Diversity, intolerance, and acceptance have become topics of heightened interest in higher education as well as the legal profession in the last several years. Despite this interest, it seems that many people have attempted to restrict the concept of diversity to simply multiculturalism, when by definition diversity must encompass far more.
Brandeis University was founded with the concept of social justice as one of its primarily pillars. Yet somehow, our zeal to be a liberal institution can get in the way of those ideals of social justice and diversity. During the Presidential election of 2004, Brandeis, like so many universities, had clubs that supported political parties. The Democrat club spent much of the 2004 school year promoting with enthusiasm their party of choice, and so too did the Republican club. Yet somehow along the way, the largely liberal Brandeis campus began to act out against their Republican classmates. Posters were torn down, students were threatened and yelled at, and in one instance a girl sitting in class ended up having gum put in her hair. These were all very childish stunts, but the intolerance struck a chord in me. Unlike the response when statements were made against cultural organizations, these actions garnered no response from the Brandeis administration. It seemed that to them, the idea of defending diversity was restricted to protected classes (race, age, sexual orientation, etc.) and not to the minority group of Republicans at our university.
I am not a Republican; I am a committed liberal democrat. Yet, my experiences with intolerance have taught me that antagonism directed against any minority group threatens the very liberties that we claim to uphold.
I grew up in Hilo, Hawaii (a town with ½ a percent of New York City’s population). Hilo is made up primarily of Asian persons (38.8%), with Caucasian persons and Native Hawaiians approximately tied for second with 17% and 13% of the population respectively. It is also a highly anti-white environment. Growing up I was one of probably two white children in my classes, and certainly the only Jewish one. Having failed to assimilate into the local culture by speaking in the local pigeon, or being interested in sports, I stuck out like a sore thumb. For years, I assumed that I was the problem. Something about me was making me unpopular. It was not until I spent six months in San Diego in eighth grade that I realized it was not me; it was the culture around me. Hilo’s culture did not value a broad spectrum of society, but instead hoped to homogenize everyone into one lump, a blob of cultural uniformity.
My popularity among the local kids was not helped when I came out as gay my freshmen year in High School. Luckily for me, by then I had become involved in theatre, and that small pocket of social liberalism helped me believe in myself and succeed throughout my High School career. Being gay in college, and now living in New York, has never felt like a special challenge to me. Yes, there are awkward and upsetting moments, but I consider them to be universal to all people across the continuum of diversity.
I believe that everyone has a story of diversity to tell; they are of different ages, heights, ethnic and social backgrounds, speak different languages, have different political and sexual orientations, and vary in their religious, marital, and philosophical personas. I am not sure that my story should be any more convincing than that of a straight white male from Connecticut. That said, I recently attended a lecture at the LGBT Center entitled “Why the Make-up of the New York Court of Appeals Matters to LGBT People: Lessons from Hernandez v. Robles.” This lecture, attended by various gay legal professionals including The Honorable Marcy Kahn, pointed to the fact that openly gay lawyers make up only 2% of the New York state bench (none at the appellate level), and according to the NYC Bar Association’s 2006 Diversity Benchmark survey only make up 2.3% of lawyers at law firms and corporate legal departments. It is widely accepted that 10% of the population is gay, so clearly there is a gross discrepancy. As members of a society, all we can do is represent who we are and maintain a sensitivity to diversity, if that helps expand the spectrum of society, it is icing on the cake.
