More on diversity...

Because of a comment from Etenesh, I decided to write more and try to clarify my diversity rant a bit. I hope that neither Etenesh nor anyone else takes offense from what I write. I am merely expressing my opinion, which is the purpose of my blog, and I totally understand and respect that many do not agree with me. That's totally fine. We don't have to agree with each other on everything, as long as we can disagree and discuss with maturity and civility.

Now that I'm done with THAT rant...

I'm going to use a really simply example of race. I don't think about what race someone is unless it's pointed out to me. I don't think about it in my personal life, my professional life, or my school life - including when I am writing news stories/interviewing people. I have grown up believing that the race of a person is not an issue. People are people to me. Period.

My teachers like to belabor the point that when we interview and write, we need to be sure we include people of different races (etc.) to have diversity in our stories. So basically, they are telling us TO take notice of someone's race and that race IS an issue.

I'm sorry?

So, if I understand this correctly, when I'm writing, I am supposed to take into account a person's race. To me, interviewing or not interviewing someone based on their race is MORE racist than just not even thinking about it. If I specifically look for someone black to interview because of the fact that they are black, that, to me, is blatant racism. All my life I've been told not to treat people differently because of their race, but now all of a sudden that's different. I have to seek out black people to interview because they are a different color than I am.

This goes against everything I believe and everything I've been taught.

In my opinion, giving ANYONE special treatment because of their race equals racism - whether that person is black, white, brown, yellow...doesn't matter. And that is why I don't like my teachers harping on diversity all the time. I am not opposed to diversity - in fact, I think diversity is a great thing. But I get really sick my teachers assuming that everyone in the class is racist/sexist/anti-whatever.

I refuse to give anyone special treatment because of their color/gender/whatever. Just like I don't want special treatment because of MY color/gender/whatever.

(This also goes along with affirmative action. But that's a later rant for a later time.)

If I haven't explained myself clearly, please let me know. I don't want to offend anyone and I definitely want to make sure I'm not misunderstood.