No doubt nearly everyone on campus has seen the “Thank you” card sent out by President Bennet this week in response to the University’s success in meeting fundraising goals. I would like to point out how in almost every picture used in the online slideshow, students of color are featured prominently, mugging happily in a state of supposed multiethnic bliss. I’m surprised that the background music chosen for the slideshow was the Wesleyan fight song instead of that famously cheesy anthem of multicultural unity, We Are the World. In fact, the amount of people of color depicted in the “Thank you” card is so ridiculously large when compared with Wesleyan’s actual student of color representation, it points to the obvious fact that the Administration is, once again, trying to reinforce the “diversity university” image.
It has become shameful how Bennet’s administration has so freely exploited images of the bodies and faces of students of color to promote the University, and at the same time ignores our concerns and safety. Freshmen still aren’t allowed to live in X House and white boarders are forcibly placed in student of color safe spaces on campus. Freshmen students of color are often placed in dorms where they are the only “ethnic” students living there, forcing them to deal with the discomfort of being constantly aware of how they stick out as a visible minority in a white world, and leaving them open to racially-motivated harassment. The Administration refuses to create a position for a Dean of Multicultural Affairs, whom students of color could count on as an understanding figure in issues that they deal with every day on this campus. These concerns have been repeatedly ignored and rebuffed by President Bennet and his cronies, who claim that they know what is best for the Wesleyan community and students of color in particular.
The Administration’s only response to student of color queries at the Jan. 25 forum was to point out that new policies for harassment have been implemented in the past year. How about we see the University actually act to pre-empt harassment through the creation of more student of color safe spaces and the position of a multicultural dean?
President Bennet has shown no real concern for minority communities on campus, shown by the fact that we attend a school that would rather let a student live with the scars of harassment and intimidation instead of acting to prevent such hate crimes in the first place. The hypocrisy of the Administration’s approach to minority students is obvious. So, President Bennet and other members of the Administration, stop tokenizing people of color in your promotional materials unless you are willing to treat our concerns with respect.
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