The recent proposal by The Primary Source to create a conservative culture representative in the Senate reflects an attempt to undermine the essence of diversity at Tufts.
The culture representative system was established in order to allow historically underrepresented cultures on campus a guaranteed voice in the practices and policies of the TCU Senate. The main flaw in the The Primary Source's proposal is not only the definition of conservatism as a culture, but rather the fact that the Source is not the sole representative of all conservatives at Tufts (as evidenced by the existence of Tufts Republicans and other political groups).
In their organization's mission _ posted at www.tuftsprimarysource.org _ the Source states that "The Primary Source owes no allegiance to any group or person on the Tufts campus, and as such, we publish honest criticisms regardless of political ideology." How is it then that a magazine that is not affiliated with any political or non-political campus group can claim to represent a campus culture? They cannot. The Primary Source cannot represent any culture but the culture of a publication of perverted conservative thought.
So then there's the question; is a media publication a campus culture?
Media is not in itself a culture. It has the ability to represent points of view and opinions, but not an entire culture. Media is often and can be a distortion of truth and can represent the political agendas and beliefs of a few.
The Primary Source is a clear example of using media power to represent biased beliefs. This has been done in many ways by the Source and specifically by changing the focus. In past editions they have presented exaggerated cartoon characters of an African American student, and have made sweeping generalizations about campus culture groups.
Changing the focus is a tactic utilized by many white privileged individuals to stop people of minority ethnic backgrounds from having a significant voice within community or politics. This was nearly accomplished in this situation by undermining the original intention of the culture rep and potentially silencing other culture perspectives.
As a coalition of three males of differing racial locations (White and African American) we feel strongly that the conservative culture rep proposal did not represent a culture, and was yet another attempt by the Source to undermine the very purpose of the TCU senate.
Renato DePaolis is a senior majoring in economics and American Studies, Jasun Mahaffey is a majoring in sociology, and Matthew Alford is a senior majoring in child development.
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