dei Archives

February 7, 2023

DEI Newsletter – February 2023

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Because we honor everyone, this work is for everyone.

Race, Ethnicity, Nationality

MACC is a place where all belong.
Diversity fuels the MACC spirit empowering people in our inclusive community.
We celebrate the uniqueness of each individual and multiple points of view.

Be who you are.
We like it that way.

If you have ever filled out a job application or completed a survey for the US Census, you probably had to answer questions regarding your demographics. These questions often offer limited answer choices and may leave some to question what certain terms mean. To help us gain a better understanding of who we are, and how we can describe ourselves and others accurately, let’s explore three of these demographic terms.

Race: A term historically used to classify people based on common physical characteristics. Scientists have proven that while these characteristics can define people from ancient populations, there are no physical characteristics that can distinguish one race from another. Instead, it is recognized that race is a social construct. The racial categories included in the census questionnaire (and other similar questionnaires) generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically.

Examples (as categorized by the US Census): Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White

Ethnicity: A term used to describe cultural characteristics, such as language, accent, religion, styles of dress, hairstyles, social customs, and food and dietary preferences or restrictions, that define a person as being a member of a specific group.

Examples: American Indian, English, Hispanic, Jewish, Middle Eastern etc.

Nationality: A term used to describe the legal sense of belonging to a specific political nation state, or citizenship (birthright or naturalized).

Examples: American, German, Russian, Nigerian, British, Greek etc.

Ambassador Corner

DEI will help to create a conducive and productive learning environment where everyone is free to communicate without fear of being harassed or segregated and this drives a sense of belonging or being part of a bigger progressive community.
– DEI Ambassador

DEI Newsletter – December 2022

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Because we honor everyone, this work is for everyone.

Religion

MACC is a place where all belong.
Diversity fuels the MACC spirit empowering people in our inclusive community.
We celebrate the uniqueness of each individual and multiple points of view.

Be who you are.
We like it that way.

“Map is not territory.”

All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. (A. Smith, 1776)

Historically, scholars, theologians, and states have used “religious studies” as a tool to measure, abstract, and manage other humans. To illustrate, let’s look at “Moral
and Political Chart of the Known World”, an incredibly dense map from 1845 by W. C. Woodbridge. Further, we will look at a colorized version along with a crop of the
legend, the ideas behind it, an example from the eastern Cape, and end with a challenge to the imagination.

When making a map, the maker has to make a series of small choices, each with a question and reason behind it, and each which shapes data for ideological reasons behind the purpose. Asking about what might have influenced those reasons and questions can tell us something about what was going on. And with that, let’s zoom in on the legend.

Many questions come to mind here, but let’s focus on why Woodbridge thought this was a moral map of the world—after all, the full name of the map is Moral and Political Chart of the Inhabited World – Exhibiting the Prevailing Religion, Form of Government, Degree of Civilization, and Population of Each Country. Quite the map of ambition. What is the deal with the clear ranking of degree of civilization and why are six religions represented, three of which are various forms of the same religion?

In the biz, these are called “hierarchies of exclusion,” and are made to fit to-gether by sovereign powers. (Katz) On this map, Turgot’s hierarchy of soci-etal forms is joined to Tiele’s hierarchy of religious forms, which were formu-lated in part as a response to what’s known as “the indigenous critique” of Europe. (J. Z. Smith, “Religion, Religions, Religious”; Wengrow and Graeber) The key bit here is that these forms were assumed by the professor, priest, and prince to be more or less natural or enculturated traits, rendering the peoples they encountered as in need of “saving” by means of North Atlantic approaches to religion and politics.

Ambassador Corner

My name is Steph Hills and I am excited to be a DEI ambassador because I get to be a part of helping all students feel welcome and supported at MACC. I believe that diversity, equity and inclusion for students is very im-portant and I love having the opportunity to work with other students, as well as faculty and staff, that see the importance of DEI as well. I have the opinion that when all students are treated equally with respect and encour-aged to be themselves, our educational experiences will be more positive and influence our lives both inside and outside of the classroom.

If you are interested in how this worked, David Chidester’s Savage Systems shows how the Dutch and English invaders denied — but then discovered —the very capacity for religion among the Xhosa-speaking peoples of the Cape of Africa several times. This intellectual warbling suspiciously mirrored how smoothly things were going for the occupiers at the time. (Chidester) More generally though, the “Masters of Mankind” Adam Smith warned us about have used similar reasoning to justify class, gender, racial, and other power imbalances, which have disastrously reformatted so much of the world since.

With this in mind, we can see why scholars like Korzybski and J.Z. Smith are quick to point out that “map is not territory”! (Korzybski; J. Z. Smith, Map Is Not Territory) Maps sometimes show us a dark mirror of ourselves–Woodbridge’s map certainly does for the North Atlantic study of religion. As someone trained within this tradi-tion, it can be difficult to navigate and grapple with the complex history that helped set the stage for some of the challenges the world faces today. Having realized many of our prior base assumptions about hierarchies of humanity were just plain wrong, the discipline has been working through such assumptions in both theory and fieldwork.

