When I first sat down to write a column on racial, ethnic, and cultural issues, especially pertaining to this university, I reached a sticking point on my own experience.

How could a white, upper middle class, male opine on anything significant related to the struggle of a person of color?

What if this person of color was female or, even more onerous to the white, heterosexual, cisgendered, male patriarchal forces, transgendered?

What possibly could I contribute to this dialogue?

I firstly endeavored to research the history of race and ethnicity at WSU. One of the first articles I encountered was an archival piece on the student protests involving the Black Student Union, Chicano student organization, Women’s Liberation Front, and the Young Socialists’ Alliance.

These groups, though diverse in composition, represented the concerted Cougar effort to protest the ongoing war in Vietnam.

Fast forward to 2015, and I encountered an article by Lance Lijewski entitled “‘Funeral for Ignorance.’” Four decades later, WSU students were still protesting the ongoing epidemic of intolerance, racism, sexism, and homophobia endemic to our culture.

Then, I called my academic experience to mind. The last semester before I graduated from Gonzaga University, I had the privilege of taking a political science class in feminist thought.

For those of you who have not taken such a class, I encourage you to do so.

Feminists are not at all the bra-burning, man-hating radicals the media likes to portray. In fact, many feminists are male. I am a feminist now thanks to this course.

One thing I learned was the poignancy of intersectionality, or the tendency of sources of prejudice to overlap.

This most often occurs for women, including identifying women, of color.

Therefore, when considering non-heterosexual or female people of diversity, those of us privileged to be white or male in this country should reflect on this multifaceted intersection of continued societal and cultural prejudice.

Mere cognizance of the issues, however, did not seem enough. The problem in my mind beyond mere recognition of one’s privilege is the seeming institutionalization of revolutionary elements. More and more I find the “diversity groups” on campus confined to single areas, to single weeks of the student activities calendar, and to particular tropes or stereotypes. At Gonzaga this phenomenon incarnated in UMEC, the University Multicultural Education Center.

This building housed the resources for all groups of cultural diversity, from the LGBT resource center to the black, Chicano(a), Filipino, and Asian student societies. At WSU this concentration finds itself in fourth flour of the CUB.

This is not to say this is wholly bad. In fact, this close proximity can and should give these groups the support of one another. However, this can also relegate the genuine goals, struggles, and activities of these groups to mere novelty or lip service. In other words, the university establishment commandeers the aims of these groups to lend itself clout, legitimacy, and a sense of “diversity.”

The protests reported on by Lijewski give me hope. However, the fact that students here still felt comfortable using the reported slur of “nigger bitch” truly angers and saddens me.

How many other derogatory epithets then can be found in the drunken alleyways of Greek row and are allowed to propagate with impunity?

Have as many inquiries and investigations as you like, but until people feel genuinely afraid of using these words, there cannot be true social harmony.

The dialogue concerning race in the United States and at WSU must continue to be concerted, serious, and deliberate. The police brutality of St. Louis, Baltimore, and New York should make every American uncomfortable. The debate of the Confederate flag in the wake of the shootings in Charleston, and the death of nine innocent, decent, Christian people should make every Cougar question how they think and approach race.

All of us should reflect on how atrocious it is that African American churches are now burning across the South. Christian or not, this sort of disregard for holy places belongs in some sort of 1940s past, not 2015 America.

I am privileged in this country for my color, or rather, lack thereof. I am privileged in this country for my religion. In some circles even, I am privileged in this country for my sexual orientation. However, I hope this does not come as offense to any victimized American minority for me to call out those injustices that still plague our campus and nation. The issue of racial harmony is a matter of urgency.

NPR reports that children of so-called minority parents will be the majority by 2020 with prevailing birthrates. People of all origins need to then find a way, for the sake of a peaceful and prosperous tomorrow, to get along without slurs, without epithets, and without crude words on drunken evenings.

For this, we require more than just institutional weeks of diversity. We require more than just student cultural societies. We need more than the lip service of CFSL and investigations of racial hatred “by all of the proper channels,” as quoted by Lijewski.

We require non-complacent, vocal revolution of hearts, minds, and spirits.