De- Or Re-Stereotypes?
The University of Virginia, according to this report, has just enjoyed its third annual “de-stereotype day.”
The University of Virginia continues to work on fixing race issues on grounds. They have dealt with housing, and political cartoons, and Wednesday, it was stereotypes.It seems to me, however, that, far from defying stereotypes, this sort of annual display of self-congratulatory feel-goodism simply re-enforces a stereotype of college campuses (or in the case of UVa, grounds) as hotbeds of political correctness.More than 1,500 students walked the grounds in white t-shirts with written messages to defy stereotypes. Their words were different but their collective message was there is more to everyone than meets the eye.
The goal was to get people to acknowledge and talk about stereotypes and hopefully to keep that conversation going. Organizers say some people do not think they are stereotyped, but they say it happens all the time.
Say What?
Diversiphiles rely on stereotyping. They claim that each demographic group possesses inherent qualitative differences worthy of solicitation. Those qualitative differences surely must be detectible through testing.
Whenever they decide that they need a black or a woman to provide those inherent qualities, they don't look beyond the surface of the applicant to verify the presence of those inherent differences.
Need someone that "thinks like a woman"? Any woman will do. No need for testing that woman to make sure they don't "think like a man" instead. 100% of women are presumed to think like a woman. 100% of blacks are presumed to possess that distinct black perspective -- no need to test for lurking "oreos" in that bunch.
Posted by: eddy | September 26, 2008 11:00 AM