Group+Essay

During class on Friday, October 26th, we approached the issue of racism at St. Cloud State University by constructing an essay. We approached this essay by assigning six groups of three students to focus on a different rhetorical pattern. The patterns, as well as the writing each group produced, are provided below.

1. Read through each passage. 2. As a group, select one passage which you did not author. 3. Make three edits to the passage (one per each person in your group). Edits can be as simple as changing spelling, comma use, or sentence structure. Edits may also involve adding more content, specifying general statements, and checking facts. 4. Create a discussion post and briefly explain the changes you made to the passage. You can provide a discussion post by clicking on the dialogue icon located near the top right of the page.
 * Activity **

Rhetorical Patterns

 * Narrative **

The weather is cold outside here at St. Cloud State University. People of different ethnic groups are interacting and being apparently friendly with one another. This situation does not seem right, however, and not everyone is sincere to each other in their mannerisms. I asked people of different races why everyone appeared so friendly. Many of them told me that racial disputes came up in conversation, but just as likely as they would have come up at any other college campus

Racism may exist on campus, but there are different programs that are being used to help solve the problem. The CARE program is one of these programs. CARE is an acronym for Community Anti-Racism Education, and is used to teach students about the issue of racism, and to improve the university by preaching equality and fairness. CARE also has workshops to teach anti racism ideals more in depth. One workshop is called ARPAC or Anti Racist Pedagogy Across the Curriculum. This teaches How to deal with racist issues within a class, to ensure everybody is more cultured, understanding and respectful.Without programs like these, the situation could be worse, and since it exists racism is less apparent at St. Cloud State. Other programs like the required Respect and Responsibility courses help combat racism as well by demonstrating to students situations where racism is apparent, and then have to decide how to respond to them.
 * Description **


 * Definition **

According to Webster's dictionary, the definition of racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races. Racism usually involves the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others. As you look at campuses across the nation you continually witness racism all around. For instance, a professor at Murray State University explained his understanding of why he felt it was acceptable that people of color were late to his class. He explained that slaves were usually late to work on the fields and were usually wiped for it, unfortunately he did not have that right. Avoiding racism is inevitable, and since the beginning of time racism has been apparent throughout. Racism can both be intentional and unintentional; many people are raised to believe certain things about different races and as they grow up they unintentionally may have racist thoughts.


 * Classification **

Racism in St. Cloud is no more prevalent than in any other university in the nation. There have been many incidents of racial discrimination in St. Cloud, such as anti-Muslim propaganda. St. Cloud State has taken strides in ensuring the safety of all people. They have paid punitive damages to the Jewish community, and students and staff have taken action to fight against racism on campus.

We have come to the conclusion that at Saint Cloud State racism is not an issue any more compared to other Universities in the United States. Due to lawsuits in the early 2000’s, Saint Cloud State has added an abundance of diversity programs for students. Culture Nights are created for students to have the opportunity to learn about other ethnicities. Saint Cloud State also made it mandatory for students to take a diversity class to learn about race, racism, and the effects of color blindness more in depth. These are a few examples the campus offers to help ward off racism.
 * Cause and effect **


 * Comparison and contrast **

The difference between St. Cloud State being racist or not, rides on a thin line. Although every campus has some racism, St. Cloud State has had a greater reputation of it in the past. Does it though, have any more racism/racist acts than any other university campus? While walking through this small campus, one cannot miss the coexist and vote no signs posted anywhere and everywhere. This leads us to believe that St. Cloud State, over the course of a few years, has grown very tolerant towards the wide range of diversity on this campus. Moreover, if one were to travel to another university such as the University of Minnesota, these signs would not be as prevalent or pushed towards you. Knowing this, it leads me to believe that SCSU is actually less racist than other universities. If not for our past experiences with diversity, St. Cloud State might not be the welcoming community it is today.