York University study on racism in Canada, my response the paper did not publish

I understand the point Mr Duffy was trying to make with his article "Do the right thing, stand against racism", Jan 11. However, some comments made confirmed the results. The experiment conducted at York University showed us one thing, the exact opposite of Duffy’s assumption. Duffy said he is “not willing to assume the silence of those young people means they were indifferent to intolerance”. To me, this shows perfectly well the indifference to intolerance of the dominant society. If you have a room full of people, a racial comment is made by a white person towards a black person and not one, not a single white “participant” says anything, they are just as guilty. We, as adults, teach our children bystanders to bullying are just a guilty as they bully. Why is it inappropriate for kids to do, but justifiable by excuses when an adult does it? To top it off, when the students are asked to pair up, the people in the group are more willing to pair up with the white person who made the inappropriate comments rather than the black person. I saw all the usual excuses, let me say that again, excuses, in the article for not dealing with racism; the danger aspect, the intimidation factor, the whole what can “we” do. As I read the article, I was reminded of the work of Peggy McIntosh on White Privilege. This experiment as well as the article, reaffirmed her work, and the writings of anti- racism activist Tim Wise. We have to remember that race is a social and political construct developed by the dominant European (white) society to justify such things as slavery and colonization. Race means absolutely nothing until our minds give it a meaning. These students gave it a meaning. What meaning will you give it?