Who, me? I’m diverse, I swear! via YouTube.
On Saturday, two days before the national celebration of Martin Luther King Jr., Knoxville state Rep. Roger Kane opined that just because the Tennessee General Assembly is mostly white and male, that does not mean it’s not diverse.
Sigh. Here we go. Again.
“Women have actually gone down and minorities have gone up,” Kane said, talking about UTK enrollment. “Well, that’s just trading spaces. It’s really not creating diversity.”
Right. Women and minorities have absolutely nothing at all to do with diversity, no. It’s all about the white guys.
“If you look at this panel, that’s in front of you, we look rather homogeneous. But we’re incredibly diverse! We really are,” Kane said of the 12-person panel that consisted of 10 white men, one white woman (Sen. Becky Duncan Massey), and one African-American man (Rep. Rick Staples).
Insert a slight, nervous laugh here. Kane continues on in his diversity definition.
“You see me as a white, middle-aged man. But my mother’s Jewish, my father’s Catholic, and I’m a Baptist. Does that not make diversity?” Kane asked.
Not really. It means you have a mixed religion background.
“I grew up in Houston, probably one of the most diverse towns you will ever see,” Kane said, accurately, mentioning the city’s large Chinese, Vietnamese, gay and black populations. “And that’s the school I went to. Does that not add to my diversity? But you see me as a white, middle-aged man, that’s all you see. But we’re so much more than that!”
People see a white, middle aged man because that’s what is there. Living in a high diversity town and going to a high diversity school doesn’t change the fact that you’re a white man. Diversity is not about personality or character traits.
Kane continued digging his hole, saying that UTK’s diversity office — which the Legislature defunded last session — doesn’t really show the true diversity on campus, because a lesbian Filipina only defined herself as that and not also as “a woman, she’s college-educated, she’s funny, she has black hair — those are all diversity things.”
“She had forgotten all of those things because in her strive to be diverse, she had honed in on two things, and that’s it,” Kane ended bitterly.
Oh for…yeah, no. Being a woman, a lesbian, and Filipino all matter when it comes to diversity. Once again, this is not about personality or character traits. I’m pretty sure you don’t get to count hair colour as a “diversity thing”.
These are the conservative white men who are in charge of education all over.
Via Nashville Scene.
Well, I ate pizza two days in a row, that practically makes me Italian…
I make nukazuke, I guess I’m turning Japanese.
Hmmm, I had taco salad for two days in a row. Looks like I’m Mexican.
I went to an Italian restaurant I frequent last night, so I’m also Italian! And I can see Italy from the beach!! And I even used to have some boots made in Italy!!!
And and and… I’m planning on cooking Vietnamese tonight, to be eaten with real Korean chopsticks and served with a Japanese sake! So I’m also “Kornamnese”!!
Some of the panel have eaten Chinese food. Others have driven past German restaurants. Some employ Mexican gardeners and others have Polish maids. Let me tell you, the Tennessee General Assembly is exactly like the frigging United Nations!
OMG! The United Nations have invaded Tennessee and taken over the government there!
Well, some days I use a lot of soy sauce, and other days I make use of the chili peppers or curry. I must be the most diverse of all.
And if the race make-up of the school you went to counts in favour of your own diversity, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I’m Pakistani, because I went to a highly South Asian populated campus of UofT. I mean I could be Indian, too, but I had more Pakistani friends.
“I grew up in Houston, probably one of the most diverse towns you will ever see,” Kane said, accurately, mentioning the city’s large Chinese, Vietnamese, gay and black populations. “And that’s the school I went to. Does that not add to my diversity?”
No it does not add to his diversity, though it might add to his exposure to a diverse environment. If he spent his existence in Houston ghettoized in his upper class white neighborhood, went to his white Catholic church, and hung at school with his white friends, it would significantly decrease his real exposure regardless of the demographics of either town or school.
He is not the first person I have seen stretch wildly to try and find some diversity to claim as his own.
Regarding eating and diversity… I used to teach college sociology (now retired), and white students claiming eating out at certain restaurants (including Taco Bell) as significant exposure to diversity was sadly and distressingly not unusual.
Good grief. That seems similar to claiming watching Doctor Who makes one an expert in extraterrestrial sentient biology.
To what extent is that a confusion about is meant by diversity? (Taking a bit of a leap there as one potential cause.)
as one → as to one
Ding ding ding.blf gets the prize for ” That seems similar to claiming watching Doctor Who makes one an expert in extraterrestrial sentient biology.”
Being funny is a diversity thing? Because hey, most lesbians have no sense of humour, amirite? (And if you’re a lesbian and you don’t think that’s funny, you’re only proving my point…) It used to be hard to tell whether people who said things like this were being serious, because once, a while back, it was possible to think “oh come on, nobody is that cluelessly oblivious, surely?”. After tomorrow, that’s no longer an issue.
To cobsweb @ 8
You’ve heard this sort of thing before!!!!????? I…I…I… I just…
I have to stop coming here. The pain from my blown mind is excruciating.