Multicultural centers give students ‘choice of colors’

Rhythm and blues singer Curtis Mayfield is famous for his song “Choice of Colors.” In it he asks “If you had a choice of color, which one would you choose my brothers?”

This song inspired “Choice of Color: Brown Bag Series,” a discussion series about controversial issues dealing with race. Four IU culture centers organized the series – La Casa, the Asian Culture Center, First Nations and the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.

Today’s panel includes Eric Love, director of the IU Office of Diversity Education; Jacob Levin, a columnist at the Indiana Daily Student; and African American and African Diaspora Studies graduate students Caralee Jones and Heather Essex.

“We hope to have a healthy, but perhaps provocative dialogue among them about the different interpretations of diversity,” said Audrey McCluskey, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.

The purpose of the first event is to give students a voice as to what they see as diversity and to have an open dialogue, said Rafik Hasan, a graduate assistant at the center.

Many departments within IU want to increase diversity, and the hope is that students examine these mission statements and determine if they are taking the correct approach or if they are succeeding, Hasan said.

Hasan said that religion, race, gender and sexuality are constantly being redefined. The topic for the first event was decided because the term “diversity” has shifted in its usage and definition, McCluskey said.

“I had that idea because I think the concept of diversity has been diluted,” McCluskey said. “It used to be a political concept about equity and people who were excluded.

And now it has a kind of general and soft tone where it doesn’t really demand any particular change.

“So I want to question the whole idea of what diversity has come to mean particularly in relationship to groups that have been marginalized and discriminated against.”