Last week I attended a guest lecture by Tim Wise, who is considered a notable anti-racist activist. The theme of his nearly two-hour speech was “white privilege” in America. Mr. Wise dug into racial issues that he believes are not discussed nearly enough in this country, and when discussed people are simply afraid to tell the truth.

Unfortunately, I left the lecture feeling disappointed and unconvinced by his relentless polemic against American culture and institutions.

Mr. Wise can claim to have a unique perspective because he is white and believes that white people have been and continue to be favored in America both institutionally and culturally.

Bemoaning the Fourth of July tradition of celebrating American history and customs, Mr. Wise claimed that this behavior is unethical. It is unethical because instead of celebration, Americans everywhere should be talking about America’s sins and history of what he believes are hundreds of years of white supremacy.

His list of racist or hypocritical policies included more than just slavery and Jim Crow laws. Mr. Wise targeted drug laws, the prison system, elements of the New Deal, and the Homestead Act as well. He even went as far as to say that ghettos were created in order to keep minority populations imprisoned. He didn’t elaborate, so I can only guess at what he meant.

While there is simply not enough space in this column to break down and dissect every line of argument that Mr. Wise made, I think that it’s important to demonstrate a few examples of why I think his attacks are both off base and are in fact destructive to the cause that he so fervently championed.

For example, Mr. Wise got particularly angry about what he claims is an attempt by white America to pit people of Asian descent against other minority groups. He said that Asians are used as an example of a “model minority” in order to put a wedge between them and other minority groups. He continued to say that this is a flawed notion because there are in fact many different ethnic groups that comprise what is commonly referred to as “Asian.”

Treating people with such a broad brushstroke and portraying an entire community in a stereotypical fashion is inaccurate and wrong.

Never once during his speech did Mr. Wise mention the differences both culturally and ethnically within the “white” community. He never mentioned the differences between people of Italian, German, Polish and Irish descent. They all fall under the blanket term “white,” when all other communities must be divided by their original nationality of origin.

“White” was not a term that he used to describe people, but simply became a metaphor for “the opposition” or “others.” He thinks that white people, and in fact all groups of people in this country, have an inherent mental bias in favor of white people and white culture.

The devastating words that Abraham Lincoln used in the Gettysburg Address to end slavery in America, and words written in the original Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,” are rendered meaningless when you believe that people are physically, intellectually or morally inferior because of the color of their skin.

If the America that Mr. Wise described is real, one that is divided, broken, focused on racial superiority and incapable of giving any opportunities to anyone other than white Americans, then why do people from all over the world and of all different ethnicities keep trying to get in instead of trying to get out?

The difference between the leaders who have made real progress in ending racism in this country and Mr. Wise is a matter of approach. Can you make institutions non-discriminatory or can you make people non-discriminatory? Mr. Wise wants to use institutions and functions of the state to differentiate based on ethnicity in order to correct for any biases that people might have. This is opposed to allowing people to discover the truth themselves to make the institutions non-discriminatory.

I celebrate the Fourth of July not just because I am proud of the great achievements and accomplishments of this nation, but because I believe that the ideas and beliefs that have endured throughout this nation’s history have made it great despite the flaws and personal failings of some people and leaders.

JARRETT STEPMAN believes that a colorblind society is a noble ideal, and that a society that is used to treating people as individuals and not as representatives of a certain identity comes closest to reaching that ideal. Send him your ideas at jstepman@ucdavis.edu.

Perhaps it’s appropriate that we’re in Old Town Sacramento when the conversation of ghosts and demons comes up. It’s Paul, Jerrel and I eating hot dogs after the clever owner of a hot dog joint just cheated us into buying sodas.

Old Town Sacramento’s something out of a movie – with its old Western houses, saloons with wooden panels – and the three of us are wearing oxfords with the sleeves rolled up to our elbows to play the part. We’re here for a friend’s graduation from the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy, but because we were hungry and found out there wouldn’t be any food at the graduation, we sleazed out and got some hot dogs next door.

Jerrel’s telling us a story his father told him about a demon-possessed woman who walked into the church once when his father was a kid. He and his brother were sitting near the back row. At first, they couldn’t see. It was a black church in San Bernardino. This was the ’70s.

