Diversity is unavoidable in human life. Why does SB 83 ignore that reality?
“This course will survey the diversity found in human communities around the world and attempts to understand the common basis underlying that diversity.”
Thus began my syllabus for the first anthropology course I ever taught. That was in 1974 at Chicago’s Roosevelt University. It remained on every one of my introductory cultural anthropology syllabi through 44 years at Kent State University.
I entered anthropology in a quest to understand the many ways of being human that exist around our planet and gain insight into how we all might live together peacefully, with mutual respect. As part of that effort, I have conducted research in some of our most remote communities. I learned that there are many ways to live rewarding lives. I have published books and articles, spoken at conferences, and taught more classes than I care to count. From 1986 to 2015, I served on Kent State’s Faculty Senate, and from 1994 to 1996, I took part in Kent’s first “University-wide Diversity Planning Committee,” led by then-President Carol Cartwright. In short, human diversity has been a central focus of my life.
Today, I am alarmed to find “diversity, equity, and inclusion” widely dismissed as “woke” and partisan. Last week, Ohio’s Senate approved SB 83, a complex bill designed largely to end diversity training in higher education. A companion bill is pending in Ohio’s House of Representatives. Yet, as I listen to complaints regarding “DEI,” I can’t help wondering which part its critics find objectionable. Are they opposed to diversity? Equity? Inclusiveness?
Senate Bill 83: What would controversial higher education bill do?
Diversity refers to differences that coexist. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements.” It offers as a synonym, “variety.” And humans are intrinsically diverse.
People differ in gender, build, complexion, hair texture and other physical traits. We also differ by culture, values, language, social class and personal experience. Today, with highways, air travel, TV and the internet, diversity pervades all of our lives. And Americans live in one of the world’s most diverse countries. Henry Olsen, certainly no left-wing ideologue, praised American diversity in a recent issue of the Washington Post, proclaiming: “The United States is perhaps the world’s most successful multi-ethnic nation, and American conservatism must embrace that."
Diversity helps make our world the interesting, dynamic place it is. Were we all the same, life would be incredibly boring. The question is not whether to exist in a diverse environment, but how to respond to the truism that we do.
For as long as human beings have existed, we have interacted with others who are different from ourselves. We have learned from one another, borrowing ideas and practices that help us navigate our complex world and overcome the challenges we often face. We all benefit when we learn to deal with people from a plethora of backgrounds with kindness, understanding and compassion.
To achieve such understanding, social institutions — especially those of higher education — should celebrate diversity. We must welcome people of divergent backgrounds, and it’s perfectly in line to require those who work for colleges and universities to show respect for a variety of interlocutors. How to do that, however, may not be intuitively obvious, and that’s where “diversity training” comes in. It can help us make our colleagues, staff and students feel as comfortable as possible and create an environment in which we all feel valued and appreciated; where we feel that we are truly all “created equal;” that we all have equal opportunities to contribute to our shared well-being, regardless of gender, religion, national origin and ethnic identity.
Backers of SB 83 may deny that they oppose in principle inclusion, equity or a diverse social environment. Rather, they are likely to proclaim that current efforts to promote diversity are ineffective; perhaps even detrimental. But if we’re ineffective at accomplishing a worthy goal, the solution ought not be to end the quest. Instead, we should seek better ways to meet our shared objective. Put differently, rather than prohibit DEI training, leaders in Columbus should embrace our search for ways to do it better.
Rick Feinberg is professor emeritus of anthropology at Kent State University and former Fulbright Distinguished Chair of Anthropology at Palacký University, Olomouc, in the Czech Republic. He has conducted research with the Navajo of the southwestern United States and among Polynesians in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio Senate Bill 83 ignores that diversity is unavoidable in life
