It amazes me every time I hear about the blatant racism still happening, and within the past two weeks, there have been two isolated incidents of racism at southern universities.

Both happened at fraternity Halloween parties, one at Auburn University and the other at the University of Mississippi. At the Auburn party, three fraternity brothers posed in a photo that appeared on the Internet. In the photo, two of the brothers were dressed in Klansmen robes and the other person was dressed in blackface with a noose around his neck.

At Mississippi, in another Internet photo, one fraternity brother dressed up like a police officer and was seen pointing a gun at another brother dressed in black face.

To some people here in Athens, this doesn’t faze them all that much. Many of their parents were our age when their high schools and colleges were desegregated. They’ve grown up in families and communities that harbor a racist mentality.

One thing I’ve noticed here is the prevalence of the Confederate flag. Last year, the Georgia Legislature voted to change the state flag from one that prominently displayed the Stars and Bars to one that displays it among three other symbols.

Many Georgians were angry with the Legislature’s decision, claiming that the Stars and Bars meant much more to them than the states of the Confederacy.

I’ve asked two of my friends who are natives of Georgia how they feel about the Confederate flag. Here the flag is displayed proudly in dorm rooms, store windows or car license plates. I tell them that I’ve always been taught that the stars and bars represent the oppression of slavery, but they think of it as just another flag.

Last week during lunch, some of my classmates and I had a conversation about racism. My friend Jenn, who’s on exchange at Georgia from Ohio, said she’s noticed that some Southerners are very open about the stereotypes they harbor.

For example, she said she was riding in a car with her boyfriend when they pulled up to a car with a black person in it who was talking on a cell phone at a stoplight. Jenn said he turned to her and asked her if she had ever noticed that black people always seem to be pretending to be talking on their cell phones and pretending to be rich.

Jenn chastised him and asked him how he could say such a thing. The only response he could give was that he thought it was true.

One classmate blamed it on the Southern mentality of talking before speaking and being very passionate in what they believe. Personally, I wish those would be reasonable answers . but they’re not.

At the University of Georgia, the administration is having trouble recruiting minorities. It recently decided to quit its crusade to allow race-based admissions in an effort to attract more minorities. In August 1999, three white females sued the university because they were refused admission. The university was going to appeal the 11th Circuit of Appeals August ruling against the admissions policy to the U.S. Supreme Court, but opted not to because it might cause other universities to cancel their race-based admissions policies.

While I was covering a forum for The Red & Black, which was put on by UGA President Michael Adams, the recruitment of minorities came up.

A black student raised her hand and told Adams that one of the reasons she would not go back to her high school and actively recruit fellow minorities was because she couldn’t tell them the University of Georgia would be a wonderful place for them. She said there were times when she felt uncomfortable and was frustrated with other students and their lack of cultural interest.

It’s funny. Here I’m jokingly called a Yankee, a northerner or sometimes a carpetbagger. It’s all in the name of laughs and jokes, and I don’t really mind. But it’s made me realize that what we’re taught up North isn’t really what’s taught in the South.

I can only imagine what it must’ve been like to be taught during the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement in grade and high school in the South.

What I’ve encountered here in Georgia during the past four months was something that I expected, but wished was never true. It’s just a different culture which has been thriving on the glory of stories of Southern belles, plantations and the good ol” days.

There’s nothing wrong with the celebration of culture, but I wish we could move beyond what happened years ago and learn to accept each other for the individuals we were all made to be.

Amber Billings is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Sioux City. She is at the University of Georgia through the National Student Exchange program.