<p>From the first post: "They want discussions in and outside the classroom to reflect this racial and ethnic diversity. Well just food for thought: how do you think people would react to the following potential scenario. It's an explicit representation of how the university wants diversity to come into the campus.</p>
<p>Imagine you're in a Freshmen seminar discussing a literary work. There's one black student and the rest are Asian or white. Everyone has given their opinion on the work except the black kid who has sat silent the entire class period. The professor or discussion leader turns to him and says, "OK Jamal, we'd all like to hear the black perspective please.""</p>
<p>I'll admit that I haven't read all of the pages between the first and the most recent, but I don't think enough people have actually broken down the foolishness in the original post!</p>
<p>First, you posit that universities want minorities to play the role of spokesperson in class discussion or elsewhere. I think that's bull. No intelligent administrator wants students to be spokespeople for a race or gender, and no professor worth his salt would ever ask "Jamal (nice name, btw), give the black perspective." You know a black perspective doesn't exist, and so do professors and university administrators. Your explicit example is an example of utter lack of professional conduct in the classroom and lack of common sense, not an example of "how the university wants diversity to come into the campus," as you claim.</p>
<p>How DO universities want diversity to come into the campus? I can't say for sure, but I would guess that they would want to see diversity in multiple forms. They might simply want "majority" students to interact with their "minority" peers as friends, teammates, and co-workers in student organizations. They might hope that minorities and non-minorities might shed any subconscious stereotypes by simply interacting with one another. </p>
<p>And, by golly, they might just be hoping to have a class full of smart people from different areas, so the college's influence in geographic and racial/ethnic groups spreads. Imagine that.</p>
<p>I've responded to this point numerous times in the thread but I'll do it again just in case other people missed the thread when it was very active. I'm just copying an earlier response:</p>
<p>"Colleges engage in affirmative actions admissions. They clearly lower the standard for blacks and hispanics. Now one could argue that this is justified given the economic background of these applicants. Fine, that's not the point. Then many continue on to say, "Well it's ok that we lower the standard because colleges need racial and ethnic diversity." Yet, the previous statement is a PC way of saying, "We want black people to give their own unique perspective on issues. They'll have a unique perspective, different from whites and Asians, specifically because they're black." So the example was an illustrative case of the previous statement.</p>
<p>Finally, let me add my own opinion of this situation. I think it's atrocious. I think colleges are engaging in racist thought by trying to increase racial diversity so that URM's can give their "own unique perspective." People are individuals, not part of a collective, and thus can't be asked to speak for others who happen to share genetic material.</p>
<p>[Note: Also, we know that diversity is specifically ethnic and racial because colleges lower the standard for middle and upper class blacks and hispanics, as well as poor ones.]"</p>
<p>Now I'll respond to a quote from you:</p>
<p>
[quote]
They might simply want "majority" students to interact with their "minority" peers as friends, teammates, and co-workers in student organizations.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M TRYING TO CRITICIZE!! The idea that being black/hispanic gives you a unique experience is implicit in your above quote. See how you define people as "majority" and "minority". See how by doing this you implicitly state that they'll bring something to table simply by being a member of a race. The only real diversity is ideas, not race or ethnicity. Instead of wanting " 'majorities' to interact with 'minorities' ", you should want liberals and conservatives, Christians and atheists, engineering and accounting majors, etc... to interact in the situations you present above. Your way of saying it is very subtle and PC. My example was taking the idea you present above and making it very un-PC.</p>
<p>In texas a man described the work place as a "black hole", another guy actually took offense to this took the guy to court... and won! What has this world come to? I'm not a racist person by any means... but give me a break, for the most part racism is a thing of the past and is only used by most to make a financial gain.</p>
<p>In texas a man described the work place as a "black hole", another guy actually took offense to this took the guy to court... and won! What has this world come to? I'm not a racist person by any means... but give me a break, for the most part racism is a thing of the past and is only used by most to make a financial gain.
<p>Obviously racism exists, I deal with it and I know everyone else deals with it- all races do. But, for the most part, most cases are pretty ridiculous and are just out there because the need something to complain about.</p>