A white professor of English at Anderson College in Indiana (by Indianapolis) is defending the college’s decision to have segregated diversity and inclusion sessions (I guess they are missing the point about inclusion). From the quote below, she’s kind of batshit or she thinks that if there’s a group of people who don’t make sure to include a person of color so they meet some kind of diversity measure, then they are creating white only spaces. But of course, black-only spaces are okay.
‘White people do this thing where we create spaces and are a part of spaces that are white only not by statute, but by default – so circumstances allow a space to continue to be white only even though there’s no rule that says white only.’
From what I’ve seen, students of color have been pushed into self-segregating so they can be ‘authentic’ but I’m pretty sure segregation is a bad thing, from whichever side it originates.
The article didn’t interview any white students (who probably wouldn’t answer anyway since they don’t want to be seen as racists) but at least one student of color stood up and called this out as the embarrassment it is.
Looking at the memo that went out to students, I note that there is NO overlap in moderators for the discussions. You’d think that if they really wanted to get a balanced view, that the same people would be moderating all four sessions. But it’s clear they really don’t want a balanced view, they want to create data that meets their pre-conceived notions.
Between this kind of crap (which is pretty much standard at many universities) and the continuing hubris of institutions like Oberlin College, I’m not sure about the future of small liberal arts colleges. They have lost the plot completely.
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