Allow me to begin with another healthy dose of honesty: Madison and race relations have not been going too hand-in-hand lately. In fact, this is an inherent understatement: A precedent has been set for the underrepresentation of people of color in the university and the city itself, while Black and brown people continue to systematically overpopulate the prison system in the county as well as the low-class/impoverished living conditions so subtly buried beneath the transfer points. (There have been several recent articles detailing these issues in full, notably from Rev. Alex Gee in The Cap Times last December.)
I have come to address an issue more rooted in the subtlety of how the dialogue around race relations in the city continues to meet a series of setbacks, most of which originating in the perceived awkwardness around addressing these issues head-on in a productive manner. In the pockets of campus where these dialogues occur, there is an insatiable desire for everyone on campus, and this means everyone (students to faculty to neighbor), to discover and examine their perspectives in an intersecting context. This means everything: race, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, political views, religion, everything.
I am here to disclose my sadness at the fact that UW Housing elected to declare this month “Race and Whiteness Month” within the dorms and housing communities on campus. February… Black History Month. I am not here to condemn the higher-ups for trying to facilitate an inclusive conversation for a topic a large majority of students here will leave without uttering a syllable about.
With those points at hand… come on, y’all. Of all the 28 days on the calendar?
For those of you in the readership expecting to spin this into a bitter leftist Black rant you steer clear from/cackle in the face of online and on the street, I will not grant you the satisfaction. Let us address the facts: These decisions are pre-approved by Housing administration, not by the people who choose to implement or distribute the content. In this case, we’re talking about Diversity Coordinators (DCs for short) within the dorms. Every month in the school calendar has a different identity, including most of the intersections I addressed earlier. DCs can choose to plan events, have talks, create physical content for the walls and bulletin boards, etc.
Herein lies the first fatal flaw: Why are the people trained and entrusted, with specificity, to execute and facilitate healthy dialogues and living spaces for students in UW Housing, not included in the decision process on what month covers what identity? Furthermore, is it possible that people of color, staff and students alike, may have felt some type of way about the timing of this specific initiative? As a Chadbourne resident for two years, I have never heard of such a thing in February until now.
Furthermore, the title “Race and Whiteness Month” is perfectly fine to the people who made these decisions? Is White not classified as a race? Can this be confusing to white students who want to participate in the discussion or already have done so? And again, on Black History Month, is the title “Race and Whiteness Month” not implicit of a shoddy attempt to co-opt a period of pride, remembrance and reflection for the Black community in the name of White inclusion because it’s about everyone?
These questions are not rhetorical and should not be addressed as such. For effective dialogue and community on this campus to occur, sensitive matters such as this one should be addressed tactfully by a body of diverse individuals who can steer the conversation in a positive direction during the right time. This conversation does include everyone, but how can any minority on campus take any initiative it produces seriously when they are met with either consistent non-action due to red-tape hierarchy, or misguided attempts like this one that obviously could fit somewhere else in the calendar year that does not infringe upon the pride of a racial identity we rarely talk about? Not just Black folks, but Asians, Latinos, Native Americans and other people of color?
From the outside, it looks like White History Month. Every day of American civilization has been founded on the principle of White History. I know this isn’t what UW Housing was saying, but when the next cycle of planning identity months comes around, is it truly difficult to maintain an open line of communication so that missteps with God-awful timing and nonfunctional names won’t continue to happen? This question is not rhetorical either.
This is about all, but never at the expense of some.
Email Michael at mdpenn@wisc.edu to openly converse on issues regarding diversity.
