Something one notices in China is the severe lack of cultural diversity. Sure there are performances of Tibetan dancers and news stories about the special people of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (It's not really autonomous), but from Beijing to Shanghai to Shenzhen, you'll notice that probably 99% of the people you see are all from one ethnic group. It's amazing that China's economy is growing so much despite any diversity. Imagine how fast China's economy would be growing if it had black people!
Anyway, that brings me to the obsession of diversity here in the US and particularly at UIUC. Here we have a new initiative, "Inclusive Illinois", that "is about promoting and fostering an inclusive and diverse campus community." But one thing seemed odd to me as I looked at the list of events; they are almost all for or sponsored by a group that by its very name is exclusive to a particular race, religion, etc. A few selections:
8/18
Friends and Family Cookout, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m., African American Cultural Center. This event serves as a meet and greet for incoming African American students and their families.8/20
No Struggle, No Progress: The Wake Up Call, 9 p.m., Foellinger Auditorium. A session for both incoming and returning students, this is the official welcome for African American freshmen. Student organization leaders coordinate this program. The goal of the program is to let them know that there are people who care about them and are here to support them while on campus. Sponsored in-part by the African American Cultural Center.8/24
Latino Barbeque/Latina Dinner, 6 p.m., La Casa House. Students only. Event for members and friends of the Latino/a community.10/10
Asian American Ally Training, 7 p.m., Asian American Cultural Center. In preparation
for National Coming Out event.11/8
Fall Women’s Symposium (speaker and film, with discussion), sponsored by the African
American Studies and Research Program
The slogan for Inclusive Illinois is "one campus, many voices." It's sad that the events for this initiative will essentially help to fracture the campus into separate campuses organized not around ideas but rather around race (primarily) and sexual behavior. Isn't this the opposite of what we want? This initiative will only cause more conflict and injure race relations on campus.
One campus, many voices, unless that voice is right-of-center! Then we do not want to hear from your backwards, intolerant, mean-spirited diatribes. Unless those mean-spirited diatribes are against the all powerful and evil, 'Rich, White, Heterosexual Male."
I was wondering, if an African-American moves to Africa, will he become an "African-American-African? Would an Asian-American become an "Asian-American-Asian." As an American, if i moved to Africa, would i be called an "American-African?" Man, this is confusing! Why not just call ourselves AMERICANS! I took French at a community college. My instructor told us that people of different ethnicities are not labeled as "African-French" or hyphenated at all. Every French citizen is considered French on paper. Unfortunately, just like in many European countries, assimilation is not in vogue, the new and improved "separate but equal" system is in place. Now we call it diversity and multiculturalism.
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Robert Dunn
Ex-Leftist, Born-Again Conservative American
there's plenty of racism in France against Turks and Arabs, and it's not at all subtle. Do'nt take the word of your community college teacher, experience life for yourself
The Latino/Latina barbecue isn't exclusive, because it's for members and friends of the Latino/a community. Wait, it's for students only, so I guess it's exclusive in that sense, but it's not racially exclusive. I've gone to events like that and felt completely welcome. I'm caucasian, but that doesn't keep me from going to African American events either. I attend a predominantly African American church--I fit in and feel more comfortable there. If there's an event that interests you, then I recommend going. I think that as long as people think of themselves and each other in racial terms, there will always be self-segregated gatherings, but the only way to change that is to go to such an event and mix it up a little :-).
Sure, not all the events are completely exclusive to a particular race, but think about how absurd it is to say "Event for members and friends of the Latino/a community". How does one become a friend of an ethnic group? Ask yourself, which ethnic groups am I a friend of? It's silly and demonstrates the obsession with race on campus.
Why not just be a friend of any ethnic group that happens to be serving free food?
Your point about "obsession with race" is absurd -- Paxton has its Swedish-American parties because that's there heritage. There's nobody stopping you from going.
