Back to School

This most recent article (click on the title of this post above for the article) published in The Ithaca Journal on the racial tensions at the Ithaca High School and the communities it serves, shows how important it is for diverse communities to work together. It also indicates how segregated the neighborhoods continue to be even in very liberal Ithaca. It's worth asking, who is your neighbor? If that person is a lot like you or if you are the only one like you, you’re likely living in a segregated neighborhood.

What's happened at the Ithaca High School also shows that "celebrating diversity" is only genuine after conflicts have been addressed, otherwise it's just another party, which is nice don’t get me wrong, but don't call it social justice, equity, or multicultural education.

The last several weeks at Ithaca High School are a microcosm, not just of our region but also in the U.S. This is going to seem obvious, but here it goes; high school students attend college and therefore the same issues that are present in high schools come to colleges. The three months (for traditional aged students) between high school and college are not enough time to unlearn the biases and prejudices that have been socially learned for the previous years. Most bias and prejudice arises out of fear and not knowing people different from ourselves. And this happens because we live in segregated neighborhoods based on race and class as well as in a society which continues to be racist, classist, sexist, abilist, ageist, and homophobic (and a whole lot more of intolerant and violent things). So when we all get together at school, whether it’s high school or college and I’m including here students, staff, and faculty, most people don’t know how to be friends with the stranger because we lack experience of living with people different from ourselves and are socially conditioned to fear the other (xenophobia). It’s a pretty big shock to be thrown together like that in a classroom and celebrate it, too.

The vote by the ICSD School Board which reversed its previous decision and the new attempts at bringing understanding about what people have in common as well as what is different is a good step. But it came about not through celebration, but through active student and parent protest. What will now happen with the Kearney vs. ICSD case remains to be seen, but this community has begun to look itself in the mirror. I have to say, what’s been going on in Ithaca is likely one of the best lessons about diversity ever taught at that school. It hasn't been nice and it hasn't been pretty, but it's been real.

Oh, and here is a weird thing. Last night I got a text message that said, "Hi babe its me. My phones being gay" and then another text from the same number, "Text me on here." I checked the number because it was one that I didn't know. The call came from Utica, NY. It must have been a mistake. But, still... you get my point. This is out there. Let's face it.

James Watson Retires After Racial Remarks

from The New York Times
By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: October 25, 2007

James D. Watson, the eminent biologist who ignited an uproar last week with remarks about the intelligence of people of African descent, retired today as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island and from its board.

In a statement, he noted that, at 79, he is “overdue” to surrender leadership positions at the lab, which he joined as director in 1968 and served as president until 2003. But he said the circumstances of his resignation “are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired.”

Dr. Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for describing the double-helix structure of DNA, and later headed the American government’s part in the international Human Genome Project, was quoted in The Times of London last week as suggesting that, overall, people of African descent are not as intelligent as people of European descent. In the ensuing uproar, he issued a statement apologizing “unreservedly” for the comments, adding “there is no scientific basis for such a belief.”

But Dr. Watson, who has a reputation for making sometimes incendiary off-the-cuff remarks, did not say he had been misquoted.

for the complete article click on the title of this post.

Doing The Right Thing (Finally, and Closer to Home)

Pastel, facing calls to resign, looks to move ICSD forward
By Topher Sanders
Journal Staff

The day after the Ithaca City School District Board of Education unanimously voted to withdraw a controversial challenge of New York's human rights law, Superintendent Judith Pastel apologized for her part in the challenge.

The challenge was brought to an end Tuesday; the board initially supported the move with a 5-3 vote and one abstention on Sept. 25. The district's attorney contacted the Third Department of New York's Appellate Division on Wednesday to inform the court of their intention to withdraw the challenge.

Changes of heart

Before casting their votes to end the challenge, every board member shared words with the public Tuesday about the current state of the district and the reason for their change of heart.

The overriding theme in board members' comments was healing and moving forward, while telling the public that the board heard their messages.

“Every vote I have ever taken, I have taken because I sincerely believed that what I was doing, what I was voting for, was in the best interest of children in the district,” board member Deborah O'Connor said during the meeting. “I voted for the appeal initially because I truly believed it was in the best interest of our children. I never, ever intended to deprive our families and children of recourse to discrimination.

“Since then I have learned some new information, since then many things have happened in our community and when it comes time to vote, I am going change my vote,” O'Connor said to applause from the crowd. “I'm willing to listen, and when I am wrong, I'm willing to change my vote.”

