On April 7, 2002 I realized today that I failed to do something very important. I should have written it down on my hand; with my acute case of senioritis, that seems to be the only way I can remember anything.

I realized this at the staged reading of Lisa Jones’s play, “Combination Skin,” about the literary trope of the “tragic mulatto.” I had never heard the term “tragic mulatto,” but the play promised to be provocative. The students did an amazing job, and more issues and emotions surfaced in those two hours than in a semester’s worth of most academic work.

Two aspects of the production reminded me of this task that I failed to do. The first was the post-reading discussion. The second was the fact that it was put on by the Black Women’s Collective. According to my interpretation of statements by Assistant Dean of Students Joi Lewis, who was one of the panelists during the discussion, the Black Women’s Collective exists to provide women who identify as black a chance to process issues that they deal with as black women.

It took a little while for the discussion after the play to get started. This was unsurprising, since the topic is touchy and the play controversial. But with the help of the faculty and staff panelists, and the actors and actresses themselves, many important issues were discussed, if only briefly.

Not everyone got a chance to talk (I didn’t talk). The group was large and the time span finite, and probably not everyone felt comfortable. This fact, and the fact that so many issues were raised in the discussion, reminded me about the lack of a structured space on campus to discuss issues of race and racism.

I first realized this earlier this semester, at the multicultural focus groups, hosted by MCSG, and the subsequent open forum, both of which were designed to provide a space for students to give input into the new design of multiculturalism at Mac. In those forums, such a broad range of issues were brought up that it was impossible to address any of them in-depth. If only we had more spaces like this, I thought, where students could really come together, with people they don’t usually talk to, and discuss these issues that affect all of our lives so deeply.

The Black Women’s Collective seems like just such a space. Not only is it a space to talk about race, but it is a space where black women in particular can discuss, in a presumably “safe” environment, issues that they in particular face. No discussion of race is completely safe, of course; it brings up issues that sometimes we’d rather ignore. But it can be helpful, when engaging in these discussions, to be in a group of people with similar experiences, without the pressure of explaining yourself to outsiders.

I thought, then, about the fact that there is no space on campus where white people get together and talk about race. Too often, white liberals get all caught up in solving the problems of people of color; We forget that we’re the ones who cause the problem in the first place. I don’t think that having an all-white discussion group is racist. Rather, I think that people of color should not feel the additional burden of dealing with white guilt. It’s not their job-it’s ours. I also think that in an all-white group, white people can be honest in a way they might not be in a group with people of color.

I’d thought about all this before, but today I suddenly realized what an opportunity I’ve missed. Macalester is a perfect place for these discussions to take place. We are here in this community to learn. To make ourselves better citizens of the world. That is our only task, and we are here with 2,000 other people doing the same thing. I’m about to graduate, and somehow I doubt that my future workplace will be a similar environment. How easy will it be to organize a group of white people to join in a structured discussion about race at Starbucks? At Andersen Consulting? Or even at Americorps?

I urge anyone who’s not graduating in five weeks to work to create spaces like the one at “Combination Skin.” The play itself provided a common experience from which a large, diverse group could begin a discussion about racism and how it affects us all. In the meantime, I invite you all to consider attending a conference at the U of M entitled, “Building Inclusive Communities.” It’s on a Thursday and Friday, May 2 and 3, and it costs $65. If you’re interested, call Cobbie Matthews in the Lealtad-Suzuki Center.