Diversity Day: What's Behind Door Number One?

Louis Acri, senior philosophy major/French minor, wore his JSU (Jewish Student Union) hoodie on Diversity Day. Acri is a member of both JSU and Pride Alliance. One member of Pride noticed his JSU hoodie and said, “Oh. Are you Jewish?” Acri responded that he wasn’t.

Acri pointed out to his friend that being a non-Jewish member of JSU was the same thing as being a straight ally: a heterosexual member of Pride Alliance. The term “straight ally” applies to heterosexual people who are actively supportive of gay rights. Acri didn’t feel that he needed to be Jewish in order to be in JSU. When asked why he was a member of JSU, he said, “I went to an activities fair, and I talked with every table and asked why should i be a part of your group. They [JSU] made a strong case: they said that they wanted to help preserve their cultural heritage and share it with people who weren’t aware with what being Jewish was about.”

In the spirit of its widely varied cultural palette, SUNY Fredonia held its first annual Diversity Day on November 11, 2009. The Center for Multicultural Affairs sponsors identity-based student organizations such as BSU (Black Student Union), JSU (Jewish Student Union), Latinos Unidos, Native American Student Union, WSU (Women’s Student Union), and Pride Alliance (formerly GLBSU, or Gay Lesbian Bisexual Student Union). Almost all of these groups scheduled a presentation as an opportunity for students to be more informed about the different culture-based organizations on campus.

At noon I attended the Jewish Student Union sponsored lunch in the Pucci room. The cute and catchy title of this event was, “Feeling Bluish? Eat with the Jewish.” The buffet table displayed posters alongside each food explaining its cultural significance. As I was waiting in line I read that that apples dipped in honey is a Rosh Hashanah tradition symbolizing a sweet new year. Noshing on a triangle-shaped cookie called a hamantaschen, I thought about how this representation of Jewish culture might function influence a person’s understanding of Jewish culture. Would they think that all foods eaten by Jewish people had to have symbolic meaning?

Identity is much more fluid than current terminology allows. An individual’s identity is an excellent place to begin when trying to understand the complexities of diversity. Everybody has to start somewhere, but people should ideally end up a different place then where they began. People are likely to join clubs out of self-interest. For example, I am a woman of “watered-down” Jewish descent, a feminist, and a straight ally who believes in equality for all genders and ethnicities. If I were to join every club that aligned with one aspect of my identity, I wouldn’t have time to do my homework. Add to that joining clubs that are not identity-based, and I wouldn’t have time to go to class.

Students should hopefully come away from college with a broader scope of ideas than what they started out with. To this end, identity-based groups function to provide students with a base context for self-identification. But identities overlap, and singular aspects of current labels are too tight for the fluidity of expansion. Labels that function to define gender or race or sexual orientation end up isolating one group from another.

The organizational structure of Diversity Day mirrored this pattern of isolation. Instead of being held in a common space, each club held presentations in separate rooms with closed doors throughout the William’s Center. An expansion of cultural awareness seemed less likely due to this setup. Going to presentations felt like being part of a secret club: students needed to know when and where each individual meeting was in order to go. It seemed that students were unlikely to accidentally stumble upon the eye-opening awareness that the event was trying to promote.

Diversity Day concluded with a speech in the MPR by Ruthie Alcaide of MTV’s “The Real World: Hawaii.” She spoke from experience as a self-proclaimed ethnic “mutt” of seven ethnicities, as well as being a bisexual. She said that as long as people make assumptions based on appearance, there will still be prejudice. She compared prejudice to walking into a cafeteria and seeing all the black students sitting at one table, all the Chinese students sitting at another, and so on. She suggested to students that they should, “step outside your comfort zone and introduce yourself to other people. No matter how diverse the community is, there’s still a lot of segregation.” Although Alcaide presented many good points, her speech devolved into the topics of alcohol safety and the celebrity lifestyle. Alcaide proceeded to gloat about how fun partying is to a group of mostly underage college students.

Since diversity is not a fixed point, those in favor of creating multicultural awareness might consider focusing their efforts on bringing these groups together in order to expand understanding. Organizing and categorizing diverse groups without overlap only functions to facilitate continued isolation.

If the purpose of Diversity Day is to create an openness of cultural awareness, then it seems counterintuitive to host each event in its own closed room. One way of handling this in the future might be to put all of the events in one room in order to promote visibilty. If we want to celebrate the diversity that is already present on our campus, then collaboration seems like the way to go. Fortunately, many groups on campus already do co-sponsor events. For example, WSU co-sponsors events with Pride Alliance like Take Back The Night and The Clothesline Project. More events like these would facilitate a much-needed expansion of dialogue. The groups are here, all they need to do is open their doors.