Looking at me, you wouldn’t think I’m a person with a diverse background — you probably would see me as your average white girl. I grew up in a small town in Connecticut. I went to a freaking prep school, for God’s sake. And now I’m here — at Northwestern.
But if you get to know me, you might find that I’ve had more experience with diversity than many people whose heritage creates an expectation of such an experience.
When I was four years old, my family adopted a little girl named Jasmine. She was born four months early, which left her having multiple disabilities. She had cerebral palsy. She had a breathing tube in her neck and a feeding tube in her stomach. She couldn’t walk or talk.
Oh, and she was black, one of the few nonwhite people in my small town.
Back when I was young and naive, I looked down at my sister’s hands one day and realized her palms were lighter than the rest of her skin.
“Is Jasmine turning white?” I asked my mother.
The answer, of course, was no.
As I grew up, my family and I endured stares from people in small-town Connecticut who wondered who this little black girl was and why we were with her. (Jasmine also was blind, so she didn’t know people were staring.)
Each time someone stared, I stared back. I held on to my sister’s hand more tightly. And if people asked who she was, I simply said she was my sister and left them to be confused.
This past weekend the annual Diversity Conference held workshops and hosted speakers to promote understanding of the issue by highlighting the diverse aspects of NU, as if hearing speakers talk about the subject automatically would generate better understanding of the complex issue.
Diversity. “Is it NU?” the conference asked.
Well, I guess that depends on how you measure diversity.
The university compiles statistics on the ethnic make up of the student body. University President Henry Bienen boasts about hiring more minority faculty members.
But numbers define diversity at NU in terms of quantity.
Having a certain percentage of minority students, faculty and administrators doesn’t make NU diverse.
The numbers are based on pre-determined indicators of diversity. Skin color. Ethnicity.
No doubt — you’re more likely to experience diversity if you belong to a minority group. I realize my situation is unique.
But statistics will never give you an accurate measure because numbers can’t tell the stories. They can’t replace first-hand experience.
Those numbers don’t include the people who grew up in multiracial families or neighborhoods. They don’t know how many students on this campus had a best friend with a disability or of a different race. They don’t know how many professors have simply studied the impacts of such differences and how many have really experienced them.
So, go ahead. Listen to the lectures. Attend the conferences. Pay attention to the numbers.
But until you get out there and experience diversity, you won’t really understand it and our campus won’t be a diverse one, no matter your skin color or last name.
“Statistics will never give you an accurate measure (of diversity) because numbers can’t tell the stories.”
