Think about it. The sentiment that statement conveys is this: All those non-White minorities clearly lack the intelligence and ability to earn a 3.0 GPA. She may as well have added, “We don’t want to exclude any n*****s from our school.”
How would you feel if you were in one of those groups? To have the class president try to keep the expectations low purely on account that you, because of the color of your skin, can’t be expected to rise to the challenge? As for myself, I feel outraged. Outraged, and insulted. The implications of that statement are simply too terrible for me to accept. I feel somehow … lessened.
Do we want a class president who believes that many of us are less intelligent than whites? I think not. For all her support of ‘diversity programs’ and the like, I feel that this, most important lesson in equality and self-worth has, regrettably, been overlooked. How will you restore our faith in you now? What can you say to mend our dignity? I do not want your pity. I do not want you to “empathize with my repressed status.” I want to be your peer, both in deed and in thought. I wish neither to be placed on a pedestal and coddled nor looked down upon, both of which have been done to me by the statements of my own class president and senate.
Mary Cunningham’s statements are hurtful and divisive, wounding the dignity and self-respect of any minority, as they have wounded mine. I implore her: please, take more care with your attitudes and with your words, and seek to make amends for the hurt you have caused.
Sincerely,
Justice McPherson
junior, community development