Staff Editorial: Meaningful dialogues on race have to start with students

On Tuesday, April 13, an unprecedented event took place at St. Joe's. Students took control of an issue that affects so many on Hawk Hill and did something about it—and they didn't need a tragedy, controversy, or incident to make it happen. For the first time in a long time, a conversation about race and diversity at St. Joe's was proactive, not reactive.

Inspired by the play "White People," which ran at Saint Joseph's University in February of this year, a group of students currently enrolled in a course on race and ethnicity in U.S. politics came together to begin an honest conversation about race with their peers. They began where the panel discussions following "White People" left off—or rather, what they largely failed to address.

A panel of students—Tempest Bryant, '11, Julian Phillips, '11, Caitlin Reusche, '10, Sarah Ortiz, '10, and Kataney Couamin, '11—shared their experiences and thoughts on the racial climate at St. Joe's. Their stories revealed a truth that is too often hidden on Hawk Hill: our university community is not as embracing as many of us would like to think.

The experiences of marginalization, ignorance, racism, bias, and stereotypes that many of the panelists—and countless other students on campus—have faced are ones that are often ignored by or invisible to students, faculty, and administrators. Tuesday night's panelists shed light on the unwelcoming and sometimes hostile environment that students—particularly students of color—face on a daily basis.

The Hawk commends the student-led effort to promote awareness and begin a proactive dialogue on campus that seeks to address and change this environment, and we support these students, and others, in their work to bring conversations about race and diversity to the forefront at Saint Joseph's.

Perhaps the most important concept discussed on Tuesday night, though, is the need for this conversation to spread beyond "the choir," as one administrator so succinctly put it. The truth of the matter is that St. Joe's plays host to a number of the "isms" that we claim to abhor: racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism (among others).

If we are going to deal effectively with these issues on our campus, we should continue the tradition so bravely begun by our peers last week.  We need to create spaces in which members of our university community can come together and share their experiences. We need to reach out to students, faculty, and staff who may be unaware that these issues exist and bring them into the conversation. And, perhaps most importantly, we need to listen to each other and support one another in bringing about a more positive and just environment at Saint Joseph's University.

Student organizers of last week's panel started the event by saying that this is just the start of a conversation—but it was certainly an important beginning. This group of students should be commended for their efforts and their courage. Now it's up to the rest of us to pick up where they left off and begin the work that change requires.