AS ACTIVE proponents of education about historical inequities at the University, we have not come to the decision lightly to critique De-stereotype Day and Sustained Dialogue. We greatly support the effort of Sustained Dialogue to engage students in dialogue about race; however, we believe this dialogue has been gravely misappropriated.
Our scrutiny of these programs has often been dismissed by the University community as being misapplied, and for it we have even been critiqued by members of the administration and student body. However, we believe that now is a time at which we can make constructive criticism and work to correct past misdirection. At the same time, our arguments are not new: We follow in the footsteps of anthropologists Courtney Childs and Huong Huynh, who have addressed this subject in the academic realm. Two years later, we apply their conclusions to the current state of institutionalized student diversity programming at the University.
In this brief column we will make three points: First, programs like Sustained Dialogue hinder educated dialogue about race and equity at the University by applying the burden of one-way cultural communication on institutionally disadvantaged communities. Second, by buying into these programs we encourage a dialogue of "tolerance," which is code for "minorities aren't as good as the unmarked normal, but we still must accept them as equals." Finally, De-stereotype Day, while well-intentioned, fails to directly confront the problem of stereotyping and instead reinforces the stereotypes it seeks to demystify.
Sustained Dialogue teaches participants that dialogue about present-day racial construction is more beneficial than learning about historical inequities. Moderators are instructed to avoid race theory in favor of personal, emotional discourse. As Childs proves, personal tales do not explore the theoretical and institutional barriers that minority communities face. As a result, SD participants tend to take offense if someone tries to explain privilege and institutional power by referring to theory because it does not play into the superficial discourse that SD propagates.
Groups like Sustained Dialogue focus on dialogue only, encouraging belief in the myth that minorities have equal standing in our community and that they will be willing to approach a historically white organization like the Honor Committee, UJC and Student Council with the same vigor as whites. We have not reached the stage where minorities feel accepted in these historically white organizations. As Huynh revealed, the effort minority students expend is directly proportional to the historical inequities they face. Minority students face the burden of representing their communities on a daily basis, and in doing so their primary obstacle is that mainstream students don't understand the history of their struggle. By ignoring this struggle and the ways in which race and other subjectivities have been constructed over time, it essentializes and homogenizes racial groups.
Secondly, a discourse of "tolerance" emerges in organizations like Sustained Dialogue. Tolerance has become one of the dirtiest words used to explain diversity on the American college campus. It implies a hierarchical relationship between the marked and the unmarked. This hierarchy is reinforced by groups like Sustained Dialogue. Whites join these groups to prove they aren't racist, and, as a result, the dialogue that is so valued by these organizations becomes useless when true beliefs become masked behind a veil of camaraderie and racial tolerance.
Finally, stereotyping is a social reality we must acknowledge. However, by embracing de-stereotyping we reinforce the stereotypes students claim not to embody by projecting an imagined "normal" self as the opposition to the actual self. Thus, when a white person says "I like hip-hop music," she assumes that appreciation of hip-hop music is completely detached from the white psyche.
This further institutionalizes generalizations about a people.Dwelling in the realm of generalizations is not unusual in our society; however, it is a pitfall that we must recognize and discourage.
We by no means wish to devalue the hard work put into planning Sustained Dialogue and events like De-Stereotype Day, but we sincerely hope organizational reform is on the horizon. Dean of Students Penny Rue told us, "In the diversity world we can't go beating up on each other." As such, we have not picked this fight lightly. In fact, we are taking a stand because we are tired of confronting Sustained Dialogue graduates who claim they "don't see race" and don't feel it necessary to continue to confront institutionaled wrongs.
In order for historically disenfranchised communities to confront a historically white institution, they must not play into its framework by reinforcing marginalization through dialogue steeped within the hegemonic system. Until we chart a new course for programs like Sustained Dialogue, we will be distracted from the larger fight -- that of educating students about the meaning of racial constructions that they will encounter in the real world. Ideological care giving by the majority has been embraced for too long. It is time for us to confront institutionalized marginalization and do so in an educated manner.
Ryan McElveen is the Student Council Chief of Staff. Patrick Lee is the former President of the Asian Student Union.
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