O'Connor's sentiments were echoed by the other board members.

for the complete article in The Ithaca Journal click on title of this post.

Bomshel's Power of One

This is from Debbie whose son works with Bomshel. Maybe this duo could get me back to listening to country. One by one we add up to something. Thanks for sending this Debbie.

Bruce Springsteen - Long Walk Home

Here everybody has a neighbor
Everybody has a friend
Everybody has a reason to begin again

My father said "Son, we're lucky in this town, It's a beautiful place to be born.
It just wraps its arms around you, Nobody crowds you and nobody goes it alone"

"Your flag flyin' over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone.
Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't"

It's gonna be a long walk home.

Few Answers About Nooses, But Much Talk Of Jim Crow

from The New York Times

By PAUL VITELLO

Published: October 21, 2007

At least seven times in the past few weeks, nooses have been anonymously tossed over pipes or hung on doorknobs in the New York metropolitan area.

BALDWIN, N.Y., Oct. 19 — All the nooses are different, the police say. Some are coiled six times, some eight. Some are simple knots. The one found here the other day, suspended from a fence in a Highway Department yard, was wrapped with duct tape. All are blunt instruments of racial intimidation because of what they represent.

“They represent terrorizing black people and keeping them in their place,” said Ruth Roberson, a parks employee who is black, pausing on Friday morning while raking leaves. “Now they don’t lynch you. It’s all about jobs.”

Willie Warren, a county worker, won a discrimination suit.
Photo credit: Kirk Condyles for The New York Times

For the complete article click on title of this post.

Lambda Legal Urges Ithaca City School District to Retract Its Stance on New York Human Rights Law

'The human rights law is the only effective law that expressly addresses antigay discrimination in New York schools. Attacking it jeopardizes LGBT students.'

(New York, October 18, 2007) — In an effort to persuade the Ithaca City School District to abandon its stance that the New York Human Rights Law does not apply to public schools, Lambda Legal today sent school board members a letter critiquing the board's argument and explaining the potential harm the board's position could cause.

"The human rights law is the only effective law that expressly addresses antigay discrimination in New York Schools," said Hayley Gorenberg, Deputy Legal Director at Lambda Legal. Attacking it jeopardizes LGBT students."

In response to charges of racial discrimination, the Ithaca City School District defended itself by challenging the New York Human Rights Law, stating that the law should be interpreted to exclude public school students from its protections.

In the case that raised the issue, a young African-American girl alleged relentless harassment by a group of white students while riding the public school bus to DeWitt Middle School. Her mother, Amelia Kearney, said she reported the incidents but was given little to no help. She claims that the district failed to protect her daughter from racial harassment. In defense against this claim, the Ithaca City School District not only contested the specific facts, but argued that the human rights law does not apply to public schools. When a state Supreme Court judge ruled on September 11, 2007, that the law applied to schools, the school district launched an appeal contesting that holding. Its decision to challenge the NYHRL has garnered harsh criticism from community members and civil rights organizations.

At its October 23 meeting the Board of Education will discuss a proposal to discontinue its challenge to the applicability of the NYHRL.

The above is a press release from Lambda Legal. For more information click on title of this post above which will take you to the press release and the actual letter (pdf file) Lambda Legal sent to the ICSD School Board. Also, there is an article in today's Ithaca Journal.
...
The connections being made here between the rights of LGBT students and students of color to seek remedies for discriminatory and unlawful actions underline the importance of how civil rights for TLGB people against homophobia and the struggles by people of color against racism are inseparable. For those of us who are TLGB people of color, race and sexual orientation have been inseparable in struggles for civil rights because we are never just gay or just ethnic. Race, sexual orientation, gender, class, ability, all of these are inseparable one from the other. To consider any of these social categories "one at a time" or in isolation from each other results in a very incomplete analysis of any particular situation. Because homophobia, sexism, classism, and racism are systemic, any system that enables and supports one most likely supports the other forms of oppression. This is why speaking out and taking action against only one, i.e. homophobia, will always be incomplete action. What is happening at the Ithaca High School and the impact this is having on the larger community is a microcosm of society. It is a local eruption of national issues. If this is what is going on in Ithaca, arguably the most liberal city in central New York, what can we expect more broadly in our more conservative region?

Telephone Threat Closes County Human Rights Office

By Raymond Drumsta
Ithaca Journal Staff

ITHACA — The Tompkins County Human Rights Commission closed its office and relocated its staff Thursday because of a vague threat made by an unidentified male caller in the morning, according to commission officials.

