On Diversity in a College Setting
Looking back on my college days, I realize now that we were in a sort of golden age for students. When I arrived on campus in 2003, the Iraq War had just started and we all still carried with us the sense of national unity that we’d found after September 11th. I’m not saying things were perfect, particularly for Muslim students, but I do think they were much better than they are now.
The overall tone on campus was peaceful. We had immense freedom of thought, and most students were eager to hear and understand where each other were coming from. Describing it now makes it sound like some kind of mythical utopia.
I was the vice-chairman, then chairman of College Republicans. The guys in leadership before me set a great example of kindness and grace. We got along well with the leadership of College Democrats, which wasn’t taboo because, while we disagreed on how to handle social security and when to go to war, we knew that we were seeking to address many of the same problems and that we all had a great deal of love for our country.
People listened attentively. We listened to a Sikh student talk about his fears that Islamaphobia would make him a target since he wore a turban. I listened to my gay friend talk about his life and his struggles with identity. He listened to a group of Christian guys who held a forum on homosexuality and came away with an appreciation of their nuanced understanding and respect for him despite their differences. In my Law Enforcement class, black students thoughtfully engaged our white professor who had worked for years training police officers. They talked about sentencing disparities and respectfully sought mutual understanding and clarity during the racially divisive time of the Duke Lacrosse Case.
My black, Muslim-convert Religion professor engaged me in friendly banter about social security after he read my article in the campus newspaper. He disagreed, but encouraged me in my pursuits. My only friend in my Statistical Analysis class was a Muslim girl with whom I would exchange eye rolls during what we felt like were pointless assignments. We discovered one day that I had grown up with her cousin. We would often take advantage of Baskin-Robbins happy hour after class and talk about how much we loved our fiancés and were looking forward to our weddings and subsequent families.
There were lots of people who didn’t like George W. Bush, but I could walk around campus in a Bush/Cheney t-shirt without worrying about harassment because people understood that it was normal to have political differences. I could argue passionately with my mentor about the purpose of government and then feel a sense of admiration at how much he had accomplished and overcome as a blind man.
We all studied the history of our country, the things that were beautiful and the things that were shameful. We hoped to be always reforming and making things freer and kinder for future generations. Even my professors who sympathized with Marx did not categorize people groups into oppressors/oppressed. They still understood that as the kind of dehumanization that led to genocides and civil wars. Intellectual integrity and having your facts straight was considered the highest goal, because otherwise you might be led astray by lies and half-truths. No one was cancelled for having an opinion, and there were many different opinions to learn from. It saddens me that students of all stripes don’t get that experience on campuses today.