She was a crackhead prostitute, Jerrel said. It was at the end of the sermon when the pastor called all who were tired and weary to come to the alter and to seek refuge in God. She came up to the altar, but instead a voice came out of her in two tones to curse the Lord. I’m guessing this is when she caught the attention of Jerrel’s father.

“She started moving uncontrollably,” Jerrel says, and when he imitates the movements she made, his arms and his neck move like a dance, all controlled by different minds and different spirits, but in a terrible rhythm that made you feel guilty if you thought it made sense.

Jerrel says she started to shake, and the members sitting near the front came around to hold her down. She screamed, and the pastor repeated “I rebuke you, Satan” over and over again until she fell to the floor. Soon, the rest of the church came to pray over her as the pastor commanded the demon to come out of her.

Finally, after some time, the pastor said one last prayer and she fell silent. Everyone else then turned silent, and the congregation heard footsteps run down the hallway in the back of the sanctuary. They turned, and the doors burst open. Not one person had left the building.

They looked at the door, saw a giant crack through six-inch thick wood and they prayed and prayed and prayed.

Jerrel asked his uncle if that really happened, and he said, “Oh, yes. We couldn’t sleep for days afterward. But you know, it was a blessing in disguise because after that, we all knew Satan was real.”

“Damn. Maybe that’s what I need,” Paul says. He’s been an atheist for years, though he’s studied everything from Taoism to Christianity to find something he can call real. So far, it hasn’t happened.

If you’d asked me why I believed in God, I couldn’t give you a straight answer. Especially when the reasons to the contrary are piling up. The molestation scandals are sweeping the Catholic Church all over the Western hemisphere. The Christian Right is embarrassing America for supporting Neoliberalism and the war on terror. So much of the language I hear in church is so antiquated and medieval that I even have a hard time buying into it.

I was in the seventh grade when my father got laid off from the engineering job at Erickson that he worked at since before I was born. My mother had to work extra hours as my father tried fruitlessly to find another job. This continued for a few years until he decided to go into seminary to become a pastor.

It was only two years into his job at a new Chinese megachurch that certain members of his congregation had started a petition, though unsuccessful, to get him fired. I was infuriated, but my mother told me that these things “always happen” and you have to trust in God.

She told me that when she was a girl, the church she went to in Kowloon was worse. The pastor was caught in a scandal stealing money from the church’s offering. Every Sunday morning, eight bald men would sit in the front pew and yell at him during the sermon. Afterwards, they would roll out three-foot scrolls of indictments at the entryway to yell at everyone who walked out, and women would put stones in their purses to swing at them as they exited.

I asked my father why he thought the Bible was real once when I was kid. What was worth all this trouble? Only in retrospect do I realize all the different things he could have told me, but chose not to.

My father was one who thought silence spoke louder than words, as often times my whole family would be engaged in a conversation at the dinner table while he’d be aloof the entire time, not saying a word. There are stories that he’s never told me, that I’ve only heard from my mother – like when he saw an angel come beside an old friend’s deathbed in the last moments of his life, or when he began speaking in an unknown language he says the Holy Spirit gave him.

When I asked my dad, the answer he gave me was “Because your Father in Heaven loves you and He wouldn’t lie to you.”

This was before I learned about the canonization of the Bible. Before I learned about the Council of Jamnia, and the copying of the LXX. But even then, as a kid, the faith alone that my father loved me was enough to believe that he would never lie to me.

GEOFF MAK sincerely apologizes to all who were offended by last week’s column, especially his brothers and sisters in his fellowship. Some things are meant to be private and dealt with directly. E-mail him at gemak@ucdavis.edu.

Toward the end of last school year, there were several instances of what I imagined to be the smell of burning rubber tires seeping through my dorm windows. The odor would creep in and out, floating along the summer breeze. Each wave of the smell was cringe-worthy.

It wasn’t until a few nights after the initial instance when I realized the improbability of even college students burning tires in the middle of the night. Davis may not have that much to do, but burning rubber tires seemed like something that would be toward the end of the wild-things-to-do-when-there’s-nothing-better-to-do list.

A friend from the room next door then told me that the source of the smell was coming from one of our floor mates. He had been smoking marijuana, especially during midterms and finals season. He needed weed to stay focused and awake.