The man called twice, and both calls seemed to be related to the ongoing racial tensions at Ithaca High School.

On his first call, the man said the commission staff should be ashamed of themselves, and he contended the commission isn't standing up for white children's rights, according to Shawn Martel-Moore, the director of the Tompkins County Human Rights Commission.

When the staff member encouraged the caller to come in to the office, on State Street, to file a complaint if he had one, the man asked who funded the commission and whom it answered to, Moore said. Though the staff member responded that the county did, the man hung up, she added.

...

for the complete article click on title of post above.

Absences Spike Over Ithaca High School Safety

Nearly half of students absent; Ithaca police continue patrols
By Topher Sanders
Ithaca Journal Staff

ITHACA — Almost half of Ithaca High School's student body was absent from school for at least half of Thursday, estimated Ithaca City School District Superintendent Judith Pastel.

The absences came after parents expressed concern for their children's safety due to rumors this week that something violent would occur at the school.

...

for the complete article click on title of this post above.

Message Received

Bias incidents, hate speech, and hate crimes target individuals but are meant to send a message to everyone from that culture, race, sexuality, gender.

City of Ithaca and Cornell University Address Intolerance

City, Cornell address intolerance
By Krisy Gashler
Journal Staff

ITHACA — Two of the community's biggest institutions — the City of Ithaca and Cornell University — have given public declarations about tolerance and diversity in the last two weeks.

“Recent incidents in our community and elsewhere serve to remind us that intolerance remains a continuing problem in American society,” said Cornell President David Skorton in an Oct. 11 statement.
...
Cornell spokesman Simeon Moss said Skorton's statement was prompted by national, local and campus news, and by last week's visit by the Dalai Lama.

“It's really not specifically pointed at any incident, and I think it's also a message of tolerance and the university's historic support of diversity, keeping with the recently expressed message of the Dalai Lama.”

When asked if the statement was prompted in any way by the racial tension exposed in the last month by the Ithaca City School District's challenge of the state's Human Rights Law, Moss said the statement is meant to address “the things that have been in the media, recently and in the past year.”

The school district is defending itself against a claim that it did not protect a student who was allegedly repeatedly racially harassed in school and on the bus. The suit has resulted in protests at the district administration building, at a board of education meeting and at Ithaca High School.

In a separate incident last February, a white Cornell student stabbed a black visitor on campus after the visitor confronted the student for shouting racial epithets.

The city proclamation was largely motivated by an incident reported by former Common Council alderman Shane Seger, D-1st, according to Common Council alderwoman Maria Coles, D-1st.

At the Common Council meeting Coles reported that while Seger and his partner were walking in the city, they were “verbally abused by a group of young men with reference being made to the fact that Shane is gay.”

“It was one of the few times in his life, here in Ithaca, the only time that he really felt afraid,” Coles said.

For the complete article from The Ithaca Journal, click on title of this post above.

Even closer to home, Nick Foos (Wells '08) has started a group on Facebook called, "I will NOT condone Homophobia at Wells College" as a response to recent bias incidents on campus. This group is open to everyone, so if you are on Facebook check it out.

From David Skorton, President, Cornell University

Friday, October 12, 2007

We must reach beyond our comfort zones and connect with one another.

Recent incidents in our community and elsewhere serve to remind us that intolerance remains a continuing problem in American society. Despite the progress we have made as a campus and as a nation, too many people in our own country and around the world judge others on the basis of their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability status or other such characteristics. Closer to home it is clear that Ithaca, for all its charms, is not immune to the affliction.

As a campus and as a society, we must find avenues to encourage all of us to learn to engage cultures and people who differ from us. Cornell has been pursuing these avenues through efforts that include A Tapestry of Possibilities, University Diversity Council public forums and, of course, our curriculum.

This year we will be launching four additional diversity programs. We believe that these programs will help us to identify areas of the campus climate that need work and help us to develop strategies to understand and engage unfamiliar cultures and contexts on campus, across the U.S. and around the world.

I encourage you to get involved in these programs (see http://www.cornell.edu/diversity/whatarewedoing/initiatives.cfm ).
I also encourage you to get in touch with the University Diversity Council, a group I co-chair with Provost Biddy Martin. We are eager to hear from students, staff, faculty, alumni and visitors. You can e-mail us at diversityinput@cornell.edu.

Last but certainly not least, I challenge each of us to get out of our comfort zones regularly so that we might understand the
perspectives of others.

