It was a night like any other night on campus. As a group of students huddled in a car and made their way to a bowling alley to share a night of socializing, they were followed off campus and into the bowling alley parking lot by a white, campus police officer who watched them intently as they entered the alley, making sure they did not do anything out of the ordinary. This could have been a routine procedure for the officer, who might have suspected the students were starting trouble or committing a crime. The only problem is that according to these particular individuals, they were not posing a threat in any way. They just happened to be a group of minority students.

Although this may seem like a coincidence, other members of the group said there was another cluster of students in the college parking lot on their way out at the same time, and they were not followed. The only difference was that the other group of people was white.

Incidents such as this happen all the time on college campuses, but since it is not overt racism, people do not realize it is going on. Today we do not come in contact with the same type of racist acts as in the past. This is not a revival of Jim Crow Laws or segregated schools in Brown v. The Board of Education, but there is still a sense of prejudice that resides in many colleges. Since I am a minority on campus, I believe it is easier for me to see this covert racism because I know what it looks like. Others may not be aware that they are prejudiced or have witnessed an act of racism on campus.

Covert racist actions are not only seen on a campus when walking to class or socializing with friends-they can also be seen in the classroom. A student from a Women and Gender Studies class expressed that she often has difficulties dealing with some of the remarks her fellow classmates make about women in minority status. As she described it, her classmates, who are mainly white, are sometimes naive when talking about situations of poverty, childbirth and domestic issues relating to minority women. Hearing that minority women are those that need birth control most, because they have the most children, is something she must deal with week after week.

I am a senior this year, and sitting in classrooms such as this for four years has made me realize that people are ignorant in different ways. Maybe it is because of where many students grew up or how they were socialized as children. Coming from an extremely urban area, I was made aware of racism and prejudice at a young age. There seems to be this sheltered kind of life many students in college are a part of, where they have never had to face racism or think twice about the people around them and their feelings toward this issue.

This is not true for everyone on campus; eventually, these people are shaken out of their little boxes and thrown into the real world where issues of race, class, and gender are still very prevalent today. In order to do this, people on campuses and all over the world need to be more educated about the issues that minorities face every day. In the above issue about childbirth and minorities, I ask, where are the facts to support that claim? How do you know that minority mothers birth more children than white mothers? It is not right to generalize or stereotype individuals because of their heritage.

In addition, it is not right to make students the victims of racial profiling. We need to first come to grips with the fact that people have been, and are still, discriminated against because of their color. Then, we need to open our minds and judge what we say or do on the basis of racism. Maybe you will find that you have been racist or prejudiced in the past, but never noticed. If all people, not just white people, are educated about the minorities and groups of individuals that are ultimately discriminated against such as gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, transgendered individuals, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Indians and more, they will be more apt to watch what they say to and about these individuals.

I am not saying that all white people are racist or that white people are the only ones who make racist remarks. That is not true. As a matter of fact, many times, both in and out of class, I have been discriminated against by other minorities. I think it is more about the way people are socialized or taught that makes them oblivious to some of these issues, not the fact that they are white, black, Hispanic or any other ethnic group.

There is definitely a challenge and rude awakening in revealing inner prejudices or stereotypes that one might possess, but if people realize those in themselves and try to look past them, there might be a more open-minded view on college campuses. If more people are aware of the covert racism that is taking place and attempt to speak about it and bring it out to the public, they can and will have the power to change the minds of others.

With that said, I urge all college campuses to take a step back and really look at what is going on. Do not ignore it. Get involved in discussions and classroom debates and try to see things from another perspective. Pretend that your college is a larger community -a city, state, or nation - and think about how knowledge of racism and its effects can positively impact our classrooms, your campus and the rest of the world.

Melissa Hernandez is a senior Journalism/Professional Writing major with a minor in Women and Gender Studies at The College of New Jersey. She has worked at The Signal --TCNJ's student newspaper -- first as production manager during her freshman and sophomore years and now as a staff writer.