Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPhil
White people aren't not winning with this.
The key is multitasking. Boasting "have all different types of minorities...from looking at pictures" and "my daughter and her sorority are concerned, they are just sisters" are cliche' statements whites tend to make when discussing race. This topic has to do with race and GLOs but the foundation is the same. It reeks of "I see 'those people'...they are here...and there's plenty of them" and "we are colorblind...I need to pretend I don't notice our differences in order for us to love each other".
Why do many white people feel the need to proclaim this? It reinforces this notion of whiteness as a carefree, race neutral, and powerful identity. Just because you claim not to notice or think about something doesn't mean it is void or invisible. It doesn't mean that everyone else, including the racial and ethnic minorities themselves, do not notice or think about it. That is one of the foundations of tokenism. Race, gender, and other minority tokens are expected to smile and pretend as though their minority status is moot 24/7.
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Just a general observation - I don't think anyone has a carefree life. Everyone has challenges in life to overcome, everyone deals with problems that come their way, and yes some people have more difficulties in their lives for different reasons. It is good to have open and honest conversations with people who have different opinions knowing that there are times people may just have to agree to disagree.
I have known minority sisters of my sorority and I have known minority sisters of divine nine sororities. One divine nine member girl I knew was shocked that my sorority had an African American local alum and to her it was unacceptable the lady was not a part of the divine nine. Truthfully I was surprised this was her take on the situation but whatever. To each his own. Go where your heart leads you, be who you are and who you want to be. No one owes anyone else an explanation about who they are to others.
Observing diversity in any organization is not a value judgement except that it seems to indicate that more people are relating to others according to the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin/religious beliefs/sexual orientation. Considering that all of our respective orgs began in another time when there was significant segregation (and when it was rare for women to even go to college at all), it is natural that orgs would continue as they have traditionally. It is nice to see that recently all groups have been more open outside of that tradition so that each individual is free to pursue membership in their own way and with a group by mutual selection and choice.