The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Your token black friend, the spokesperson

I recently received an e-mail from a very upset person telling me that I need to stop writing my column. He said I need to discontinue my racist rants about how bad SIUC is and that the only reason why racism still exists is because people like me keep on bringing it up. After a long period of laughter and subsequent pity for the poor ignorant soul, he ironically began a racist rant himself, talking primarily about how "we" act like thugs and cry racism every chance we get, and also how we don't deserve special treatment and justified it all, in his eyes, by mentioning his token black friend - I'll call him "Tyrone" - and how he doesn't complain about racism and the such.

Although I could critically breakdown the numerous ignorant, vague arguments about this person's e-mail, I will only address his black friend, "Tyrone."

First of all, to all those out there with those one or two black friends, they are not spokespersons for our ethnicity. When they - we - perform an action, we do it in accordance of ourselves unless we specifically proclaim ourselves as servants of our people, like Malcolm and Martin and Father Brown.

What bothers me, and I assume many others, is the fact that people can go on a racist-like tirade and cop out at the last minute by mentioning their token black friend. I was under the impression that people are merely a small window into the entire world of that context. The target of this specific article is very simple . . . ok it's not. It's as complicated as racism itself, because it's about racism.

Consciousness is not an aspect of our general personality that we choose to exhibit when it comes to racial issues, and this e-mail was a simple example.

When race comes up as a topic of discussion, it brings out so many mixed feelings that we become confused by our emotions, and we don't use our brains to try and filter out those emotions. This token friend was a pathetic effort at justifying racist ideology. It was no different than testifying that all black people are . . . whatever. There is no word, no collective group of language that substantiates this ignorant garbage.

People are people, plain and simple. People are part of a collective. However, when dealing with an individual, that individual should always come first, just as when dealing with an organization or group, that group should come first. It is very insulting, brainless and downright disgusting to pit a group of historically victimized people and compare them against one man who hasn't shared any racist or racial sentiments to you.

So to those non-whites and people in general, look at individuals as unique windows into a larger world of their group. Root word: unique. Oh, and to the guy who sent me that e-mail, ask "Tyrone" if he thinks his people still are the victims of racism, oppression and prejudices of small-minded people such as yourself, and pick up a book. One Love.

George is a junior in political science and journalism. Stop! I've Got a Refined Thought appears every Tuesday. These views do not necessarily reflect those of the DAILY EGYPTIAN.

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