Culture should outweigh color
I find it alarming that the best Alina Varona could do in her
column, “Diverse faculty offers broader education,”
(Feb. 24) was state that skin color has something to do with
broadening our educational horizon. She obviously got her C-words
mixed up: color v. culture.
What we need is more cultural diversity; being cultured does not
necessarily imply that a candidate for professorship has color.
Following Varona’s logic would lead one to think that a
dark-skinned Latino or Latina candidate is more beneficial to the
student body than a Latino or Latina who appears to be white.
If the applicant is cultured, it should not matter what that
person’s skin color is. The important thing is that he or she
can authentically and accurately enlighten students about that
culture. And since knowledge and experience about a particular
culture should be considered a qualification when relevant to the
applicant’s job description, we are back to that all
important word that Varona tried to dance around:
qualifications.
Color of skin is irrelevant to the learning process whether you
are learning or teaching. But, then again, I would not want to say
anything that would hurt someone else’s fight to keep the
race card and race barrier a factor.
Victor Nardiello
Class of 2003, economics
Arguments bogged down by race
We are writing in response to Kathy Kasten’s letter,
“Hate against U.S. won’t gain support” (Feb. 18)
and Roozbeh Gorgin’s response, “Kasten owes Iranians,
UCLA apology” (Feb. 24). Kasten’s remarks definitively
exude a sentiment of racism towards Iranians in general based on an
isolated experience at a dinner party. If one were to apply
Kasten’s logic, we could conclude that her article shows as a
“fact” how all women in pathology have racist ideas. Of
course, this is absurd.
In light of this, we are disappointed by Gorgin’s
response. Rather than point to the failures in Kasten’s
approach, he chooses to play into her racist power structure. His
attempt to prove Iranians worthy in relation to white American
subjectivity resembles the cries of a subordinate attempting to
prove his/her relative value to a superior at the expense of other
subordinates.
Racism disturbs us because it dissolves every individual
perspective into a pejorative generalization. Don’t the very
roots of this ill lie in the positive generalizations we make
regarding ourselves? If so, Gorgin’s response, albeit being
justified in its critique of Kasten, offers no solution for
Iranians. Are we to heal through a perverted egoism? Or shall we
form powerful bonds of solidarity with other peoples of color?
Shirin Vossoughi, former Viewpoint columnist
Arash Davari, Fourth-year, Iranian Student Group, board of
directors