A Skeptic at a Diversity Discussion
Should diversity skeptics bother to participate in diversity discussions? Forums conducive to full and fair discussion would seem to be quite scarce. Is it better to contribute as possible, or ignore such events entirely?
So asks Brian T. Johnson, a political science student at the University of Missouri. After attending a diversity dialogue session on campus, Johnson offers some pointers for skeptics who desire to influence the direction of such conversations:
- Understand the unique language of the movement. Diversity vernacular tends to be surreptitious and supple, with a heavy emphasis on subjective personal experience, emotion and perception.
- Bring at least one fellow skeptic to any diversity discussion.
- Organize your own diversity discussion, designed with better balance for a more full and fair discussion. Invite intellectually honest participants of divergent viewpoints to attend.
- Educate others – outside formal discussion environments – about the larger goals and philosophical underpinnings of the diversity movement. The lay observer may simply need some friendly confirmation that it is indeed acceptable to think critically about what a confident, politically-correct movement like the Diversity movement hands down as gospel.
Categories: Diversity, Political Correctness
University of Missouri
I think it’s important to join this, but make the point that the only true basis for respecting diversity comes from a classic liberal arts education. The standard approach is the text-bookish, emotional, preachy insistence that everyone MUST respect diversity — or else. In contrast, the soul educated in the great books LOVES diversity because he can see why it is beautiful and worth appreciating. Encompass the movement like Socrates listened to his critics, or Thomas Aquinas answered his own objections, or James Madison encircled the Anti-Fed’s; don’t just debunk it.
Two very good comments already in this discussion. Brian, you are mature beyond your years and obviously destined for a future in politics. As a survivor of the diversity wars here at the University of Nebraska, I can only agree that “supple” is a kind description of the language of diversity. Old as I am, I have been through the 60s (equal civil rights), 70s and 80s (affirmative action), and 90s and 00s (diversity = blatant reverse discrimination). We had a successful campaign here to introduce a Civil Rights Initiative like California’s, prohibiting preferences, in 2008. The key is to keep the language focused on the question, “Why should an innocent young white male be discriminated against because someone once discriminated against someone else’s ancestors? Is every young white man guilty of something that they haven’t been told about?” You know, the diversity crowd has no answer for that. There isn’t one.