It's just golf!

Never again" just keeps coming around. Last semester, I wrote a column about the swastika vandalism that appeared on East Campus. The victims of that bigotry were housed in Giles. Just a few days ago, Giles received another free makeover, this one targeting homosexuals.

Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, assured me by e-mail that he is on the case. Betsy Klein, president of East Campus Council, told me by e-mail that she is "really proud of the student response against this terrible act of narrow-mindedness." She wrote that the vandalism may not have even been the handiwork of a Duke student.

But it doesn't matter if a Duke student is the culprit. What does matter is that our society has yet to learn. If you think that what happened at Giles this week was just some stupid prank, then there's something wrong. If you use the slur in your own conversations with your friends, even if not in reference to homosexuality, then you're adding to the problem. If you think that it's OK to use "gay" as a synonym for "bad," what stops anyone from making "Asian" synonymous with "hopeful," "European" with "kind," "African" with "happy"? Maybe these relationships seem odd, but throughout human history, we have used more hurtful stereotypes to describe such groupings of people.

There are a few students at Rice University helping lead the way to a complete vocabulary change. By text message and e-mail, I spoke with Chris Peck and Rob Meister, both juniors at Rice. Peck explained that "golf" is bad, "gay" is good and "croquet is really good."

"Our language movement essentially pokes fun at silly social slangs," Meister said. "Ultimately, we think it's hilarious that these words which mean something else can be used totally out of context to insult somebody." Meister characterized Rice as a "very tolerant and accepting environment" and said that a "number of people" have joined the movement. Peck, however, is less optimistic about the movement, "People are so used to using [gay] as something bad, I just don't think they will change." Still, Meister urged, "Use gay in its classic sense! Be happy! Be gay!"

This group is certainly onto something-they have discovered the true power of words. Today, our language and vocabulary is limited by the need for "political correctness." Even our current vice president has felt the pressure. Then-Sen. Joe Biden, early in the race for the White House, praised then-Sen. Barack Obama for being "clean" and "articulate." He was consequently hounded by reporters. We can often feel the awkward social tension when situations involving race or sexuality crop up. But that slight feeling of fear, or whatever it might be, must be overcome because it's that awkwardness that plays a large role in keeping groups of people separated.

Last week, Eric Holder, our nation's first black attorney general, called us "essentially a nation of cowards" when it comes to race relations. But we weren't born cowards. We just grew up to be them. Our schools are socially segregated, and in a nation where, in many cases, black children do not go to school with white children, Americans still don't know how to interact with one another.

At some point, we will all grow up with each other, black and white, heterosexual and homosexual, short and tall, Jew and gentile, Protestant and Catholic. But more than forty years since Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, we still have yet to realize his dream. If his dream was what he had in mind when he used the word "freedom," then we certainly are not free. We are chained by our fractured society, bound by our failing schools, burdened by a perpetual cycle promoting social distance and misinformation. We use prejudgments and stereotypes to fill those voids between groups of people, making the chasms ever harder to bridge. It's sad to say, but maybe it is uniquely proper that King's tombstone reads, "Free at last," because only in death will we be free from the despicable state of our earthly society.