Marketing Diversity

In October, the Asian American Association organized a debate between student leaders on the legitimacy of ethnic groups at Harvard. In a tightly packed room, students argued whether ethnic groups on campus were fundamentally devoted to promoting diversity or simply segregationist social clubs.

During the course of the otherwise contentious debate, there was agreement on just one claim: that ethnic organizations could be justified only to the extent to which they promote diversity by fostering deeper intercultural understanding, dialogue and interaction. Culture shows, panels and discussion groups all contribute to that end. But the agreement that Harvard's ethnic groups should serve to educate and enlighten was coupled with the understanding that two main obstacles undermine this general purpose.

First, members of ethnic organizations are perceived to socialize with one another, often to the exclusion of forming interethnic and interracial relationships. The perception that ethnic blocking groups and dining hall tables are common--regardless of the validity of that perception--contributes to the claim that ethnic groups promote self-segregation.

To some extent this perception is unavoidable and logistically based. After all, members of a certain ethnic group, in order to organize events relating to their culture, have to come together for the purposes of planning and meeting. Intra-group relations are often a necessity.

But through close interaction while planning events, students in an ethnic organization extend their working relationship to friendships. This in itself is not problematic. The problem arises when friendships between members within an ethnic organization change from being a byproduct (guided by the greater goal of educating the larger campus) to becoming the goal.

Ethnic groups change from promoting diversity to self-segregating when the individual goal of fostering intragroup friendships becomes the goal of the group. Athletes and actors form friendships by virtue of their common affiliation with a specific team or production, but their raison d'etre is limited by their outward-looking responsibility to play games or put on a show.

When ethnic groups organize social events and target them at their own membership only, they make intragroup relationships the sole purpose of their existence. In those purely social events such as karaoke night, study breaks, parties and dances, no real learning or inter-cultural exchange takes place. Such events undermine the supposed rationale for the existence of the organization itself.

Even if an ethnic organization manages to avoid the first difficulty by including an educational or cultural component in every event, a second obstacle to promoting diversity arises. When students outside of an ethnic group see the name of an ethnic organization on a poster, they assume they aren't invited. Here the only solution is universal targeting. Ethnic organizations must emphasize that their activities are aimed at all students. This means that publicity for events should extend beyond e-mail announcements, and distribution of selective incentives such as newsletters, pamphlets and sign-ups, should attempt to be more inclusive.

This strategy is still limited. Ethnic organizations lack the resources to give every student on campus a handbook, and even universal targeting via publicity may not produce desired results. For instance, it would be rather quixotic for the Harvard Vietnamese Association to meet every single first-year during orientation week, since the percentage of students interested in joining is probably less than such an effort would warrant.

Universal targeting lies less in the technicalities of publicity than in the "marketing" of the events. Both the Affirmative Action Panel (organized by the Minority Students Alliance) or the banquet with AIDS researcher David Ho (organized by the Asian American Association) succeeded because students of all backgrounds found a personal stake in attending. Affirmative action and AIDS are issues around which multicultural audiences can form. Through intelligent "marketing" of such events, all students should be able to determine why it is important to attend events like Arab Awareness Week, or why they should come to a screening of "Slaying the Dragon." Simply announcing that there is an Arab Awareness Week or that "Slaying the Dragon" will be shown is not enough.

The responsibility of reaching out more aggressively is not one ethnic groups must take. But they should. Only by trying to draw more multicultural attendance at events can the goal of educating the whole student body be accomplished.

Alexander T. Nguyen '99, a Crimson editor, is outgoing co-president of the Asian American Association.