American too.

Her parents would not change their minds until they had to spend time with parents of other races because Maranca played on a basketball team with Latinas and African Americans.

"I think that the impact when you change is when you experience it yourself," Maranca said.

The question now is, as Grottis puts it, "Where do we go from here?"

Some students of color said it is difficult to know when to speak out against racism because sometimes they are not sure when they are being discriminated against.

Steven Cardona, a Hispanic freshman political science and Bible major from Abilene, said he felt offended that the Bean serves stereotypical "black food" or soul food during Black History Month. Some black students agree with him.

Jackson said fried chicken, collard greens and cornbread are southern foods that even white people eat. Francis said, as a northerner, the blacks he knows aren't big on those southern foods.

"And you know, if you're black and you go get that food, what people are going to say about you," Jackson said.

"Yeah, even if it's just joking," Francis added.

Cardona said he wasn't sure if he should say anything about the food.

"Am I making it a problem, seeing it as an issue with the food? Am I over analyzing? Am I not analyzing enough?" he asked. "That's the problem; the lines are blurred."

"As much as I hate the stereotypes enforced on black people, I've grown up in a system that believes them to be true, and I believe them," Francis said. "But that's kind of messed up. ... I feel that the academic environment is one that is saturated with white culture. That it was developed in our country from a predominately white culture, and it stayed that way. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you're going to be in an academic environment, you're going to feel the social constraints of white culture."

At racial reconciliation meetings and forums, students agree that change begins with exposure and building relationships. Silence is not the answer.

"I used to think when I was growing up that if we just stopped talking about race then it would just stop, and we wouldn't have to worry about it anymore," Rangel said. "And then I realized that I had prejudice. ... I was intimidated by different races and that I didn't have friends from different races and why? Why didn't I have friends from different races? Why am I racist? Why am I holding prejudice? ... Until all the people who are blind to their own prejudices open up their eyes, how can they love?"

Faculty, staff and students intend to continue meetings and discussion to transform the campus into a unified body.

Mark Lewis, director of Student Life and Spiritual Life and Student Ministries in Campus Life, said students can expect more discussions about race in the future.

Jackson said, "It's about time."

E-mail Knight at: optimist@acu.edu

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