I always thought the reason he couldn’t focus and stay awake to study was because 1) he was up all night smoking Mary Jane, and 2) his brain was getting high and clogged up from it.

When someone does something illegal like smoking marijuana, there’s always an excuse to try to justify doing it. Excuses range from studying for finals to acting out of curiosity.

This happened when a younger friend randomly texted me an incoherent message. The jumbled words went back and forth in my head a few times until I ignored them altogether.

The next night, he tries telling me in a roundabout way that for the first time, he had sniffed marijuana (and it was a big sniff, too). But before he half-confesses and I half-guess, he makes this all too common statement: “Don’t judge me.”

There was the cue to judge him. Whenever someone says “don’t judge me,” it really means they’re about to reveal something they did and something that’s worth judging. It’s just the defenses kicking in.

While he explained how everyone tries smoking weed at least once and how everything just became really funny, I couldn’t help but judge him. This was one of the least likely people I know to just try something for the sake of it.

But it’s not like I jumped to conclusions and took action against him based on my judgment of the situation. It’s like what my professor says: “It’s okay to judge, but it’s what you do with that judgment.”

Saying “don’t judge me” suggests that judging someone is unjustified or voluntary, neither of which are true. The preconceived notions are there. When you’re doing something illegal, you’re doing something illegal. There are reasons why there are certain things you aren’t allowed to do, and when you do them, the judging is bound to kick in from others.

It’s up to others to decide how they want to act upon their judgment. The person being judged has already acted, so the only thing that leaves is the response.

Thinking that someone is immature for falling under pressure and trying something illegal just out of curiosity is justifiable. However, having those thoughts and then refusing to associate with the person or acting pretentiously is not.

When it comes down to it, though, it doesn’t matter what you do; people are always going to be judging you. It’s just human nature. The excuses are harder to make when the actions are illegal.

Don’t bother saying “don’t judge me,” because actions and judging come hand-in-hand.

TIFFANY LEW thinks there are way too many names for marijuana. E-mail her at tjlew@ucdavis.edu if you’d like to share some more.

If you read this column with any regularity, or if you know me in person, you’ll know that I’m pretty much an open book. This is the no-spin zone, if you will. But I dare say you’re going to have to bear with me this week because, I’m going to describe – in rather gross detail – some issues regarding my ability (or, in actuality, my inability) to poo-poo properly like any normal human being.

I have hemorrhoids. And it’s chronic. And I don’t mean the potent strain of Cannabis Indica that won third place at the 1994 High Times Cannabis Cup. I’m talking about the habanero chili pepper lodged between my gooch and my anus kind of chronic. I can’t even sit down on a seat anymore without looking like I’m sitting on tacks.

Let me set the scene. At my old house, my BFF and I decided to take off the bathroom door in our shared room because A) it was more feng shui, and B) we’re fairly comfortable with our sexuality. During house parties, it was common to hear this classic line uttered in textbook Valspeak, “OH MY GOD … THERE’S NO DOOR HERE … EW. JESSICA, IS THERE A BUSH IN THEIR BACKYARD?”

So just picture me (a big Russian bear) sitting on a tiny white porcelain teacup squeezing my butt-cheeks to high-heaven when my roommate is ushered in with a sitcom-approved holler and whooping:

[Reid enters stage left; queue Carl Winslow entrance music.]

Reid: Takin’ a shit?

[Dave grunts and moans while surfing the Internet on his iPhone.]

Dave: Abso-fucking-lutely. Guess what? I just saw a picture of a dude fucking a T-Rex on Reddit. I’m talking about hardcore status dude. This T-Rex is getting ploughed man. Rule 34 never ceases to amaze me.

Reid: You know it’s bad to strain when you’re taking a shit, right?

Dave: What? Are you shitting me? I need to strain dude. Either that, or I’m gonna have to stick those wax Bugles up my ass again that I got from Rite Aid so my anus won’t tear in half.

[Dave stands up to wipe his ass, peers into the toilet and then flushes.]

Reid: Yea dude. You begged me to escort you to Rite Aid. It was only a grand total of two blocks away.

Dave: I FELT VULNERABLE, OKAY? YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO HAVE A CONSTANT NEEDLE JAMMED INTO YOUR ANUS FOR DAYS ON END.