This week Cornell was privileged to host one of the world's foremost spiritual leaders, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whose message of tolerance and peace speaks directly to the moral thinker who resides in each of us whatever our worldview may be. The Dalai Lama's ethos is one to be emulated, given the disturbing increase of high-profile news stories reporting incidents of intolerance across America and right here in Ithaca.

Let us remember the Dalai Lama's message: We are brothers and sisters, all part of the same humanity.

For more coverage on this and to see what Ithaca and Cornell are doing against racism and homophobia check out the article in The Ithaca Journal by clicking on the title of this post above.

American Psychological Association Takes Position Against Racism

APA Opinion-Editorial

This week, another college campus was the scene of a noose carefully placed to threaten, intimidate and shock. On Tuesday, a faculty member found the meticulously tied rope on the office door of Dr. Madonna Constantine, a well-respected African-American psychologist at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

This incident comes on the heels of nooses found outside the African-American cultural center at the University of Maryland, in the personal belongings of a black cadet and a white faculty member at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and, perhaps most notoriously in recent months, on the so-called "white tree” at a high school in Jena, La. The people who employ these symbols are certainly aware of their power. For black Americans, the noose is a potent reminder of the nearly 5,000 African-American men and women who were hanged by whites from 1890 through the 1960s.

This spate of noose placements serves as confirmation of the findings of a significant body of psychological studies showing that discrimination and prejudice persist in significant and demonstrable ways in our country.

Research has indicated that while most people believe themselves to be free of prejudice, many also harbor attitudes that may lead to subtle discriminatory beliefs or behaviors. This contradiction between self-perception and actual behavior indicates that everyone needs to be vigilant about their own attitudes -- and what we might be inadvertently teaching others around us, particularly children and students.

There is also widespread agreement among social scientists that the social categorization process -- making assumptions about people based on their race or ethnic group, including racial stereotyping -- is a virtually automatic and often unconscious process.

The strategic placement of a noose, however, involves forethought, planning and outright hostility. Indeed, these campus incidents are being investigated as hate crimes, and the perpetrators most certainly deserve strong sanctions that clearly condemn such despicable acts.

What does psychology tell us about the backgrounds and motivations of people who commit hate crimes? For one thing, they are not mentally ill in the traditional sense; according to psychological scientists, they're not diagnosably schizophrenic or manic depressive, for example. What those who engage in hate crimes do share, however, is a high level of aggression and antisocial behavior. More than just a prank people who commit hate crimes "are not psychotic, but they're consistently very troubled, very disturbed, very problematic members of our community who pose a huge risk for future violence," according to Dr. Edward Dunbar, a psychologist at UCLA who has studied hate crime perpetrators from a clinical and forensic perspective. Dunbar also notes that childhood histories of such offenders show high levels of parental or caretaker abuse and use of violence to solve family problems. Alcohol and drugs sometimes help fuel these crimes, but the main determinant seems to be personal prejudice, which distorts people’s
judgment, blinding them to the immorality of what they are doing.

People who commit bias crimes are more likely to deliberate and plan their attacks than those who commit other types of crimes, Dunbar adds. In addition, those who commit hate crimes show a history of such actions, beginning with smaller incidents and moving up to more serious ones. As for those who bear the brunt of these vicious acts, they tend to suffer emotional damage, often with the hallmarks of post-traumatic stress disorder. Hate crimes can create intense feelings of vulnerability, anger and depression.

On a more positive note, research has demonstrated that stereotypical thinking may be reduced as a consequence of contact between people of different races. For example, research results indicate that interactions among students of different races can diminish racial stereotyping, contribute to building cross-cultural respect, and enhance social and communication skills. What’s especially encouraging about these findings is that they are particularly strong among children in K-12 learning environments. Thus, early positive experiences of diversity prepare children for the diverse world they will inhabit.

The impact of diversity is indeed complex, but for most of us, it is not double-edged. Once we can overcome any initial discomfort with new experiences, we are prepared to derive many long-term personal, occupational and social benefits. Violence and hate crimes can have serious consequences for the mental health and well-being of victims and communities.

My colleague Dr. Constantine is particularly knowledgeable about the various experiences that produce an individual who engages in hate crimes. I hope that her many years of research, teaching and advocating for cultural competence can help her to withstand this unconscionable attack. But mostly, I hope these repugnant incidents will be a catalyst for us all to become more committed to eliminating racism and hate.

