The proposed “center for interracial and inter-cultural understanding” has a nice to ring to it. However, I fear that it might just be a way for people to salve their own consciences with regard to prior unaddressed racial incidents on this campus or, worse still, become a white elephant if the apathy with which the anti-racism forum was greeted is anything to go by.

I distinctly remember people sitting on benches while the forum was in session, smoking, speaking of the latest party they attended, jokingly referring to what was going on behind them, utterly unconcerned by the waves of hurt which radiated from the people who were sharing.

I shudder to think at what diversity means to these people and to those who think that pacifying the major minority groups at this institution is the answer to this problem. What of the people who don’t fall into anyone of these categories?

Outlawing the De Jure legislation that discriminated against blacks didn’t automatically solve the problem of discrimination and neither will this building.

After all, how does one combat insidious apathy and the unwillingness of people to question their own preconceived notions of others?

Why is it ok to have a black roommate or a black friend but utterly inconceivable to have a black boyfriend or girlfriend?

Why is it that every time a minority organization hosts something, or is perceived to be hosting something, the only people who attend are members of the minority, even when it is an event that one would think requires the participation of most Loyola students, faculty, and staff?

I recently attended an open mic event in the underground and there was only one person present who did not belong to the minority group that hosted the event.

Am I supposed to take this to mean that there are no whites or Latinos on this campus who write, sing, dance, or appreciate seeing other people perform?

I would like to think, as an artist, that one would welcome any forum to present and develop one’s craft, but it is most obvious that in this regard I am once again mistaken.

When I think of diversity, I see groups of people made up of widely different backgrounds, interacting. I think international campuses, and Loyola’s campus, for all intents and purposes, does not reflect this.

If this school is seriously interested in diversity, the people who support it must be willing to pay for it, and not just by putting up buildings.

Diversity doesn’t start with a building. It starts in the community and if one’s institution cannot attract people of different nationalities and henceforth ethnicities, true diversity will always be just a dream and we will never see King’s paradise.