When I came to college, I was na‹ve. There were no minority students in my graduating class, so it was hard, at first, to get used to existing in a more diverse environment. I understand how stupid this sounds, but when you come from a small town where 99.9 percent of the population is white, it’s hard to adjust to new surroundings.

I, like many people in our country, had been inundated with graphic images showing various minorities in our society committing heinous acts. Truthfully, it has been hard readjusting my world perspective away from the fear and contempt programmed into me by my peers, television and community.

One of the things I have learned since coming to Iowa State is that racism is a disease that plagues our society. I cringe each time it rears its ugly head in conversation. Unfortunately, such comments have become commonplace in our everyday lives. Making remarks at the expense of a whole race of people has become so accepted even the people of the condemned race will jump in with a racist comment. Dave Chapelle is a great example of this.

I have a few friends who, when they are together, tend to make racially insensitive comments about blacks. I’ve gotten to the point that it goes in one ear and right out the other. I’ve tried to convince them their words are specious, but one answer is shot back to me every time — “There’s a reason why stereotypes exist.” While there is some truth to that statement, I don’t think it’s responsible to caste an entire race using this logic.

Even more interesting is the fact that one of my racist friends epitomizes the kind of behavior he is condemning. He’s lazy, wants to get high all the time and hasn’t been the most responsible when it comes to work. If he didn’t have the support of good friends, he would be unemployed and probably still using meth. If he didn’t have a family financially able to support him when needed, he’d be dead broke.

And, if he was black, by his own standards and choice of language, he’d be a nigger.

This kind of hypocrisy runs rampant in our society. For some, the problems of a nation are scapegoated by minorities.

Although some stereotypes do exist for a reason, the fact people willingly assume a black man is more dangerous than a white man is preposterous. They say, “Look at the data, more blacks are in jail.” Well, let’s take a look at the data.

Studies done by the Human Rights Watch in 1996 show that 62.6 percent of all drug offenders sent to the big house were black. This is a somewhat troubling figure, since other studies show that whites constitute the majority of illicit drug users in the United States by far. A 1998 National Household Survey on drug abuse reported that 9.9 million whites use drugs, compared to the two million blacks. Whites who use marijuana outnumber blacks by five times. The same goes for cocaine, except the multiplier is four. Only among current crack users did blacks tip the scale.

Going farther with these numbers and using U.S. Census information from 1996, about 5.1 percent of the white population and 6.3 percent of the black population were current drug users. In fact, 73 percent of inmates from each race in prison were there for nonviolent crime.

Yet, until I saw these statistics for myself, I assumed drug use and violent behavior were much more of a black problem than a white one.

It is this trend of thinking and lack of investigation which has done nothing to further the cause of racial equality. Affirmative action and other such initiatives will not cure this cancerous spot in the lifeline of our society. It is up to individuals to pick up the slack and make changes.

Before writing this column, I wasn’t even fully aware of how hurtful my tolerance of racial comments was to myself and others. I am not an extreme person or a bleeding-heart liberal. I don’t believe reparations will make up for centuries of injustice.

As a majority ethnic group, we don’t owe minorities money; we owe them respect and dignity. Be conscious of your bigotry or apathy toward bigotry; not only do you owe it to others, you owe it to yourself.