Diversity activists at UVa, building on the momentum produced by the alleged attack on now-Student Council President Daisy Lundy, are pressing various demands on an administration that seems quite willing to comply with them. As the Cavalier Daily reports today,
The debate continues on Grounds over the breadth and urgency of University efforts to pursue and promote greater diversity in the wake of multiple racially-charged incidents over the past year.
Two weeks after the attack on Student Council President-elect Daisy Lundy and five months after two fraternity party blackface incidents, University officials contend the school is making progress toward a more racially-sensitive campus.
While appreciative of immediate administrative efforts following the assault on Lundy, student groups continue to express concern that University officials lack a commitment to longer-term solutions.
Black Student Alliance President Tyler Scriven said the most paramount question to minority students is whether the University makes real, institutional changes in the coming months.
Despite several University-sponsored programs in the days immediately following the recent assault, Scriven said student groups have “yet to have a firm commitment” from the administration to help pursue their goals.
“At this point, I don’t know if the administration has committed the money and resources needed” to address minority concerns, Coalition Chair Ryan McCarthy said. “Students will only be satisfied when tangible steps are taken.”
One problem is that, so far, these demanded “tangible steps” remain somewhat less than tangible. They do, however, involve money.
Concerned students drew up a document, which broadly outlined ways to make the University more welcoming to minorities following the attack. The document, titled FORCE, calls for increased funding for minority initiatives, the creation of an Office of Diversity and Equality, more hiring of minorities and a greater retention rate of those faculty members.
The document also requests expanded minority studies programs, something administrators say only can come about after curriculum reviews by individual deans.
According to University spokesperson Carol Wood,
The University acted very quickly and appropriately. The next test is what is going to happen next. I think you will find a commitment from this administration for the long haul.
Another front page article reported on gatherings in which “Students Urge A Change To Racial Climate at University.” Anthropology professor Wende Marshall opened one meeting by calling the University “a bastian (sic) of white supremacy” and “likening the campus to a plantation.” The demands for change included “[l]etter writing campaigns, event attendance and active discussion,” in addition to hiring a diversifier-in-chief (my term) and increased funding for diversity education, “minority recruitment and retention,” and improving “the current racial climate and cultural space.”
The Washington Post also ran a story today on the diversity fervor spurred by the reported attack, with additional evidence that the demand for change has outrun specific ideas for change.
“We all know change needs to happen. It’s a matter of figuring out what this change should be,” said Ryan McCarthy, chairman of the Coalition, an alliance of several minority organizations on campus. “There needs to be someone who can be held accountable, whom the students can go to when something like this happens.”
This statement nicely reveals how the alleged attack has come to represent the “climate” at the University more than an actual crime. There are already, after all, people “whom the students can go to when something like this happens”: the Charlottesville chief of police and the University’s chief of security. Of course, nothing “like this” has happened … at least not since black Charlottesville High School students attacked white and Asian University students in six incidents over several months in 2001 and 2002.
Interestingly, the Post reports that the University has elected five black Student Council presidents since 1990. Ms. Lundy is thus only the first minority woman to hold the office. She refused to be interviewed by the Post, which quoted her statement (discussed here) that her attack is symbolic of “a larger problem of exclusion” at UVa.
The Post reports that whites make up 70 percent of UVa’s undergraduates, Asian Americans 10.8%, and blacks 8.9%. Thus blacks, who make up 19.6% of Virginia’s population, are “underrepresented,” although hardly excluded. Whites, however, are also slightly underrepresented, since they are 72.3% of the state’s population. Asian Americans, as one might now guess, are substantially “overrepresented.” They make up only 3.7% of Virginia’s population, but 10.8% of UVa’s undergraduates. One wonders if Ms. Lundy, who is half Korean and half black, prefers quotas on Asians in order to promote higher percentages of blacks. (For that matter, I also wonder in which category she is counted.)
A number of classes at UVa were devoted to discussion of the attack, and the Post reports on some comments in Anthropology 357. (Curiously, there is no Anthropology listed in the online course offerings.)
