Posts Tagged 'race'

What is the Value of Diversity?

Mike Waters








Sounds great, doesn’t it?


The blonde lacrosse player? She’s in.



Making Democracy Work

Hallie Fox of the Middlebury Roosevelt Institution

So far, the 2008 presidential hopefuls have raised unprecedented campaign funds. With over a year to go before the election, candidates are already hitting the road to rally votes, raise money, and debate our nation’s most pressing issues: immigration, health care, the war in Iraq, global warming, and homeland security, to name a few.

Yet absent from the debate is one of the most pressing issues facing our nation: voting. The very nature of our political system rests on the democratic participation of our citizens. Although we have historically precluded minorities, women, and felons from voting, one would assume that today all are given an equal opportunity to cast their ballots. Wrong.

An estimated 5 million Americans are in jail and thus have lost the fundamental right to participate in the political process. African American men make up 1.5 million of this number. As a result, 13% of black men in America have lost the right to vote. Even after Florida’s disastrous “purge” scandals in 2000 and 2004, little has been done to reform our flawed and inconsistent voting system that deprives these felons of their constitutional right to vote. Many of these citizens have been wrongly accused or “lost in the filing process,” and as a result have unjustly lost one of their most important and fundamental rights as American citizens.

These numbers do not even take into account the number of American citizens who have not lost their right to vote but do not know how, have not been contacted to register, or believe they are not eligible to vote. As Americans, it is our civic responsibility to make democracy work.

Despite the Help America Vote Act of 2002, little has been done to insure accountability of election officials, purge lists, and notification of individuals on their voting status. For example, in a 15-state study conducted by the ACLU, Demos, and Right to Vote, not one state has codified any specific set of criteria for its officials to use in ensuring that an individual with a felony conviction is the same individual being purged from the voter rolls. Two thirds of the states surveyed do not even require that election officials notify voters when they are purged from voter rolls.

I ask you, Middlebury, how many of you accurately filled out your absentee ballot, sent in your votes, and tracked the results last election cycle? A friend of mine even reported submitting her information to Middlebury’s own ”Get Out the Vote” campaign with hopes of receiving an absentee ballot. She was met with an empty mailbox.

It is our duty to hold our government accountable. So before it is too late, I challenge you to make democracy work. Make our voting system fair, educate our fellow citizens on the importance of voting, and most importantly, don’t forget to exercise your own right to vote.

Racism Still Alive

Josh Wessler

In a discussion about presidential candidate Barack Obama, the question of race will inevitably come up. Pundits dissect his family tree: his mother is from Kansas, his father is Kenyan. Is he African-American? American? African? Black? White? His middle name is Hussein!

Take a recent article in the Washington Post, for example. The issue on everyone’s mind (mainly because the pollsters dwell on it), is about whether Obama can transcend the racial divide. How come these questions are never asked about the other candidates?

Is Edwards too white?

Gosh, I think Mitt Romney needs to lighten up on the race card. He doesn’t want to seem too pale…

Instead, the media remarks on how well Obama speaks to both races. Yet, Clinton won’t lose the white vote if she neglects blacks. And John McCain isn’t worried about appearing too much like an everyman. He (like the rest of the presidential candidates) is white, and unlike Obama, he doesn’t have to clarify his race.

Some say we’re in a new era of race relations. But we’re still asking the same old questions. And that’s a real shame.

Redefining Diversity

Aki Ito

I’m not white, I’m not American, and I grew up in two very different cultures. What does that make me? My friend, who recently told me that he considers himself a “diverse person,” would tell me that I’m a diverse person, too. But what does that mean?

Maybe diversity could be, or perhaps even should be, used for something other than a population— i.e. the individual. Darwin thought that the diversity of species allowed for natural selection, and many companies bend over backwards to recruit a diverse workforce. Of this year’s incoming class at Middlebury, 62% is White/Non-Hispanic, 12% is a non-resident alien, 10% is Asian/Pacific Islander, 7% is Hispanic, 4% is Black/Non-Hispanic and 1% is American Indian/Alaskan Native. But the population breakdown doesn’t say anything in and of itself: What really counts is the school climate.

Therefore, do students at Middlebury feel comfortable and safe regardless of their backgrounds? What is Middlebury, as an educational institution, doing to promote an understanding of others? Is Middlebury an environment in which individual students can face, embrace, and take pride in their differences?

