What is the current status of racism in America these days?  With the recent vogue in tolerance, civil rights and heavy focus on gay rights, it seems easy to forget about racism.  
  You probably have heard about the event on the University of Mississippi’s campus. Three students have been identified in connection with the recent desecration of the James Meredith statue by putting a noose and Georgia’s former state flag on it.  What followed includes an investigation and reward offered for information leading to arrests by the university police, an expanded investigation by the FBI, a suspension of the campus chapter of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, of which the students were members, and the expulsion of the men from the chapter.  This progression happened in less than a week, and while the fallout for these young men remains to be seen, the principle situation has been dealt with and largely resolved. This reflects a society that does not tolerate racial discrimination and threat.
     Even more notable, all this is happening in Mississippi, one of the top five states which comes to mind when the word “racist” is mentioned.  Sure, there are countless infrastructure that have been established over the past 50 years to make this possible, starting with the civil rights laws of the 1960s and including the presence of some sort of race relations office on perhaps all college campuses.  But it has been more than a half century since it was necessary to send 500 U.S. marshals to the Ole Miss campus to allow the young Meredith to attend classes as the first black student (thankfully, MSU’s own Richard Holmes’s first attendance was largely uneventful).  
    Think about that for a moment; two generations of people have grown up accustomed to racial integration, with the second more so than the first. Compounded with the emergence of significant black celebrities and role models in sports and television, as well as the now-cleared hurdle of having a black United States president, one should expect racism to now start to receive the same head-shaking amazement as when told sneezing is the body’s spirit trying to escape.
    Last year, the University of Alabama held a symposium announcing the results of a 4,000-student survey of racial attitudes.  Their results showed a continued decrease in traditional racism.  However, there remains a disparity. White students were “more likely to view race relations on campus favorably” while black students were “more likely than their white counterparts to believe racial discrimination limited their options significantly.”
    Kenneth Spencer, interim chief of the MSU Police Department, said there have not been many race or hate crimes on campus in the past 15 to 20 years.  Several of my black international-student friends answer that they also have not personally seen or experienced racism.
    For my own part, I have lived in the South since I was 13. Ask me how many times I have witnessed racism or even just mild discrimination?  The answer is I cannot think of an example.  I have had black teachers, bosses, friends, coworkers and even students.  Sure, there are those whose behavior hints at some kind of internal discrimination but not enough to the point that it forces the conversation.
     So, is racism still a major issue or is it just perceived as one?  I’m starting to think that we, as a society, have finally started to see a shift. The James Merediths and Richard Holmeses didn’t make today’s attitudes possible  — they made the next day possible.  It was that day, and the ones that followed, which reset our attitudes about racism.  We’re not there yet, but we’re definitely on the better side of the mountain now.