In Anthropology 357 this morning, the lecture was postponed in favor of a discussion about the blackface controversy, led by Michael Dunkley, a senior who is co-president of the Black Fraternal Council. “My first reaction was anger, that I can’t believe this is happening at U-Va.,” he said. “My second reaction was, ‘I can believe this. This is U-Va., the crown jewel of the South.’ ”
The racially mixed class then launched into a wide-ranging discussion about “the objectification of the black body” and the concept of “the noble savage,” questioning whether liberal critiques of national security adviser Condoleezza Rice as a “puppet” of President Bush are racist, and whether white sportscasters condescend to black sports stars by calling them “natural athletes.”
Some white students agreed with the call for more diversity education — “I need to be forced to deconstruct race,” said one man — while others expressed concern about the demand for more ethnic studies.
Other students, apparently not overly concerned about deconstructing race, were concerned about the rampant self-segregation.
“Everybody stays in their own little groups,” said Derrick Crews, a sophomore who is black. “You see the Asians by themselves, the blacks by themselves — there’s not a lot of mingling.”
Diversity in action.
Perhaps the concrete steps to be taken should include the banning of whites on campus. Since it is only whites who can be racist, only whites who attack students, it seems that would solve the problem.
Were there witnesses to this attack?
As usual an extreme act or implied act has the opposite effect. There was a sympathy vote. And why is the Women Lawyers group so active with the lower school? There is not too much connection between main campus and the professional schools on Massie
I find the point about Lundy being half-asian and half-black fascinating. I hope someone asks her whether she believes that the school should cap the number of asian students since their overrepresentation appears to come at the expense of the state’s blacks.
It must be really galling to the preferentialists that a non-white immigrant group (Asians) would actually flourish in America, the same racist Amerikkka that put every obstacle in their path to success. Asians have had to deal with the same bigotry, hatred, and intolerance, as other non-white groups, but somehow (and this is what perplexes them) managed to overcome them.
The logic underlying the proportionality standard is fatally flawed, regardless of whether it’s applied to college admissions, job hires or compliance with Title IX.
The “proportionality-logic” follows this form: since we know that discrimination causes disproportionate representation, all disproportionate representation must be due to discrimination. That is as fallacious as saying that since all Fords are cars, all cars must be Fords.
The logic ignores the possibility that factors other than discrimination may lead to disproportionate representation.
Brian O’Connor
How dare anybody think that only whites can be racists. Blacks, Asians, Arabs, Jews, and many other races too numerous to mention suffer from it, too.
If you travel around the world, you’ll see that racism is not limited to the Americas.
Racism may have developed a name in the US, but it was certainly around much longer than the white and black fighting that you Americans call “racism”.
Also, Asians and other races may have had the same bigotry that Black Americans have suffered. But, remember that American Blacks were enslaved and are suffering from centuries of disrespect of their persons- by the whites.
The whites were not treated like the Blacks in the US, and don’t know what it’s like to have only experienced a full freedom to express themselves in the past 30-40 years or so.
If there are complaints that there there is not a proprionate share of blacks at each historical white universities, what are the proprionate shares supposed to be at the historical black universities such as Norfolk State and Virginia State? Are they now suppose to be only 19.6% black and 72.3% white? Don’t count on that happening and it wouldn’t be fair to the students of the past that would like to see their children go there if they can be admitted.
There seems to be a double standard here. I would think that instead of looking for equal percentages at each school, that the overall representation of all the state colleges and universities should be looked at. I don’t see how anyone could expect to have equal representation at certain schools but heavily in their favor at other schools. That sounds equal but unequal.
Realistically, the best solution would be to allow the most qualified students to go where they prefer and hope that all races are fairly represented. I don’t think that anyone should be given preferential treatment because of what happened 145 to 229 years ago. Students today all have the same opportunities if they apply themselves and do the best they are capable of doing in elementary, middle and high schools. Let’s hope that we have reached a time where all people have the same opportunities.