Vibrancy at Fort Hood

Vibrancy at Fort Hood


Posted: November 09, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
© 2009


I don't mind admitting that I mindlessly accepted the diversity propaganda when I was younger. Granted, this was before it became so frantic and overbearing that you couldn't walk onto a college campus without three very earnest people sitting down to lecture you upon the extreme importance of diversity at all times and in all places.


As a white 100-meter sprinter in high school whose primary competition was with black sprinters from the nearby inner city schools, I was a firm believer in the idea that all cultures were created essentially equal. Since I had friendly relations with the brothers from North, South and Roosevelt against whom I ran, I couldn't understand how anyone could deny the obvious truth that people are simply people regardless of their color, culture or creed. So, why should it be that you and I should get along so awfully?


Of course, when your grasp of history, psychology and social science is predominantly informed by sports and European electronic pop music, you shouldn't be too surprised when it turns out to be more than a little inaccurate. Since then, I have traveled around the world, have lived on three different continents and subsequently concluded that cultural relativism only lasts until you actually try living in a foreign culture.


My first inkling that perhaps all was not as it seemed was when my university, for no discernible reason, suddenly began preaching the diversity gospel during my sophomore year. This seemed a bit strange, as about the only diverse institutions on campus at the time were the track and football teams. Our sprinter-jumper-hurdler group was one of the most racially integrated groups on campus, and we all found ourselves bewildered by the vehemence with which the administration went about declaiming the joys of diversity to a deeply non-diverse student body.


The lady was protesting far too much. Racial diversity was a simple fact of life, not some sort of magical rainbow land where everything was better. To us, it made no difference if you took the relay baton from a white guy and handed it to a black guy, or vice-versa; a teammate was a teammate. It was simple, uncomplicated, and the coaches never made any accommodations for anyone on the basis of their race. Not a single race-related problem ever arose during a time when we won four conference championships together.

Yes, it was simple, until the asshats turned it into an industry with the design to divide and conquer.

WP