
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 6, 1990                   TAG: 9005080505
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

UVA GENTILITY YIELDS TO RACIAL HOSTILITY

UGLY, overt racism at the University of Virginia, a supposed bastion of gentility, is almost unthinkable. But as the nation goes, Virginia eventually goes, too. Lately, racial hostility has been as evident at UVa as at other campuses around the country.

Tension between the races flared in late March, when "No Niggers" was painted at a university bus-stop heavily used by blacks. It escalated when three Student Council officers called for the resignation of the new student-body president, the first black to win the office. For several weeks, students say, daily incidents kept race on their minds.

The Student Council officers said their request that Lee Barnes step down as president was not based on color, but competence. Barnes hasn't assumed the president's job yet; the charge related to his handling this year of the job of vice president for finance. A racial motivation could be inferred from the timing of the request: - It came at the end of an emotional South African divestment rally April 19 in which Barnes participated. Barnes has acknowledged problems with performing his job as vice president, but blames them on a pattern of racial harassment.

The students who sought Barnes' resignation backed down the next day, during a forum at which their concerns were aired. Since then, the tension appears to have eased. There is no clear model for UVa to follow to defuse racial hostilities, but the forum was a good move. Trevon Gross, chairman of the Black Students Leadership Council, says he believes violence would have erupted had students not been able to air their complaints at the forum.

Some colleges have sought to silence students in an effort to ease racial tension. But restraining free speech is going too far, and will only backfire in the long run. This is not a problem that will go away by ignoring it.

Twenty-five years after the civil-rights movement, American society is still segregated. Blacks and whites go to school together and work together, but most go home at night to segregated neighborhoods. When they live together - as they must on college campuses - many become uncomfortable.

Why is tension on campus surfacing now, after years of apparent calm? Social scientists don't have a ready answer, but there may be a couple of factors at work.

One may be that young people may be making less effort to understand each other than when college campuses first were integrated. The emphasis these days seems more on career preparation than cultural enrichment, more on learning how to make money than understanding the world in all its variety.

Another may be that racial tensions are rising in society in general. Black students who feel uncomfortable on white campuses may feel just as uncomfortable in a white-dominated society. White students who are hostile to blacks may be expressing attitudes they have learned from their elders.

Some UVa students continue to support a petition to oust Barnes. Blacks complain that white students are free to ignore the controversy if they choose to, but minorities can't.

But neither race can afford to ignore this controversy. Learning to live on a racially diverse campus is part of learning to live in a racially diverse world, a fact that neither white nor black can escape.

by CNB