Dear Mr. President, what are we tolerating?
On Nov. 29 at 6:07 p.m., I was backstage getting ready to sing my heart out at The Perch with my gospel choir, as I and the rest of our institution received an email notification of a university announcement from University President Mark C. Reed, Ed.D.
The email appeared to be Reed’s response to the Nov. 28 story as reported in The Hawk, in which a white male student rearranged words on the letter board of two students of color to spell “coons.”
I was not only taken back by Reed’s choice of a title of his message “A Message of Tolerance,” but also by the issues he addressed in his announcement.
By definition, tolerance is “the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.”
My question is, what are we tolerating?
This is not a matter of difference of opinions or disagreement. This about the facts.
We have a student body that is 80 percent white, seven percent Latino/Hispanic, four percent black and three percent Asian. This lack of representation is also mirrored among staff and faculty. Everyday we are reminded how we are othered by the lack of representation on this campus. The university’s actions towards bias-related incidents like these, or lack thereof, only reaffirms what we already know and feel.
We don’t matter.
In his message, Reed challenges us to uphold and defend our values as a Jesuit institution. I find that wherever a controversial issue arises, conversations about values are offered as the as the solution.
We should remember that institutionalized values, from the Constitution of the United States of America, to Jesuit ideals were not conceptualized to include people of color, and have, on multiple occasions failed us in this country and at St. Joe’s.
The reality is cura personalis and the magis won’t stop someone from writing “coons” on my door nor make me feel like I am equally valued and belong here.
In addition, Reed took it upon himself to make an early announcement of the university’s search for a chief diversity officer. I’m curious to know what exactly he thought mentioning this would achieve. If it was to prove St. Joe’s dedication to diversity, he missed the mark completely.
Hiring one person to singlehandedly promote diversity at St. Joe’s is not the solution. Diversity and inclusion should not just be words we throw around during campus tours to get people to come to our university.
Diversity should not be housed solely within the walls of the Center for Inclusion and Diversity. Nor should it only matter to those who staff the center and the members of our community that are directly impacted by the lack of it.
What I desire, or more so what we as people of color deserve from the senior administration and the members of the St. Joe’s community, is not to be “tolerated.”
We want to be respected, valued and protected just like all other members of the St. Joe’s community. Most importantly, we want justice.
We didn’t need a long-winded, aimless email from the president, nor a list of resources and contacts that we already know exist from Cary Anderson, Ed.D., vice president for Student Life. These responses did nothing to address the fundamental problems of racism on our campus.
That is what we won’t tolerate.