Two acts of hatred recently exposed on our campus are deeply disturbing: An elevator was vandalized with anti-Semitic messages and a construction supervisor discovered a noose in a renovation area. Since reading university President Wallace Loh’s campuswide message about these incidents, many of us have experienced a myriad of emotions – shock, dismay, anger, sadness, fear. But what, if anything, might we learn from these acts? What do they tell us? Teach us? In what direction do they point us?
Stereotypes, bias, discrimination and hatred are still powerful forces in the United States. We have made great strides in abolishing legal segregation and discrimination toward people of color, in countering the persecution of religious minorities and in beginning to address the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Yet our work is far from complete.
In the past month, we’ve followed Trayvon Martin’s killing in Florida and the beating death of an Iraqi-American mother near San Diego. In the past year in the Washington area, there’s been a spate of attacks on LGBT people. These incidents tell us that we have much more to do to create an equitable and inclusive nation.
And this campus is no exception. When we enter from Route 1 or University Boulevard, we bring with us what we’ve seen, heard and learned over a lifetime. Sadly, this often includes prejudicial beliefs, messages of intolerance and the notion that people who are different from us – based on gender, skin color, sexual orientation, ability, religion, income or language – are lesser people. These beliefs, which are often unconscious and thus difficult to access and acknowledge, usually get expressed in subtle ways: We marginalize the opinions of folks who are different; we don’t include them in our in-group; we construe them as less competent; we avoid them. And sometimes we express these beliefs expressed in more overt, direct or even threatening ways, as seen in the recent incidents on the campus.
In the aftermath of these troubling acts, we have some opportunities. Fortunately, we have a relatively diverse community. No, we’re not where we want to be, but we’re far from homogeneous. Plus, we have a clear, articulated commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, as well as an understanding that these principles are central to this university’s excellence. We have the raw materials to create and model the kind of community that not only this campus but also this state and this country desperately need.
There’s no better time than now to learn all we can about the diverse groups in our community and to challenge ourselves to look at our own biases. There’s no better time to share our culture and values with others, to listen intently to their stories and to engage in difficult, but respectful, dialogues about controversial topics. There’s no better time to take an ethnic studies class, become a Rainbow Terp, participate in an interfaith dialogue and link your affinity group with mine. There’s no better time to speak up than when we hear racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim or homophobic comments or “jokes.”
As this university’s first Chief Diversity Officer, I’ll be working to foster these kinds of constructive interactions. My job is to help unify the many diversity resources on the campus and to build on them in support of our ambitious strategic plan for diversity. I’m eager to hear suggestions for ways to learn from these incidents.
Interracial and interreligious relationships are fragile in our nation. These incidents remind us that, as a campus community, we are not immune. My hope is that we will each respond to these hateful acts with a new (or renewed) commitment to work toward the creation of a bias-free, just and inclusive campus. It truly takes a village.
Kumea Shorter-Gooden is this university’s Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Vice President. She can be reached at kshorter@umd.edu.
