It's been more than 50 years since the civil rights movement began, but it's clear discrimination still exists.

Even at MSU.

Racial and homophobic messages were written on dry-erase boards in north and south campus areas.

In the Hubbard Hall cafeteria, a white student was overheard making racial comments to a group of black students.

Members of the Department of Residence Life met with different residence halls last week in an effort to educate students about these incidents and about MSU's anti-harassment policy.

According to that policy, harassment designed to demean individuals and groups on the basis of age, color, gender, gender identity, disability status, height, weight, marital status, national origin, political persuasion, race, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status can be punished under university rules.

It's good that the Department of Residence Life is trying to raise awareness about the situation and educate students about what's going on.

But it's disheartening to know this kind of behavior is happening at MSU, and students need to be told not to attack others because of their race or deface property with homophobic slurs.

In such a multi-cultural and diverse environment as MSU, people can't respect other's property or people different from themselves.

We would like to think that we have overcome racism and discrimination at MSU, but these incidents along with others show we still have a long way to go.

Harassing other people because of their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or other characteristics is never acceptable and is something we all should be working to stop.

It's not enough to say that we condemn racism. We have to take proactive steps and let others know that we won't tolerate discriminatory behavior.

We might need to stand up to friends and acquaintances when they make a racist or bigoted statement. It's tough to confront people about their behavior, but sometimes it's necessary.

It's also up to us to educate ourselves about differences people have and how to interact with each other.

Some of us take classes that preach tolerance and respect, but if we never encounter people that are different from us in religion, race or sexual orientation, we stay ignorant.

We know that there are different races, religions and sexual orientations; there's no excuse to be ignorant about different people.

It's hard to stop racism, but we can work to make sure people are educated and aren't hurting others.

Everyone should feel comfortable at MSU and shouldn't be discriminated against. We all should be working toward that goal.