|
Letter writers' efforts are in wrong place
 Michael Martin
|
|
After reading the letter that Myrle Cooper, Michael Davis and Tamrat Tademe wrote and sent to high school counselors in Minnesota, I was left with a sense of sadness.
The letter was written with the intent of discouraging minorities from attending SCSU. There is no doubt in my mind that the efforts these three professors put into writing and sending the letters could have been put to better use.
I will admit to anyone that being a white male has put me in a position to have never felt being oppressed or discriminated against.
I will also agree that there are problems here at SCSU with discrimination and that there is some racism in the framework of this university.
The fight to end discrimination is a valid one and needs to keep moving forward. When there is racism in an institution, it takes time to rectify things. It takes years to correct injustices of the past.
What I would not agree with is that there is a point when you have to give up. These three professors think they are doing minority students a favor by discouraging them from attending SCSU, so they will not be "lured into what is too often a cultural, ethnic and physical ambush in St. Cloud."
In reality these professors are doing a disservice to minorities, as well as to the entire SCSU community. Instead of figuring out ways to discourage minorities from coming to SCSU, why not figure out ways to encourage more minorities to attend SCSU?
Giving up signals a victory to racists and bigots who want to see SCSU and St. Cloud stay primarily white.
Reflecting on some of the memories I have made while at SCSU, many of them have dealt with learning about different cultures.
Without any kind of diversity at SCSU, I would have never known that a nickname like North Dakota's Fighting Sioux offended anyone. I grew up watching college hockey and was very familiar with UND. But until I attended SCSU, I never knew that there was anything wrong with the nickname.
Now I know that there are many people very offended by the nickname and that people work very hard at trying to erase its use from collegiate sports. Without any diversity at SCSU, I would have never had my eyes opened to it.
I have also had the pleasure of working with a journalist from Malaysia here at University Chronicle.
Leslie Andres is the news editor here at the paper. He worked for a newspaper in Malaysia for six years before coming to SCSU to pursue his degree.
Andres has provided a world of knowledge, that has, no doubt, made me a better journalist.
He has often given me insights to how journalism works in Malaysia. It has been very interesting to see how American journalism and Malaysian journalism is very similar in some aspects and very different in the others.
Andres has often been able to give me and the rest of the staff a different perspective on many events and issues that we have dealt with this year. He has made this paper more balanced.
Again, without diversity this would have never happened. Andres has challenged me as a journalist to look at things from a different perspective, which is a much needed quality to becoming a good journalist.
Diversity can work both ways. The majority of students attending this university are white and from Minnesota. That doesn't mean that we don't have something worthwhile to offer.
Taking an international student to their first Husky hockey game or inviting them over for a traditional Thanksgiving meal are things that happen all the time, every year, on this campus. And we are all better for it.
The sole purpose of this university is education. Education happens both inside and outside the classroom.
These three professors have been fighting racism for a long time and it is a shame that they are no longer willing to fight.
It is even more sad that they have lost sight of what their job is as professors � to help us learn from each other.
Michael Martin can be reached at: [email protected]
|
|
|
|
|
|
