Diversity is deeper than physical representation. In addition to equalizing opportunities and preventing subconscious hiring bias, ethnic and gender diversity in learning and work spaces slowly corrects the subtle prejudices that American society possesses because of our intrinsically colonialist history.
Whether it’s intentional or not, biases manifest in our language, instincts, habits, and everyday decision making. By consciously creating more space for diversity, there’s greater opportunities to prevent the use of elusively discriminatory phenomena like dog whistle symbolism or accounts of history that perpetrate implicit biases.
More than a few times now, I’ve noticed subtle instances of erasure in introduction-level history and philosophy courses here at Boston College. While learning about King Phillip’s War, all of the involved United Colonies were listed by name but a vague umbrella term was used when referring to the Native American tribes, even though both sides contained the same amount of groups and had equal importance.
In most History of Philosophy courses, when philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau or Henry David Thoreau disagree with the idea that man must conquer nature, they are presented as being particularly empathetic and humble for not believing in overwhelming human superiority.
I find this odd. Before European colonization, countless Indigenous populations lived in ways that respected and cared for nature. Yet, there is never any mention of Indigenous leaders in philosophy classes. Teaching students that being fundamentally equal to the land is a rare moral concept further normalizes and excuses the European practice of conquering land.
A similar narrative appears in courses that cover the history of medicine. In addition to not acknowledging the forced usage of enslaved people for the sake of medical discovery, accounts of the origins of medicine often only tell the story of western medicine development. There rarely exists any mentions of preexisting Indigenous or Asian medicinal knowledge, even though these methods are much older than any European technologies.
This lack of acknowledgement subtly but effectively foreignizes ideas that are not European. When a professor asks for counterexamples to western ideologies, students rarely present examples of beliefs or systems from other cultures. I am frequently one of the most vocal students in my classes when it comes to knowledge about Indigenous or Asian cultures, which is most likely due to me growing up in an ethnically diverse setting that made an effort to include these other histories in my education.
According to BC’s 2024 common data set, 58% of the undergraduate population identifies as racially white, non-Hispanic students. To compare this with other undergraduate populations in the area, Boston University reports that 32% of their students identify with the white, non-Hispanic label. Harvard University’s undergraduate population is roughly 30% white, and Tufts University is 40% white.
BC does not disclose its total number of professors who identify as AHANA (people of African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American descent), but the University claims to be hiring more and more diverse professors as the years go on. The highest amount was during the 2017-2018 school year, where 37% of new hires were AHANA.
These statistics are significant because they show that BC is already working from a disadvantageous position when it comes to inclusivity. A Eurocentric perspective is implicitly built into the collective BC worldview because a majority of our population is not diverse. We are therefore less equipped to subconsciously point out small instances of biases in our education—and the workforce, later on—which can be dangerous. Many people outside of the BC bubble do not have the privilege of going through life unaffected by the larger outcomes of these biases.
While Eurocentrism is not inherently harmful, it becomes damaging when Eurocentric versions of history completely dominate the types of stories being taught. When paired with a learning population that may not have a diverse personal or educational background, this can produce a population of students—and subsequently, citizens—who are slightly ignorant at best and misinformed at worst.
As the world becomes more interconnected, it is vital that an increase in cultural awareness follows as well. Knowledge of how other places have contributed to science and social infrastructure allows for innovation and collaboration to take place rather than division and competition. There is always more than one way to solve and explain issues, and more solutions can be accessed when the scope of prioritized knowledge is broadened.
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