This is your problem, whether you wish to admit it or not.

Clearly, from the ongoing reports – not just from last week, but over many years at NU – racism and lack of cultural understanding are problems NU fails to concretely address on the whole.

And, unfortunately, the culture here is the problem.

After all, NU’s history is mired by white privilege and the exclusion of, discrimination against or acts of cultural insensitivity toward minorities.

In recent years, the Blackface costume incident, Muhammad chalkings, racial profiling from police and other incidents evoked outrage from students. In the 1960s, administrative inaction and social ignorance on campus prompted black students to stage a takeover of the Bursar’s Office. This led to the formation of an African-American Student Affairs office and a gathering space – what we now know as the Black House.

The issue lingers at NU decades later, and it isn’t new at any institution of higher learning. So what?

It’s easy to throw up both hands and take an ambivalent approach, believing that things will only change with time. It’s also easy to say that the people who speak up are just whining, complaining and making a big fuss out of nothing.

Both things couldn’t be further from the truth.

When you become part of an institution, including one of higher learning like NU, you inherit its privileges and pitfalls. Along with a well-reputed degree and an aesthetically pleasing campus comes the realization that institutions are a work in progress.

And, when it comes to racism and cultural ignorance, NU still has a ways to go.

What Tonantzin Carmona experienced Jan. 12 is yet another notch on NU’s belt of racial prejudice. Other students at Thursday night’s Caucus Against Racial Prejudice On Campus felt inspired to share their own experiences and spoke up about incidents with professors, staff, police and their peers.

The issue isn’t simply peer-to-peer. It’s institutional. But as Prof. John Marquez reminded students at the caucus, “changes never happen from the top-down with institutions. It happens from the bottom up.”

And when it comes to an issue like racial prejudice, change is a bit more complicated than we may think. So what?

In everyday interactions, NU officials and police cannot punish students who make racist or culturally insensitive remarks. University officials can’t ride around on Segway scooters to regulate speech. But when witnessing racist (and other offensive) remarks, there’s no such thing as the right to remain silent. Sure, it’s easy to sit by and do nothing while your friend uses racist language. In reality, however, silence is complicity.

Institutionally, when looking at NU’s strategic plan for diversity, items like increasing diversity enrollment and creating more “third spaces” for students to gather are only part of the solution. Simply seeing a Lebanese person in Fran’s Cafe isn’t going to allow for more understanding of what their experience is like, and vice-versa. The contact hypothesis can only go so far, but it’s a step in the right direction.

A look at NU’s Strategic Plan makes it unclear what administrators might do to make diversity a larger priority – a concern students expressed at Thursday’s caucus.

Dean of Students Burgwell Howard understands the frustrations of those students and mentioned in a Friday interview that the non-specific nature of the strategic plan is a frequent criticism he receives. “These are points of emphasis,” he said. “They are defining the pathways and everyone is going to have to find what works…that’s going to mean different things in Engineering or in SESP.”

Well, sure enough, if my schedule and major requirements are chocked with classes like organic chemistry and introduction to physics, then I don’t have much incentive to take a class like “Introduction to Asian American History” or “Social Movements” to understand other people and cultures.

Nothing requires most NU students to take courses providing diversity education other than loosely defined humanities distribution requirements. Some students attending the caucus are working to propose a distribution requirement emphasizing cultural competencies. Other similar-ranked institutions have it, so why not us?

At Williams College, a place where Morton Schapiro was once president, students are required to complete prior to graduation one semester-long course from a list of courses called “Exploring Diversity.”

The distribution requirement features course selections in areas including “Cultural Immersion” and “Power and Privilege.” In a 2006 letter written to the Williams community regarding diversity initiatives including the “Exploring Diversity” requirement, then-Williams College President Schapiro said, “The College’s mission … requires the rich variety of backgrounds and experiences that students, faculty and staff bring to the task of educating each other.”

Fast-forward to today, and those words couldn’t be truer for the NU community.

Diversity on a college campus can’t simply be part of the admissions department’s marketing materials or just another sexy buzzword. It must be a deliberate part of the culture, inside and outside of the classroom.

So when you hear something racist, witness prejudicial treatment or even a hate-motivated crime, say something. Ethics Point, an NU online resource, also allows community members a discreet way to ensure incidents are promptly investigated.

Racism and cultural ignorance on this campus is your problem. Now is the time for everyone as a collective to start contributing solutions.

Derrick Clifton is a Communication senior. He can be reached at [email protected].

All opinions expressed in this column are solely the opinions of the columnist and do not reflect the views of The Daily Northwestern. If you would like to respond to the column, you may comment below, email the columnist or submit a 300-word letter to the editor to [email protected].