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St. Cloud State University
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Diversity
By Scott Bushee
Published:
Monday, November 4, 2002
Scott Bushee -- Reader´s Advocate
It seems some people on campus are concerned about a possible conservative bias on the opinion page here at the University Chronicle.
Allow me to set the record straight. There are exactly two conservative columnists on board this paper, out of a pool of eight. And that is only if you count me, which is something I am not sure is a legitimate thing to do. I am a libertarian, not a conservative. I support open immigration, civil rights for non-citizens, decriminalizing drugs and am an avid reader of Antiwar.com.
I think the problem is that we have come to have a certain view of the word 'diversity', and that any deviance from this acceptable view is thought to be wrong.
The standard feel-good approach to diversity is to make sure that everyone thinks the same thoughts, but look different. A university will hire a black Marxist, a lesbian Marxist and a Chinese Marxists, and then smugly congratulate itself on being diverse.
It seems to me that this method is suspect. Why is it correct to choose based on skin color or what is between one's legs? Is not 'choose' just another word for 'discriminate?' Our policy today is that, in the name of ending discrimination, we endlessly discriminate.
Please permit a question to this standard dogma.
Might it not be a better policy to not discriminate based on skin color, gender or sexual preference? I have always held this as a close personal belief.
It is not the case that I would choose to befriend someone, or date someone, or hire someone because of their skin color, their sexual preference, or their gender. (Ok, I wouldn't date a guy, but you get the point.)
It is not even the case that I would associate with someone in spite of those things. Rather, those things are not even variables in the calculation at all.
True diversity seems to be linked to diversity of essential character traits. Race and gender are, in almost all instances, non-essential. Therefore, they fail the standard of diversity.
I believe, as did Emerson, that "nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind." It is the mind that is sacred and essential. It is our thoughts that make us who we are. Therefore, if we seek diversity, if we seek individualism, we must seek diversity of ideas.
This is what is being done this year with the opinion page of the University Chronicle. Justin Byma was specifically chosen as a columnist because he represents diversity of ideas.
So please, people, before you write in and accuse us of being edited by Rush Limbaugh, think things through.
I hope that, after doing so, you will open your minds and accept tolerance and real diversity as we have done.
