There is a kind of ignorance which causes people to act on glaringly inaccurate and often racist or bigoted assumptions, perpetuating hate without even bothering to consider other perspectives.

But I suspect very few, if any, Georgetown students are guilty of this kind of ignorance. I like to think that when Georgetown students are ignorant, it’s because they haven’t encountered such an idea or perspective before, and not because they choose to look the other way.

Or, at least, that’s what I thought before I read letters from Dorothy Chou and Roland Dimaya’s (“Hoya Must Cover Asian Groups Fairly,” THE HOYA, Dec. 1, 2006, A2), which taught me that the word `flip’ is a derogatory term for Filipinos.

I’m a white person from a small town in one of the least racially diverse states in the country. I hadn’t even heard the term “flip” or known of its use in reference to Filipinos before I saw it on T-shirts Club Filipino was selling in Red Square earlier this year.

Now I’m see the headline on the GUIDE feature about Club Filipino (“Flipping Out Over Club Flip,” THE HOYA, Nov. 17, 2006, G6) with an enlightened perspective, having previously thought the title was a clever play on words for an article about Filipino students doing acrobatic moves.

But I’m also confused.

While I thank Chou and Dimaya for alerting me to my ignorance, I question Chou’s criticism of THE HOYA for not being aware of this sooner, especially in light of Dimaya’s admission that Club Filipino has used the term in the past to refer to itself.

I generally agree with Chou that THE HOYA has “a responsibility to be aware of [considerations of racial slurs] even if the average student is not.” But as a member of THE HOYA, I wonder how the students on the paper’s staff or any “average” students could be aware of this issue if it had never before been brought to their attention, and especially if Club Filipino had used the term in reference to itself in the past.

Granted, I could always do more to understand issues like this before they have to be pointed out to me. Members of the media anywhere must be especially mindful when writing about issues of diversity, and everyone, regardless of race, could always be more open-minded, ask more questions of each other and double-check his or her own assumptions.

But I sometimes felt that implicit in the confrontational tone of Chou’s letter is an assumption that people who are racially “mainstream” never try to see or understand issues facing minorities – an assumption that white people just don’t care.

Innocent slip-ups in terminology committed out of not having all the facts are often branded as indications of subconscious racism, but I feel that sometimes members of the racial majority are not given enough credit when they try to understand and learn more about minority issues.

Chou writes “THE HOYA must raise diversity issues.” As a former leader and participant in the Young Leaders in Education about Diversity pre-orientation program, I wholeheartedly agree. But as a contributing editor for THE HOYA, I also think the newspaper’s done a decent job of doing so this semester.

THE GUIDE, in addition to its feature on Club Filipino, featured a cover story on the International Diversity Film Market, a networking forum for minorities interested in the entertainment industry. THE HOYA editorial board, of which I was a member last semester, wrote an editorial calling for a Hindi language program and another encouraging Georgetown to remain committed to regional, socioeconomic and international diversity in the student body. Viewpoints have addressed topics including subtle racism in `ghetto’ party themes and stereotypes surrounding Asian Americans. Columnists for THE HOYA have written on topics ranging from the Lecture Fund’s naivete at inviting allegedly anti-immigrant Chris Simcox, founder of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, to speak on campus, to socioeconomic diversity at Georgetown, to white cultural identity, to poverty in Egypt.

Of course, THE HOYA can always do more to address diversity issues. And with the list above, I’m not implying that I feel it’s done enough. Everyone – THE HOYA’s writers, its readers and students of all races – can do more to understand and raise diversity issues in the media and in his or her own life.

Unfortunately, there will always be white people who don’t care to learn about diversity issues, yet I venture to say there are also many who do, especially at Georgetown.

Lest these people’s simple ignorance turn someday into something more corrosive, minority groups and white people alike should be open-minded and see instances of ignorance as opportunities to educate. After all, we’re all here to learn.

Kerry McIntosh is a senior in the School of Foreign Service and a Contributing Editor for THE HOYA.