Ramble on Multiculturalism

Wow, what a Haverfordian topic to ramble about. But of course, our discussions yesterday made me think, and when I think it's a good excuse to blog.

So if you go to Haverford, what I'm saying might be familiar, just because I feel like we talk about this so much. Or maybe just cause we talked about it yesterday. But my main pet peeve with how we tend to use the word "multicultural" on campus and even in society at large is that it tends to mean either "not white" or "including large number of races/ethnicities." So a multicultural student might be a student who isn't white, or if a high school adopts a multicultural standpoint (I know there's a better word but I'm sleep deprived and can't think of it), it embraces all the cultures - meaning races and immigrant ethnicities - of the students who go there, rather than trying to Americanize all of them or something.

But culture is a way broader word than that. It's not just about your skin color and where you're from. Culture can mean the food you eat, or the diversity of where you live, or your class, or the general socioeconomic status of the people where you live, or the traditions, or the commonly accepted values. So sure, ethnicity and race can cover a lot of those things, because people of one ethnicity might eat similar foods or hold the same general values. But although I feel like I'm not considered a multicultural student at Haverford because I'm white, I consider myself to be multicultural mainly because I'm Jewish and because I identify as LGBT and am so much a part of that community and those two cultures. (Or, well, I'm starting to have a problem with that acronym because the LGBT community tends to turn its back on its T members so often, but that's another ramble.) So while I and so many other white students here could bring a diverse perspective to things like Honor Council trials, we aren't considered to be "multicultural" members of a jury because we're white and thus not considered "multicultural." I feel like when we talk about multiculturalism here, we're talking about race, maybe country of origin or family origin. Who gets invited to Spectrum and Multicultural Weekend? Mostly specs of color. (Haha, that sounds like I took paint and flung it at a wall and then there were specs of color. Spec = Prospective student. Need sleep.) Then again, we aren't really asked to identify our sexuality or our religion on college applications, so how should they know? But there are other ways, I think. Like I put down youth group, temple committees, and GSA on my app. I just feel that race and nationality/ethnicity are not the only kinds of culture that should be included in the term "multiculturalism," especially at Haverford where we have a fairly diverse student body in so many aspects of life.