At Colorado College we pride ourselves for being liberal in mind and questioning in action. These words however, belong to the mouth of the admissions office. Everybody knows that our sidewalks cater to white feet and expensive shoes. It’s not just anybody that can afford over sixty thousand dollars a year in school costs (though it does cost far more than that to educate a student per year).
Why am I being so blunt? Because when nobody talks about something for long enough, it gets really frustrating. I’m a freshman, so I’ve only experienced this complete lack of diversity for something like a month, but that is more than long enough to be frustrated, hell a week would do it.
Recently I did an article for the Cipher’s “Plastic” issue where I talked to several members of the Queer community across campus, and the consensus was overwhelming. We either have a vision problem, or a visibility problem. The question is whether all the gay, poor, ethnic, conservative people are hiding nervously in the shadows, or whether they simply don’t exist. If they do not exist, then the problem is a visionary one. I happen to be a strong proponent of the admissions office, but perhaps somewhere the link is missing. Why is it that we can’t seem to become a more diverse campus?
The efforts on behalf of the administration are in good faith but their results are questionable. The Quest Bridge Scholars program is healthy, and the college uses an encompassing look when regarding applications as opposed to just looking at grades and scores where minorities are statistically shown to be disadvantaged. CC gives out generous amounts of financial aid. So where are the results?
I don’t have the answers any more than the next guy, so let’s form a committee, or protest, or at the very least talk about it. The closest to mentioning the problem anyone ever gets is in tentative jokes or the small circles of the special interest groups that meet across campus. Jokes and meetings clearly aren’t getting the message across, although really, who doesn’t know? The administration knows, and for their questionably good faith efforts, we shall suspend disbelief, and say that the problem does not lie in our school’s vision, but in our culture’s visibility.
When going out to a party, have you ever seen two guys making out on the dance floor, or two girls, or anything not heteronormative? Maybe you can name the time when you were the only white person in the room just by accident or when you walked into Rastall? Maybe you can find me after this article, and show me all the places where the diversity hides on our campus, because I’m not the only one who is missing it. In the words of the glorious Donald Trump, “People are saying that,” and of course the response is always “And we’ll look into it.” After reading this, go out and have a real conversation about race, or sexuality, or the class culture in our school. It’s uncomfortable sure, but we need more people that can claim “some of my best friends are black!”
Martin Luther King said in his Letter for Birmingham City Jail that things were only fixed when a “creative tension” was summoned, and when a situation became “So crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.” I know this isn’t a long article, but nothing I’m writing here is a surprise. While we pride ourselves on being liberal and exploring the world in every way, the expectation here is to be white, wealthy, and granola as hell. If you are that person I just described, then don’t be mad, it’s not necessarily your fault that I’m calling you out, but honestly you’re one of the only people that can help fix it. You are in the majority, and as such you have power.
To lift this oppressive blanket of vanilla sterility from the white-walked sidewalks, the invisible haze of heteronormativity from the house party dance floor, the diehard liberal and anti-religious net that holds classroom discussion in place, and the crushing weights that keep the poor from joining in conversations about flying back and forth to home because it’s a luxury they can’t afford.
This discussion has so many questions, and it needs answers. First though, it’s about damn time we stopped whispering. It’s about damn time the admissions office is challenged boldly for diversity, and time we let reality do the talking. Not thereality that we see on the quad every day, because that would be ignoring the reality that meets in special interest groups all across campus. I’ve been in those rooms, and we don’t know any more than you do if it’s a vision or a visibility problem, but we do know some things. The way we are living isn’t right. We can’t claim to live as liberal arts students, questioning everything, when we question the world from a distance, not taking the inconvenience of actually experiencing different perspectives. We can’t claim to be so civilized and advanced when we do so by ignoring so many people on this campus. This is a call for you to talk about an issue we only joke about. Let reality shout, or if a whisper is all you can manage, then go gossip girl. It’s a small campus, and whispers build up to news really quickly. Try it out, I can’t promise that it’ll magically make all seven minority people on campus to come into your life, but I hope that it might increase the number of “outsiders” on campus from seven to eight.