Reid: That’s right! I don’t because I decided to eat more than one serving of vegetables this month.

[Dave delivers in deadpan.]

Dave: Fuck you.

[End scene.]

Hemorrhoids are not fun. Every time I sit down to take a shit, I feel like I’m bleeding out of my ass. And the interesting thing about that is … I am bleeding out of my ass – I have external hemorrhoids. A fresh wipe between my hairy cheeks yields what can only be described as menstrual blood. It’s bright red, and it comes from the hole in my anus. Just like a woman, right? Right.

But what I have cannot be encapsulated with the word “period” – I think “exclamation point” is more fitting. My exclamation point occurs with a random zest that puts the regular menstrual-cycle to shame. And I don’t get bloating or cravings for steak, either. Midol can’t help me out when I’m furiously tossing to and fro on a seat in Chem 194 as I’m reciting the 23rd Psalm in my head. All I have is Preparation H – and I would need a full team of attending surgeons to apply that shit correctly.

Here’s how it works: There’s a torpedo-like tube filled with goop that has a cover for the goop so the goop can fit through the holes of the cover in such a manner so that the goop can hit the hemorrhoids and cool them down once you’ve stuck the torpedo up your ass.

But the problem I always have is finding my anus. You know how hard it is to maneuver down there when you’re obese? There’s like a mile between my grundle and my anus – a “no man’s land” (more like “no man’s jungle”) that I hate to traverse. I’m convinced there’s enough lint down there to make a quilt, too.

All this poking around to find my anus has caused me more pain than the hemorrhoids. Unfortunately, that’s the only thing that stands between me and Satan ripping my colon apart, so I deal. But I should report that I’ve stumbled upon a new remedy after perusing the hemorrhoid aisle at Rite Aid: Preparation H medicated wipes. They’re patented to provide all the goodness of the Preparation H goop but without the goop. Ideally, you’re supposed to use it after every bowel movement to cool down the inflamed tissue.

I’m too lazy for that. I just stick it in between my ass cheeks, zip up my pants and call it a day. It’s my exclamation point tampon.

DAVE KARIMI had fun writing this column. Probably because he sharted himself in the process. If you want to send him an angry e-mail to say, “RABBLE RABBLE – PERIOD IS WAY WORSE THAN EXCLAMATION POINT – RABBLE RABBLE” because you have no sense of humor, his e-mail is dkarimi@ucdavis.edu.

To the UC Davis community:

Over the past several weeks, we have had many productive discussions across our campus about how we should respond to the recent incidents of hate and intolerance at UC Davis.

Immediately following those March incidents, I called on the Campus Council on Community and Diversity to develop a plan of action to confront these types of incidents and to promote a safer, more inclusive, hate-free campus climate.

On May 5, in response to the council’s recommendations, I announced a strategic investment of $230,000 annually, beginning July 1, to combat hate and intolerance on our campus. These are difficult financial times, to be sure, but I believe that these investments are critical to advancing our shared goal of a safer, more inclusive and hate-free environment.

Specifically, the money will be invested into three programs:

Office of Student Affairs

Program support for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center (LGBTRC). The campus will allocate $100,000 in base (ongoing) funds, effective July 1, 2010, to sustain and enhance ongoing programs and training. These funds might be used to add staff (salary and benefits), or support student interns, graduate students (salary and fee remission) or other operating costs that Student Affairs Vice Chancellor Fred Wood, Assistant Vice Chancellor Griselda Castro, Center Director Sheri Atkinson and other key advisers identify as the highest priority needs for the LGBTRC.

Mentorship programs for the Black Student Union. The campus will allocate $100,000 in base (ongoing) funds, effective July 1, 2010, to institutionalize mentorship programs that focus on underrepresented, underserved and marginalized students. These funds can be used for staff (salary and benefits), graduate students (salary and fee remission) or other operating costs that will help advance the programmatic goals discussed and endorsed by the Campus Council on Community and Diversity, under the guidance of Cross-Cultural Center Director Steven Baissa and other key advisers.

Office of Campus Community Relations

Program support for the Campus Council on Community and Diversity. The campus will allocate $30,000 in base (ongoing) funds, effective July 1, 2010, to fund events, training programs, students or other costs that will advance our shared goal of a hate-free campus. These are ongoing funds, but I am urging Associate Executive Vice Chancellor for Campus Community Relations Rahim Reed to avoid making any permanent commitments.

