ON THE TOWN:Discourse can lead to positive action

On a recent business trip to Philadelphia, I was standing at the reception desk of the downtown hotel I was staying at getting directions one evening to Citizens Bank Park to see the Phillies play.

In the middle of my conversation with the hotel employee, she stopped, looked over my shoulder and said to someone, “Are you the cab?”

Apparently, before we started our conversation, a guest had ordered a cab and was waiting nearby for it to arrive.

After she asked the question, I turned around to see whom she was addressing. Behind me was a man about 6-feet tall wearing a nice shirt, pants and sport coat. He did not look at all like a cab driver except for one distinguishing feature that prompted the question. The man was clearly of Indian or Pakistani heritage.

The woman who asked him if he was the cab was black.

I’m telling you this anecdote as a segue to comment on a story that just appeared in the Daily Pilot. The story reported on a recent address by Kenneth Marcus, the staff director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Marcus was commenting on a 10-month-old report on anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses. UC Irvine was one school cited on a list of schools that have anti-Semitism issues.

“There is a question to whether what we are seeing is a large number of small incidents, or a systemic problem in higher education. Either way, what we’re seeing is a lot of it,” Marcus was quoted as saying.

That comment is surprising for a couple of fronts. First, it runs counter to a perception by some of our college campuses that they are ultra-liberal institutions as well as the stereotype that liberals don’t discriminate — only conservatives do.

Second, it is shocking to me that we have to study such a thing, because I could have told them for free what they wanted to know.

Yes, there is anti-Semitism at UCI. There is also anti-blackism, anti-Asianism and anti-whiteism.

Yes, whites are discriminated against too, but I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for them. I will, however, illustrate how bad it can get: I know of a fellow who is looking for a job online. When he gets to the optional section about declaring his gender and race, he chooses “decline to state” rather than reveal that he is a white male.

“There is no upside to revealing it,” he told me.

Perhaps. And perhaps there is no upside to revealing that one is black or Indian or anything, but the point is that as far as we have come — and we have come a long way — this entire discrimination issue is woven into the fabric of our society.

Hating someone simply because of the color of their skin, where they were born, their gender or because of any of the usual reasons for discrimination is evil. I could make the case that many times it is more harmful than physical violence.

If you need any proof of just how bad it can get, read the responses to news stories or to this column whenever there are Costa Mesa school issues. Invariably, there are a few unfortunate people who place all of the blame for whatever is wrong squarely on the backs of kids who are the children of immigrants.

Last Wednesday, I wrote about low teacher compensation. A reader responded online with this brilliant observation: “So, if it’s not the teachers and the school facilities that cause Newport schools to score high on the API and Costa Mesa to score low, what is the reason? You know the answer. It’s because Costa Mesa has become illegal alien friendly and the schools are full of illegal aliens.”

See what I mean? This person is so blinded by his or her hate that he or she will use any excuse to drag race into the issue.

Well, I hate to burst this person’s bubble, but the schools are not “full of illegal aliens.” Nearly all of the kids attending schools in the district are U.S. citizens.

But answering someone so ignorant is not really the point here.

No one should expect those who discriminate to raise their hands and admit it.

Like the alcoholic who can’t admit he has a problem because he has fooled himself into believing he doesn’t have one, these people do not know the extent of their hatred.

Maybe we’ll never see an end to discrimination. But perhaps we can reduce it. And along the way, perhaps we can eliminate the possibility of violence down the road.

The solution is a simple one. It’s called a conversation. Having witnessed the power of a simple conversation by opposing groups, I strongly encourage those at UCI to start a series of deep communication between conflicting groups.

I think it’s worth a shot.