Go to the meeting, and bring along the whitest friend you can find who is interested. Inclusion is fine, support groups are good for under-represented peoples, finding common ground is hunky dory. If they act odd toward your white friend, or exclude her in any way, that would tell me a lot.
Well, the reunion is over- I didn’t go. (It was over before I even posted this actually. I was outside the room it was in during preparations waiting to talk to a prof. They were going to hand out teddy bears to the guests. The almnae of color got bears in little gift bags, and the regular students just got normal bears.) I think it would have been worth going for a bear. 
(Yes, the bears were the colors of the rainbow, now that you mention it.)
Next time though maybe I can bring a white person along. It really is bizarre- a reunion for non whites. I mean, I’m sure they have reunions for everybody, normal ones, but this is so creepy.
Reminds me of how Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco, who is black, has referred to Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland, who is white, as “Brown Lite”.
As for the OP, I think it’s closer to racist than PC. It’s an expansion of the idea that “Asian” and “Latino” are homogeneous groups. Lumping really large groups of people together based on their perceived ethnicity doesn’t make sense, and lumping them together based on their non-whiteness makes even less sense.
Nothing wrong with inviting people who might share cultural backgrounds to get together. But when you start assuming that just because people aren’t white, they must have something in common, that’s entering racist territory.
So let me get this straight…we’re complaining about a mutually exclusive club at an
ALL GIRLS COLLEGE
hmmm. seems a little conflicting to me…
Arguably, though, so is the way to heaven… who’s to know?
I’m cutting an “inclusive minority alumni group” a little slack.
Some of these people probably graduated from Barnard back when minority meant that there were only half a dozen “people of color” on campus. You can’t form a social club of Asians if there is only one. And “back in the day” discrimination was a far bigger issue - even if it meant an Asian talking to a Black - at least each of them had a better understand of the other’s issues than their white friends.
Groups like this were (and possibly still are) helpful in establishing the kinds of connections that get you a plumb internship, or an interview with the better firms in your profession. Something that white men (and women) who went to schools like Barnard could leverage through their parents and friends of their parents - but minorities seldom have as many connections. (My husband’s first job in advertising was one where he - a white man - was hired by a white man who had known his father in college. His next job - he was interviewed by an alumnus of his college. Don’t underestimate “connections”)
It can be argued that the time when such organizations are needed has passed, and the needs of minority students can better be met in other venues. But I think the minorities who graduated from Barnard in 1962 probably feel the need to extend the invitation.
P.C people really should be lined up against a wall and shot, repeatedly.
I guess I can sort of see that, Dangerosa. It’s just that, again, I don’t really think of myself as different than my white peers. I mean, for most of my life I grew up in a nearly all white, very WASP-y town/school…maybe that’s why. It just feels weird that I would be invited to things that people I went to school with and who go here wouldn’t be invited to, just because of skin color.
And I see the need for connections, but I just find it patronizing that someone would think I’d need extra help just because I happen to have slightly darker skin, you know? I don’t even think of myself as a minority…that’s just a word. I just consider myself a human being.
I see the point some of you are making, but I don’t see how I would automatically connect with someone on the basis of skin color. I hang out with people because they’re nice and I like them, not because of similar ethnicities or backgrounds. I just consider myself an individual, and I don’t think someone is going to have had the same experience as me just because they’re Asian or “colored” or whatever.
I haven’t read all the postings, so maybe this has already been said.
If you had received a letter saying, “Come and join our whites’s only group” would you have considered this racist? My guess is you probably would have, as I suspect most would.
I think you have to say it was, if not racist, at least really, really dumb.
Sure, you wouldn’t be likely to see this, because the group would be laughed out of town and/or rioted at and/or sued. (There are, of course, white-only groups, but they don’t advertise the fact.)
But ask youself if a "Come to our Korean group … " flyer would be offensive. I say not in the least. What IS offensive is “Come to our Anything-but-White group …” (This is, AFAIK, the definition of “People of Color”.)
My personal definition “believing that you know what people are like or what they should be doing by their looks or ancestory.”
