When you discuss race relations in higher education, the issues of
diversity and affirmative action inevitably become a part of the
dialogue. Unfortunately, those two topics often get confused as the
same issue.
At the recent airing of “Race Relations in Higher Education — A
Prescription for Empowerment and Progress,” a videoconference presented
live via satellite by Black Issues in Higher Education, panelists
agreed with that assessment. However, according to moderator Kojo
Nnamdi, they were more intent on getting past the language and rhetoric
and focusing on what can be done to ensure that America’s institutions
of higher education remain accessible to all.
Panelists included: attorney Christopher Edley Jr., professor of
law at Harvard University and a senior advisor to President Bill
Clinton on Racial Issues; attorney Sumi Cho, professor of law at DePaul
University; Dr. Juan Francisco Lara, assistant vice chancellor of the
University of California-Irvine; Dr. Katya Gibel Azoulay, assistant
professor of Anthropology and chair of the Africana Studies department
at Grinnell College; Dr. Stanley Fish, professor of English at Duke
University; and Dr. Raymond A. Winbush, Benjamin Hooks professor of
Social justice at Fisk University.
Race relations in higher education is currently one of the nation’s
major concerns. This point was stressed when Nnamdi noted that “as we
speak,” those very issues were being discussed by President Bill
Clinton and his advisory committee on race at the University of
Maryland.
One reason the discussion has become complicated is because the
issues of diversity, proposition 209, and affirmative action have all
been lumped together, members of the panel said.
“When we look at race in America, it has been framed in terms of
the … guilt that White Americans feel over what happened to African
Americans,” said Lara. “[That is] much different, it seems to me, than
the issue of immigration.”
Additionally, Duke’s Fish pointed out that the terms “affirmative
action” and “diversity” have been defined by the opposition and given
negative connotations.
