For any proposal on discussing diversity and building community to work - each of the communities must feel a sense of ownership - to feel that it is beneficial to them or their community or their department or whatever.  This proposal - still in very rough draft form - came from a consensus among a group of students two years ago.  It is still worth considering today because all of the Stony Brook communities will see the inherent worth of trying to find common ground to live our lives together.
 

Community 101
Introduction

In November 1999 and again in April 2000 the documentary The Color of Fear was shown to classes and groups of students with facilitators from the University Counseling Center on hand for the follow-up discussion.  The Color of Fear is provocative and emotionally charged.  Eight strangers of four different races or ethnicities come together for a weekend to discuss race.  Yet although provocative, the way it handles the discussion is generally so well praised that it has led schools such as Johns Hopkins to make it mandatory viewing for all freshmen.

Many hours after everyone had left the April showing, a student was crying as he talked about the anger and depression he felt about "this problem I've been dealing with for the past few years of realizing that I'm different."  His words.  The color of his skin and the slant of his eyes were his "problem."  It was his second time seeing The Color of Fear, but the first time he had verbalized how he felt and going public a few hours earlier was a very emotionally jarring experience for him.

He chose to speak for the first time after listening to a young African American women in his group.  She too had cried.  The film had hit a particularly emotional nerve for her because coincidentally, the town where it had been filmed was where she had experienced the most frightening racial incident of her life.  "I am tired of being told every day by white people that I am the problem.  I am not the problem," she cried.

There is was, twice in one night in the same context but a different context.   People of color believe that whites think of the racial problem as a 'they' problem.  Not 'we' have caused the problem.  Not 'we' continue the problem.  Not 'we' are oblivious to the privilege of whiteness, but rather 'they.'  And 'they' are forced to internalize that privilege of whiteness and silently rage against it because, as she said to the group, "On the one hand, you control my life so I have to deal with you.  I am the only person of color grad student in my department.  But I also can't spend my life trying to fit your idea of what you want me to be.  I have to live with me and who I am and who I want to be."

Yet each of them cries at the pain and the hurt caused by 'we' - the we of the majority culture that proclaims "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" - but still a we that only wants to accepts others on its own terms.

But just as that black woman had given that yellow man the courage to find his voice, she took away the voice of the white students.  One of them, another grad student who is getting her Master's in Teaching, thought the black woman was herself a racist.   Others felt too intimidated by her emotion to say anything.   In a long conversation about a month later, some of them talked about their feelings that night and what it is to try to be white and talk about race. 

One white woman said, "That film was the most disturbing thing I've ever seen... I didn't realize myself how much I didn't know about things."  And another replied, "What is it called... white man's privilege... we don't think about it all of the time because we don't have to deal with it.  I didn't realize that they have to deal with it that often."

But realization is not necessarily change.  It is not discussion and it may even have the opposite effect.  The first white woman spoke again.  "I also think that sometimes white people get attacked.  Like personally, I think that a lot of the time, and this may be horrible for me to say, but I've always felt like as a white person I get looked at as well, 'You're a white person and you're bad...  you're a racist.'   I didn't do anything.  I never did anything to anybody, I never hurt anybody, but I always felt that I was being attacked because I was white."

Discussion needs to be a two way street if progress and justice are to prevail.   And so, though these showings of The Color of Fear and the ensuing conversations were a start, obviously much more is needed.  But what?  And how?

The definition of racism most often used is prejudice plus power. All of us have learned prejudices about other groups of people, but when we have the power to live out those prejudices, then it is racism.   When people use negative stereotypes without knowing how those being stereotyped feel, it is ignorance.  But when they continue to use them knowing the feelings, it is no longer ignorance, it is racism.

But sometimes, as the white woman who watched the movie said, "I didn't realize..."  What is white privilege that allows so many whites to not realize?

And it is also not just whites who stereotype and have prejudices.  At another showing, a Chinese American woman, a native born American, claimed that she had felt worse prejudice from other Chinese than she had ever felt from any whites.  "Native Chinese look down on me.  They look down on all American born Chinese."  With 70% of Asians living in America foreign born - the American born are still far outnumbered.  Foreign born Chinese have a term for ABC's - American Born Chinese; they are jook sings - hollow bamboo - Chinese on the outside but empty inside. 

And even within the immigrant population - discrimination and prejudice abounds.   An Indian female faculty member has talked about how she is shunned by the immigrant Indian community.  She and her husband speak to each other in English because their native Indian dialects are different - and that is a dead giveaway to the immigrant population that hers had not been an arranged marriage.  A Korean woman, a faculty spouse, cries in frustration that she is isolated from the Korean immigrant community because her husband is white and they want nothing to do with her.  Japanese and Japanese American,  Chinese and Chinese American, all the Asian ethnicities on campus who venture outside of their ethnicities, often face as much discrimination from their own immigrant ethnic group as they do from anyone else.