Find something better to worry about. There are actual problems in the world
well, why not scratch the ethnic group part out and just support anyone who is serving free food? Be friends of all humans regardless of ethnicity. That was Dr. Martin Luther King's vision. Unfortunately, the Left has co-opted the Civil Rights Movement and turned it into a kitsch-Marxism that replaces the "working class" with a fill in the blank ethnic group.
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Robert Dunn
Ex-Leftist, Born-Again Conservative American
Well, you're too young to remember anything before "Barney," so I'll clue you in. It's impossible for the Left to co-opt the civil rights movement because they'd have to co-opt from themselves. The civil rights movment started on the left, including more than a few Marxists
It was the conservatives who were AGAINST the righrt movment, sonny. They wanted to "conserve" the status quo of Jim Crow. Ask your mommy and daddy about names like George Wallace and Strom Thurmond.
Don't forget Sen. Robert "Sheets" Byrd, formerly of the Ku Klux Klan.
Dunn,
You really have a knack for inflaming idiotic, divisive discussions. Neither "side" owns the civil rights movement. Both parties have their stars and duds. Many of these students from varied racial backgrounds are coming from neighborhoods where they were comfortable in their element. Joining the University community is a huge change for them and their groups help them learn to adapt and feel at ease. Leave them alone. They aren't hurting anybody.
On August 29th, 2007 at 04:40 PM, Gregg said:
Don't forget Sen. Robert "Sheets" Byrd, formerly of the Ku Klux Klan.
Funny, I don't recall anybody ever calling Byrd a lefty, which is what this discussion is actually about. Yes, there are DEmocrat conservatives. There are no conservative lefties, though.
"Funny, I don't recall anybody ever calling Byrd a lefty, which is what this discussion is actually about. Yes, there are DEmocrat conservatives. There are no conservative lefties, though."
I've never heard anyone in the last 20 years characterize Byrd as a conservative. According to the National Journal, he's among the 20 or 25 most liberal US Senators, although most of his moderation comes on social issues - he's a decided lefty on foreign policy and economic issues.
I never said he was a conservative. But he's no lefty. He never offered leadership on civil rights, Veietnam, gay rights or any number of lefty issues. Bringing him up and continuing to talk about him is a smokescreen to avoid the Dunnesque assertion that lefties thwarted the vision of MLK
"I never said he was a conservative. But he's no lefty. He never offered leadership on civil rights, Veietnam, gay rights or any number of lefty issues. Bringing him up and continuing to talk about him is a smokescreen to avoid the Dunnesque assertion that lefties thwarted the vision of MLK"
Dunn is clearly wrong about that (I feel silly saying something that obvious...).
But Sen. Byrd is pretty clearly a lefty now, even if he's not always been one.
Despite the lack of cultural diversity, China has inordinate economic diversity. Sweden and Norway have relatively both low cultural and economic diversity.
Michael Fuerst
My parents used to drag me to a "Scandinavian Club" (Normenens, I think it was called?) on the North Side of Chicago. We were there all the time until it moved from the city out to Arlington Heights. They allowed Swedish, Norwegian AND Fins, so I guess it was actually the epitome of the liberal elitist "tolerance" movement. :)
America has always been about ethnic groups congregating together to celebrate their culture. Perhaps if some of these folks from the suburbs and central Illinois actually HAD some ethnicity that they didn't try to ignore ("uh ... I am Swedish, Irish, English and a bit of Italian...") then they would understand why it is important to a person's identity to celebrate their heritage. Unfortunately, this "melting pot" idea has really caught on in the last few decades and now most Americans identify themselves with the clothes they wear, the TV they watch, and the car they drive.
Oh yeah, and their favorite professional sports organization. Go Cubs! :)
agreed on that
Kind of a crazy world, one in which diversity is valued, both as walls to hide in, and as arms to welcome in. To each his own. The problems tend to occur with perception. When diversity is walled, as in organizations that are made up of one ethnicity, religion or sexual preferance we see exclusion base on the diversity of that culture. When in fact the true meaning of the diversity movement is in inclusion of all into one space, which we actually rarely see, except at that ballgame.
