At Berkeley we are known for the oddball tree-sitters, free thinkers, and weekly protests. After calling Berkeley home for nearly a year and a half, I admit that on several occasions I have thought that it was unnecessary that so much political action takes place on campus. Why was I being bombarded with fliers on racial equality or freedom of speech? Didn’t these people know they were preaching to the choir? Sadly, the violence that ensued last week over a difference in religion, ideology, and even race has shown me that we are far from conquering prejudice. And even in a place that touts intellectual innovation and progress, the rally for “Peace not Prejudice” is more pertinent than ever.
Yesterday evening I attended a community forum that aimed to address the concerns of students who were affected or just generally disturbed by the fight between members of the Zionist and Pro-Palestine groups. I was disappointed that there was very little constructive discussion on the specific incident and that the two hours was dedicated to a lot of finger pointing and heated remarks. The coverage of the violence has been nothing short of vague and the administration has responded much too slowly–an email four days after the incident will not suffice when the magnitude of the situation is so great. The divisions ran deep, although they were often aggravated by folks who clearly were not students, nor directly affiliated with the university. The take home message is that students feel unsafe on campus and that is not acceptable.
Despite all this, what does give me hope is that most of the people who came genuinely wanted to start a dialogue and reach a peaceful solution. I hope that we can see that while this specific situation must be dealt with justly, the student divisions need to end. Respectful discussion is more crucial than ever. As a Berkeley community, I hope we can find it in ourselves to recognize that we ARE bigger than this.
Did you ever think prejudice is interwoven throughout our religions, politics, etc. Why try to overcome up it now .. it will subdue in its time. We should focus on real problems that we all can agree on and tackle .. isnt that one way to get ppl working in a constructive way
Religion, politics, and culture certainly frame how we view the world, but overcoming prejudice (at least to me) means understanding that it is not the only way to view the world. To put it in a rather inarticulate way, I see overcoming prejudice as learning to “get over yourself”– growing as a human being by accepting humbly that you do not know everything and that there must be room for tolerance. You are right that we are all prejudiced in some way, but I think that the fact that this is true makes it not only a “real problem” but the only problem. Prejudice creates the basis for war, violence, and hatred founded on both ignorance and arrogance; problems I hope you would also think are worth tackling. I take the stance that prejudice can only be tamed if we choose to fight it. It is only when we actively attempt this that we can agree on anything significant and truly find a lasting resolution. It is in doing this that we can find peace with ourselves and peace with others.