Diversity Initiatives

[Inspector Fowler]

Please let me rant here:

The university I work at strives very hard to be "diverse". It's frustrating to me. There is a difference between minority outreach (traveling to predominantly Hispanic or black communities, for example, and telling them about your college), and simple pandering. My university has minorities in numbers hugely out of proportion with the local community.

I remember my senior year when a 4.0 student at my high school, who is 25% Hispanic, was wondering if she should accept a scholarship for being Hispanic. What the fuck? You get money because of your ancestry? For ethical reasons (and I applaud her), she chose to rely on her other scholarships that she had earned with her extremely hard work.

I know we've got a racially, culturally, sexually, etc, diverse group here at CoG. And I like that. I really, really like the huge number of different groups I can interact with on campus. But seriously, the university is now talking about how it needs more scholarship help for minorities. Goddammit, when did the color of your skin mean you got free fucking money for school? I know, I know, it's been that way for years.

It's one thing if a private group wants to give, say, black students money. It's another when the state university starts talking about increasing scholarships to minorities so they can appear more diverse. I've about had it. Academic achievement should be the determining factor in assistance, not skin color.

[Narradisall]

Racial discrimination is still just that regardless of how it is 'prettied up'.

I love that some uni's here outreach to poor area's with brilliant kids in order to make them get the most of their future, but they probably would be able to get that based on their grades alone.

Your last sentence pretty much sums up my opinion too.

I find some diversity decisions to be extremely scary, especially in job cases where underqualified people are appointed to meet the ethnic 'quota', even more especially so where the safety of others in concerned.

Thing is, if there wasn't the racist root problems causing this discriminatory backlash (which in itself breeds more racial tensions) then we wouldn't be in this position in the first place.

[Vulture]

instead of going by race, they really need to just increase grants to the poor. that's the real issue, not race.

giving certain races a clear cut advantage doesn't do much imo, other than perhaps raising the income bracket of a small percentage of people and create animosity from those that don't feel they are being considered fairly and on the merits that count. i know the argument is that certain races are considered 'disadvantaged,' but i don't buy that it's based on race anymore. the disadvantages that are being attempted to be rectified are purely economical. a poverty stricken white male has the same disadvantage as a poverty stricken Latino woman.

[Shrinn]

I don't get any scholarships for being white.

I'm totally against race-based awards and punishments. It just keeps making race a factor when it doesn't have to be.

My university is the same way.

[Shieldmaiden]

a poverty stricken white male has the same disadvantage as a poverty stricken Latino woman.

Precisely. It's the poverty stricken bit that is the disadvantage, not the race or gender. And if that isn't the case, then it's obvious that we still have work to do in terms of extinguishing discrimination in education and the workplace.

[Inspector Fowler]

I suppose it is important for me to say that I do believe in financial assistance for people who can't afford it. If you've worked hard during high school, you should be able to attend a university without racking up $60K in debt.

[Shieldmaiden]

I suppose it is important for me to say that I do believe in financial assistance for people who can't afford it. If you've worked hard during high school, you should be able to attend a university without racking up $60K in debt.

I wouldn't have thought for a moment that you didn't. I think it's apalling that there are people who think that financial assistance shouldn't be available. To be fair, I'm somewhat biased. Yesterday I completed enrollment for my Literature degree course through the Open University that's being completely funded due to me being completely broke.

That's a lot of completes.

[Doogie2K]

I don't get any scholarships for being white.

I'm totally against race-based awards and punishments. It just keeps making race a factor when it doesn't have to be.

My university is the same way.

They'd fucking burn you at the stake if you suggested a scholarship for being white, and that's the hypocrisy: it's perfectly okay, and even encouraged, to be racist so long as the minority is benefiting. Me, I think that if you don't deserve something on merit alone, you shouldn't get it on the basis of your melanin levels. The fact that old white men made race a factor in decades past shouldn't mean their successors continue to do so, but the other way.

[Shrinn]

it's perfectly okay, and even encouraged, to be racist so long as the minority is benefiting.

Indeed it is. And thank you for calling it what it really is, racism. None of this dressing it up with the word "reverse" to make it seem beneficial or retaliatory and therefore okay.

[Tel Prydain]

What would be interesting is giving a grant for students where the criteria is that you can qualify on grounds of above-average grades, but are not eligible for any other grant.

[Ultima Thulian]

It's all part of the magic that is the lameass wave of white guilt. What was once something with good intentions has now become a paradoy in and of itself.

HOWEVER, I don't blame anyone for using their race or whatever to get what they want. Morally bankrupt? Maybe. But it's part of the game. Shit, when I was trying to get scholarships for school, I really wanted to be a female black jewish apache lesbian, just so I can just dive into all that delicious government cheese.

[TurboKinny]

Just be glad they haven't yet resorted to doing this. (http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/09/02/doctoring-diversity-race-and-photoshop/) :mad:

[Narradisall]

Just be glad they haven't yet resorted to doing this. (http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/09/02/doctoring-diversity-race-and-photoshop/) :mad:

See, from an outside perspective, and having no idea about that uni I can't possibly imagine that because a football game at the uni has a predominantly white crowd that its packed full of racists.

... and it worrys me that people do things like this to try and counter people that either believe that, or they think they might.