Intolerance not dead in Terre Haute

Before moving to Terre Haute from Indianapolis, sophomore communication major Courtney McCoy said she did not remember ever experiencing the ugly effects of racism.

During a trip to Honey Creek Mall her freshman year, a white woman told McCoy, a black woman, and her friends to "go back where you came from."

"It kind of affected me to the point where I wanted to attack back," McCoy said.

She thought better of the idea, but the encounter proved that racism continues to exist in a 21st century world, especially in Terre Haute, she said.

It doesn't matter that a young black man who grew up in Hawaii is now president, she said.

"Some residents of Terre Haute don't want African Americans here, and I still don't understand why," McCoy said.

She has been told by acquaintances not to cross the bridge into West Terre Haute and has also experienced racism in local restaurants.

When asked if she saw any changes on the local horizon, she wasn't very positive.

McCoy would like to see more organizations and opportunities for minorities in the city.

The notoriously touchy issue of racism was propelled back into the spotlight this week when Attorney General Eric Holder, the first black person to hold that office, accused Americans of avoiding frank discussions of racial issues.

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been, and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder told Justice Department employees Wednesday, in a speech recognizing Black History Month.

While whites and blacks mingle together at work and social events throughout the week, Holder said, both races hide inside "race-protected cocoons" during their free time.

"Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not in some ways differ significantly from the country that existed almost 50 years ago," Holder said. "This is truly sad."

Michael Scott, Jr., president of SGA and a junior political science and social studies education major, was inclined to agree with Holder's remarks.

"In all honesty, there's some truth behind what he said," Scott said.

He referred back to President Barack Obama's campaign and how he believed Obama could not have won if his bid centered on his race.

Racism is not as "overt as it used to be," Scott said, but attempts at concealing it have improved.

"We've come far, but we've got some ways to go," Scott said. One of the ways to combat racism is to promote diversity, which the African American Cultural Center does through various programs, said Julia Bruce, an administrative assistant at the AACC.

The idea of diversity is to "learn more about one another's backgrounds and cultures," said Bruce.

"We need to embrace the diversity of others instead of being scared of others," Bruce said.