Sharon Stephens Brehm, PhD
President
American Psychological Association

Getting the Message

Dr. Madonna Constantine is arguably one of the most well known psychologists who work on issues of race and racism in the United States. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association’s divisions 17 and 45, and a member of division 35. The designation of “Fellow” in APA is an honor. Dr. Constantine does not limit herself to working against racism, she works to engage students in processes of transformation which can get at the roots and routes of other biases and prejudices which are harmful for human development; sexism, classism, and homophobia.

Whoever placed a noose on the office door of Professor Madonna Constantine sent a message to all faculty who engage with, theorize on, work against racism on our college campuses. To place a noose at her door, places a noose at all our doors. Our message back should be as clear as what Professor Constantine said to supporters outside the doors of Teachers College, “I will not be silenced.”

The responses by Teachers College students and the wider Columbia University community largely state that racism is alive and well. It just takes an incident like this – whether a “prank” or a real threat, to bring what is always under the surface back into the light of day. The noose as symbol and historical fact in the hateful crimes of lynching is today a reminder that working against racism is still work which puts you at risk and makes you a target.

Some weeks ago I wrote a post on the UCE signs and what my sister and her partner thought while driving on “The Scenic Byway” where these signs crowd out the beautiful view. These signs are also messages of intolerance that not only affect the Cayuga Nation but anyone who is against intolerance in Cayuga Count(r)y. Ultimately, they affect all of us because they become part of the landscape. Intolerance becomes taken-for-granted; just another overgrown weed along the road. Literally, intolerance becomes part of the scenery.

A noose at Professor Constantine’s office, signs which denigrate the rights of sovereignty of the Cayuga Nation, and the raiding of work places to arrest Latin@s who have children born in the U.S. who are indeed left behind because their parents are being sent back across borders without due process: These are part of the larger social context of injustice within which we all live.

Each message is written to you even though it is happening to someone else.

Noose Case Puts Focus on a Scholar of Race

Prof. Madonna G. Constantine being greeted Thursday at Columbia’s Teachers College.

By ELISSA GOOTMAN
Published: October 12, 2007

In Madonna G. Constantine’s classroom at Columbia University’s Teachers College, emotions can run high.

“People have cried in class,” said Dr. Constantine, 44, a professor of psychology and education who specializes in the study of how race and racial prejudice can affect clinical and educational interactions. “Uncovering those issues, students often get to a place where it can be painful."

For the complete report from the New York Times click on the title of this post above.

Photo credit: James Estrin/The New York Times

Noose at Columbia University

Hate Crime @ Teachers College

Professor Targeted in Hate Crime at Teachers College, Columbia University

Madonna Constantine, Professor of Psychology and Education and Director of the Cultural Winter Roundtable on Psychology and Education. She has written many books and articles on racism, cultural competency, education, and psychology.

Dr. Emo writes, "Not just in Louisiana schools, mi gente. Right here at an Ivy League university in New York. And not just in the Big Apple either. Let's be honest about racism. It's here, too."

For the complete article in The Columbia Spectator and to read the comments posted in response to this news, click on the title of this post above.

from CNN: 3:20PM Oct. 10, 2007. Dr. Constantine spoke with protesters who are voicing their support for her and demanding action against racism. Dr. Constantine stated, "I will not be silenced."

"Instead of sending soldiers, send students"

from The Ithaca Journal

Seek peace from within, Dalai Lama tells crowd in Cornell’s Barton Hall

By Krisy Gashler
kgashler@ithacajournal.com
Journal Staff
Oct. 9, 2007

ITHACA — From the home of Cornell’s ROTC program, His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke today about peace.

Five thousand people filled Barton Hall to capacity for the first of three public events in the Dalai Lama’s third visit to Ithaca.

“Genuine peace comes through inner peace,” he said. “Internally, (if you’re) full of hatred, full of suspicion, full of fear, then through that way, (it is) impossible to achieve genuine peace.”

The Dalai Lama told his university audience that they could help alleviate inequality and suffering in developing countries by educating students from these countries.

“Bring or welcome more students from these poorer countries,” he said. “Give them vision, give them self-confidence, give them skill.”

He ended his speech by praising America’s Peace Corps, instituted under President John F. Kennedy.

“Instead of sending soldiers, send more students,” he said. “America part of humanity, Africa, same human family. Brothers, sisters who have prosperity, go (to) these areas and bring more prosperity."

Photo credit: SIMON WHEELER / Journal Staff

You can hear/see the talks by His Holiness the Dalai Lama streamed live on-line. Click on title of this post above to get the schedule.

