“Classroom incident misrepresented”
“Confronting racism … again” (Cover, March 18) mentions a classroom incident that has been billed as an incident of racism. There were a number of people there, myself included, and I don’t understand why The Voice wouldn’t double check facts. The article read: “During a classroom discussion, a student and professor had joked about how being a minority is the easiest way to get accepted into Georgetown.” I was in the class in question when the incident occurred, and the subsequent retellings have gotten further and further from the truth. The discussion was on what factors influence getting into a university. In discussing SAT scores and grades, a minority student said that being a minority helps, and the majority of the class, including the professor, chuckled. It wasn’t racism; the student wasn’t being racist against himself. No one was saying that minorities get in because they’re minorities, only that it is a factor in the admissions process (which is true in a lot of places). Nothing was ever said about “the easiest way to get accepted into Georgetown,” and the professor and the student were not joking about it. The student mentioned an issue that is regarded with some tension in a light manner, eliciting a response in kind from much of the class. The statement in your article paints a completely false picture of the incident. I’m not questioning the validity of the article or saying that racism isn’t an issue here, merely that this particular fact in your article is an exaggerated story that’s gotten out of hand, not a true story that should be reported as fact.
Aaron Roberts
MSB ‘05
