Editor,

Durivage states that white students are "not doing enough" regarding the problem of racial division. But is the social well-being of minority students the responsibility of white students? Are minority students so socially inept that they need help to function in society? By encouraging white students to reach out to minority students and vice versa, Durivage is encouraging artificial friendships based on race instead of individual merit.

Durivage also brings up the role of minority organizations. There are individual resources for individual minority groups. The very nature of such groups is to selectively support–that is, to divide. Yet Durivage wonders why "despite their openness, division exists." He proposes that these organizations should encourage "their participants and members to reach out as much as possible to people of other races." But that is not enough. To effectively deal with the problem of racial division, we must get rid of the organizations that form and perpetuate these divisions in the first place. We must get rid of the notion that division can only be eliminated through more division.

Sincerely,

Dorothy Lam ’05