Diversity. Someone’s always talking about it. Someone’s usually complaining about it. But nobody seems to be looking at it in an appropriate manner.
Our attempts to explore and celebrate diversity by emphasizing that organizations such as fraternities, sororities, and leadership organizations exclude other races, sexual preferences and religions are inadequate. If we alienate, for example, an organization that excludes members who are not African American, we are propagating the problem rather than resolving it.
How, then, can we say that we are exploring diversity if we create microcosms unique to each race? No one would call a group of all white males working together on a project “diverse.” Emphasizing, therefore, that an organization excludes all races, sexual orientations or religions, save one is the wrong approach. We must examine how these organizations unite under a shared race, religion, sexual orientation, what have you, to integrate, improve and enhance the diverse community.
The most constructive way, therefore, to explore diversity is to relate these organizations to the heterogeneous environment in which they function. It is not important to stress that all of the members of Omega Psi Phi fraternity are black. It is, however, significant to explore their work within the community. The color of their skin pales in comparison to their Foster Grandson program at nursing homes, their work with Habitat for Humanity, and the Assault on Illiteracy Program.
When we stress only the discriminating factors of these organizations, we are underlining the wrong things. Diversity relies on the heterogeneity of any given group of people. We need to stop alienating groups that represent minorities and start looking at their values and purpose in the big picture.
We also need to begin analyzing organizations and groups that are, more so than those previously mentioned, diverse — such as racially exclusive organizations that strive to benefit the diverse communities in which they live; organizations in which black, Asian American, Hispanic and white students alike work together toward a common cause or share a common interests and goals truly represent diversity.
I do not see diversity in groups that isolate themselves based on some basis of their identity. I see diversity in organizations that work together notwithstanding members’ skin color, sexual preference, religious practice, etc.
I also see diversity in organizations such as Delta Sigma Theta sorority, in which members unite as black females to enhance their community. Shared race, sexual preference, religion, political party, nationality … (I could go on) should be used as a jumping off point. It is where we come together with another group of people, identify with them and use our solidarity to contribute to the larger picture. We should never view these shared aspects of identity as a means of estranging and isolating organizations.
If we really want to answer the question of diversity, we need to start taking a different approach. Let’s look at diversity in a way that celebrates heterogeneity, rather than creates homogenous microcosms.