Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (Essay Sample)

Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life Student’s Name Course Date The language of diversity is significant in the contemporary world. Sara Ahmed, the author of “Being Included,” provides accounts of diversity, basing her arguments on interviews with various diversity promoters in higher education. Moreover, her own knowledge of diversity contributed to the findings. She asserts that diversity is an ordinary, feature, and even unremarkable feature of institutional life. The book discusses the gap between practitioners who embody diversity and symbolic commitments to diversity. In one part of the book, the writer argues that people need to rewrite world from the experience of not passing into the world. The essay discusses how Ahmed could understand that offering a different world could help handle racism. The world needs to be changed for racism to end. On the contrary, my essay wants to counter Ahmed’s claim on changing the world to account for racism and diversity. I am responding this way because I feel the author’s idea of changing the world cannot help to contain racial discrimination.[Ahmed, Sara. On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Duke University Press, 2012.] Firstly, rewriting the world implies forming a new and different world. The contemporary world is biased with discrimination of colour. Children learn from a very young age about racism. They learn from their parents and older people about different groups of people. When children are born, their minds are corrupted with ideologies of differences in races. As they grow up, they start to put the concepts of racial differences into practice. Notably, no child is born a racist. However, the environments children are born in leads to the gaining the idea of racial differences. Moreover, the contents they consume in school, at home, and in the mainstream media influences their view of human differences. Therefore, in writing the world, Ahmed should understand that we have to ensure the new generation of children does not consume content that promotes racism. Arguably, the world needs to change to adopt diversity. However, a study shows that people can know about diversity and still practice racism. In Ahmed’s book, she talks about education as a method of supporting diversity. Education can promote diversity. Conversely, an increase in diversity does not bring an end to the problem of racism. The world continues to be diverse, but racism does not show to slow with increasing diversity. Therefore, education and diversity have not succeeded in putting an end to racism.[Ahmed, Sara. On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life.] The idea of diversity is rejectable to people of gender studies. Feminist scholars support gender studies basing their arguments on profit-orientation, neoliberal individualization of inequality, and reification of differences. I received a contribution from Ahmed with suspicion due to the ideas presented about diversity and the inclusiveness concept. Fundamentally, the concept of inclusiveness intends to render gender and equality obsolete. It is vital to note that there are other overlying issues in society, such as equality and gender. Emphasizing diversity to contain racism would be a change that the world would not welcome. People are more likely to entertain change, that involves gender and equality issues. Racism is a concern that may wait. Per this school of thought, Ahmed could reconsider her propositions and opt for a method that does not interfere with other societal problems. Specifically, the new strategy should not impact equality and gender issues. Though the idea of diversity has been discussed extensively in relation to feminist and gender studies, decolonization, intersectionality, and post coloniality, the tensions in the connection between diversity and gender are not yet resolved. The debates on gender and diversity feature conflicts and contradictions among scholars and activists. Besides, the conflicts involve those who receive chances to represent the specific fields, individuals excluded by institutional life both in learning and hiring fields, individuals whose visibility has been erased in publications, among others. Furthermore, Ahmed does not understand how rewriting the world could compromise intersectionality. She needs to understand the connection between diversity and intersectionality. Both the concept of diversity and intersectionality has become a buzzing that scholars should consider discussing to reform their research and teaching agenda. Through decency, the world reform by using the two concepts of internationality and diversity. Remarkably, understanding the role of intersectionality could help Ahmed understand how to rewrite the world to account for racism.[Ahmed. On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life.] Moreover, Ahmed should note that diversity is a modernizer of gender. Throughout her work, Ahmed discusses diversity but does not show diversity as a modernizer of gender. Per the perspective of feminist’s theory, the relationship between gender and diversity is rejected. Diversity and gender share conceptual space and similar interests. Scholars suggest a functional marriage between gender and diversity since the two concepts seem to share similar ideas. As such, the two approaches can help one another into a locked space.[Ahmed.] A ground of shared interests between diversity and gender is showed in commitment to antidiscrimination. The world introduces diversity as a direct offspring of civil rights and the continuation of affirmative movements. Besides, the commonality between gender and diversity can be contracted with a narrative that seeks that replace the concept of the old ideology of diversity. Gender and diversity offer a historical narration of women’s struggle. In support of gender inclusion, one can argue using the ways in which knowledge was offered. Historically, men have been preferred in teaching institutions than women. Suppose the world is to account for its gender discrimination, it should start by solving the problem of gender exclusion. Rewriting the world implies the world starting to account for the struggle for women’s rights.[Ahmed. On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life.] The idea of gender may appear as a social construction due to the complicated debates surrounding it. Gender encompasses a lesser concept than diversity. Significantly, diversity is growing faster in the current societies than in diversity. The contemporary heterogeneous societies can be explored through diversity. On the other hand, gender only covers the relevant differen...