Campus Ministries Respond to Racism

For Karol Smith, attending InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) chapter meetings at Rutgers University raised more than the usual questions from fellow students. “People would ask me why I was in a white organization when there was a black fellowship on campus,” recalls Smith, who is black. She was shocked, and hurt, by the questions. But eventually she grew less and less satisfied with the way her IVCF chapter dealt with the issue of racism.

Among other things, Smith organized a month-long focus on black culture and history for her IVCF group at Rutgers. Her series, presented during Black History Month, started off “with a bang,” Smith said, “but there was less and less participation as the month wore on. People lost interest and complained that they were tired of it.”

By the time Smith graduated from Rutgers in 1990, “I had had enough of just talking about [racism]. I was just going to stand back until they [IVCF] were ready to take action.”

Forcing The Issue

For American college campuses, the 1980s proved to be a decade of growing racial tensions among increasingly diverse student populations. In response, traditionally white evangelical campus ministries such as IVCF are developing ways to combat racism on campus and to teach students and staff what it means to embrace ethnic diversity, albeit slowly and often haphazardly.

“There’s a tendency for Christians to cluster together and ignore racism,” said Tom Fritz, the national coordinator for intercultural resources for Campus Crusade for Christ in Atlanta. “On campuses in the past few years, racism has taken on an explosive nature. That’s forcing people to deal with it.”

Education is the main approach campus ministries are taking to deal with racism. Students are being taught about other cultures and are beginning to try to bring more diversity into their fellowships. Yet most white students remain very naive when it comes to racism, Fritz said.

“Often white students come from backgrounds that isolate them from other cultures,” he said. “Blacks and other minority groups see this as oppressive, but we cover it up by saying, ‘We’re all Christians.’ ”

Campus Crusade wants to make ethnic diversity and racial reconciliation an issue on campus to teach students to appreciate and value other cultures. Its leaders estimate that less than 10 percent of their students are from minority groups. “We’re just getting off the ground with this,” Fritz said. “But we know that if we’re going to model reconciliation for the world, we must start from within our organization.”

Minorities made up 25 percent of the students in IVCF chapters during the 1989–90 academic year, while minorities compose 23 percent of the student body nationwide. In part because of this high percentage, the fellowship has committed itself to developing leaders from all ethnic groups who can work together with those from other racial and cultural backgrounds.

“Because of the changes taking place on American campuses today, the consciousness regarding social and justice issues on campus is being raised,” said Samuel Barkat, InterVarsity vice-president and director of its multi-ethnic ministries. “There is an opening to talk about racial reconciliation.”

Barkat travels to campuses across the nation to train staff and students to help them function in multi-ethnic settings. He recently paid a visit to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) where students have begun trying to integrate black and white Christians into the InterVarsity fellowship.

“Last year, two other students and I got together and did Bible studies on racism in the Black Cultural Center on campus,” said Joel Collins, a UNC-CH junior who heads the newly created Ethnic Ministries Team. “We had a good response, and this year there are five black students and five white students who are partnering together to critically examine our fellowship and educate our students.”

Part of the education Barkat offers includes an IVCF-produced video titled Face to Face. According to Barkat, “The video really gets people from different sides of the fence talking about their own pain.”

One of those featured is Karol Smith. Initially, she was reluctant to go on camera. “Finally, I asked if they wanted a rah-rah, hip-hip hooray for IV, or did they want to hear the truth? The guy in charge said he wanted to hear what I had to say. I ended up getting very upset in front of the camera.… Everyone on the set actually got upset.”

Community Involvement

Some Christian fellowships have successfully expanded their efforts against racism beyond their own groups. At the University of Arizona, racial tensions rose dramatically last year following the death of a policeman who was shot while trying to control a racial incident at a fraternity party.

Kim Hauenstein-Mallet, a United Methodist campus minister, made use of what he learned from his denomination’s ongoing consultations on racism by putting together a major seminar for the campus. He pulled together an ecumenical group of 28 people, including cross-cultural students, faculty, administration, and community members to develop a student workshop for February 1991.

“Our students are undereducated about other cultures,” Hauenstein-Mallet said. “People learned about other cultures at the workshop. We let students in free to help them learn and understand what’s going on on their campus.”

Some campus groups, however, have all but given up on trying to get students to understand each other cross-culturally. Instead, they have focused on developing pride in individual cultural heritage.

“We’re not too interested in integration,” said John Corbitt, director of the National Baptist Student Union Retreat, whose job with the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., is to involve blacks in campus ministry.

Corbitt argues that integration simply led to the control of the predominant group, and the predominant group was white. “Rather than fight the battle, we’ve decided to do our own thing. We don’t consider that separatism but pluralism. And that implies that America is made up of different subcultures. Integration has caused blacks to lose their identity.”

“The black church is authentic and legitimate,” he said. “We can hold on to our heritage and still be authentic in the Christian world.”

Heart Of The Gospel

Still, campus fellowships that have focused on educating students and staff have seen some results, which suggests it isn’t too late to reconcile students across racial barriers.

Some of the leaders in Christian organizations such as InterVarsity and Campus Crusade see Christian students moving toward racial reconciliation much faster than the church. “Students are able to make changes rather quickly,” said Bob Fryling, InterVarsity vice-president and director of campus ministry. “They’re more idealistic. We’re hoping that students will grow toward this change while in a college environment and carry it into adult life.

“Reconciliation is the heart of the gospel. We are reconciled to Christ, but that’s not the end of it. Part of the message we have as Christians is to be reconciled as men and women. That needs to be believed and practiced.”

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