‘Secret’ racism still racism

In a March 6 letter to the editor regarding an IDS article about the quandary over naming a new building on campus, James Capshew put forward a troubling argument: Because the proposed namesake, Ora Wildermuth, was a “secret racist” rather than “a known segregationist,” served IU so faithfully, and died in 1964, we should not hold him “to present standards of comportment.” This argument has a lineage. \nHow many have been given a pass for failing to confront, let alone silently agree with, the racism which produced the African slave, and Native American and Jewish holocausts. We commonly associate this argument with Nazi sympathizers and collaborators, but Mary Dudziak in “Cold War Civil Rights” notes that a 1950 U.S. Information Agency pamphlet used it to confront America’s diminishing global credibility as a bastion of democracy. This was five years after WWII and 14 before the death of Wildermuth.\nDudziak says the U.S. Information Agency sought to explain how “during the colonial period ‘enlightened men vigorously opposed the slave trade,’ but ... at this time, ‘use of cheap or slave labor was the way of the world.’” She later adds that the issuance of the explanation was prompted because concerns over America’s associations with racism and colonialism resonated more robustly in the new Cold War battlegrounds of Africa and Asia than the global specter \nof communism. \nAlumni may choose to reflect upon Wildermuth’s contributions with appreciation. But racism must be confronted where it is most uncomfortable for us to confront it, among family members, including our IU family members, and friends. The IDS article may have employed an incorrect phrase, but this does not constitute a rewriting of history as Capshew suggests. \nThe issue at hand is one of seeking to establish linkages which inspire, and which we can all feel comfortable with. Racism is not a victimless crime, it is an insidious social cancer which fosters socio-cultural brutality and thwarts the realization of our humanity. Some may find the building naming issue “difficult” because Wildermuth “hid his racist views and only disclosed them in private correspondence.” I do not.