'Classes and lessons' are not the things creating racial biases or causing society to marginalize racial minorities in this country. In order to move past something, you confront it. You deconstruct, and analyze, and make art about it and shit. Anyone who has gone through anything mildly traumatic will tell you that. You don't bury it and hope that with time, it will disappear. To apply this dead logic to something as complex and nuanced as racial relations in this country is...beyond stupid Why the hell not? We are going to deny reality in lieu of preaching the false notion that we all look around and view one another as peers on equal standing? Minimize the hardships black people face in order to make more room for perpetuating a lie that says society is set up in a way that favors them as much as their white neighbor? ...this is kind of the point. You don't change that disparity by denying it. You confront it.The argument is that future policy should focus not on education about the differences or hardships that black people face
Even as we all accept black people accept more hardships, we will still continue to look at them as if they are different, as if they are a group not a part of the national whole.
Classes and lessons are not currently creating racial biases in common culture, because these classes do not yet exist on a large scale. However, we see references all throughout culture and media as black people being "the other", they are portrayed different than white people, they are portrayed as this out-group that is not part of the common goals of the nation, but rather of their own separate goals depending on the context of the media. That should be confronted, analyzed, broken down, and countered. However, classes in schools that create more of the biases this media creates are not going to fix anything. Things need to be managed in a very careful and cautious way. Universities and other groups making these classes are not doing this, and in their hast to "educate" about how black people are treated they are making the situation worse. I explain why policy should focus on making us think as a collective whole rather than focusing on teaching groups of the difficulties black people face. It is to reduce the biases that are the primary drivers of the hardships black people face. Black people already know they face hardships. White people, however, are not innately aware of this, and often do need to learn through various means. However, when this is done in a classroom it results in people dismissing the issues black people face more not less. The only way to accomplish this is to have natural exposure. To have a white person talk to and consider a black person as a friend, to have them as part of the same group/niche/culture, and have them communicate as peers. That doesn't happen when environments are set up to make white and black people feel more isolated and separated from one another.
This article isn't suggesting we deny or ignore anything. "Universities also need to steer discourse about these issues in a positive and cooperative way. Leaders should remind students constantly that diversity is challenging and that bringing people together from so many backgrounds and countries guarantees that there will be frequent misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Handling diversity well thus requires generosity of spirit and an attitude of humility. Instead of focusing on microaggressions, our campuses might talk about blunders, misconceptions and self-righteousness—and about civility and forgiveness. As Martin Luther King Jr., put it in 1957: “We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.”