I was tempted to ignore the solicitation for opinion pieces on the state of race relations at Dartmouth because I was convinced that writing an op-ed would be a waste of my time. None of the opinions I have on the issue are novel or unique and every experience that I have had and every emotion that I have felt has been articulated by others without any serious institutional change resulting from it. I have neither the time nor desire to repeat what has already been said a thousand times already and duly ignored by the larger Dartmouth community and administration.
Then I decided that my frustration was worth writing about. Why have the same sentiments, concerns and experiences been expressed about the state of race relations at Dartmouth and yet very little has been done to recognize them as institutional problems? I would like to hold a mirror up to the Dartmouth community including our absentee Trustees and ask each and every one of us, why hasn't the reflection staring back at us changed?
To illustrate my point, I have chosen the Student Life Initiative report from last year as a mirror because it is a great example of the perceptions and realities of race relations, and the fallacies inherent in the present methods used to address this issue.
The SLI committee overall tried to walk a very thin tightrope when addressing race related issues in their report and for good reason. The document tried to acknowledge and refute the outside assertions made by some media publications that Dartmouth fosters an environment hostile to racial pluralism while simultaneously conceding that some of the facts that led to that conclusion are true.
For instance, while they proudly cited a 1997 survey report that 70 percent of Dartmouth students characterized their social life as either excellent or good, they did note that "significant groups of current students are clearly hesitant about aspects of Dartmouth" and that there are "mixed perceptions among different populations" of Dartmouth students. What they did not say was that of the remaining 30 percent who characterized their social lives as mediocre or poor, a disproportionate amount were students of color. Instead, they chose to use the highly correlative statistic that many of the less happy students "came to Dartmouth from urban settings."
Here I must say that as one of the 30 percent of students who are less than pleased with some of the Dartmouth's social aspects, I resent the characterization of my feelings as hesitancy. While I cannot speak for how other students feel, I can say that I feel much more than hesitant. In fact, I am appalled, angered and frightened by some of the sentiments inherent in the publications, groups and institutions that are part of the Dartmouth community structure.
According to the SLI report, my feelings are part of a larger "perception that Dartmouth's environment is less congenial to students of diverse backgrounds" which "represent a serious issue" because they "reflect perceptions about Dartmouth that, however unfounded, undermine our goal of becoming a more diverse institution." This statement reflects a problematic tendency of larger segments of the Dartmouth community to believe that poor race relations at Dartmouth are indicative of individual (mis)perceptions rather than institutional realities.
According to this rationale, the problem facing Dartmouth is how to change the perceptions of those students who are unhappy here and feel that part of their unhappiness is correlated to their race rather than change the reality of what is making them unhappy. More fundamental is the lack of acknowledgement of feelings as being irrefutable, warranted and legitimate. Worse, the larger implication is that "if you don't like Dartmouth, then obviously there is something wrong with you!" (This is an actual quote shouted at me freshman winter by a white male in the Class of 2003 at an SLI meeting of the Class of 2003.)
The fact is that many students and top level administrators have not even been willing to critically examine the reality which has influenced these negative perceptions and experiences, never mind been willing to change anything about the way race is lived at Dartmouth.
Finally, after a review of the current problems with race relations at Dartmouth, the SLI committee concluded that we should respond to "inevitable periodic incidents of cross-cultural misunderstanding" by allocating "additional resources," including "permanent staff, funding, and space" to programs geared toward the benefit of the entire Dartmouth community. This is the other big reason why nothing ever gets done about race relations at Dartmouth.
Instead of believing that every individual member of the Dartmouth community is responsible -- and accountable -- for the safety and inclusion of all members of the Dartmouth Community, that responsibility is put on Dean X, the Committee of Y, or the Office or Department of Z. We throw money and people at a problem and then consider the problem "solved" without ever having to do a thing ourselves. Even more problematic is the incompatibility of this assumption with the idea of institutional change around systems and structures affecting diversity at Dartmouth -- which is all systems and structures.
This phrase "inevitable periodic incidents of cross-cultural misunderstanding" also raises a few thought-provoking questions. If these "incidents" are "inevitable," then what exactly is the purpose of multicultural education and programming? Do we really believe that, among other things, the proliferation of the Dartmouth Indian T-shirts and incidents such as the Ghetto party and Luau party are just "misunderstandings"? Did the targeted groups in these incidents "misunderstand" the [innocent] intentions of the involved individuals and groups? Do we believe that at Dartmouth it is a mere coincidence that a disproportionate number of Asian-American are sexually assaulted or is just another "cross-cultural misunderstanding"?
I could go on, but I feel as if all of this has been said before by other "hesitant" and concerned individuals at Dartmouth -- in letters, in person, in cyberspace, in film, in papers, in honors theses, and now in chalk. It is all literally sitting in our archives for review and implementation when top level Dartmouth administrators decide to listen and institutionalize pluralistic concerns into the systemic workings of this institution.
(All quotes are from The 2000 Dartmouth Student Life Initiative Report unless otherwise stated.)
