Mason Hosts UIC Professor for W.E.B. DeBois

By Broadside Correspondent J.D. Mink

Dr. Tyrone Forman, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, delivered 2008’s annual W.E.B. DuBois lecture last Wednesday at George Mason University’s Fairfax campus.

Forman teaches classes in African-American studies and sociology and the focus of his research involves, among other things, “the interface at the sociology of race and ethnic relations,” according to his UIC website.

These two meeting points served as the basis for most of Forman’s points in Wednesday’s lecture, as he addressed some of the prominent issues affecting African-Americans.

Forman brought up past instances of racial injustice, and analyzed those in comparison to today’s society in the United States.

After Director of the African-American Studies Program Scott Trafton introduced him, Forman began his lecture titled, “Hear-No-Evil, See-No-Evil, Speak-No-Evil? Racial Apathy and Colorblindness in the Post Civil Rights Era.”

Forman proposed that several major problems are plaguing America today that hinder developments in furthering the dream of racial equality.

Forman pointed to racial apathy as one of the chief causes of the sustained racial inequality in North America.
As examples of the workings of racial trends within society, Forman examined several mindsets surrounding the 2005 Hurricane Katrina events.

Prior to Katrina, the question was asked in a national survey to both whites and blacks whether in their opinions racial equality had been achieved in America.

Survey results found that only 6 percent of blacks that responded said yes compared to one-third of whites that responded with the same answer.

Forman also noted the considerable difference of opinion between whites versus blacks surveyed. In further exploration of Hurricane Katrina, Forman reminded the audience of the pictures of African-Americans who had not evacuated New Orleans, La. before Katrina struck.

One racially oriented theory that came out of the discussion stated that the African-Americans who did not leave New Orleans were financially unable or too uninformed to leave.
Forman mentioned other theories, which contributed to inequality, as well.

One such example, symbolic prejudice, involved taking a broad-based stereotypical prejudice and applying it to an individual.

This assumes that individuals operate off of such prejudices.

Other statistics over a broad range of time revealed that in 1976, the number of whites who endorsed racial apathy was 8 percent as opposed to 20 percent of whites endorsing racial apathy as recently as 2004.

He concluded his discussion with the message that it is racial apathy, which, still goes unnoticed, is detrimental to achieving the goal of racial equality in the United States.