The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, October 2, 1998 Page: 4 of 20
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THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1998
| Tell us.
■■ Where have lyoul sullied lhe campus?
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Ignorance is inevitable, but we can fight it
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IGNORANCE, from Page 3
laughter I hear after describing the
provinciality of the average Ameri-
can is not mirthful. I hear in that
laughter embarrassment and shame,
and a determination to try to im-
prove something about the world. It
is my laugh, too. We who share sto-
ries with each other learn from ex-
periences we haven't had. Those
'episodes make up our history, and
wc learn from it.
Ignorance will always exist, and
that isn't so bad. The way I see it, it's
impossible to get rid of ignorance,
because it's impossible to know ev-
erything. Not knowing is ignorance.
But we need open-mindedness to
counteract it. Willful ignorance is
the real enemy.
My beliefs run the same way with
prejudice. I believe it is impossible
to be objective, to be unbiased. I can
be fair. I can be accurate. But I can-
not deny that I have preferences,
just as I cannot deny that I automati-
cally make generalizations based on
all my past experiences. (I d'on't ad-
mit my prejudices to attempt to gain
status points in these therapy- and
confession-driven times. I don't suf-
fer from my prejudices, because I
mitigate them with open-
mindedness.)
The important thing is that I know
I am making generalizations—form-
ing broad impressions that must be
modified to be accurate. I know what
I experience is true to me. And the
best I can do is act on the truth as I
know it.
Ignorance and prejudice are not
like diseases to which we can de-
velop immunities. They are built-in
frailties. We need a skeleton to func-
tion, but our bones can break. When
they do, we suffer. When we allow
internal prejudice and ignorance to
affect our actions, others suffer. I
don't believe bigots hurt themselves
more than they hurt others. They're
fine. They like believing that other
people are inferior.
It doesn't help when we cover
things up. We know there are ten-
sions between groups of people, and
we make a show of addressing prob-
lems directly. Most people agree
that not "naming names" will only
impede the dialogue that will over-
come willful ignorance and preju-
dice. If we are all truly a family, there
should be no dirty laundry that one
group cannot share with another.
But just last week, I had a classmate
describe inter-Asian prejudices. She
wouldn't name the groups in either
of the two examples she described:
"Of course I won't say which cul-
ture," she said.
I was angry at what I perceived as
a backward step in openness. I
wanted to demand her reasons for
continuing the tradition of automati-
cally covering up what embarrasses
us. Yes, she could have been pro-
tecting the reputation of the people
— parents or peers — whom she
may blame for conveying those be-
liefs to her. But class was over, and
I didn't want to attack her person-
ally.
My mother read my first column
"two weeks ago arid told me to write
something more positive. I'm sorry,
Mama. Not this time.
Angelique Siy is a Sid Richardson
College senior and can be reached at
alia@rice.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
TERRORISM, from Page 2
suffering in unimaginable ways.
America is unbelievably ignorant
about what is happening in the world.
While I am just as guilty as the rest
of the country, I have decided to do
something about it: educate myself.
I imagine that if some Americans
had been killed, we would be more
interested in last week's bombing,
which was only one of many trag-
edies that occurred across the world.
Instead we sit in our comfortable
country and write incredibly naive
columns like last week's column by
Ayesha Najam ("U.S. war against
'Islamic terrorism' unwarranted, rife
with hypocrisy," Sept. 25). Najam's
comment that "with no more com-
munists to fight except the oh-so-
familiar Cuba, our defense complex
seems to be itching for someone or
something to swing its swords at"
implies that she believes terrorism
is an imaginary enemy we have cre-
ated in order to expend our pent-up
military aggression. "Why on earth
would a staunchly anti-terrorist
country like the United States kill
innocent people in the name of sav-
ing lives from the grip of terrorism?"
Najam asks. Maybe she should ask
any one of the many people in the
world who have lost family mem-
bers to the attacks of this imaginary
enemy. This is a real war and we
must take real actions. Maybe it will
take something a little closer to home
to convince people like Najam of the
necessity of this. In the meantime,
though, I guess we will continue to
be blind to reality and go on count-
ing home runs as we criticize those
who try to fight the most dangerous
enemy we have ever faced.
John Vest
Will Rice senior
Thinkingl
Wall Street
Consulting...
Thinking
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Houston, New York, London
Sao Paulo, Sydney >" Singapore?
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Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, October 2, 1998, newspaper, October 2, 1998; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246628/m1/4/: accessed June 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.