Yet the children of immigrants - of all races - bridle at their parent's xenophobia.   They cross the ethnic divide, making mutts out of the English and Italians, Chinese and Koreans, Indians and Bengali's, Ghanaians and South Africans, Brazilians and Mexicans.  But what about the racial, not just the ethnic divide?  Outmarriages of Asians to non-Hispanic whites is high but much lower to anyone else.  Marriages between blacks and whites is the lowest of all.   So although America's melting pot is truly interethnic, especially by the second generation - it is not interracial.

Nor are the divisions only within the Asian community.  Nor is race the only problem.  One of the after discussions on the film gave way to a two hour argument over equal rights for women, and what does feminism really mean, and why men just don't get it.  

Can the issues of race really be separated from the issues of gender?  Or sexual orientation? 

Is there anything we at Stony Brook can do to start the process of making every graduate of this University aware of the true meaning of justice?  Students, faculty and staff all need diversity training and awareness.  No one is enlightened in every area of race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and issues relating to the handicapped.  Stereotypes abound and a flyer for The Color of Fear used some of them to make its point:

• are Euro American males really all racist?
• are Asian American males really all effeminate geeks?
• are Latinos really all drug dealers?
• are African American men really all mentally inferior?
• are all men really sexist pigs?
• and are the stereotypes for women any better?

While USB can claim to be racially diverse, simply sitting in a classroom next to a person of a different color does not insure any kind of interaction.  Knowledge and understanding comes through getting to know one another.  Many students came to Stony Brook expecting diversity and found a segregation they thought had last existed in their parent's day.

The solution has to be something that every person at Stony Brook - student, faculty, and staff - is required to do in order to give full voice to each of these issues, to begin a new learning process of living together as equals.  And the basic solution has to be one that students come up with in order for it to even begin to work.

Here is the idea that six students, sitting together and brainstorming, did come up with and which has been further refined.  It is a feasible proposal that deserves serious consideration.   It takes in to its fold main campus undergrads, grads, faculty including adjuncts, and administrative staff within departments.  It is followed by a similar, though less detailed, description of how this can include SPD and all other University staff, whether UUP or CSEA, and eventually also needs to include HSC and SOM.
 

Who Would Be Required to Take Community 101 and How (Technical, not Pedagogical)

a) An undergrad course will be taught dealing with diversity issues and the course will be required for all students.  For purposes of identification only, the topic of this course shall be called Community 101 and it shall be worth 3 credits.  No undergraduate student may graduate without this course, and no graduate student may graduate without taking or TAing this course.  No other course, including independent study, may be substituted for Community 101.  This course must be taken at Stony Brook.  Students should be encouraged to take the course as soon as possible upon entering Stony Brook, whether they are freshmen or transfer students.

b) Using racism as an example - racism does not exist only outside of the classroom.   It is as much a part of an astronomy or comp lit class as it is a part of the social scene.  Therefore Community 101 will be taught as though it were a part of each and every discipline.  As such, it would be taught in every department that grants a major, i.e., it would be Physics 101: 'Building Community for Physics Majors' or 'Diversity within the Field of Physics,' and Philosophy 101: 'Building Community for Philosophy Majors' or 'Diversity within a Philosophical Framework,' and Psychology 101: 'Diversity for Psychology Majors,' etc..  The course, however, would not differ substantially in content from one department to the next, though what would differ would be the use of examples relevant to problems and occurrences in that major.

c) It is currently difficult enough for students to graduate within four years.   No one wants to add another course to the current number of courses needed for graduation.  No department wants to add another requirement to their major.  No one wants to have another DEC category added.  No department wants to lose the DEC courses they currently have as they up enrollments.  The easiest way to fit into all of those 'do not wants' is to incorporate Community 101 into the existing DEC requirements.

There are currently three DEC requirements, E (Natural Sciences), F (Social and Behavioral Sciences), and G (Humanities), that are meant to have students receive 'Disciplinary Diversity.'  In each of those categories, students are currently required to take two courses.  By allowing each student to replace one of those courses with the Community 101 course, Community 101 becomes mandatory without upsetting anyone's apple cart.

Students could take the course within their major or in any other department, or it may be determined that the student would be required to take it in their major, or it may be required that the student take it outside of their major for the 'disciplinary diversity.'   It is up to the discretion of each department as to whether this course can also be used as part of the requirements for their major. Students who have not yet chosen a major may take the course in, for instance, SSI.

d) To insure that all faculty also learn the issues of diversity, the course must be taught on a rotating basis incorporating each member of a department.  No member of a department can be exempt from teaching the course though they may switch with other faculty members to make sure they teach it at a time that is convenient for them.   (Faculty members who do not currently have any courses on a rotational basis can look to the Philosophy Department for guidance.  In Philosophy, all intro courses (101 - 105) are taught on a rotational basis with each faculty member teaching one intro course once every few years.)

