Ella Baker put it best when she proclaimed, "We are the leaders we've been looking for." Spoken in the context of the civil rights movement, these words were a call for action during a particular time of calm and complacency. They represented a new brand of civic engagement, one in which the pursuit of diversity and inclusion would not simply be left to a few. We are all in this together.
In 2001, a group of student leaders sought to form an organization in this spirit with the goal of advocating for the shared needs and concerns of minority students at the University. Now celebrating our 10th anniversary, this organization has grown into the Minority Rights Coalition. We are an umbrella organization for the American Indian Student Union, the Asian Student Union, the Black Student Alliance, Feminism is for Everyone, the Latino Student Alliance, the Middle Eastern Leadership Council and the Queer Student Union.
Our mission is simple - to realize a University community that truly embraces diversity in all of its forms. The conversation on 'diversity' itself is just as relevant today as it was 10 years ago at the MRC's formation.
Our University community is in a state of flux after several events that occurred earlier this year. In an open letter sent to Dean of Students Allen Groves on March 28, 2011, a Jewish Lawn resident reported a pair of incidents that would disgust anyone in our community of trust. In one instance someone prominently wrote an anti-Semitic epithet on his Lawn room door. Twenty-four hours later, two individuals stole an Israeli flag the student had displayed outside his Lawn room.
Then, in late April, a black University Law student filed a complaint of police misconduct and racial profiling in response to an incident he alleged to have experienced on the Corner. The student also wrote a detailed account of the alleged incident in an open letter to the Virginia Law Weekly. This student soon confessed to fabricating the whole story, admitting that the incident with the police never even occurred.
From the latter incident we get a major takeaway: Diversity is certainly not something to be taken lightly. From the former incident we get another important lesson: Perhaps it is time to re-brand 'diversity.'
'Diversity' does not just include race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. It also includes freedom of religion and belief, as well as diversity of thought and perspective. Liberal sentiments like these inspired our University's founder, Thomas Jefferson, to pen the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1777. Freedom of choice lies within the fabric of diversity; it is what makes our University community vibrant and worth inhabiting. It is the role of groups like the MRC to protect that freedom.
This revised brand of diversity also has a new face: inclusion. I believe 'inclusion' connotes 'accountability.' We are not only accountable for ourselves and our actions, but also accountable to the communities we represent. For instance, if a particular student group acts on behalf of the whole University student body, then that group is accountable to all students and the concerns of students in minority communities should be a part of its vision.
I believe that this is the purpose of the MRC: to do everything in our power to foster a culture of inclusion at the University. This certainly cannot be accomplished fully in a day or a week, otherwise there would be no need for an MRC on our 10th anniversary. But it directs our every goal for the next year: leading from the front in responding to any racial bias incident, creating value for the minority communities we represent, fostering diverse leadership throughout the University and serving the University as a whole.
Let us not forget what Ella Baker said, however. Each of us is responsible for helping create a culture of inclusion at the University. We simply cannot wait on any one group to do it for us. To the class of 2015, welcome to your new home! This is not just Mr. Jefferson's University, it is now yours too.
I offer you a challenge for not only your first year, but for the rest of your time at the University: Step outside your comfort zone, make a friend with someone from a different background and attend an event showcasing a culture that is different from your own. Not only will you learn more about someone else's perspective, but also you may discover more about yourself. To each member of the University community, I ask one final question: Are you the leader we've been looking for?
Evan Shields is the chair of the Minority Rights Coalition.
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