Most of us are different from the idealized norm. I mean, who’s white, male, rich, straight, fit, smart, mentally stable, and funny, all at the same time? Most people, I would hope, don’t fit into all of those categories, and that means that we share a common ground of having strayed from our culture’s definition of perfection. It’s easy to ignore the parts of us that don’t fit into this myth, but that means that we have to suppress, silence, and erase ourselves.

Passivity is just another euphemism for intolerance. Much in the same way that those who aren’t actively antiracist are racist, it’s not enough for the college to not discriminate against applicants of color, or of low-income backgrounds, or of an LGBT sexual orientation. The school must actively recruit and retain many different kinds of students, because exposure is the first step to acceptance. Then, the school needs to actively encourage people from different backgrounds to interact with each other. All kinds of prejudice exist in our society, and our own prejudices don’t magically disappear when we get to Middlebury. Since we all like to stay in our comfortable little bubbles that isolate us from the rest of the world, it’s unlikely that we’ll step outside of our own homogenous groups. That’s where college policy should come in and give us a little push.

By forming connections with those who are different from ourselves and from the cultural norm, we come to accept these “different” aspects of them. That’s when we can begin to uncover the “different” aspects of ourselves that we have buried for so long.

Diversity is, at its endpoint, about the individual. That’s why it makes more sense to say, “I consider myself to be a diverse person,” meaning that you tolerate difference in yourself and others, than it does to apply the word to a population and generate statistics from it. The high percentage of international students on campus doesn’t mean anything if that doesn’t help us reevaluate the preconceptions we have about other cultures, and in turn, reevaluate the way we see differences in others and ourselves.

So, are you a diverse person?

Taking Racial Privilege for Granted

Josh Wessler









Brain Drain in Developing Countries

Elizabeth Goffe

When I open my eyes at Middlebury, I am overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity that surrounds me. Snow covers the ground. The sun hides in an uncertain grey sky. It isn’t that this country isn’t beautiful— the star-filled skies, the refreshingly clean air, the squirrels, the snow and the changing seasons are all so new and interesting to me— but the United States is simply not my home.

When considering possible majors and career paths, I crave some kind of direction and purpose. Like so many college students, I can’t help pondering my future, and here lies my dilemma. Although I would like to return to the music, the language and the inherent beauty of my home country, I would be lying if I said that Jamaica’s song isn’t tainted by poverty, and that the poetry of my country is not punctuated by bullets. The fact is, many students from developing countries go abroad to study and have to decide whether or not they will return to their homes. In 2005, a World Bank report stated that eight out of ten Haitians and Jamaicans who have college degrees live outside their countries, and more than half of university-educated professionals from many countries in Central America and the Caribbean also live abroad. These figures were shocking to me at first, but now I realize that it really isn’t much of a surprise.

There are several considerable factors that keep people away from their native countries. For instance, the higher level of crime and violence in some developing countries is an extremely uninviting prospect, especially for people who are raising children. The economies are also less stable than those of developed countries, which may result in lower salaries and fewer benefits. There is also a lack of academic and employment-related opportunities in developing countries. For example, someone who studies nuclear science abroad may be limited in his or her opportunities to work in such a field when he or she returns home. Another factor, and the one that makes me most apprehensive about living in my home country, is the possibility of reverse culture shock. After receiving a tertiary education in a developed country, it may be difficult to readjust to certain cultural habits and attitudes, such as those towards women, homosexuals, and religion.

Although these are valid and weighty reasons for not returning to a developing country, I feel that too many people want to escape the reality of their countries, under the assumption that it is futile to try to make any considerable difference in the situation. By leaving, they contribute to the “brain drain” that many developing countries experience when people who go abroad for education choose not to return. After studying in a developed country, one has the opportunity to use this education and new perspective to better the situation of the country where one grew up. In order to decide between remaining in a developed country and going back home, one must take into consideration one’s own future as well as the future of one’s home country.

This is an incredibly difficult decision to make, and in many ways, I can understand why some people choose not to go back. Regardless of where one lives, however, it is important to remember that we still have the opportunity to help those who, for various reasons (inadequate education, poverty, oppression by police) are unable to fend for themselves and truly make a difference on their own. They have nowhere else to go.