The course may have a graduate TA but it must be taught by a faculty member who is responsible for being in the class each and every time it meets, even if members of a department choose to team teach.  No faculty member may receive tenure without having taught the course (grandfather clause for first 3 years).  Currently tenured faculty members, or those falling under the grandfather clause, are forbidden from receiving any discretionary salary increases, or university grants or awards, or promotion to Chair of their department or to a higher position in the University until they have taught a Community 101 course.

e) Departments may also choose to offer the course at a graduate level.  If they do not, all graduate students must TA the course once in order to receive their degree, preferably before they teach any other course.  Just like a faculty member, they are responsible for being in the class each and every time it meets.  They may not substitute any other course for Community 101 (or 501 if applicable).

f) Adjuncts in each department are required to audit the course within two years of beginning work at USB.  While some may consider it unfair to make this mandatory for adjuncts, the reality is that they are teaching a larger and larger percentage of courses each year.  Adjuncts will be appropriately compensated for their time from a University fund set up for such a purpose so that no underfunded department is overburdened.  Like tenured faculty, adjuncts are required to be in the class each and every time it meets.

g) CSEA employees within each department will be required to audit the class within two years of being hired or their contracts will not be renewed.  Current employees will not receive favorable evaluations or promotions, discretionary increases, or university grants or awards if they have not audited the course within 2 years.

h) The Diversity Office would teach Community 101 to all University employees under similar mandatory requirements.

i) SPD would put together a Community 501 course for its graduate students and faculty. For SPD, this is as important as doing it for anyone else in the University.  SPD is primarily used by K-12 teachers to attain their Masters and by extension, they reach thousands of students within their lifetime.

SPD should also be required to put together How to Teach Community 101 courses, on a K-3 level, 4-6 level, 6-9 level, and 9-12 level, for those teachers to use for their own students.

j) This course should never be taught as a distance learning course though it is important to bring technology into it.  The tests given at www.yale.edu/implicit are perfect examples of incorporating technology, and anyone reading this draft should click onto the website above to see how valuable the tests are.  In addition, there should be such things as anonymous chat rooms to discuss anything without fear of embarrassment.
 

How Community 101 Would Be Taught

k) There would be a syllabus for Community 101 that would be identical in the areas it would cover whether the course was taught in Math or Music. Each department would be responsible for bringing into the syllabus diversity examples relative to their specific areas.

l) Each Community 101 course would be taught by a multitude of facilitators working with each faculty member, or if team taught, with all members.

The use of multiple facilitators would entail the hiring of additional University personnel in the Counseling Office and the Diversity Office.  In addition, (student diversity course in Sociology or the Living Learning Center students) would be involved as facilitators as well.

The combined faculty and professional facilitators must include at least the following for each class:

• one person of each race with a major representation at Stony Brook including African (Black), Asian (both Eastern [Yellow] and South [Brown]), Euro (both Northern and Southern White), and Latino (Brown);  (what about Black Latino?) (Are there enough native Americans that one needs to be part of this?)

• mixed genders;

• one gay or lesbian, preferably one of each;

• one person from each major religion outside of Christianity (as long as Christianity is the majority religion, it is the others that face discrimination and stereotyping - e.g., all Arab Muslims are terrorists);

• a handicapped person;

• anyone else?

though except for the faculty teaching the course, all of the other participants do not need to be at each session but are meant to be a part of each course during major sessions (described below) or when an area that particularly includes them is part of the syllabus.

m) While what needs to go into the course still needs to be worked out, it must do the following:

• not be broken into segments such as two weeks on racism, two weeks on sexism, etc. but should flow in and around all subjects throughout as they are not indivisible;

• include things like showing The Color of Fear or similar provocative films to initiate meaningful discussions (considered a major session);

• one segment of the course should be an attempt to bring everyone together for an extended period of time - e.g., a full day or a weekend - where there is not just discussion but food and drink and the opportunity for camaraderie.

This proposal still needs lots of work, including all of the following, but it is a good basis with which to start.

Need to tie this into the five year plan and have backup documentation.

Need transcription of stories in the student videotapes as well as other stories.

Put together a draft syllabus.

Learn about other diversity programs nationwide to see what could be incorporated.

Need to include examples of white privilege as it is a concept that not everyone immediately understands. 

Need to set it all up as a web site so that faculty can get visual examples.

The initial six brainstorming students were Haydn Hyacinthe, Sawanee Khongsawatwaja, John Kim, Michael Kwan, Rhonda Robbins, and Dafina Roberts.  The additional students and alumni who have added to the proposal are John Cordero, Stanley Liang, Jung Soo Lee, and JoAnne Young.