With the passage of the Diversity Plan by the University Senate, a well-deserved sigh of relief is being breathed by a great number of people here in the University community. It would be a mistake, however, to think that we as an institution are better today than we were yesterday. This is in no way to diminish the efforts of those who have worked so diligently for the last five years in the making of this plan, but it is to say that intention, which the Diversity Plan is of the highest quality, is nothing without action.
I am the son of a political refugee and a first-generation American of color. I was born and raised in this country in the era of the Civil Rights Movement; my parents are bi-racial, both from families that would have been happier to see them marry their “own kind.” Made manifestly clear to me throughout my life is that legislation means nothing, policy means nothing and intention means nothing. In recent years we have seen affirmative action law and policy turned against those whom it was intended to assist; we have seen free speech attacked by the press; we have seen the cause of freedom justify the oppression of others; we have seen totalitarianism enacted in the name of the people. The things that we say, the laws that we make, the agreements that we sign are only as good as their actualization; they are only as good as we, ourselves, are.
The cause of diversity is not a cause for people of color, it is not a cause for people with disabilities, it is not a cause for gays or lesbians, for people who practice nonmainstream religions, have less money, speak differently, act differently or are built differently. Diversity is not a cause for the marginalized and disenfranchised. It is a cause for everyone, and everyone has an equal share in its success or failure as a guiding principle for our institution and our society.
There has been a necessary fight for the Diversity Plan. Any soldier will affirm that you cannot risk doubt on the field of battle – that doubt puts both you and your allies in danger. So it has been in the fight for the Diversity Plan. Sides were drawn, perspectives narrowed, weapons honed and foes identified. These weapons must now be put aside. We can no longer risk enmities; we can no longer risk being right. We are not right – none of us, not those in favor of the plan nor those against it. We are all, every one of us, limited, flawed, weak and capricious. We are all prejudiced; this is our nature as humans.
If we are to live up to the high standard that this plan expects, we must look forward to, we must welcome, we must actively encourage discourse, disagreement and dissent of all kinds in the recognition that, no matter how strongly we might feel, we are limited; we are not right. Justice is a fickle and fragile master. Justice will not abide fear or anger, justice will not survive vengeance or pride. Justice thrives upon honesty and humility. Justice is not a state, it is not an act, it is not a law. Justice is a practice and a discipline, engaged in every moment of every day. Justice requires that we confront our most fearsome enemy – ourselves – and that we engage that enemy for as long as he or she lives.
Diversity is a cause for everyone. We must now listen in a serious and considered way to the voices of our fellow citizens of the University, to those who spoke against cultural reform, to those who raised fiscal concerns, to those who expressed fear for their own marginalization, to those expressed fear for the diminution of excellence in the classroom, to those who spoke in fear of homogenization and to those who spoke in anger at continued practices of prejudice. All are voices, and all carry a measure of truth. The silencing of even one of them – even one – is a singular betrayal of high ideals that lie at the heart of the Diversity Plan.
Jonathan Wei is coordinator for the Nontraditional Student Programs with the University’s Office of Student Life
Without active encouragement, Diversity Plan has no significance
Daily Emerald
May 30, 2006
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