by Matthew Schuster | A “race-cognizant” University?
In response to recent “racist activity,” a town hall meeting was held at Cohen auditorium concerning “stereotyping and campus climate.” According to Dean Sternberg, who delivered the opening remarks, the meeting was a “unique opportunity” to establish a consensus that “bigotry has no place at Tufts.” The event gave Tufts students and faculty a chance to voice their opinions about problems of race and diversity on campus. The views expressed, however, only served to perpetuate stereotypes and promote an inappropriate academic atmosphere.
Assistant Professors of Psychology Sam Sommers and Keith Maddox began with a series of interactive social psychology experiments intended to highlight the “unconscious” yet “pervasive” racist associations Tufts students make about ethnic groups. The professors proceeded to offer an explanation for the cognitive genesis of stereotypes and the harmful consequences that arise from social categorization. The “stereotype threat,” a well-known hypothesis to explain the relative shortcomings of black students, was put forth to the audience. This contends that a black student will under-perform when he is “primed” with certain information prior to taking a test. According to the theory, if the student is told the test will be diagnostic of his abilities, the student will score significantly lower than if he were given the test without any information linking his performance on the test with his ability and intelligence.
To combat stereotypes and their “harmful consequences” Professor Maddox urged the audience to reject “colorblindness” and instead highlight the uniqueness of individual ethnic groups. In particular, Maddox stressed that blacks have been “historically oppressed” and thus cannot be judged by the same standards we use for whites. Soon after the Tufts psychologists’ presentation, Susan Ostrander, Professor of Sociology, approached the microphone to draw “attention to objective conditions from which stereotypes emerge.” Lesley Lawrence, Lecturer in English, also spoke up to voice her support for what she called “race-cognizance,” an ideology to replace “colorblindness” that takes into consideration the unique histories of different societal groups. The Bias Education and Awareness Team (BEAT) assisted the professors’ agenda in performing a series of skits in an attempt to highlight students’ unconscious biases, unintended offensive remarks, and singling out of minority students.
Many minority students at the meeting indeed expressed frustration at what they perceived as unfair scrutiny and judgment, mainly echoing the same sentiment– feelings of undue weight and responsibility to represent their entire race. Student grievances focused on the Tufts administration’s reluctance to impose mandatory diversity sensitivity and education training in the academic curriculum. A student complained that their teachers were not in attendance and were not active enough in educating their classrooms in multicultural issues. One professor, who did not fail to show up, however, was Professor of History Steven Marrone, who lambasted the Tufts faculty for its unwillingness to hold more diversity conferences and attacked the Administration for inviting Shelby Steele, a well-respected critic of affirmative action, to the Snyder Presidential Lecture Series. Is Marrone suggesting that only those who support majority views at Tufts should be allowed to speak?
If students and faculty truly want to eliminate stereotypes and a hostile racial environment on campus, they are approaching the problem in the wrong way. Eliminating stereotypes requires judging people on their unique character, not on their ethnic heritage. Colordbliness unites us. Stressing our differences only further divides us. If students are concerned about being singled out and judged as a microcosm of their race, they should embrace a colorblind University which values ideas and intelligence over race and ethnicity. Affirmative action is the first roadblock in the way of minority students. In the wake of the recent controversy, President Bacow and Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin admitted that minority students receive special treatment. At the end of the town hall meeting, Lisa Coleman identified both an “enhanced budget for minority recruitment and additional admissions officers dedicated to minority recruitment” in a laundry list of initiatives to target minority students. If black students want to stop being “picked on,” their first step should be criticizing the admissions office for pursuing a policy that targets them and makes assumptions about them solely based on the color of their skin. Affirmative action only leads to more stereotypes and increased scrutiny.
The proper role of the administration in issues of diversity must be strictly limited to fostering a safe and open climate for debate. Forced seminars and mandatory meetings on cultural sensitivity are a waste of time for both students and administrators. Faculty members should also not be activists in the classroom. They should not, as one student suggested, pay more attention to students’ ethnic make-up. Students ought to learn from professors, not vice versa. Classes don’t function properly when they are tailored in any way towards a specific ethnicity. There are certain truths and fundamental values that should never be altered.
We learned in kindergarten not to judge a book by its cover. Now in college, we must remember this maxim as we study the book itself.
Mr. Schuster is a junior majoring in Russian and East European Studies and Psychology.
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