By: Nick Huftel
UWM is often touted at the most racially diverse university in the state. That’s nice. Kinda makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside if you went there. For far too many indolent years that I spent as a “full time” student my heart was warmed by seeing so many minorities in the student union, or the Klotche Center, or at house parties, or at Judges…. Ok I guess at Judges the only thing I think I could see clearly was the inside of my eyelids………. Sadly I didn’t see many minorities in my classes. I always wondered why that was. When I took Africology I learned many things; that I was to blame for the destruction of the black family, that I was to blame for black crime, that I was to blame for steering blacks away from rich white suburbs, that I was to blame for, apparently, every transgression committed by a black man for the last 400 years….. but I digress. What I found really interesting was that most of the students falling into a particular recognized victim *cough* I mean minority group were spending their in-class time. How could I have never seen any of this before? Or a better question yet…. How was this being allowed?
In recent years I have become a regular acquaintance of an adviser in the School of Letters and Sciences. He commented that he had advised his first black student in 7 years. I found this interesting because many of the minority students at UWM were in the School of Letters and Sciences. He related the story of the last time he advised a black student. A black student lets call him John…. or Jerome, was sent to him to be advised. This adviser proceeded to advise Jerome as he would any other student. Then a director of the black student union….. or someone or other witnessed that this advisory appointment had occurred. The Adviser was told, apparently again, that black students are to be advised by black supervisors. Not only that Native American students are advised by Native Americans, Latinos are advised by Latinos, South East Asians are to be advised by South east Asians, even then the Laotians must be separated from the Hmong. Seems legit. What self respecting Laotian should be forced to subject himself to the advice of one of those “hill people”. Interestingly enough the only students that were availed the opportunity of experiencing some diversity in advising were…. wait for it…. White. People do better if they are advised by people “like them” but if you are white you must be subjected to the racial lottery when it came to getting an adviser. In fact when a new student was checking in, the front desk would look at the student and decide where to send them. Until recently black students were sent to the basement. No laughing now… that’s really where. When a student called in to schedule an appointment, the front desk had a much more interesting challenge. John sounds black but Obamaniqua sounds white soooooo where should we send them? Running Deer said he hates casinos should we give him a white adviser? Juan called but I heard Barry Manilow in the background….. You get the idea.
If all that were not enough the advisers in the black advising office steered their students into Africology and other “appropriate” areas of study. Need to take a math class? Here take this class from this professor and you will get a better grade. Filled up your humanities requirements already? Take more black studies classes. This is insane! The “regular” advisers have 800 to 1000 students each semester. The minority advisers have…… considerably less. Sometimes as few as 40. Some students refuse the yoke of segregation and request a different adviser. Imagine how that appointment goes! It would seem that if you want serious advice you need to refuse to answer the question on your application about race, change your name to John or Jane Doe, and practice your ‘square ass’ accent. My acquaintance told me that the only reason he advised his second black student was that she met him at a University event and was fed up with the advice she was getting from the black advisory office. Maybe she had already learned all she could handle about hating whites.
Or maybe I am the only one outraged by this.
Medicinal Masculinity 