[577] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: "diversity" and GIRs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aisha D Stroman)
Tue May 8 20:41:42 2001
Message-Id: <200105090041.UAA04062@w20-575-93.mit.edu>
To: asarahm <asarahm@MIT.EDU>
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU, adstrom@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 08 May 2001 20:24:02 EDT."
<200105090024.UAA14516@biohazard-cafe.mit.edu>
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Date: Tue, 08 May 2001 20:41:12 -0400
From: Aisha D Stroman <adstrom@MIT.EDU>
Well, the main issue is that because we have such flexibility with the HASS
requirement, you can as easily avoid taking a class that deals with cultural
diversity as I avoided a history class (very very easy).
The issue is not race diversity, to me, but cultural diversity, which is too
often connected to race, and it's very different. There are Indians who are
Carribbean, who share a different culture than Indians from India, yet are the
same race. It's about understanding and learning about other's cultural
experiences, which will hopefully lead you to experience new things at MIT.
But race diversity will end up playing a part in it, because that is the only
kind of diversity people can physically see.
Many people have never been to an event like the Indian Cultural show because
they don't think they'd be welcome, when the reality is that EVERYONE is
welcome there. The same thing applies for the Black Graduate Student
Association's Ebony Affair, and Chocolate City. Yet, we continually see a
racially homogenous group at events we throw, though they may very well be
culturally diverse. If there was a class a person had to take that taught him
more about Indian culture, I truly believe he would feel more comfortable in a
room full of Indians and he was the only non-Indian. Honestly, people who
LIVE in New House are afraid to go in CC and some into House 2, and it's not
like we don't invite them. People have said they feel intimidated because
they are out of their comfort zone. We have people who dont' think the
Tutorial Services Room is available to them because it is run by the Office of
Minority Education. Why do they even think that would be legal??? So race
does become an issue.
I believe that each cultural group on this campus has thrown at least one
event that was open to the public and saw nothing but their own folks
there--people who looked like them, hung around them, and didn't really learn
anything they didn't already know. And time and time again, I hear people
complain that they don't go because "they didn't know they could go" or they
were "uncomfortable." If people didn't want you to go, do you think they
would have told you about it, or advertised it all over campus??? If you feel
uncomfortable, you should ask yourself why. Is it because no one looks like
you? Is it because you think that you don't have anything in common with the
organization throwing the event? I seriously doubt that you have NOTHING in
common with them.
Anyway, everything on this campus is open to EVERYONE. No one can exclude
anyone, so I wish people would stop assuming they aren't welcome without even
trying to join. Maybe if we could get that through people's heads, and if
people were willing to step out of their comfort zones, we wouldn't be
thinking about a culture class.
aisha
>> from the HASS website (web/hass/www/hass-d.html) : the 5 HASS-D
>> categories are "literary and textual studies", "language, thought and
>> value", "visual and performing arts", "cultural and social studies",
>> and "historical studies". HASS-Ds are designed to a) get you to
>> think in new ways about the world and b) make sure that students's
>> courseloads are well rounded (i.e., they don't take only art).
>>
>> i think a lot of HASS classes and HASS-Ds are good at helping you find
>> and appreciate diversity in your surroundings. there are science
>> classes that do too - ecology (1.018) is a good example, IMHO. i
>> think appreciation of diversity is one of those "aha!" things rather
>> than something that can be explained... but sometimes you have to be
>> put into the right context to get the "aha".
>>
>> personally, i think that adding more hoops to jump through is a
>> REALLY bad idea. 1/3 of our program here is already decided for us,
>> with a small amount of flexibility.. if we like diversity, we should
>> like diversity of course options too... :) if you feel that the
>> current HASS options don't really address diversity, i would
>> lobby the HASS faculty and ask for it to be emphasized more in HASS-Ds.
>>
>> but what do we mean when we say something is "diverse"? i think when
>> a lot of us (myself included sometimes) say diversity we really mean
>> race diversity. i've lived with folks from more states than i can
>> count, from 5 countries, and with native speakers of 4 languages other
>> than english (hindi, bengali, russian, and spanish). i consider the
>> people i have lived with to be "diverse" but are they? the majority
>> (by far) of the people i have lived with in my life have been white.
>>
>> i think it would be great if that *weren't* the case - if my hallmates
>> and housemates and roommates over the years had better reflected the
>> US racial demographic. and i think it would be great if more classes
>> at MIT discussed cultural differences and what creates them.. (the
>> gov. class i'm taking at harvard had a unit on identity creation which
>> was really interesting.. ). but i don't think it would be great if
>> that class was 1/2 full of people who were pissed off at taking that
>> "bullshit" or if some of my housemates didn't really want to live with
>> me, but were forced to for the sake of "diversity".
>>
>> my $0.02,
>> asarahm, who doesn't believe in requirements and almost went to
>> brown for that very reason.
>>
>>
>> ______________
>> Sarah McDougal
>> Environmental Engineering
>> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>> asarahm@mit.edu
Aisha Stroman
MIT
Computer Science and Engineering
------------------------------------
It's not our responsibility to prove to people who we are.
Our job and responsibility is to "be."
What you do is proof of who you are; manifestation is realization.
People have a right to think whatever they choose to think.
Just because they think it does not make it right.
--Iyanla Vanzant
