Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — This letter has been modified from its original version. The duplicate first paragraph has been removed. The Collegiate Times regrets this error.
On Sunday night as students were gearing up for finals week, hopefully sated by a week-long break and more turkey than is probably healthy, we received an e-mail from the university's vice president for equity and inclusion.
Titled "Fostering a welcoming environment during the holiday season," this e-mail warned students of the dangers of exclusion created by holiday celebration and decorations, and it implied that the best way to respect the "breadth of diversity of members of our Virginia Tech community" was to minimize "holiday decorations, music, and other expressions of holiday sentiment." Cultural diversity has been a much-lauded goal on this college campus, among others, and would the "season in which many individuals celebrate religious holidays" not be the most fertile of times to fully celebrate that diversity? If the benefits of diversity of thought and tradition are a better understanding of both others and ourselves, how does the denial of all religious holidays -- and cultural expression -- help promote that insight in the least? If the goal of the e-mail we received was to minimize exclusion of Hokies with differing beliefs from our own, I think it could have taken a much more dynamic approach.
How much more good could have been done by merely inviting all to celebrate their own traditions fully (and respectfully) and reminding us of the need to be inclusive in our celebrations -- and ask to be included ourselves? After all, the critical point of this letter is not to suggest American traditions are inviolable, but to encourage the university to expand its goals of equity from the mere elimination of offense to the enriching of all students, faculty, staff and visitors. This hope comes, perhaps, from my own enjoyment of being invited to celebrate other holidays with friends and from the joy of including others in my own traditions.
After all, do our university's foreign students learn more about American culture during their time here from invitations to spend the recent Thanksgiving break celebrating with American families, or from our pretending the holiday doesn't exist and celebrating it quietly in our own homes, closed off from anyone who might be offended by it? Of my own time studying abroad, the most enriching experiences were not those that were blandly inoffensive, but those that challenged my own cultural values and enlightened me of others. Wearing a veil in Turkey to attend services in a mosque with friends grated against my own beliefs of gender equality, but was both a sign of respect for their culture and traditions and an enlightening experience. In contrast, the traditional Belgian Christmas decorations include Zwarte Piet, a blackface helper of Sinterklaas. Looking at Christmas through a global lens helps expand our world view. There is a richness that comes from a culture in which all can unselfconsciously celebrate their own traditions, and I encourage the university to rethink their approach in dealing with the possible negatives of differing beliefs.
Allison Thurmond
graduate student, landscape architecture
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another good LTE about this email. the center for diversity is off to a good start so far, huh? remember this as time goes on, as this first action from the center will certainly predicate its future actions. so far, no good.
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Please note that this was edited from the original. The nonsensical repeat of the first sentence and the removal of a concluding paragraph were added by the staff before this was posted. My apologies for any reduced legibility!
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Good letter. Shall I just say, Virginia Tech SUCKS with regards to diversity/inclusion stuff? I was a recent immigrant when I came to Virginia Tech, and a woman in engineering. I found the professors overall to be racist and sexist. I am in graduate school far away from VT (academically wayyy stellar) where administrators actually know how to handle these things, and their reputation speaks volumes about the work they do. I will leave the grad school nameless, I love it too much and not like anyone in VT is reading my comments to try and improve the situation there. May be a letter to the appropriate authorities on this matter is in order. Anyway I digress. Nice letter again!
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This is a very thoughtful letter and very good contribution to this dialogue. If I was visiting another culture I would be interested in their celebrations and honored to be asked to them. However I think many comments on other letters on this subject do miss a point. There is a difference between one's place of employment or an institution having a celebration in the name of only one holiday and individuals holding such celebrations. When we are in a department or a company and we hold a Christmas party, that implies that people of other faiths are not really part of the department or company unless the institution also similarly recognizes all such holidays as they occur. The department or institution at a public university shouldn't have a religious identity. There, it is appropriate to hold a holiday party. For an individual in their personal life to have a Christmas party and invite friends of other faiths is an entirely different and perfectly acceptable matter. Most of the comments I've read on other letters seem personally offended as if they've been told not to celebrate the holiday. I think VT doesn't realize that people don't view departmental activities as the only activities they conduct.
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Great letter Allison. I fully agree 100% with each point and you articulate it well. I actually met with the aforementioned VP (Dr. McDonald) today about this very letter. He sees people are offended, but he sticks by what he wrote. He did offer this, that the e-mail was not really intended for the student body in general. His main concern was departmental and organizational celebrations that may seem exclusive somehow. That was obviously not clear and he offers no apology to anyone who felt like this e-mail itself was offensive and not celebratory of diversity. I also challenged him on the university's affirmative action policy and ended up leaving his office with a book titled "White Privilege" so I can go and learn about how privileged I am and why minorities need to be held to lower standards as a result.
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Ricky: "why minorities need to be held to lower standards as a result" LOL!!! While I certainly would agree that I have been incredibly privileged in my life, this continual push to elevate folks from below simply based on their skin color or what country their parents were born in is ridiculous. Anyone listening to NPR lately?? The Illinois governor "HAS" to appoint a black senator to replace Obama, the New York governor "HAS" to appoint a black or latino woman to replace Hillary, and the hispanic lobby is mad it took Obama so long to appoint an Hispanic to his cabinet (this following his appointment of New Mexico governor Bill Richardson). And all the while the lefties celebrate Obama's win as a huge step forward for civil rights in this country. Please, we're still basing job applications, etc. on race, it's just a different race. MLK, Jr. would be sick.
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I love how easy it is to set off college students. "Make sure you include your friends and junk when you celebrate this year, you know, to be nice." "You can't push me around, I'm in college!" *Storm of angry letters.
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Cracking up at Jochebed. I bet you love in class debates. "I talked for at least an hour, which was how I won. And then the teacher kept trying to teach class, but I just kept on correcting him. You could tell everyone was really impressed."
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Re: anonymous - huh??
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I'm calling you out. How do you not get that?
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Uh, Ricky Castles, how about actually _reading_ that book...? Here's an abridged version for you, in case that's too hard: http://mmcisaac.faculty.asu.edu/emc598ge/Unpacking.html I guess you're afraid that if you open your mind, your brains will fall out...
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Ricky Castles, please show me where you get the idea that inclusion requires that "...minorities need to be held to lower standards as a result" of white privilege? I'd suggest that you check the validity of your assumptions before making statements like this. You're merely setting up a straw man to knock down. If this is the quality of your critical thinking, it's scary that you consider yourself to be an educator...I fear for your students. And I do agree with Jochebed to the extent that no one should be elevated because of their skin color, and each of us should be held to the same standard of excellence. In a related vein, it seems clear to me that Obama was elected in spite of his race, not because of it. Do either of you, Jochebed or Ricky Castles, have any illusions to the contrary?
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I think Obama was elected for 2 reasons: #1 McCain SUCKS. #2 People are always behind someone who's going to give them free stuff and (supposedly) somehow not tax them for it. That's pretty much it. With regards to the comment on closed minds ("I guess you're afraid that if you open your mind, your brains will fall out...") - who said having an open mind was always a good thing or a prerequisite? It certainly seems as if you have a "closed mind" regarding Ricky's opinions. Why is your "closed mind" ok, but his isn't? But for most folks on the left, their minds tend to be so "open" all their brains have indeed fallens out. See the Democratic...or Republican for that much matter...party.
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If you say "Ricky Castles" 3 times while staring into a mirror, he appears and debates you about Obama. It happened to my friend's sister.
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