Introspection as Resistance and Revolt: Transgender Pedagogies and Interdisciplinary Queer Studies

That's some long title, ¿verdad? And what does it mean?!?! That's what we're going to find out. I'm not kidding, we really are trying to figure out what this means by having a dialogue. Ednie Kaeh Garrison and I will be part of a dialogue session at the American Studies Association annual conference this week with Kate Bornstein, Susan Stryker, and our very own Jenna Basiliere (Wells '05). If you'd like to see what we'll be talking about click on the title of this post above to download PDF file (it's also the title of our dialogue session). I'll let you know how it went when I get back and what transgender pedagogies might look like. Let's just say that if we take gender seriously as having some effect/affect on our teaching, what would it mean to queer gender in our teaching? We're dedicating our session to Will Liberi. Will was the first guy to take Psychology of Women with me at Wells when we were still a women's college.

ENDA

Sign the petition to tell Congress to support the original Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ENDA, and accept no substitutes. Click on ENDA (title of post) above for more information.

Word

This week I went to a talk at Cornell by Andrea Smith, author of the book, Conquest: Sexual Violence And American Indian Genocide. Professor Smith is at the University of Michigan. Smith made so many connections between violence against Native women and the global oppressions of capitalist industrial complexes such as, academia, the military, and the state that I couldn’t help but start to try and write out a few connections of my own.

First, Smith deconstructed the word “Crime” and then “Hate.” So, what happens when these words are put together by the State and we get, “Hate Crimes?” Smith argued brilliantly that what we get is that the State gets to define what is hate and what is a crime and guess what? Genocide isn’t a hate crime. Hate crimes, as concept, physical violence, and law, becomes co-opted by the State and used to benefit all those who already benefit. Yet, most people would say the Hate Crimes bills are good and necessary. This is a tension because both positions are true. Smith asked us to imagine other ways of eradicating violence against oppressed peoples that don’t fit within this paradigm. Can you do it?

I’d been thinking a lot about diversity as a word, exclamation, and question. These are the ways I’ve been thinking about the word: “Diversity!” and “Diversity?”

The first way, “Diversity!”, represents a multicultural sampling approach where everything is delicious even if a bit strange and exotic but not too hard to swallow after all you can brush your teeth in a few minutes. Don’t forget to floss. It’s fun to stand in line and taste good food. Music also falls into this category because everyone knows that whether you love this diversity music or not you will be able to turn it off in just a minute and as soon as you get to your car you can get back to NPR. Folkloric speakers and dancers fall into the multicultural sampling as well because these can be consumed as products of another culture without any changes of heart but let you feel good about having participated from the comfort of your own dominant spaces. Applause applause applause, wasn’t that beautiful?

Now, there most definitely is a place for beauty. No, let me correct that, there must be beauty. I cannot live without beauty. But beauty as multicultural sampling by itself is fashion and here I’m trying to see if “Diversity!” is more than fad. Multicultural sampling as representative of the “Diversity!” approach is fundamentally about consuming the other as a commodity with the concomitant capitalist action of having a “choice” of what to consume. If you like it, you buy it, you stay. If you hate it, you leave. In either case, nothing changes but you participated, you had a choice, you can tell people you love chicharrones. I mean you wouldn’t eat them everyday because they clog your arteries, but it was nice to have a taste of that fried food.

So what does “Diversity?” have to offer that is any different from exploitation and consumption of the other? Well, it has this question to deal with for starters. It also is a question rather than a claiming of the other’s beauty, food, and music. But is a question enough? No. It’s a different start. What if you went to a “Diversity!” event and asked, “How is this changing systems of exploitation?” “Am I consuming the other like any other brand of product?” It sounds kind of like this; “Today we’ll have a speaker from X country to talk about her people’s struggle against genocide. Free and open to the public.”

Okay, these words need to be deconstructed in a manner that Smith was advocating. What do these words produce in you? What do they allow you to imagine? How is the public constructed? Is genocide just a word you can go and listen to and then go eat chicharrones? What does it mean that this talk is free? Even saying that it is free is to say that we could charge you for this, we could ask for money. Requiring tickets more clearly illustrates that diversity is a product you would need to buy. And if you have to buy it, you’ll decide whether or not it’s worth your money. You might ask yourself, “Diversity?” But, I’m not advocating for selling tickets to “Diversity!” What I’d like to know is if you can imagine something different than “Diversity!” and “Diversity?”