Let me begin this piece by stating that my purpose here is not to indict Macalester, the administration, the faculty or anyone who goes here—I love Macalester—but rather, I hope to provoke thought on an issue that I believe hurts the entire community. Even at the point where we have the inception of an entirely new office to overlook it, Multiculturalism is suffering at Macalester. I hope this does not come as a surprise to anyone; from President McPherson on down to us students it should be almost palpable. If you have not realized that multiculturalism is suffering at Macalester, you need to find a minority student, be they racial, ethnic, sexual preference, political, religious, or otherwise, and ask them about the state of multiculturalism at Macalester.

Unfortunately, because the problems are quite complex, there are no simple answers. It is not solely the fault of the administration, for their position is precarious in terms of multiculturalism—striking a balance between what is merely achievable and what is actually needed. What is only token gesture is no easy task. We students are as much to blame, if for a slightly different set of reasons, some of which I will address later. Committees, councils and events tend to die in quagmires of red tape and individuals burn out before significant change can be wrought. I cannot dwell on these issues, for I want to address an aspect of the problem with multiculturalism that I believe is more obscure. Besides, for a clearer picture on the problems with working through the official channels of the school to affect change, I am not the individual to talk to about this side of multiculturalism. I have been a sideline viewer and a sounding board for tired and disillusioned students, faculty and professors. I would suggest you talk to Erik Morales, Sedric McClure, andré carrington, Peter Rachleff, or ask around, the people who have been in the trenches are around you, and they have a story to tell.

The issue that I want to address more directly is how multiculturalism is represented. Not just in publications, although those are interesting, but more in our relations with one another on campus and how these differ from what we tell ourselves. In four years at Macalester I have never thought how I represent myself vis-à-vis multiculturalism, but after attending, of all things, a conference on Lynching and Racial Violence in Atlanta recently, I feel called to step back and evaluate what I would call performative multiculturalism. With lynching photographs, we see a strange phenomenon—the performance of whiteness, the temporary transcendence of social divisions for the sake of acting out group solidarity. These photos show that lynching was as much about upper class white people convincing lower class white people (whom they would shun otherwise) of their investment in whiteness that was confirmed through the suppression and destruction of the other, the non-white. This was fictive solidarity acted out.

So how does this relate to Macalester? Think about the events you go to at Macalester, particularly multicultural events. Think about what you tell people about Macalester and the types of people with whom you spend time. Is there an incongruity in your relation of life at Macalester and its actuality? Has your multiculturalism been a fictive act of solidarity, and by this I mean, do you make a show of multiculturalism instead of living it out? If you sense an incongruity in your life, I urge you to follow my lead and reevaluate your multicultural existence here. I think about what I tell my friends and family about Macalester as a sort of bastion of variety. However, this does not mean that I have meaningfully engaged this variety. I have not been very active in promoting multiculturalism. Like me, perhaps, you go to an occasional cultural event or have several ‘multicultural' acquaintances, but this goes next to nowhere in furthering multiculturalism here. My daily existence does not create a space for multiculturalism. I do not think I am alone in this problem.

For effective change to come about in multiculturalism at Macalester, we as individuals, not just students, but faculty, administrators and staff, all have to make sure multiculturalism is not a performative aspect of our lives. We must create spaces for multiculturalism in our lives for it to flourish here. Before any committee or office can succeed in its mission to improve multiculturalism, the individuals at this institution must invest themselves in it, as opposed to hoping that the trappings and vestiges of multiculturalism are enough. If you believe that multiculturalism is suffering here, and if you believe that it needs to flourish at Macalester, I urge you to start making sure your actions are genuinely trying to facilitate and nurture it, not just show it.