You're all racist!

There's been some noises on campus about white privilege, racism, and the need for expanded diversity on Western's campus, recently. Some of this was affirmed today in an editorial in the Western Front. Here's my response:

Tuesday's editorial, "Campus needs more color," fails to consider the implications of its policy recommendations. Among these recommendations are an increase in the availability of scholarships to minority students, and student advocacy aimed at increasing minority enrollment. A gripe is also levied that a class on diversity is taught by a white professor. The editorial further misrepresents how skewed enrollment of racial minorities is at Western, and fails to address the even more skewed enrollment of another minority group. In all, its greatest error is its failure to acknowledge the prejudice and unwarranted discrimination in its proposals.

Western does not currently operate a scholarship surplus, and so providing scholarships that would be available only to minority students would mean having less scholarships available for students that do not fit into a recognized minority category. Pressuring the admissions office to increase minority enrollment has the same implications. Western has a limited number of seats, and currently admits students on the merits of their minds, not the melanin in their skin. Injecting race into the equation is antithetical to the goal of anyone who truly considers themselves to be anti-racist, and would mean that some students who are less qualified than others would be admitted or given scholarship money solely because their parents had a different skin color than someone else's parents.

Attacking the credibility of a white professor to teach a class on diversity is racist, and makes no more sense than questioning the legitimacy of an Egyptologist for not being Egyptian. If the logic of this attack were allowed to continue, one could never hope to be both African-American and an expert on modern Japan, or a Jewish scholar of Islamic history, or a man with a degree in Women's Studies. We ought not to define or limit ourselves by those things that we cannot change, nor should we let others do the job for us.

The editorial also compares Western's minority enrollment numbers with national census data, which misleads the reader into the conclusion that there is a grand misrepresentation of groups in Western's student body. When Western is viewed as the state school that it is, the perceived injustice becomes much smaller, and the conclusion that drastic action needs to be taken is much harder to jump to. While the Western Front accurately writes that minority enrollment at Western is about 15 percent, it contrasts this with the fact that 30 percent of people in the country are minorities. However, the US Census reports that only 18.2 percent of Washingtonians are classified as minorities. Minorities are underrepresented by 3.2 points, not 15.

Even more underrepresented than racial minorities at Western is the sexual minority – men. While the Census reports that 49.8 percent of Washingtonians are men, the College Board reports that only 42 percent of Western's student body is male. Men are underrepresented by 7.8 points. Furthermore, the US Department of Education reports that Western graduates only 63.3 percent of its male students within six years, whereas 66.9 percent of female students at Western complete their degrees within six years. There is no outcry regarding this skewed misrepresentation, though.

Why is it that there is no group on campus addressing male enrollment problems? Why are scholarships based on race instead of merit proposed as solutions to a slightly underrepresented minority population on campus? The answer to this question is sexism and racism. White people, especially males, are assumed to have privileges and access that members of other groups do not. There is little compassion felt for those whose merits might be ignored in light of their race when they are denied admission or a scholarship, because they can surely always buy their way into school or just milk their trust fund for a little while or take advantage of some other thing that their white privilege entails them.

Treating white people and men as members of a group instead of as individuals is just as wrong as doing so with the members of any other group. All people should be viewed through a color-blind (and sex-blind) lens that emphasizes merit and achievement. Discrimination on account of race is racist, no matter who does the discriminating or who the discrimination is against.

Thank you,

Brandon Adams
Student Senator
Junior

Chiho Lai
Student Senator
Junior