There’s more to Race than Black and White.
By: Yam Saowatarnpong
Why is it that when the topic of race is brought up it seems to be limited to the black or white community? I’ve never actually noticed this until I came to America from Thailand. Every other topic, it seemed, was about race, but only two races — black and white.
A few weeks ago, we had Cultural Awareness Week. When I think of being culturally aware, I think of the 196 countries in this world and their cultures and how different they all are. Here at ACU however, Cultural Awareness Week means talking about the black community. Now that’s not wrong and I am definitely not saying that the black community is not important; what I am saying is that there are other countries and races in this world and in this community besides the black community.
I love hearing about different cultures and where and how people grew up. Listening about the black community is no different. It was great. I loved listening to the stories they shared and the things they had to say especially since I didn’t know much about it. However, I wished I had the chance to hear about other communities too.
According to the ACU diversity page, ACU is made up of eight different ethnic groups, yet I only ever here about two: black and white. I realize that I chose to come to America so I can’t expect them to talk about all these other countries, but I never realized how much I would be hearing about this country. We rarely ever hear about the Hispanic community even though there are more Hispanic people at ACU than there are black people. Not only limiting it to chapel, but the classes I’ve taken here too. Especially in the JMC department, where race is a constant issue and topic being brought up, but the only race we ever bring up is black and white.
I find it hard to have a real conversation with anyone about race for fear of offending that person. Not only that, but when the only races we’ve been talking about for the past several years are black and white, it’s weird and hard to bring up any other race.
ACU says that they pride themselves in being a diverse university. According to ACU’s university profile page, they state that ACU represents 47 states and territories and 43 nations around the world. We even have the parade of the flags on the first day of chapel every year. My point is that yes, ACU represents many different countries around the world and many different states around the United States and they have every right to be proud of that. However, it’s disappointing once you get here and realize that this campus’ diversity is defined by black and white. Where are all the other cultures? We have the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OME) here, yet there is nothing multicultural about this place. In chapel we talk about the white community and then the black community and then back to the white community. What happened to everyone else?
If ACU wants to say that they are a diverse campus full of people from all over the world, then they need to do something about it. Sure they have things like ETHNOS, an event put on by the international students every year of dances from their hometowns, and Entra La Plaza, an event that helps people learn about the Hispanic culture, but that’s not enough. My guess would be that more than half the population here at ACU wouldn’t even know what those two events were if I were to ask them. The few that have heard about it don’t know what it is and/or have never attended. They need something else. The OME office needs to think broader, outside the box, a reason to make ACU’s diversity something beyond the letters on a pamphlet.
We have the opportunity to expose ourselves to many different cultures without even having to leave campus, yet very few people take advantage of that fact. I think the main reason of that being, we don’t realize that we are in a diverse community. We have only heard about black and white. Race becomes a word that we avoid and don’t want to talk about anymore. We’ve heard the arguments, the snide comments, the pride in the voices, the name-calling, and we no longer want to be a part of it. Standing in the sidelines becomes easier, the safer route than speaking up. We have to learn how to have a meaningful conversation about race without offending, not just black and white, but all races, because all races are important; we just don’t hear it enough. I don’t think the biggest issue is people talking about race all the time, I think the biggest problem is that we don’t know how to not only talk about multiple races but, we don’t know how to talk about it in a non-offensive way.
Abilene Christian University Diversity. (2013, February 20). Retrieved October 10, 2015.
How Many Countries. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2015.
University Profile Abilene Christian University. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2015.