Trying to describe a singular essence of religion doesn’t seem possible. In fact, we can’t even really define “religion” in religious studies! Rather than despair, this might actually free us to use religion as a tool to understand and talk with others about who they are and how they understand and act in the world. (J. Z. Smith, “Religion, Religions, Religious”) Returning to our purposes, perhaps speaking in a similar spirit about and with religious others might create the circumstances that can lead to a more hopeful and understanding discussion in our classrooms. Reli-gious studies has come a long way since Woodbridge, but there is still room for im-provement. Perhaps we might even experience the social pleasures of getting to know one another along the way.

If you’d like to read more, consider the following from MACC’s library!

Bayyah, Abd Allah bin Mahfuz bin, et al. Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. 2006.

Chidester, David. “Anchoring Religion in the World: A Southern African Histo-ry of Comparative Religion.” Religion, vol. 26, no. 2, 1996, pp. 141–59, https://doi.org/10.1006/reli.1996.0012.

Katz, Ethan B. “Shifting Hierarchies of Exclusion: Colonialism, Anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia in European History.” CrossCurrents, vol. 65, no. 3, 2015, pp. 357–70. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10/grbfh5.

Korzybski, Alfred. Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. International Non-Aristotelian Library Pub-lishing Company, 1933.

Mills, Charles W. The Racial Contract. Cornell University Press, 1997.

Pateman, Carole. The Sexual Contract. Stanford University Press, 1988.

Smith, Adam. “Chapter IV: How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the Country.” The Wealth of Nations, vol. III, W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1776.

Smith, Jonathan Z. Map Is Not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions. University of Chicago Press, 1978.

—. “Religion, Religions, Religious.” Critical Terms for Religious Studies, edit-ed by Mark C. Taylor, University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. 269–84.

Suzie, By, et al. All in God’s Family: A Jewish Guide to Creating Allies for Our LGBT Families. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Institute for Welcoming Resources, 2014.

Wengrow, David, and David Graeber. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.

Woodbridge, William C. Moral and Political Chart of the Inhabited World – Ex-hibiting the Prevailing Religion, Form of Government, Degree of Civilization, and Population of Each Country. 1845, https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:19343168. PJ Mode Collection.

November 9, 2022

DEI Newsletter – November 2022

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Because we honor everyone, this work is for everyone.

Political Beliefs

MACC is a place where all belong.
Diversity fuels the MACC spirit empowering people in our inclusive community.
We celebrate the uniqueness of each individual and multiple points of view.

Be who you are.
We like it that way.

The United States midterm elections will take place on Tuesday, November 8th. Since unprecedented partisanism has become the norm in America over the last several years, it is imperative that citizens gain an understanding of the platforms of a variety of politicians in order to seek understanding and civility with those who hold opposing beliefs. While it is true that America operates under a multi–party system, Republicans and Democrats are by far the most powerful.

When determining who you wish to vote for, it is important that you look into the views of each candidate in order to determine which candidate’s views align most closely to yours. While most people’s views do not fall strictly within one party or another, it is helpful to understand some of the underlying ideology of the two major parties in US Politics.

The basic tenets of the Republican party are:

small government,
low taxes,
local control of regulations,
free market economics,
and policies that protect traditional values espoused in more conservative sects of religion.

Proponents encourage individual responsibility above government
intervention, regulation, or policy.

“Everyone deserves a safe, accessible place to better themselves while feeling that their world is recognized and their voices heard.”

-DEI Ambassador for MACC

In contrast, the Democratic party promotes:

strong government,
directed use of taxes,
regulations that they perceive encourage social and economic equality,
and more generally progressive ideas of community and family dynamics.

Adherents of liberalism do not believe that personal responsibility is solely enough to ensure the safety and well–being of our country’s citizens, and as a result tend to advocate for greater social well–being.

Despite the many hot-button topics that are covered by the media, argued about on social networks, and used by politicians to solicit support, there is a body of evidence that suggests Americans have more in common than many of them may realize. Harvard University released a study in 2020 where researchers discovered a bipartisan majority of respondents agreed on a variety of “essential rights” including freedom of speech and religion, the right to bear arms, and LGBT+ rights, among others. A 2021 Axios article detailed a similar study that bore largely the same results: participants from across the
political spectrum agreed on a majority of important topics.

It is important that as we head to the polls this November—and please do exercise your right as an American to vote—that we view our political opponents not as enemies but as fellow citizens with a differing point of view.

In addition to voting for candidates, there are often measures to vote on. For the measures on the 2022 ballot, refer to this link:
https://www.sos.mo.gov/default.aspx?PageID=10056

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Because we honor everyone, this work is for everyone.

Race, Ethnicity, Nationality

Ambassador Corner

Further reading and viewing

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Because we honor everyone, this work is for everyone.

Religion

Ambassador Corner

If you’d like to read more, consider the following from MACC’s library!

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Because we honor everyone, this work is for everyone.

Political Beliefs

Further reading and viewing: