Universities are places where everyone shares, or should share, at least one common objective: to learn. With that in mind, I will aver that J. Isaiah Bailey's "Being black at the University of Richmond: the whole truth" (The Collegian, February 25, p. 11) is not only disturbing but also very important. I recommend that everyone read and then re-read this piece, which Isaiah has framed as a poem, in order to gain a fuller understanding of the realities that confront African American students day after day after day here at Richmond.
Of course, no one possesses the whole truth, so Isaiah's poem implicitly invites us to add our own perspectives to the mix, hopefully as openly as he has; but even as we do so, we should enrich our understanding by listening and reflecting upon what he has said.
We have talked a great deal during recent years about creating a more harmonious community in which diverse individuals show greater respect for, and are shown greater respect by, one another — a community in which the success and wellbeing of each of us is a central concern of all of us. This is a goal toward which we should continue to work; yet as we do, we should expect that crosscutting tensions will inevitably complicate our forward progress as well as the related process of transforming our relative ignorance of one another into more accurate knowledge. Gaining knowledge, especially of deeply personal matters, is not something we can achieve in a casual and comfortable way. It involves much more than simply changing our minds; it often entails challenges to long-held beliefs and deeply engrained behaviors. And no matter how pure our motives may be, the process sometimes arouses our emotions and resistance, especially when well-intentioned remarks or behaviors are called insensitive or worse. (But, let's face it, our remarks and behaviors are occasionally insensitive or worse.) Just admitting our need to learn and change demands a special kind of courage that we may lack at a given moment. But when courage fails, self-flagellation does no good; we need to take a deep breath and try again.
It was predictable that Isaiah's poem would provoke differing, sometimes passionate responses. Each of us will approach his comments with our own types and levels of blindness and with different inclinations to accept or resist what he is asking us to understand. But all of us will profit from trying, at least for a moment, to see and feel "the Richmond experience" as he does, from a perspective that many of us will never be able to share completely or consistently. Doing so will almost certainly enhance our comprehension of important matters.
In conclusion, I hope that all of us will consider what Isaiah has had the courage to express and that each of us will do whatever we can to help our community continue to move toward being more aware, more welcoming, and more respectful of one another. Problems won't evaporate simply from being expressed, but giving expression to our individual experiences is a good and necessary step toward better knowledge — and a better community - for one and all. If enough of us show the openness and courage that Isaiah has shown, we will increase the probability that he was right to conclude his poem with an optimistic assertion that "things will turn out for the best"
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