2009/08/17
Why Diversity REALLY Matters….
U.S. News & World Report has an interesting piece on diversity by Aaron Thompson from E Kentucky U:
Why Does Diversity Matter at College Anyway?
It’s a nice list, but it’s not challenging enough. It’s all very friendly and beneficial in the way that businesses would find useful.
But that’s also a problem. For a focus on diversity that doesn’t also demonstrate the continued presence of discrimination–deliberate or systemic–is simply being co-opted by the status quo. If diversity is to be valuable, it needs to challenge us to confront and improve the systems of the world in order to make our ideals of equal opportunity and equitable treatment two steps closer to reality.
Businesses want their workers to get along, and they promote diversity for this purpose. But what the workers need is not simply a harmonius environment, but a just workplace with fair business practices. For instance, it doesn’t do any good for banks to have a workplace where diversity is valued if the banks continue to charge minority clients higher interest rates on loans.
May we learn to teach diversity in ways that lead to positive change in the world.
2009/07/18
Interesting Higher Ed News Items
One piece of good news–the U Cal system is following in the steps of U Washington, U Oregon, Oregon State and U Puget Sound in awarding long-overdue degrees to students who were prevented by the Japanese American internment from graduating.
A Degree, At Long Last
Some historical perspective:
Of the 700 students enrolled at the Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Davis campuses in the spring of 1942, about 400 were unable to graduate due to internment. Some faculty members and administrators fought to allow their students to continue their education, arranging for some to complete coursework while in the camps and enroll in universities outside the exclusion area.
Glad to hear that colleges are refusing to forget injustices done generations ago.
Another piece of good news that is somewhat controversial has to do with the rising gradution rates of male students at historically black Philander Smith College. Read the rest of this entry »
2009/07/14
Culture Wars re-flare in TX
The Wall Street Journal has an article about new textbook battles in Texas: The Culture Wars’ New Front: U.S. History Classes in Texas. The good news is that several of the people asked to review the curriculum have made suggestions that we do more to acknowledge the role of Latinos/as, Native Americans, Blacks, etc.
However….
Three reviewers, appointed by social conservatives, have recommended revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall.
“We’re in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it,” said Rev. Peter Marshall, a Christian minister and one of the reviewers appointed by the conservative camp.
Sigh.
I can agree that we’re in a moral and spiritual war for the soul of our nation, but it seems to me that in such a war, Chávez and Marshall are the good guys! They’re the people who represent the prophetic call on our nation to be a land of justice and equality for all people. Why should these two men, who have inspired so many to do wonderful things, be removed from the curriculum?
How’s the following for a non-sensical answer?
Reaching for examples of achievement by different racial and ethnic groups is divisive, Mr. Barton said, and distorts history.
Hunh? Showing minority achievement is divisive? Divisive for whom? For the latino/a and black children in the classroom? I can’t see how this is divisive to anyone–you’d have to feel threatened by the success of other social groups. (Of course, from my knowledge of Texas history, I’m not surprised by this….)
(Update: Beneath the article are more particular comments from each reviewer; you can see the full set of comments here. Here are the summaries of the comments about Marshall and Chávez:
Rev. Peter Marshall, a reviewer, calls Thurgood Marshall — who as a lawyer argued Brown v. Board of Education and later became the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court — a weak example.
At least he suggested Harriet Tubman, although he argues that there are “hundreds of others” who would be better for students than Justice Marshall. As for Chávez:
Two reviewers objected to citing Mr. Chávez, who led a strike and boycott to improve working conditions for immigrant farmhands, as an example of citizenship for fifth-graders. “He’s hardly the kind of role model that ought to be held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation,” Rev. Marshall wrote.
Rev. Marshall gives no explanation for Chávez’s unworthiness, other than claiming that it is “ludicrous” to place him next to Benjamin Franklin–but again, without giving any reason. Maybe it’s because Rev. Marshall doesn’t think that economics deserves its own module–he wants all discussion of the economic aspects of slavery reserved for the history module. Why are conservative Christians so unwilling to address economic issues?)
So, what do these folks want instead?
The curriculum, they say, should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good — and a key reason for American exceptionalism, the notion that the country stands above and apart.
I can agree that the role of religion needs to be kept in the history books. But I also recognize the critics’ concerns that religion is often over-stressed in teaching the work of the founding fathers. (And again, what I know about Texas history makes their concern over our Christian foundation rather ironic. I would hardly look to the founders of Texas for spiritual role-models.)
More importantly, however, is the fact that as Christians we should not be teaching American exceptionalism at all! How is this kind of national arrogance compatible with the scriptures? Isn’t this the sort of attitude that raises all the red flags of the prophets?
If we are going to reclaim a usable past, we must do it with a spirit of humility and inclusiveness. Let us be thankful to God for the blessings we have, but let us also acknowledge both the many mistakes we made along the way and the many contributions made to our nation by people from every corner of the world: north, east, west and south.
