Racial stereotyping has reached a boiling point, and NIU is putting the issue on the front burner, said Austin Quick, Student Association Senate Speaker.

“One of the things we’ve been reading a lot about and seeing in the news is this whole bullying thing,” Quick said. “We hear it a lot around campus: different racially-charged terms being used toward people or derogatory terms toward other people and things like that.”

Frustrated with mounting problems, Quick is in the process of creating a program to actively combat stereotypes on campus.

The Program

“The idea of it came when Steve Agee died and the fact that we wanted to come together as a community,” Quick said. “We’ve had a lot of issues and problems with people not feeling safe and people not feeling a connection with the university they belong to.”

The program has yet to be named, but Quick said he envisions a “huskie family” theme as a means to unite students.

“The idea is to get a pact that would be agreed upon by all the leaders of all the various student organizations around campus, both in the undergraduate and the graduate side,” Quick said. “It’s to say we’ll do our best to get rid of some of those prejudices and have an open dialogue between many different groups.”

Quick said he wants students and student organization members to take the initiative seriously and hopes to avoid creating a pact that students sign blindly.

Deb Pierce, associate provost for international programs, said she “thoroughly applauds” the idea.

“I think it’s wonderful because wherever racial stereotypes exist, they need to be interrogated; they need to be changed,” Pierce said. “That’s really important.”

Contributors to Campus Stereotypes

In March, Diana Sanderson, sophomore business marketing major, said she believed the February creation of the Northern Illinois University memes page was an “especially” strong contributing factor to an uprise in racial tensions on campus.

“A lot of them that just came out are racial,” Sanderson said. “I think, overall, this campus does have a lot of stereotypes and a lot of racial problems and I think more can be done.”

Several of the memes contain comments equating criminals, black students and students enrolled in the C.H.A.N.C.E. Program as one and the same.

Quick said these illustrations of racial groups overrides any intention of humor.

“I think it’s an example of a very uneducated populous, and that’s across every racial line, across everything,” Quick said. “There has to be a level of decorum and respect for each other, and it’s unfortunate.”

Quick said it’s difficult to untangle the complexities of race because it is perceived differently by everyone.

“If you’re a student of color, you might see it differently than a student who doesn’t deal with it in their daily lives,” Quick said. “There are definitely issues of people feeling there’s racial inequality in the nation and different demographics feel that way. Whether or not it’s true, I don’t know.”

Sanderson, who is white, said while she did notice racism was a problem on campus, she didn’t not feel it generally affected her.

“I only feel it sometimes when other races get offended by whites because we think we’re ‘the best.’ You know what I mean? That kind of stereotype,” Sanderson said.

Stereotypes and Danger Perception

Quick said stereotypes add to NIU’s culture of fear.

“I don’t think it’s the cause, but it does add to it,” Quick said. “It just fuels the fire.”

Sanderson, too, believes racial humor and stereotyping play a leading role in the university’s perceived danger.

“I feel like we have a bad name out there, especially with all the issues with shootings and all the violence,” Sanderson said. “I think that’s what gets promoted way too much, along with bad stereotypes, because NIU is such a great school and we need to back off from that.”

Pierce said, however, that perhaps NIU and its students are not to blame.

“More than racial stereotyping on our campus, I think media perceptions have drawn a lot of focus,” Pierce said. “I think it’s more the media than anything we’re doing here on campus.”

Quick cited the Feb. 19, 2010, residence hall shooting, after which many students and community members assumed the assailant was a person of color.

“Everyone was all up in arms with the C.H.A.N.C.E. Program and it ended up being some frat boy from Greek Row who was Jewish,” Quick said. “But people automatically assumed it was the black demographic that caused that problem.”

Where to go From Here

Quick said that in addition to people bettering themselves as individuals and citizens, some of the responsibility of educating black students lies on the shoulders of leaders in black communities.

“I will challenge the black community leaders on campus about doing a better job educating students,” Quick said.

Pierce said she believed “difficulties in cross-cultural communication is at the base of stereotypes” and students and faculty alike should take a page from Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I would sure hate for any one of our students ever to be judged, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘By the color of their skin rather than the content of their character,’” Pierce said. “I would hate for that to happen because students are precious individuals and need to be regarded as such.”

Quick agreed that judgements based on a person’s exterior are a quick way to both promote and combat stereotypes.

“Whatever socioeconomic or religious or political background we come from, we have to come to a place where there’s common ground as Americans. That’s one of the beautiful things about this country,” Quick said. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s something being taught in the classroom. So, hopefully, that’s where the SA can take the step forward to help promote that around campus.”

Pierce said she has high hopes for Quick’s stereotype program. In the meantime, she said participating in things outside the cultural box is a way to get educated.

“Any time you do a program to encourage communication across cultural boundaries, you’re getting at what causes racial stereotyping,” Pierce said.