Overcoming racism by teaching

Three years ago, IU's Bloomington campus teamed with IU-Northwest Gary and IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis as well as two universities in Michigan and Wisconsin to initiate the Interracial Communication Project. This initiative brought together students and staff to examine the realities of racism at these institutions and in our society as a whole.\nUndertaken with the support of the Charles Mott Foundation, the ICP aimed to do what many people might consider the unattainable: to eliminate racism. Friday, project participants will come together in Indianapolis to reflect on their accomplishments and to discuss ways to keep the work going even after the grant ends this winter.\nAt IU-Bloomington, the students and staff involved in the ICP have forged connections with Savannah State University, a traditionally black university, as one way of continuing the work we've begun. Through this linkage, participants in ICP have broadened their discussions about what creates racist attitudes and how different communities perceive racism. With the help of discussions facilitated by the People's University of New Orleans, students and staff from both universities also looked at the ways in which racist assumptions and attitudes are institutionalized in society.\nOther initiatives by the ICP at the Bloomington campus worked to build similar bridges. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, members of the ICP toured the IU Islamic Mosque and helped to establish open discussions in which students voiced their thoughts and fears. When students protested a panel of Thomas Hart Benton's mural hung in a classroom in Woodburn Hall, the ICP provided a forum for honest discussions of students' feelings about Benton's depiction of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana's history.\nIn the course of these efforts, nearly 150 students have participated in the program. Though ICP ends this December, IU-Bloomington's director, Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, has "hope and faith" that these students will touch other people and become, as she puts it, "gatekeepers who can communicate a sense of living by someone else's light."\nThe accomplishments at Bloomington are only part of the story. The other two IU campuses -- IU-Northwest and IUPUI -- have also seen successes.\nAt IUPUI, students and staff connected with the YWCA to create Racial Justice Study Circles on campus. The staff also developed innovative new approaches to use cultural enrichment as a tool in fighting racism. Through the Cultural Enrichment Program, students across the campus have been encouraged to take part in programs such as Native American Heritage Month and Hispanic Heritage Month, programs designed to mirror the diversity of the student population and stimulate the learning process in and out of the classroom. Students and staff also partnered with the Anti-Defamation League to develop the National Coalition Building Institute.\nAt IU-Northwest, students and staff focused on the relationship between cultural expression and identity. They produced such programming as "Los Delicado: Chicano Culture," which examined the contemporary political issues of belonging and identity in Chicano, Latino, African-American and other ethnic communities. Another workshop in their series confronted the issue of slavery reparations and the resulting discussion dramatized the complexity of our nation's racial history and attitudes. Other programs have focused on storytelling and the diverse languages, cultures and religions of Africa.\nThe IU campuses are also fortunate to have partnered with University of Michigan-Flint and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. \nGreat change, as Calloway-Thomas puts it, starts with individuals. The conference has an impressive record to look at this weekend, and a great deal of hope for the future. Like a tree that grows and branches out, the lessons learned and the people touched will continue to grow and to reach far into our society.