Ethnic counselors help deconstruct racial boundaries

By Rachel Kamins

I knew that I had arrived at college when, not three days after my arrival, I had already been in an intellectual debate in a lecture. This was what I had been waiting for: to be in the midst of 5,000 bright minds turned on all the time, to be in an environment where my academic and social capabilities would be challenged and my awareness heightened on a constant basis.

That said, it was not a fun debate.

Psychology Professor Mahzarin Banaji's "Mind Bugs" lecture disturbed a lot of freshmen, causing us to think about racial issues that we would rather have let lie. We all had to ask ourselves about the prejudices hidden in our psyches, about how they might affect or have already affected our relationships with certain classmates and roommates. Many of the freshmen in my discussion group, myself included, were unwilling to speak out, for fear that our unintentional social ignorance would cause us to say something offensive.

When the topic of ethnic counselors arose, I, along with several others, initially wanted to say that these advisors were unnecessary and served more to create racial separation than to eliminate its causes. By assuming that minority students needed special counselors, it seemed that Yale was putting a spotlight on these students, stressing differences instead of similarities. In addition, no one wanted to believe that he or she was capable of racism, a product of ignorance.

But racism exists regardless of whether or not it is spotlighted. And in that class we came to realize that the racism inherent in our thinking was not only a product of ignorance, but also a problem deeply embedded in our culture.

The word "minority" itself draws a social line. The line wraps around the group of people it defines, separating them out; more often than not, it becomes a boundary. Though we are mostly unaware of the processes that construct this wall, it only takes a little investigation, such as the one conducted by Professor Banaji, to verify its existence. It takes significantly more to tear down the boundary.

Ethnic counselors exist to help us with the difficult task of deconstructing racial prejudices. Though they are nominally assigned to minority students, they are meant to assist everyone in dealing with the social confusion brought on by the great mix of backgrounds and mindsets found at this university. Without them, the battle merely to identify our problems becomes several times harder, not to mention the struggle to overcome them.

The purpose of attaining an education at an institution as fine as this one encompasses much more than building academic skills. While only classroom learning is required to notice that the word "education" literally means "a leading out," it takes a great amount of courage and open-mindedness to embrace the notion of a full education, a leading out of both our intellectual and our interpersonal capacities.

Professor Banaji and her colleagues are here to help us focus mainly our intellectual capacities, and while their lectures may teach us to identify and understand many out-of-class issues, they do not always help us to implement our new knowledge. Most of that responsibility falls to us. As freshmen for whom this task can be quite difficult, we are lucky to have counselors actually living in our dorms to help us sort things out on the interpersonal level.

I like to be open-minded about issues of race, and in a broad, theoretical sense, I am not a bigoted person. But since the night of that lecture, I have been constantly rediscovering the ugly stereotypes that are snuggled into my subconscious. To my disgust, I have found that I unintentionally think racist thoughts on an hourly basis. And I'm sure that I can't be the only Caucasian person on this campus who has this handicap, who unintentionally hurts those of different races because of "mind bugs" long since acquired.

Even if I never explicitly discuss my problems with the ethnic counselor living in my entryway, my mere awareness of his existence will help me to keep my mind focused on the reality of racism. It is my own responsibility to stay open to improving my relationship with people of different races, but if I find this task to be a terrible struggle, I will always know that someone only a few steps away is available to help me out.

Obviously, the job of confronting and dismantling racial prejudices is neither easy nor enjoyable. But the alternative that faces us--living with our bright intellects perpetually crippled by ignorant, subconscious stereotypes--makes the effort worthwhile. And if we apply ourselves early and often to the work, taking advantage of such resources as brilliant professors and trained ethnic counselors, soon the problem will disappear altogether.

Rachel Kamins is a freshman in Jonathan Edwards.

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