This message is being posted on behalf of Andrea:

Hi everyone,

Over the last several years I have heard the term "diversity" a lot,
particularly in education.  if I listen long enough I notice that the
term "diversity" is a cover term for Black.  When I see the
administrator in charge of diversity, inevitably the person is Black.
For these two reasons I think the term "diversity" is used in practice
as a way of saying "race."

The  term 'race" itself has the same problem, as has been pointed out
on this list serv last fall. One writer from New Orleans said that in
his scholarly work he used the term "socio-race," meaning that as the
term is used, it is sociological and not biological, and it means
Black. In this country "race" means a person with dark skin with
somewhere an African background--the "one drop" principle.

On the other hand, I have heard people say "our university has a
diverse student body."  This seems to mean something else, something
closer to real diversity--maybe older students, students from foreign
countries,Malaysian, say, Navaho students, students from Hong Kong, or
India, or Inuit from Alaska, or European white.

For these reasons I strongly believe that the new name for the list
should not include the terms "diversity' and 'race". Of course, it may
be that others have heard these words used differently, and therefore
don't see things the way I do.

Andrea