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Question to Faculty and Staff
What would you like the campus community to know about your culture?

Response:

I wish that my co-workers knew this:

Just because people look to be of one certain race on the outside, does not mean that is all there is to them. Working at an HBCU seems to target only the ‘black’ in people. However, if we are non-white, then we are of the minority, too. I have not experienced a work environment where my co-workers embrace multi-racial backgrounds. It’s very difficult to stream comments that I hear about other cultures and races when I hear them at work. I never know when something is going to be said or filtered down a hallway. A lot of times, those comments are negative, or to be more correct, I’ll say that a lot of the comments are not positive. I wish that I could wear a patch on my forehead that says ‘be careful what you say, ‘black, white, Indian, Hispanic female approaching with multi-racial children at home.’ (smile) However, this would be ridiculous! I don’t want to go around broadcasting differences about my life as compared to yours. However, I would like the environment to be more harmonious. Some personalities that I work with are very nice. I’m not writing to complain. Maybe, it’s just ignorance. I struggle through a lot of channels not to make a spectacle of myself or to show my displeasure with my co-workers. But sometimes…black folks don’t listen to that kind of music… black folks don’t shave their legs… black folks don’t use those products… black folks ain’t going to stand for that… I’m not doing business with no Mexicans (term used to describe all Hispanics)… you know how ‘their’ kids be cuttin’ up… you know how black folks pray… I just wish that my co-workers knew and understood that it’s ok to be different. I wish they knew that they could embrace more than just the ‘black’ way of doing things. Especially since the color black is an absorption of all colors, anyway.

Response:

  1. I think we should explore issues facing black professionals running single-parent households.
  2. I think we should try to understand African Americans with independent/unaffiliated/different political ideology.
  3. I think we should explore how we as African Americans can embrace and get to know our own genetic racial diversity. (Most African American people are biologically diverse genetically. We have ancestors from many cultures ie. American Indian, European, African, etc. (I also just found out that I may have ancestors from the Melungeon decent). We tend to ignore our own genetic diversity in order to identify ourselves as "black." I'm not sure why we do this. I think it is partially because the larger society has chosen to label and characterize us this way—maybe so that we will forget that we have a history. I love being black, but I think we have a right and freedom to embrace our own internal racial diversity.)

Response:

What I really, really most want is for the campus community to realize that not everybody is an evangelical Christian. The world is full of people who are not Christians - and there are even a few on campus, although they don’t dare admit it because of intimidation. As an example of that intimidation, eight times a year the faculty, and four times a year the freshmen, are coerced into praying to Jesus, whether they believe in Jesus or not.

Response:

It would be good for people to know about how the proactive activist of the 60's such as the panther part influenced the development of social serviced programs.

Response:

For a University which matriculates a large military student body, Military Appreciation Day was not honored during this year's football game with the fervor and tribute our servicemen and women deserve. These men and women have sacrificed their lives, time away from their families, and other responsibilities in defense of this great nation. They have fought and will continue to serve for Americas' right to study in institutions such as this, and do so with the greatest sense of humility, selfless service, total disregard for themselves, and never ask for anything return; yet, we do not see fit to recognize them accordingly. What message are we sending to the rest of the Fort Bragg Community...a community which, as a result of BRAC, stands to be the largest population of military personnel in the nation, within the next 2 years?

Response:

I have two wishes I would like to share, the first is a personal one, the second, professional, though with personal aspects. First, I would like there to be a greater appreciation for religious diversity in the Bronco family. Religious diversity seems to me to be a relatively distasteful topic, and I don’t fully understand exactly why, although I have some theories.

Second, as important as diversity is, in most organizations it is presented rather simplistically. To be honest, I don’t have much of an idea how it is presented here, primarily because I haven’t been involved in any diversity-related activities. That makes me a little sad because I wrote my dissertation on diversity, and it is an area in which I continue to publish, and about which I care a great deal.

Thank you for giving me the chance to offer my thoughts on so important a topic.

Response:

As a culture we deal with numerical statistics as a driving point for obtaining monies, whether through grants or in the form of a job. This has somehow forced our hand to check one of the boxes provided for us or to pick other. I would like my colleagues to know that we all are mostly a mixture of several cultures while we may mostly subscribe to the practices of one. We need to understand that expressing displeasure at one culture because we assume those listening are from a different culture may in fact be more offensive than realized. I believe that some will consider this nitpicking but I do believe it should be addressed repeatedly so the message is heard "Loud and Clear."

Response:

Dr. Rhodie:
 
Thank you for leading this council, and I wish the council success in its worthy efforts to gather information about campus diversity.
 
What I wish my colleagues to know about my culture (Jewish) is mostly what my immediate colleagues already know. Our major holidays are in the fall (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret), not the winter. Hanukkah is a minor enough holiday that the whole Christmas/"holidays" tempest is not a real issue for me. So they know that I'm going to need somebody to cover for me those days, and I'm happy to return the favor on some occasion of theirs. Our most important holiday of the year, though, happens every week: the Sabbath (Saturday). Only very rarely do I do stuff on Saturdays; graduation, occasional conferences, the Chemistry Day activities. But I'm not going to routinely break the Sabbath for work-related activities: it is our day of rest and worship; Sunday is the same as Tuesday to us. So, for example, those Saturday academies don't work out so well for me and my family.
 
Relatively speaking, though, these are mundane concerns. One issue I've had since I came here in 2002 is of such sensitivity that I really don't see how it can be brought up except through a diversity council. At campus events: convocation, founder's day, the two graduations; there is always an invocation and benediction. The prayers offered there are almost always sectarian (the one time they weren't, I actually walked up and thanked the clergyman!) Now FSU may be within their legal rights (colleges are generally given more leeway than primary or secondary schools with such things, as I've learned through a little research), but there are still moral obligations than come along with recognizing the diversity that exists within the institution. What seems to me to be pretty basic is simply realizing that not everybody is Christian. Common decency should dictate that people should not be forced to attend a religious service that is not their religion as part of their contractual obligations at work...at a state institution! The argument that this is the "Bible Belt" or "We've always done it this way" is starting to wear a little thin: we attract students, faculty, and staff from a diversity of locations, countries, and cultures—or at least we strive to - so we really can't have it both ways, an observation of which I'm sure the Diversity Council is well aware. Graduation is a time for celebrating the achievements of our students as they transition to alumni, and faculty attendance at graduations is in my view critical because it underscores the essential purpose of being faculty! A brief prayer for the purpose of solemnifying the occasion would be in order, and I'll assume that such is indeed the intent, but the sectarian prayers that assume that nobody prays to G-d except through Jesus of Nazareth serves to use the awe-inspiring event of graduation as an opportunity to divide the campus community along religious lines, something that I doubt would be anywhere on our mission statement!
 
On the other hand, it's hard to think of something more sensitive than taking Jesus out of campus events, if that's what it comes down to. It has happened before: at a Chancellor's gala with T.J. Bryan, with a contingent of Fayetteville's Jewish community present as significant donors, Jesus was quietly omitted from the invocation. Also, at more routine events, I noticed that the odious practice of leading everybody in saying grace before meals is no longer done, recognizing that grace can be done or not done individually, following the dictates of each person's conscience. But in the long term, these issues can really only be addressed through a diversity council, which I hope is permanent.
 
Thank you for undertaking this noble task, and I hope my comments help the council in their efforts to address the issue of diversity in the campus community.