Blacks, whites must end racism together

I am very unhappy with the ad from David Horowitz that the IDS chose to run April 13. That ad perpetuates and incites racism in a very insidious fashion. As one of the few white attendants at Tuesday night's forum in the Teter formal lounge, I was very frustrated with the virtually non-existent response from other white people on this campus. \nThis issue certainly impacts white people as well as African Americans. It is the responsibility of white people to recognize that we are still benefiting from slavery and to do something about that. Your great-grandparents may have fought for the North in the Civil War or never owned slaves, but that doesn't mean that your ancestors, and yes, even you, never benefited from the system of slavery. \nReconstruction, "desegregation" and the civil rights era in general have not completely dismantled the racist institution slavery created. Our work is not yet finished, far from it in fact. Racism cannot end without the recognition that it still exists and the work of white people to dismantle it. It is the responsibility of white people to recognize the ways in which we are still privileged by racism and to do our best to decrease the harm that such privilege causes and to educate one another. We, as white people, need to do something to stop the damage we are perpetuating. I often hear white people say that they are not racist, but I can assure you that the vast majority of us frequently do racist things without realizing it. \nThis is why it is so important for us to sit down and really seriously think about our actions, motives and create some real social change that the racist drivel of David Horowitz will never achieve.