Ethnic diversity
It isn’t always what you think it is
Many years ago, when I was an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico, I was the news editor of the student newspaper, the Daily Lobo. One day, I got a letter to the editor accusing me of not having as much ethnic diversity on the staff as I ought. I responded: “I have three Navajos, two Apaches (one Mescalero, one Jicarilla), two Pueblos (one Laguna, one San Juan), a Hopi, a Kiowa, a Cherokee, and an Oneida. What do you mean, I don’t have enough diversity?”
For the record, in addition to all of those tribes, I had two Hispanics, one African-American, one Korean-American, one person of Irish descent, one Jew, and one generic American. The Oneida and the generic American, in addition, identified themselves as lesbians.
The writer of that letter, as far as I can tell, just looked at the bylines of the articles and then assumed that my news staff was “too white.” The basic accusation in the letter was that I had far too many white Anglo-Saxon protestant straight people on the staff, and therefore the reporting in the Daily Lobo was biased against minorities.
OK, you do the math. The person of Irish descent is Catholic. So how many white Anglo-Saxon protestant straight people did I have on my staff? And that’s too many?
Many years ago, when I was an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico, I was the news editor of the student newspaper, the Daily Lobo. One day, I got a letter to the editor accusing me of not having as much ethnic diversity on the staff as I ought. I responded: “I have three Navajos, two Apaches (one Mescalero, one Jicarilla), two Pueblos (one Laguna, one San Juan), a Hopi, a Kiowa, a Cherokee, and an Oneida. What do you mean, I don’t have enough diversity?”
For the record, in addition to all of those tribes, I had two Hispanics, one African-American, one Korean-American, one person of Irish descent, one Jew, and one generic American. The Oneida and the generic American, in addition, identified themselves as lesbians.
The writer of that letter, as far as I can tell, just looked at the bylines of the articles and then assumed that my news staff was “too white.” The basic accusation in the letter was that I had far too many white Anglo-Saxon protestant straight people on the staff, and therefore the reporting in the Daily Lobo was biased against minorities.
OK, you do the math. The person of Irish descent is Catholic. So how many white Anglo-Saxon protestant straight people did I have on my staff? And that’s too many?
posted by Carol Anne | 11:16 PM
4 Comments:
And when I first heard about, "A day without immigrants", I thought, boy, oh boy, Native Americans are really going to be busy running the country.
Ah hah!!, that person is right, I see no Kliglons or Vulcans listed, Yeah , what do you have against Vulcans!!!?????
Equality for all!!!!!!!!
I think Zen meant Klingons...which do have a spoken language, but no written one as far as I know.
The writer of that letter obviously never took the time to see what your staff looked like... now-a-days, many people of ethnicity have names that do not correspond to their ethnic background. The writer was making a very bad assumption.
One girl I know named Amy {long italian name} is actually 100% Korean, but was adopted. My sister's niece is also Korean, but all of her immediate family is Italian/Irish. Grace's only actual Korean relative is her aunt, my sister.
BTW, I'd vote for some hobbits and dwarfs on the staff. :D
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