Rather, I am asking that he work with the Campus Council on Community and Diversity and other constituents to identify the highest priority uses for these funds each year. I am also encouraging those involved to look for opportunities to leverage these funds by identifying matching opportunities or other creative funding approaches that maximize benefit.

I have asked that the stewards of these funds collaborate with the campus council to jointly develop an implementation strategy that includes a regular reporting mechanism, with both quantitative and qualitative metrics that demonstrate the impact of these investments and other initiatives to meet our shared goals.

I appreciate and applaud the efforts of Associate Executive Vice Chancellor Reed and the good work of the Campus Council on Community and Diversity to identify those priority needs that will allow us to take the most fruitful actions.

Of course, much has already been done, and there is also much more to do. Expressions of hate, intolerance and incivility have no place in a university community that prides itself on educating the brightest minds of tomorrow and are inconsistent with the goals of our Principles of Community. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of our Principles of Community statement, our campus is actively engaged in reaffirming our commitment to these principles in a number of ways to promote freedom of expression, confront acts of discrimination, appreciate our differences and build a more inclusive campus community.

On April 13, our campus community publicly reaffirmed our Principles of Community at the Soaring to New Heights Staff Diversity Awards Program. I, along with the leadership of the faculty, staff and student constituent groups, signed the fifth reaffirmation of these principles and accepted the obligation we have to strive “to build a true community of spirit and purpose based upon mutual respect and caring.”

Several weeks ago, we invited Jim Leach, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, to present a talk entitled “Civility in a Fractured Society” as the first in a yearlong series of distinguished speakers we plan to bring to campus in support of our reaffirmation of the Principles of Community.

On April 25, I had an opportunity to visit the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles with several UC Davis students and staff. Our group toured the many exhibits and participated in a special session designed to expose us to the Tools for Tolerance training program developed by the museum staff. We also had an opportunity to discuss future collaborations in tolerance and diversity training, and the possibility of bringing some of the museum’s mobile training exhibits to our campus. (For more information on the reaffirmation of the Principles of Community, Chairman Leach’s presentation and the visit to the Museum of Tolerance, please visit my website: chancellor.ucdavis.edu).

On May 5, Tim Wise, a noted author and anti-discrimination activist, presented a public lecture, and led a training session for peer educators and diversity trainers on campus.

In addition, the Campus Council on Community and Diversity will continue to work toward establishing a hate-free campus. And soon, I hope to have more information to share with you about initiating a campuswide dialogue aimed at developing and supporting an environment that inspires respect and provides support to those destined to become our next generation of civic leaders.

Again, these are turbulent economic times, but I am confident that investing in a safer, more welcoming campus community will yield returns that are critical to advancing our commitment to diversity and excellence at UC Davis.

Last week, the UC Davis Cross Cultural Center invited anti-racism author Tim Wise to speak about how to recognize and minimize racism in America.

The lecture hall where Wise spoke was filled to maximum capacity before the event even started, demonstrating a clear interest in minimizing acts of racism at a university that has seen its share of racism.

Wise demonstrated with hard facts the presence of racism in a supposedly post-racist America. For instance, he cited the statistic that “black and Latino individuals are two to three times more likely to have their cars stopped and searched for drugs than white individuals, even though white individuals are four times more likely to actually be found with drugs.”

By keeping discrimination like this in mind, individuals can be more aware of “subliminal conditioning,” and perhaps reverse their own discrimination. This kind of conditioning will hopefully prevent the everyday, sometimes unintentional, acts of racism.

His message was strong because he did not simply say that racism exists. Unfortunately, this fact is already quite clear. He also highlighted where racism exists and how to stop it.

Though the entire country is far from attaining such logic, progress can be made on a small scale with UC Davis students. This is why more speakers such as Wise should be brought to campus, and more importantly why students should go. The demand for change is encouraging, and should be fulfilled by organizations such as the CCC.

The more students attend these events, the more students will spread the trend of self-awareness. While simply holding events like these may not eliminate hate crimes altogether, perhaps it will minimize the common, daily acts of racial discrimination.