With the recent racial attacks made on one of the housefellows in Witte Residence Hall, our poor campus climate has once again been put under the spotlight. Diversity on this campus has been a huge issue for years. A photo alteration on the university admissions booklet and the David Horowitz controversy are among the few in recent years. My feelings about all of these issues have been mixed. But they make it painfully evident that this campus not only is not diverse enough, but the climate is so strained that it is difficult for the existing diversity population to establish one community.
The photo alteration was a sad attempt made by the university to make campus seem diverse and it was wrong and dishonest; but the intentions weren't evil. Our campus climate is strained and they were trying to make the campus seem more diverse than it is to attract minority students. But if I were an ethnic minority, I don't know how interested I would be in going to a school where the only diversity they can offer me is me.
The administration on this campus seems very dedicated not only to diversifying this campus, but also in educating the majority. But there is only so much that the administration can do. America is considered a melting pot of cultures, but this campus is more like a paint palette. All the colors exist but they are not mixed. A lot of the students on this campus come from small Midwestern towns that are not only predominantly white, but are predominantly of the same heritage such as Dutch-Catholics and German-Protestants. They have never developed personal relationships with people of other backgrounds and although most seem to know that racism, in theory, is wrong, in practice, stereotypes and prejudices are rampant.
One big problem is that the white Christian majority does not see diversification as their issue. There certainly are diversity groups on this campus where white students are involved in diversity issues, but most white students feel that they are not implicated in the process. Majority students need to take the initiative to get themselves involved in improving campus climate. There is only so much the Multicultural Student Coalition can do if the majority is not receptive. If we are going to diversify this campus to its roots, a dialogue needs to develop between majority and minority students.
Ignorance and unfamiliarity are the root causes of prejudice, and the people who committed the violations to the Witte House Fellow are certainly ignorant fools. But they give the rest of the community a bad rap. Most of the majority students on this campus are ignorant, and they are unfamiliar with diversity but they are not blatant racists. They just don't understand the subtleties of the issue. They don't consider themselves prejudice because they don't understand that there's more to being prejudice than acts of active aggression like writing racial slurs on a dorm wall. But that violation is evidence of a more deeply rooted, and maybe more subtle issue. An extreme prejudice can only fester in a community that accepts more subtle prejudices and where the majority is not taking an active effort to improve multicultural relations.
A problem with the involvement of majority students is that there are a lot of absurd fears based on stereotypes. For instance the Multicultural Student Coalition office is on the second floor of the Red Gym. How many majority students even know where it is? The offices are beautiful, and it is a great place to study and just hang out. I was told not to go there, however, because I am white, and they will stare at me and maybe even ask, \What are YOU doing here."" Total crap. The diversity organizations on this campus are not anti-white, they do not hate you or think you are a big evil WASP, and I have yet to hear anyone in the MCSC say ""Down with the white man."" They appreciate anyone who recognizes the serious problems that we have on this campus, both with a lack of diversity, and with a bad climate amongst existing diversity.
People need to talk to one another, the biggest factor in racism and prejudice is a lack of communication. The attitude is them and us. And until we develop tolerant communication it will never be just us. There is not a lot that we can do to directly diversify this campus, that has more to do with the administration and such policies as Plan 2008. But for minority students to be attracted to this campus they need to feel that it is a campus where they can be at ease with their identities and thrive as students without worrying about being called racial slurs in the middle of the night. If this campus is going to have a safe and healthy climate for diversity it is the responsibility of the majority to realize that prejudice goes much deeper than a white sheet. I personally feel that my college experience has lost value due to the fact that in every class, every debate on every issue, I can only get the perspective of people like me. If we want to improve our community then it is our responsibility to take seriously the more subtle problems with our community that became painfully evident in the Witte Residence hall this past week.
