This article is in response to Paula Kaufman's article "Tufts' racial diversity - or lack thereof?" printed in the Oct. 2, 2006 edition of The Tufts Daily.
I would guess that Paula Kaufman believed she was doing justice to her African-American peers by pointing out Tufts' need to increase the number of African-American students enrolled at Tufts. In reality, her article perpetuates outdated ideas about the concept of diversity both at Tufts and within U.S. society - ideas that are harmful to the success of minority groups in the United States.
Many times in her article, Kaufman references "students of color," and, in doing so, implies that this term describes African-American students only. The "people of color" label uses Caucasians as a basis for the concept, thereby insinuating that being white is of the norm and anything else is abnormal and must be labeled. Although I believe that this term unjustly separates white people from non-white people, it is unfortunately a term that is used widely throughout society. However, when this term is used to refer only to African-Americans, it is completely inaccurate.
Tufts does not need to focus on recruiting African-American and other minority students; instead, it should focus more on de-segregating the self-segregated campus. Regardless of the number of minority students that have matriculated this year, each ethnic group tends to be exclusive on campus. There is little branching out among the different racial and cultural groups, and this in itself is more of a problem than the number of African-American and other minority students on campus.
Kaufman's article is mostly incorrect because it implies that race relations and diversity are a black and white issue. It is this focus on black versus white that perpetuates the racism that still exists within society and the low matriculation of African-Americans in educational institutions in the United States. Once we as a society focus less on the black versus white racial problems of the past, and more on the similarities among all ethnic groups, we will progress as a nation towards a truly diverse population.
Diversity is not just about the numbers; Tufts has the numbers, regardless of the statistics for this year. Diversity is about the actual mixing of those people who are different from one another, to form a heterogeneous population from a collection of homogeneous groups.
From Kaufman's article, we may misinterpret Tufts' intentions and matriculation statistics. However, Kaufman is clearly a caring and thoughtful person who sees the need to make Tufts a comfortable setting for all racial and ethnic groups. What her article fails to address are the true implications of the lack of diversity at Tufts. The next step is for students to come together as one community, and to support one another through the education of all cultural and ethnic groups.
Kerri F. Martin is a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering.
