House Editorial: Teaching ‘tolerance’ in today’s schools
Education diversity initiatives, by any other name, smell as discriminatory
Posted on November 16, 2006

Diversity is one of the most important issues facing the United States today. Just ask Elisabeth Brose.

In 2000, Brose was denied her first choice of high school because of diversity initiatives in her hometown of Seattle mandating the student body must represent the racial makeup of the community.

Essentially, she was forced to go to another school because she wasn’t the right color. Elisabeth is white.

Similar initiatives are in place in Louisville’s Jefferson County, where the public school system says each school’s enrollment must be at least 15 percent black, but not surpass 50 percent. The plan is intended to “diversify” area schools that lean too far to one side of the color spectrum.

But apparently there are limits, as implied by Jefferson County’s limit of half black. Guess 51 percent is too much. As we have learned in the wake of the Title IX fiasco here at JMU, when dealing with people, you can’t play the numbers game. Humanity trumps color in all cases and if we keep color-coding everything and everyone, that’s all anyone will ever see.

The problem here isn’t a new one; it’s just been rephrased. In the 1950s, it was called segregation. Today, we call it diversity.

The argument for initiatives like these — and ones in place here at JMU — is to promote diversity and raise awareness about other cultures. The purpose of these movements being to make amends for past transgressions against minorities.

The idea is nice, but the implementation on the ground is still racist.

For whatever reason, the distinguishing of race should have no bearing on anything. To single out race, even in the name of equality, is still racism.

Instead of continuing the centuries-old problem of judgment by shade, why not scrap diversity initiatives, affirmative action and weeks devoted to the exalting of our cultural differences? In their place, why not actually judge people on what all these initiatives really promote: a person’s merit and most importantly, a person’s humanity.

A good start would be erasing all the color boxes from college applications and accepting those most qualified for admission. Do the same thing for jobs and hire the person best suited for that position and make “regardless of race, religion and gender” true.