Indifferent to diversity

I attended a recent Mongolian New Year celebration and was intrigued to learn that Mongolia is a fledgling democracy in Central Asia.

In 1990, Mongolia tried to adopt democratic and market reforms.

The country now has a unique status in the study of democracy: It is an ongoing experiment testing whether democratic reform can quickly take hold in a former socialist state.

It’s only at an international university such as IU that I have the privilege of meeting and learning from Mongolians firsthand and experiencing the myriad of concomitant cultural events on campus.

While I applaud the diversity and the lengths IU is taking to go international, my time here has left me feeling that IU is still segregated in an “Eric Holder sense” – whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians keep mostly to themselves.

It’s often only during formal group projects that the different groups interact.
Attend most cultural events on campus and you’ll notice only a trickle of trans-ethnic participation.

Many international students come to IU hoping to imbibe American culture, but they learn very quickly that the typical local student only “tolerates” their presence.
In the business school, there is even a ludicrous sentiment among many local students that Asians are “invading” the school.

Of course, some international students are single-minded in the pursuit of their degree and avoid interacting.

But I’ll bet my money that the majority of international students want to be enriched by the diversity of America – if not, they wouldn’t have spent the money it takes to study here.

One reason for this lack of interaction probably stems from cultural discrepancies and language barriers.

But I also believe that a major facet to this “segregation” lies in that local students don’t believe international students have anything to offer.

They merely accept an international community because they think diversity is a “good thing” without understanding it.

Yes, there are many hospitable Bloomington residents and native students who truly want to learn about other heritages.

Alternately, there are international students who really want to engage Americans. But those cases are too few and isolated.

The fact remains that the attitudes of average local college students are still pretty ignorant when it comes to international affairs.

For students here, the recurring thing I hear when it comes to foreign affairs is merely an interest in Europe and some trivia about America’s role in the Middle East. Beyond that, most American students just aren’t interested unless they are required to be.

However, as the most powerful nation in the world, being aware of international affairs should be a top priority, because college students will become future leaders and America’s actions have strong repercussions all around the world.

Ironically, it seems the stereotype that Americans are inward-looking and negligent on foreign affairs is true in some respects for students here.

Globalization is unavoidable.

If America closes up, it will fail miserably to maintain its lead as a superpower just as China, a superpower in the Tang and Song dynasty, ended up after it closed itself off from foreign influence.

The future of the world will be dictated by the global economy, as evidenced by this current economic crisis, and many IU students will not be prepared for it.