Diversification is a wonderful thing. This is an ad from the Wall Street Journal about a week ago.

(there used to be a picture here which was of a white dog and a black dog, and in the middle a dalmatian type of dog)

I put off writing about this picture for a few reasons. The first reason was that I wanted to calm down a little and compose some coherent thoughts instead of just ranting as to how offensive I think this add is. I know that I will have to justify my reactions because not everyone sees it the same way that I do.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this add was ‘seriously????! Do people not see how this could be offensive?’ This sentiment was echoed by a couple other people who I showed this to (one mixed, and the other the mother of mixed children). Black dog + white dog = diverse dog (ie mutt). That someone is equating being diverse (aka – mixedness) with mutts. I assume that they took one dog and then photoshoped it.

The second thing I thought of is that they are implying that the world is a black and white place, and that diversity is strictly a combination of the two.

Why if the add is talking about diversifying a portfolio and they wanted to use dogs, why did they not round up a bunch of dogs from a bunch of different breeds? Why didn’t they have a cockapoo, and a puggle as well as some other breeds. Or have different sizes and colors. If the add was like that I would have no problem with it, because it would imply diversity, and showing the multitude of possibility, which in my mind is what it means to represent diversity.

I would love to talk to the person or people who put together this add, and ask them why they thought this was a good idea.

Since about 1998/99 I have been actively working on trying to figure out this thing called identity. For the most part I am set with the whole being a girl part of my identity. Over the last few years I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking about what it means to be a person who has parents from two different cultures, two different races (my dad is not black, does that make him a white-Latino?). I have moved from wondering how I can connect with my Guatemalan cultural history to thinking about what it means to be Latina in the states, what does it mean to be mixed within the pan-Latino* population in the states, and more specifically what it means to be a woman within this context. What does it take to be considered Latina? (more…)

Every year and universities around the nation, after the new students start the year, administrators have to report the ethnic make up of the student body. The goal of every university is to appear as diverse as it can so that A) it looks good for the school, and B) it helps in the recruiting of more students of color. (more…)