I'm back with a diversity attack!

Well, here it is, the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and I'm finally getting a chance to update my blog. Again, it's been a long time.

As I told you on my last blog, Sankofa had a fish fry on November 10th and I videotaped a little bit of it. Next week, I'm going to go back to school and work on getting that vlog out for all of you to see.

Now, back to the nitty gritty. If you read my very first blog in this series, you'll notice that I made this statement: "As any of my dear friends can tell you, I'm what people call "real." And since the names of our blogs are called "The Real Deal," that's exactly what my blog is going to be. The Real Deal. UIS in all of its glorious splendor and in some of its not-so-glorious splendor."

So, let's get real, shall we? Let's get real on "diversity." (oooooooohaaaaaaah)

I grew up on the Southside of Chicago. In case you didn't know, Chicago is considered to be the most segregated city in America. Hell, I didn't know that different ethnicities lived on the same block in the inner-city until I went to college and found out that some of my friends from St. Louis had white neighbors. Dr. Martin Luther King even said that out of all the marches he'd done in the South, he'd never felt the level of hate that he felt when he came to Chicago to fight for housing rights. So, as you can imagine, in a city like that, I didn't hear much about diversity. People keep to themselves and it's seen as acceptable. And when they don't keep to themselves, there are often dire consequences. (Like the Black boy who was brutally beaten in Bridgeport [a white neighborhood on Chicago's Southside] simply because he was riding his bike in the area. Of like my friend in high school who's family received death threats because they moved onto an all-white block. This happened in 2001.)

But when I first went away to college, I started hearing this buzzword. Diversity. It's defined as, "The fact or quality of being diverse." Diverse is defined as, "Differing one from another." Plain and simple. Short and sweet. Diversity is simply the presence of different kinds of people. At least, that's what I had been taught. But all of a sudden, I was seeing all these other things being attributed to "diversity." I started to hear and read statements like:

"Dedication to diversity is part of the fabric of the university and integral to its vision..."

"Our Human Rights Policy ensures access, diversity and inclusion for our students and our employees and serves as the foundation for greater understanding, tolerance and respect for every individual."

"the attainment of diversity is the responsibility of every person and the path toward greater civility."

All of a sudden, diversity means appreciation and respect. It wasn't just the presence of different kinds of people, it was about welcoming people of different ethnicities, abilities, sexual orientations, genders, religions, nationalities, classes, and social backgrounds.

My issue wasn't with people changing the meaning of the word. That's done very often in the human language. Although it's original meaning only referred to the presence of difference, I could see how people would want to use it for other reasons. People change word's meanings on a regular basis and once enough people come to understand the word in its new meaning, it can be used in that capacity. My issue was with the words they put along with diversity.

"Commitment"
"Tolerance"

Let's take on commitment first. One thing I've always noticed about different "diversity" groups (groups that supposedly focus on promoting diversity) is that they're wishy-washy. They're "of the moment" kind of groups. What's the hot topic of today? Let's address that! Who's being picked on the worst right now? Let's help them! Now, I understand that as times change, people must come to address different issues, but just because you start to address different issues doesn't mean you should stop addressing other issues. A few weeks ago, I attended two "diversity group" meetings within the span of a week. I heard very little about any concerns dealing with ethnic minorities. In fact, during one of the few times when ethnic minorities were briefly mentioned in passing to a "more important" issue, misinformation was given. Chicago State University was referred to as a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). My mother attended Chicago State in the 70s when it was Chicago Teacher's College and she was one of the few Black people there. So, even if CSU had been predominantly Black for 25-30 years, that doesn't make it an HBCU. But I suppose that, when talking about Black people, accurate information is not necessary.

In another brief acknowledgement, ethnic minorities were referred to as "special needs" groups. Now, while we might have some needs that White students don't have, the term "special needs" is often associated with those who have psychological or learning disorders. Being Black is not a disorder.

So where's the commitment here? Surely nobody could possibly think that after 400 years of the most brutal kind of slavery and more than 100 years of state-sanctioned racial discrimination, violence and prejudice could be eradicated in the 41 years since the National Voting Rights Act? (And I'm being lenient. We all know the quest for true justice didn't start in 1965!) So why is it that we're already finished talking about the needs and rights of African-Americans? Commitment? I think not.

Tolerance is word number two. This word is derived from the word "tolerate," which means, "To allow without prohibiting or opposing." Basically, tolerance is when you really don't like a person, but you don't take active steps to harm that person. (Of course, now people have changed the definition to imply appreciation and respect, but that's not the original meaning.) Wow. Gotta love it. So, after 400 years of free work, all my people get is toleration? Hmmm, you'd think we'd be getting thanks. Guess not. I don't feel as if I should be tolerated. I feel that I should be respected. Perhaps I'm alone in that summation.

It really all boils down to realness. We live in a politically correct time when people try to say the things they think they ought to say. (See how confusing that sentence was? That's just how confusing the situation is.) So, people pretend to care about "diversity" because they know that, if they don't, they'll have problems on their hands. And those of us, who have been historically (and currently; look at Katrina) mistreated sometimes are prone to buying into the rhetoric of these groups without ever taking a serious look at their sincerity, or lack thereof. Don't tell me that you're committed to true diversity and then lose your commitment as soon as something more interesting comes along. Don't tell me about tolerance as if that's something to be desired.

I know that I can't make people like me as an African-American woman. There are people who are just flat-out racists, and that's a-OK with me. It's not about getting people to like me, it's about making sure that their dislike of me doesn't effect my opportunities. That's all it's about. And if you're not committed to that, you're not committed to diversity.