I was very surprised by the reaction of the school to the pictures of Jesus in The Insurgent because, as many of us can testify to, there has been a real movement as of late to celebrate diversity within the campus.
The school newspaper has published several articles on the subject, and if you go to the homepage of the University you will notice that there is a link to a diversity page on the lower-left corner. These school-sponsored projects are supposed to be encouraging students and faculty to celebrate diversity, which is quite confusing considering how the school has responded to the outcry against the pictures of Jesus in The Insurgent.
I can’t help but ask whether or not drawing two white men lynching a black man with the caption, “Blacks, once slaves, always slaves,” or something clearly offensive like that, on the front of a school-sponsored newspaper, would be celebrating diversity? Clearly, celebrating diversity means accepting each other in light of our differences. This obviously implies that pictures whose intentions are merely to be offensive and stir up controversy should be avoided. Just as there is no need for pictures that are racist and downright malicious, there is no need for pictures such as the ones published toward Jesus Christ. All I ask is that the University stop this hypocrisy and make it clear that these kind of pictures should not be published and that we should celebrate diversity among everyone.
Josh Caba
University student