Dear Editor,
On Jan. 29 two letter writers were not pleased with the portrayal of the Miss Unity Pageant in the Daily News.
Both letters spoke of "diversity," and both seemed to present the same contradictions. Dr. King, in his "I Have a Dream" speech, said, "I have a dream, that one day my four children will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Michelle Hudson spoke of the "homogeneous" Miss Ball State and Miss Unity Pageants. So is it a problem that the winner of the Miss Ball State Pageant is white? Perhaps racial quotas should be enforced to make the winners more diverse, or maybe race should become part of the competition. Hudson does not provide answers. To place such importance on race and "diversity" is no longer judging one by the content of their character, but rather by the color of his skin - the very thing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke against.
Dawn Adams wrote how "insult to injury" was added by an article in which a white student said he enjoyed MLK Day because he could catch up on his sleep. Would it have been a big problem if a black student had said that he enjoyed MLK Day because he could catch up on some sleep? Why make the distinction? Why single out the student because of race? One would be left to conclude that Adams is saying the problem is not in what was said, but that the one who said it was white. What about not judging by the color of one's skin? Besides, who is to say someone can't enjoy MLK Day by sleeping?
Both letters complained about the support of minorities by Ball State. The conclusion is that because there are not more minority-related events, Ball State must not support minorities. The viewpoint does not seem to consider other possibilities, and in doing so, reflects a level of suspicion and sensitivity that may be out of proportion to the situation.
I hear so much about how we need to break down racial walls and become more diverse. Yet in reading these two letters, there appears to be nothing but a building up of those walls in the name of diversity.
Martin Luther King had a dream - a dream in which "the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood," but what I have seen written is not at all consistent with that dream.
Andrew Balke,
sophomore
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