[Vision2020] Diversity 1,2,3

[rodney johnson]

I appreciated Melynda Huskey’s response to my post, in which she asked me 
the following:

"We call ourselves 'the bland people' because we know so little about our 
own cultures.  But we've got to know our real history, not a made-up mess 
like 'Anglo-Celtic.'  What's your heritage, Rodney?  Where have your family 
members and ancestors come from?  What ethnic and cultural heritage has made 
you who you are?  What were the real-life experiences of those ancestors?"

My ancestors hail from both England and Ireland, with one Teutonic 
interloper (hence my last name), which means that “Anglo-Celtic” is my true 
cultural and racial identity, not code word (I think you’re getting confused 
with the “Anglo-SAXONS”).  I like to stand back for a minute and ask myself 
what makes it possible that two tiny little islands could have such 
influence, but I know it must be something in the drinking water.  Anyway, 
some ancestors came here before the War and some after.  All spent time in 
the South before moving west.  At some point in my genealogical tree, the 
flute got grafted into the fiddle.  All were working-stock, hence the red 
necks.  No wealthy planters in my lineage.  Some were even Catholics.

But, by golly, they sure had grit.  They came from countries that were part 
of a larger civilization for which some of them, goin’ way, way back, holed 
up in stone huts on the Emerald Isle during the Dark Ages, actually taught 
themselves to read and write and saved its remnants.  And they moved ahead, 
restlessly, adventure for the sake of adventure, surpassing the old 
civilization--its center of gravity a relic turned point-of-division, so 
that their being occidental was not just accidental.

But this vibrant people refused to acknowledge that vast fact called the 
Atlantic, and so here we sit, long story short, in the city of Pullman 
(founded by whom?), in the State of Washington (constituted by whom?), in 
the hallowed halls of WSU (started by whom?), surrounded by wheat fields 
(first tilled by whom?), poised in front of our digital displays (invented 
by whom?--forget about who manufactured it), arguing over the merits and 
contributions of, well, just about our very existence I guess.

I know, I know, this is playing right into Melynda’s point—that the obvious 
contributions of the white race are so evident that we need to learn our 
“real history” to counter it, that racism is systemic, etc., etc.  The only 
problem is, I didn’t lay these new set of ground rules you’re using.  In 
other words, if you speak of “diversity” as a principle, and especially as a 
universal principle, you are going to have to apply it in a universal 
fashion—and here is where your house of cards comes crashing down.  This 
theme has underlied, in one fashion or another, nearly every topic of 
discussion on V2020 for at least a year now.

All of this can be boiled down to one simple question, for Melynda of course 
(I hope she’ll forgive me):  Would you, in your OFFICIAL capacity at WSU'S 
Office of Diversity and Human Relations, EMBRACE the inclusion of the League 
of the South as a student group?  [Hint: the words “official” and “embrace” 
are emphasized for a reason.]

- Rod Johnson

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