A couple of weeks ago in class, I seriously thought I might have to tackle someone. It happened in an “Unforgettable Lectures” class — and it was unforgettable, though not entirely for the reasons advertised.
Cavalier Marching Band Director William Pease had just finished giving the class an inspirational talk on success and failure, reminding us that as University students, we have more power and potential than we often think. When he opened the floor for questions, an angry fifth-year student seized the opportunity.
The guy had shown up to class just 10 minutes before — missing most of Pease’s lecture — but wasn’t timid about voicing his deeply-felt belief.
“U.Va. kids are bougie as hell,” he said, and then continued on a rant.
Jaws around the room dropped. Someone hissed, “You can keep that opinion to yourself.” A lot of people looked taken aback and a few were laughing out of shock. I was seated directly behind him, and felt extremely threatened by his outburst. I was surprised, offended, confused and annoyed.
Now, I want the community to hear him.
Don’t misunderstand — I’m 100 percent against the manner in which he chose to voice his opinion. It was rude, out-of-place and absolutely offensive. But it was also thought-provoking, because he is real person who has obviously suffered at the hands of an all-too-often discriminatory culture at our university.
At the heart of the University’s mission is “development of the full potential of talented students from all walks of life.” We claim to have “unwavering support of a collaborative, diverse community.”
A comfortable diversity exists only when the majority culture is not enough.
In his piece for the New Republic entitled “Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League,” William Deresiewicz points out that kids “think that their environment is diverse if one comes from Missouri and another from Pakistan, or if one plays the cello and the other lacrosse. Never mind that all of their parents are doctors or bankers.”
This sounds a lot like our majority culture to me. Just substitute “Korea” for “Pakistan,” “tennis” for “lacrosse” and make all the parents lawyers and you basically have my friend group: diverse in some ways but essentially all very privileged.
The exciting thing to me is that we’re not the Ivy Leagues. We’re a public school — and that is to our strength. We get to share this place where people from all walks of life have the chance to develop their potential, even if we don’t always see it. We get to share in a process that is part of all our stories, if we have made it here.