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The Rice Thresher
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by Meredith Jenkins thresher staff
The Dialogue on Diversity kicked off Racial Solidarity Week, an event initiated last year in response to racist propaganda distributed on campus. Racial Solidarity Week was organized by the Black Student Coalition, which is made up of the Black Student Association, the Black Graduate Student Association and the National Society of Black Engineers. West is a professor of African-American studies and religion at Harvard University and is author of many books and articles, including Race Matters. He began his lecture by warning the audience he would say things people did not want to hear. "I hope I say something that thoroughly unsettles you, unnerves you, maybe for a moment unhouses you," West said. "We're here for dialogue, not chit-chat." West said a true dialogue on diversity requires courage. "It's very difficult to engage in a serious dialogue on diversity without courage," West said. "Who has that kind of courage to examine ourselves: the white supremacy in me, in ourselves; the male supremacy in me, in ourselves; the American arrogance in me, in ourselves?" West said a barrier to discussing diversity is that too many Americans are complacent and willing to accept societal norms. "We've got forms of bondage and conformity - learning to be well-adjusted to the status quo, not learning to be maladjusted to evil," West said. "We've got so much complacency ... and sheer cowardice." West said the question of what it means to be human is at the center of a discussion on diversity, and part of the answer requires discussing death. "America is the most death-dodging, death-ducking, death-defying of all civilizations," West said. "Yet you can't talk about diversity, you can't talk about white supremacy, without talking about forms of death. For 244 years, slavery was a form of social death." West discussed the history of slavery, segregation and racism in the United States, as well as current problems related to diversity. One of the problems he named was wealth inequality. "We can't talk about diversity connected with humanity and democracy without talking about wealth inequality, and it's getting worse every year," West said. "We need to talk about how much inequality the polity can take before it snaps." West said another major problem related to diversity in America is racism in the criminal justice system, addressing recent police shootings of innocent black youths as well as current drug policy. "The war on drugs was the targeting of poor, black and brown youth," West said. "Drug use is just ubiquitous in American life. You can go to Wall Street and find more ecstasy than you ever wanted, and how many of them get prosecuted? Not very many. ... Are we simply giving lip service to being a democracy?" West said the other crucial question connected to diversity is what it means to be part of a democracy. "Democracy is about voices heard; lack of democracy is voicelessness," West said, alluding to the "black national anthem" "Lift Every Voice and Sing." "I think that democracy is really about ensuring that all those groups that have been excluded have their voices heard," West said. "But as they have their voices heard, there will still be deeper problems. ... That's why democracy is an open-ended project." West criticized the notion of a "color-blind" society that ignores race, saying his color and culture are integral parts of his humanity. "Why not look at me and keep track of my humanity by keeping track of my African-ness, my blackness?" West said. However, West said progress in matters of race and diversity has been made. "In the last 35 years we've made a lot of progress," West said. "But like Malcolm X said, you don't stab a person in the back nine inches and pull it out six inches and talk about progress. We've got a lot of work to do." West also addressed the importance of discussing diversity on college campuses. "I'm thoroughly convinced it is impossible to be a first-rate, high-quality college without taking diversity seriously," West said. West said the reason diversity in colleges is important is that one must experience it in order to be truly educated. "You need to be challenged, you need to meet folks from backgrounds you know not of," West said. "That's why a good citizen is a multi-contextual citizen." West concluded by emphasizing the importance of carrying on the struggle for equality and avoiding complacency. "Every generation has to meet the challenge of whether they can preserve the best of what came before," West said. "If you don't fight for it, you can't preserve the best of your traditions. You don't inherit traditions, you have to fight for them." West also expressed his hope that audience members would continue the dialogue on diversity in their homes, classes and workplaces. "There has to be much more serious discussion and dialogue in the black community of both internal diversity and the diversity outside, especially in the context of struggle," West said. "We need a culture of dialogue in the black community, black-white, black-brown ... all across the board." Audience members were invited to ask questions of West following his lecture. Black Student Association president Audrey Ette said the organizers of Racial Solidarity Week chose West to speak because of his reputation as a scholar and his ability to address issues people often avoid discussing. "He's able to unnerve you, and he addresses things you don't want to hear," Ette, a Baker College junior, said. "We were just really pleased that the audience consisted of members of the Rice community, especially students. We felt those were the people who needed to hear it, especially if we talk about Racial Solidarity Week and diversity issues on campus." Brown College sophomore Uri McMillan agreed. "I thought he was the best speaker I've ever heard," McMillan said. "I think it's really important that he came, especially with the minority flight discussion. If Rice is going to improve diversity, they've got to start bringing in different speakers, like Cornel West." Other audience members said they enjoyed the lecture. "His lecture was by far the best I've ever seen," Hanszen College sophomore Carolyn Shulman said. "He just tied everything together. He touched on elements of culture and history and economics and politics - he got into all of it and made it all important." Many people who were not directly affiliated with Rice also attended the lecture. "As usual, his speeches and his lectures go into an area where no one likes to go - and that's to the truth," Mary Seales, a community member who attended the lecture, said. "The main thing I liked was that his speech touched on the root of what this world is made up of, and that's love."
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