Raise awareness, create diversity and end racism. These are all the popular catch phrases and jargon used by eager college students across the nation who are ready to start Facebook groups, put out fliers and create interest groups all in the name of these popular pursuits. While I am glad that there is such debate and activism over ending racism, I think we all need to step back and consider our strategy.

Maybe the proper strategy calls for stepping back, abandoning our typical response of forming a group and thinking about it for a while. If we do, we might discover that the target of our “end racism, embrace diversity” campaign is a problem that has long been ignored.

You don’t often meet self-affirmed racists — although we all know we have a few here at good ol’ NCSU. Maybe people aren’t willing to admit that they are racist. It might be nice to separate racists from the tolerant masses so that we might know who we are targeting. If only there was some distinguishing feature that we’ve been missing all this time. Bowties, maybe?

Our efforts to end racism have only marginally succeeded because we kept looking for that elusive racist shouting bigoted hate speeches from the street, rather than wondering what facilitates his/her racism in the first place.

Much of the communication about diversity and racism involves the innumerable student organizations and popular-at-the-moment Facebook groups. The most common accusation of these groups is that they are self-perpetuating, and that minorities “self-segregate” themselves. This statement is absurd and unproductive.

Saying that reclusive minorities contribute to racial tension at a University is kind of like saying a runny nose causes the cold. The various minority organizations are a symptom of the problem, not the disease itself. The Greek system, dorm arrangements and major student organizations often contribute to an overall construction in which minorities feel unwelcome, but “the majority” often does not even think about it.

There appear to be a few philosophies to fix this problem: the candlelight philosophy, the lunchroom philosophy and the “deny, deny, deny” philosophy.

The candlelight philosophy — preferred by the vigil-holding interest groups on campus — holds that, if we all lock hands and sit in silence long enough, the racist people at the back of the room will slink out in shame. Problem solved. Though, in my experience, sit-ins, vigils and the like are more for the participants than the proposed beneficiaries.

The lunchroom philosophy suggests that, “as anyone can observe from walking through a dining hall,” minority groups segregate themselves; therefore the problem is as much the fault of minorities for refusing to integrate. To dispose of this nonsense, please refer back to the fourth paragraph.

Finally, the most common method for getting rid of racism is the same tactic used by politicians to get rid of sex scandals — simply deny they exist. If you “did not have sex with that woman” or refuse to admit that institutionalized racism is deeply anchored at the universities, then Congress can’t impeach you and racism is no longer an issue, respectively. It didn’t work for Clinton and it won’t work here either.

The most precious thing a college has to offer is knowledge. Fully realized knowledge, as has been proved throughout history, is the single most effective method for banishing racism from our laws, our minds, and most importantly, our culture.

If today’s students don’t address these issues then it will just loom larger in future generations; it is not just going to disappear. Being a college student does not just mean academically it also means as a person. So go ahead and make mistakes, jump to conclusions, have the wrong opinion — just don’t let racism be the elephant in the room.

Put simply, there is no quick fix. This may seem like a cheap conclusion — that we should simply “think” ourselves into Utopia — but there is something to be said for rejecting the impulse to parrot the rhetoric about racism and actually examine the true source — the very cultural institutions we hold so dear.

E-mail Amy at viewpoint@technicianonline.com.