by Laura
One of the things that I appreciate about UNC is the relative diversity of the student population, which our instructors are always trying to capitalize on. Last semester, a professor divided us into discussion groups according to the unique attributes we could bring to the conversation. Each group needed to draft members to fill the following categories: international, older, hadn’t taught, ethnic, and male. Let’s just say that this whole exercise brought back memories of being the last kid chosen during kickball, as the other white women and I uncomfortably laughed at how very boring we appeared to be. Meanwhile my African-American older non-former educator guy friend was feeling either extra special, or extra weird.
The two distinguishing attributes that often seem to surface are that I went to Duke and moved back here from NYC, both of which also seem to signal snob. With the NYC part in particular, people always say, “Wow, that must be a big change!”, but what they also mean is, “Wow, you must always be judging us and feeling superior”. Sometimes I talk about how warm and laid back North Carolina is. Sometimes I say, “Why, yes, in fact, New York City is the greatest city in the world, so great that I could even find BBQ there that rivals yours, along with anything else my heart could ever desire”. So, I need to find more ways to make myself appear interesting, yet lovable. Here’s what I’ve come up with to date:
1) Exploit my 1/4 Puerto Rican heritage. I feel so genuinely connected to the Puerto Rican people that last winter, I spent a whole week there in a delightful resort with several elements essential to experiencing the culture: namely, cabanas and frozen drinks.
2) Parade around my Jewish husband. In New York, this was not unique. Here, some people don’t fully understand a menorah. Even better, since I’m not Jewish, we can be one of those trendy mixed marriages that create an extra layer of intrigue.
3) Play up our attendance at jazz events. Listening to jazz is always moderately respectable, whereas attending a hip-hop show just seems disingenuous.
4) Appear either more “arty” or more “outdoorsy”. If you come in on Monday and say, “Yeah, I spent the weekend scaling a sheer rock face – it was tough, but it was all worth it to get some professional-grade photos of the view at the top”, there is really very little others can say, other than to feel ashamed for staying on their couch watching a Real Housewives marathon.
Each of these certainly sounds better than four years of feeling guilty about my white privilege (I’m special! But not special! All at the same time!), although don’t get me wrong – that certainly has its place. In fact, all joking aside, I’ve been thinking a good deal about the scholarly implications of diversity in higher education. For a good time, call me to talk about the sociological view of power relations with the critical race theory tradition as it relates to post-modern thought! But, don’t call this weekend – I’ll be too busy hiking while listening to Coltrane and learning how to salsa dance.
Laura
Harold
