There is an absurdly low number of African-American and Latino faculty and students at my college, a situation that exists at thousands of colleges across the nation in overwhelming White, rural or semirural communities.
That is not necessarily a problem, as it would be statistically impossible for African-American and Latino students to substantially diversify all of these schools. The crucial problem is what seems to be the widespread justification among my colleagues for these low figures.
The reason: Latinos and Blacks do not want to come.
When I first heard this reason, I did not think much of it. Neither did I the second, or third time. Yet, as one of the few African-American professors, many of my peers choose to discuss diversity with me and this idea about non-Whites not wanting to come continued to come up. Still, I did not give the reason serious thought until a colleague whom I respect asked me whether that was the primary reason for the lack of diversity. I knew if someone as knowledgeable as him on racial issues considered this, then many people likely were rationalizing the low figures with this idea.