This falls awfully close. If you think that Japanese and Chinese people are going to get along automatically because they “have slanty eyes”, then I have some actual people in the world to introduce to you.
I also think that reversing the situation mentally is an excellent method to evaluate things. Would it be unethical, unaccpetable or fair if the roles were reversed?
lovelyluka, I was about to remark that I had taught in a school which had a set of honors for blacks and another for whites. Then I noticed that we are in the same state. Hmmm…
I also think that it is a tacky idea.
BTW, welcome!
Zoggie,
Consider yourself lucky that you can see yourself as a person, and don’t need to see yourself as an “Asian woman.” And thank those people who extended the invitation for the work they did to make that possible. (Although, for a few, that vision of themselves has always been possible).
It isn’t patronizing to think you may need connections because you have darker skin. Its how the game is played, no matter what your skin color is (or what sort of equipment you are carrying under your zipper). Kind of like a dope fest where you discover another doper is looking for a job. You’ll give another doper a good reference (provided you like him or her), but the doper status is the initial in. If its being a member of a woman’s club, or a member of a minority student organization, or a member of the Young Republicans, member of the First Methodist United Church, or Augusta Golf Club that gets you the introduction, its getting you an introduction - your resume personally handed to someone instead of going into the “big HR pile where it may eventually emerge, yellowed with age.” Its no more patronizing than how I got my job - a guy I know from a professional organization was leaving it on good terms and asked if I’d be interested. I gave him my resume, which skipped HR, and had an interview and job offer in hand quickly.
Its a simple fact of business life that deals (employment, sales, mergers, contracts) turn on this sort of relationship. Its also a simple fact that minorities have, in the past, been excluded from participating in the organizations where the most influence occurs (or if not excluded, there existence has been on the level of tokenism). One of the ways they battled this was to form their own organziations - as some have climbed to positions of influence, they are willing to share their experience and connections. This seem generous to me.
You aren’t automatically going to connect with someone on the basis of skin color (god no. I’m white, there are plenty of white people I don’t like). But the possibility exists that you will meet someone at an event like this that you do feel a connection to, irregardless of skin color. And irregardless of the event itself. I’m not arguing that you go. Just don’t fault anyone else for going.
The wording is certainly awkward. But given that the people holding the reception are probably a congolmerate of alumni from various ethnicities and various student organizations and various graduation years trying to hold a reception for themselves, when the only thing they all have in common is they aren’t white, I’m not sure that there is a better wording. Perhaps an invitation sent to all students that made this a “diversity event” (white people welcome, but expect to be outnumbered).
I’d like to ask all those who are offended/insulted/angered by Zoggie’s letter their perspective on the current pissing war being waged upon Augusta National Golf Club by the National Council of Women’s Organizations. (If you’re totally clueless about this issue, check out this story for a recent update on it.)
I’m perplexed at those who actually take offense to the letter. Do you not think people have the right to associate with whom they choose? And is the mere act of choosing with whom to associate enough to brand one as “racist”? That seems to me to be one hell of a huge leap.
Or maybe it’s just that Y.T forgot his lithium . . .
It could be worse–the Latina group at Wellesley in the mid-80s when I was there tried to unite all the “third world women” on campus. The rich black girls from Morningside Heights and Grosse Pointe were not amused. The rich girls from Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong turned up their noses and went shopping on Newbury Street. And the Arab, Indian, and Bangladeshi girls I knew knew that they, technically, were from the Third World, but didn’t think of themselves that way–they were mostly from the top tier of their societies and didn’t want to define themselves as poor struggling masses. The term was dropped.
But hey, yay to networking and not having to “represent” to the majority culture. Although as an Asian boyfriend I had at MIT remarked, “Hey, I AM the majority culture here!” I guess he meant Californian
You hit the nail on the head! That’s exactly what’s wrong about it.
To my mind this makes it both racist and overly PC. But of course everyone knows that whitey gets all the breaks anyway, so it doesn’t matter. </sarcasm>