Spring Break
There's more to cultural literacy than cuisine
by Joyce Wang
Op-Ed | 11/11/08
Posted online at 4:05 AM EST on 11/11/08
Diversity is supposed to be one of Brandeis' core tenets, but the Intercultural Center fails to fully represent that goal.
Although the ICC is a great idea, I'm ambivalent about how successfully I think it realizes its objectives. These goals are wide-ranging and ambitious: to implement programming that celebrates diversity and cultural enrichment, to present opportunities for collective discussion and to value the existence of multiple views. Certainly it does all of these things to some degree, but I wonder why culture always eventually comes to be defined by two things: food and dance.
Food especially serves as the great mediator between the ICC and the rest of campus. Events using food as a promotional item are often the most popular and well-attended events. It's true that college students universally appreciate free food. However, it becomes the main aspect of the ICC that students remember.
As a former and current member of an executive board within the ICC community, I know that when planning events, food is always featured for meetings and cultural shows. Not only is it an attractive incentive for attendance, it's also the easiest way for people to get access to a culture different from their own. Eating "exotic" food gives people a false satisfaction that they are being open-minded and tolerant.
To me this seems a rather facile way of defining diversity. It tells us that passively watching a student group dance or ingesting some pad thai from a Waltham restaurant is equivalent to valuing a culture. It's not. It just means that the next time one thinks about the ICC, the ICC will be that club that gives out really good free food and sponsors good shows.
When I got to Brandeis, I became involved with ICC groups almost reflexively after surfacing from my predominantly Irish-Italian, Catholic, suburban Massachusetts high school. I expected college to be a period of my life when I would meet more minority students than I did in high school, if only by sheer difference of numbers. I was also searching for something I was unable to define at the time and still have trouble defining now-some conclusive answer to self-identity. However, being a member of the ICC hasn't helped me find that answer; instead, I've become disillusioned about the ICC's ability to even address those kinds of problems and concerns.
Although the ICC is a great idea, I'm ambivalent about how successfully I think it realizes its objectives. These goals are wide-ranging and ambitious: to implement programming that celebrates diversity and cultural enrichment, to present opportunities for collective discussion and to value the existence of multiple views. Certainly it does all of these things to some degree, but I wonder why culture always eventually comes to be defined by two things: food and dance.
Food especially serves as the great mediator between the ICC and the rest of campus. Events using food as a promotional item are often the most popular and well-attended events. It's true that college students universally appreciate free food. However, it becomes the main aspect of the ICC that students remember.
As a former and current member of an executive board within the ICC community, I know that when planning events, food is always featured for meetings and cultural shows. Not only is it an attractive incentive for attendance, it's also the easiest way for people to get access to a culture different from their own. Eating "exotic" food gives people a false satisfaction that they are being open-minded and tolerant.
To me this seems a rather facile way of defining diversity. It tells us that passively watching a student group dance or ingesting some pad thai from a Waltham restaurant is equivalent to valuing a culture. It's not. It just means that the next time one thinks about the ICC, the ICC will be that club that gives out really good free food and sponsors good shows.
When I got to Brandeis, I became involved with ICC groups almost reflexively after surfacing from my predominantly Irish-Italian, Catholic, suburban Massachusetts high school. I expected college to be a period of my life when I would meet more minority students than I did in high school, if only by sheer difference of numbers. I was also searching for something I was unable to define at the time and still have trouble defining now-some conclusive answer to self-identity. However, being a member of the ICC hasn't helped me find that answer; instead, I've become disillusioned about the ICC's ability to even address those kinds of problems and concerns.
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