A Foreign Reflection/Impression on Diversity, by Stephanie Campos (Student Fellow at the Center, Fall 2018)

I was born and raised in a different country, one where diversity was the norm rather than the exception. I grew up meeting people from different places, with different accents, cultural backgrounds, and colors. I was taught that everyone is a person with a different story to tell. It isn’t customary for me to be surrounded by people who are exactly like me, but I find that this isn’t many people’s reality. In the past few months, I have found myself surprised by my friends’ comments on diversity. I hadn’t realized that my interactions with them were probably the extent of their interaction with diversity altogether. Some people pointed out that I was extremely diverse to them.  I wouldn’t say I am not diverse, but I hadn’t thought about it like that, because as I have mentioned, I tend to forget that diversity isn’t everyone’s norm. These experiences opened my eyes to the truth of diversity at Hofstra.

The dejecting reality is that the university is still in the primary stage of diversity acceptance. It is not without reason that the Center for “Race”, Culture and Social Justice was created. There are steps that have yet to be taken to create a more hospitable environment for heterogeneity of skin, religion and culture at Hofstra. Part of the reason why I chose Hofstra for my undergraduate studies was because it was in the state of New York where there are multiple international communities. This is true; New York does have very large diverse communities, but Hofstra falls a little bit short in its effort to attract this diversity. Working as a student fellow at the Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice, I requested from the institutional research office statistics on ethnic diversity at the university, and the numbers seem to show that it has only changed a total of 2% over the last five years. It is a little disheartening to learn that the numbers have changed so little in half a decade. Fortunately, there is a great representation of international countries throughout the university. There are students from ninety different countries in the entire campus. Still, we remain far behind in our diversity inclusion for both faculty and students on campus. 

There seems to be a tendency to diverge into groups of students who are like each other. This is part of normal human behavior because people are most comfortable with what they understand. I am not suggesting we stop being friends with people who are like us, but to be open to meeting others who aren’t offers an opportunity for cultural enrichment. I have found that there is a lot of prejudice among communities. We make assumptions about people before we have even given ourselves the chance to meet them. We have to learn to let go of the things we think we know about others. No one likes to be attached to a stereotype. If there is something you don’t know, ask and be humble about it. If there is a genuine interest, we can learn about each other, but also understand that when we talk about our experiences and our realities, we only speak for ourselves, not for our entire communities. People don’t like to feel as though they are spokespersons for their ethnicities or backgrounds. It puts a lot of unwanted pressure on them, and it is part of the reason stereotypes exist.  We need to be open to meeting people who are different from us with a clear understanding that we are meeting a person not a community.

 Having diversity in one’s life is not about ignoring people’s colors or cultures but about acknowledging the differences and still interacting with them as human beings. It surprises me every time I hear a racist joke or an insensitive comment about someone else’s community. It usually comes from people who have some misplaced sense of entitlement and privilege. Whether it comes from a place of anger or a distasteful attempt at humor, it is not much more than a comment that shows lack of character. Have you ever heard that the things we say about others say more about who we are than about them?

There will always be people who try to tear others down, but for those of us who understand that there are bigger issues in the world than the color of our skin, or the differences in our beliefs, it is our job to make our community a place of comfort and inclusion. Still, to those who remain reluctant to see the world beyond its differences, I hope you change your minds. The great essayist Henry David Thoreau once said “It is never too late to give up your prejudices.” It is imperative that we improve Hofstra’s diversity and inclusion. The world is changing and, in order to survive in an interconnected society, we have to learn to accept each other’s differences. Interacting with people who are different from us should be the norm and not the exception, but all sides of the interactions have to be open to it. Different or not, people should not hold judgments on who other people are.

Hofstra needs diversity so that students can learn from each other and from their faculty. International and ethnically diverse students should feel comfortable to express themselves in the Hofstra community. Sometimes I, as an international student, don’t feel comfortable expressing my thoughts because I stand out like a sore thumb among certain groups, and I am sure many other students feel that way too. If there is more diversity, we can all feel like we belong. It is disappointing to hear students talk about university issues with tones of resignation. The university community should be a mirror to the world we live in, so our fight for diversity isn’t over yet. A fundamental part of my upbringing is my exposure to the differences in the world. It has given me the ability to empathize with others and to think beyond myself. It has taught me that the world is bigger than we think with a great history and extraordinary potential. Overall, it has taught me that the world exists beyond my own experiences. There are real issues in the world that we may only solve if we learn to live together. Our differences aren’t bad or dangerous; they are interesting and exciting. How much can we really learn from similar things? We have to learn to recognize that everyone is a human being living a different journey. Please remember not to make fun of others’ cultures and to treat others the way you wish to be treated.

I hope one day, the community at Hofstra will reflect the world we live in more accurately, and I hope that diversity becomes the norm for all our students. Like Gandhi once said: “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive”.

My name is Stephanie Campos, and I was a fellow at the Center for ‘Race’, Culture, and Social Justice during the Fall 2018 semester. I am an international student from Latin America born and raised in Panama City, Panama. I am also a junior Marketing major at Hofstra with a great interest in social issues and cultural heritage. Over the last two and a half years I have learned a lot about our society and its issues with diversity, and I wanted to share a few thoughts about these matters. I hope you’ll find them useful.