The Chronicle of Higher Education by Naomi J. Miller
Speaking as a multiracial faculty member, I know that many of the regular invitations that I receive to serve on committees or coalitions originate from an awareness of my “other” status, when it comes to gender or ethnicity. I have trained myself to turn a blind eye to the underlying offensiveness of the academic tendency to ghettoize faculty of color by placing us on “diversity committees” without fully recognizing the value of our potential contributions to majority committees as well. Yet to speak honestly, sometimes I tire of being expected to accommodate the majority of my colleagues by giving them credit for good intentions.
The expectation of many of my liberal activist colleagues that all non- (or part) “white” academics are supposed to be concerned first and foremost, with diversity and “race” relations issues smacks of closet “racism” and fosters stereotypes of what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour amongst the non- (or part) “white” university elite. Couple that with the fact that many of these same individuals also mock and oppose “multiracial” self-identification and openly fear the impact that miscegenation is having on traditional “racial” classifications, and you’ve got yourself a strange animal – the liberal neo-segregationist. And what an ugly animal it is.