As a student who grapples with the relationship between race and politics in the classroom, I am proud to say I belong to a dedicated mass of students who self-identify as ethnic studies majors and as students of color. The work being done on campus today, such as the Five-Year Diversity Plan, the Underrepresented Minority Recruitment Plan and the upcoming (hopefully) departmentalization of ethnic studies, is critical because it accurately reflects a degree of progress that the University of Oregon has made during the last few years on issues of race.
But what is most important is to understand why this work has to be done in the first place. I appreciate ASUO President Emily McLain writing and voicing her approval of ethnic studies as an academic department and a critical discipline, as well as her support of things like the Five-Year Diversity Plan and the recruitment and retention of faculty and students of color. But President McLain doesn’t mention the simple reason that such policies exist and why such efforts must be made in the first place: racism.
Advocating on-campus diversity and making the University as inclusive and welcoming a place as possible is great, but it seems to ignore the fact that we as students of color must voice our opinions through such channels because of racism. Yes, racism still exists today in the American university. It still clouds perceptions and fosters inequality, even if you can’t see it. It still separates persons based on a trait that has been scientifically disproved and academically criticized. And despite what progress has been made in combating racism since the 1960s, it remains evident, albeit less direct, at our University.
It is because of years and years of racism that many universities have ethnic studies departments. It is not, despite what many think, due to the fact that diversity in a college setting is good (although, I firmly believe it is critical to any undergraduate or graduate student experience). Racism is the reason that we must departmentalize ethnic studies, and for that matter, any discipline that works to deconstruct and understand something that is as American as apple pie. Centuries of discrimination and inequality based on race need to be discussed in a setting that embraces them with adequate funding, a strong mass of dedicated students and professors and most importantly, a desire to reverse the historical trend of subordinating some persons on the basis of race.
Racism is the reason that we need to departmentalize ethnic studies. We as a university need a discourse to understand this complex issue. As a student who experiences how being classified as a program instead of a department works against this effort, I urge anyone who morally believes that racism, discrimination and inequality are detrimental to the University to voice your opinion in support of ethnic studies. Perhaps then we as one collective body can accept the fact that racism exists, and work to defeat it through the most effective academic outlet.
There is no reason we need to repeat history and continue to operate in a society or institution that does not fight racism. If we understand the racism evident throughout our nation’s history, we can understand how it still operates in the present and together unite to improve the future.
David M. Van Der Haeghen is a political science and ethnic studies major at the University.