White matters

The university accreditation team 10-year visit was last week.  A colleague who went to an open forum said he was hoping someone would ask about how the primarily white executive leadership of the university aligns with the university value of engaging diversity. I wondered why he hadn’t asked the question himself.  As a white male, his asking of that question could have been a powerful illustration of white allies working for racial equity.

A couple of days later I went to the team’s final presentation of findings to the university community.  The nine of them sat in the front row of the auditorium.  Four women and five men.  All white.

I wonder if any of them had thought about asking the same question as my colleague.  Perhaps. I really don’t know.  Maybe they even asked it.  I want to believe that they did.