Problems tend to surface when ideology is the focus to this equation, it is hard for competing ideas or philosophies to exist in one sphere.
Diversity is another social program promoted by the left as a way to break down walls, when in fact it often builds them.
What really matters is that all peoples respect all peoples as equals within one small world (ultimately we are). Inclusion is less a necessity as a pleasure, sometimes, to each his own as the heart dictates.
Peace and love my brothers and sisters.
Kind of a crazy world, one in which diversity is valued, both as walls to hide in, and as arms to welcome in.
???
In most things, diversity is good. You don't want to eat the same meal everynight, or watch the same TV night after nightr. Diversity as a biological principle has made Homo sapiens healthier and more resistant to disease. As a social principle, it has made America a melting pot of cultures and ideas. Diversity of opinion leads to ideas. Where exactly is diversity a crazy idea?
It's about how "diversity" is done by the university that is the problem. For example, in a residence hall (dorm), there is a hall council with representatives from each floor and they vote to give each other pizza money. Each dorm also has (at least they did a few years ago) another similar council for black students, the black student union. On the hall council is a representative from the black student union, to let the council know what they are up to.
Now maybe it's just me, but this concept seems quite strange. It essentially segregates the dorm, at least among involved residents.
life must be tough in the dorm for you. i do hope you get your pizza
Ok Gordy, how am I wrong to state that Left has co-opted the Civil Rights Movement? Maybe i should be more specific and say that the Democratic Party has co-opted the Civil Rights Movement. How about the fact that the National Rifle Association, which is an organization from the right, supported Dr. King? How about the fact that Bill Bennett was at the march on Washington in 1963? Liberals never mention those inconvenient facts. They also fail to mention that Lyndon Johnson had to rely on Republicans in Congress to pass both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, because it was Southern DEMOCRATS who were the ones filibustering. The GOP has for the most part been a party that pushes Dr. Kings vision of a color blind society. The Democrats have switched from being the party of slavery and Jim Crow to being a party of affirmative action, (discrimination in the name of anti-discrimination), and the massive welfare state.
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Robert Dunn
Ex-Leftist, Born-Again Conservative American
Robert, your string of random facts makes no pattern. King was decidedly on the left -- in fact, J. Edgar Hoover (he was the head of the FBI) tried forever to get proof that MLK was a communist. Several of King's top aides were in fact members of the communist party.
Yes, several Dixiecrats opposed civil rights, including Byrd. The important distinction here is not between Democrats and Republicans, but between left and right. Support for the civil rights movement mainly came from the left in the 1950s and 1960s.
Now we can agree what MLK did was good, no matter where we fall on the spectrum.
BTW, the fact that MLK argued you should be judged by the content of your character does not mean he advocated color-blindedness.
King never used the phrase affirmative action. That phrase belnogs to the 1970s. Bobby, Dr. King was assassinated in 1968, which is what we call the 60s. The clothes were funny then, and they had the Beatles! Look it up!
But here what King said in 1964: "A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro"
"Ok Gordy, how am I wrong to state that Left has co-opted the Civil Rights Movement? Maybe i should be more specific and say that the Democratic Party has co-opted the Civil Rights Movement."
Neither is correct. To co-opt means to absorb or assimilate which is almost but not quite true.
But you seem to be using it to imply some sort of one-sided relationship that benefits only the Democratic Party, as if the Democrats are taking advantage of the Civil Rights movement for political gain. In reality, for the last few decades, the Democratic Party and the Civil Rights movement have had a mutually advantageus relationship that clearly benefits both entities. Without the Dems, the Civil Rights movement (as it exists now and in recent decades) would have no political support. Without the Civil Rights movement, the Dems would be very severely weakened.
You can disagree with whether or not Democratic policies have benefitted the Civil Rights movement, but clearly the vast majority of people within the Civil Rights movement think that their movement has benefitted from Democratic policies. I'd hardly call that "co-opting" as you're using the term.