Barack Obama, South Africa, and Race Reading this recent
story about a professor at Calvin College, I am struck with how much we still don’t “get it” when it comes to race, culture, and faith in this country. Calvin insists that all of their professors be Reformed, but faculty member Denise
Isom has struggled to find a reformed community where she feels comfortable racially and culturally, event though every other (white) faculty member has this luxury. So faced with this choice, she decided to
voice – very convincingly – her reasons for attending a Baptist church and asked for an exception to the requirement. Calvin refused this request citing maintenance of their institutional faith identity. If
Isom refuses to attend a Reformed church, she will be taken off her tenure track and given a one year contract after which she will be terminated.
This is outrageous – especially, when the university simultaneously claims to be pursuing diversity. Calvin already is 97% white, and I guarantee that the few students of color who are there depend heavily on faculty members like
Isom.
Isom’s letter could have been an opportunity for Calvin as an institution to stare deeply at itself – to question why people of color do not feel comfortable in reformed communities and perhaps in their institution. Instead of approaching her concerns with sensitivity and inquiry, they responded with a defensive expression of their own institutional identity, which appears to have no room for the particularities of people of color.
What makes me sad about this incident is that reading between the lines of
Isom’s letter reveals a story I have heard all too often behind closed doors. I’m not sure when we – white people – are going to get it. It’s mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally exhausting to be a minority representative in a majority culture.
Isom already has to play the culture game five days a week absorbing and translating white, reformed, culture while at the same time being viewed as a symbol who speaks on behalf of all African Americans. This sounds like a job she was more than willing to do, and at the same time, she needed respite. While white liberals often extol the multicultural church, I’
ve seen up close the absolute need for students/faculty/staff of color to identify with their own communities; it’s a question of survival.
I wish that white people would take the time to hear stories – and pleas – like
Isom’s, and stare deeply into our own practices and institutions. Sadly, too often we disregard these stories. And then we wonder why we can’t diversify our institutions. Why the token faculty member of color burns out and leaves. When stories like
Isom’s surface – I can’t help but think: it’s so obvious! I applaud her for having the courage to articulate so publicity a reality that is often only shared in hallways and behind closed doors. Unfortunately, her prophetic voice has gone unheeded. It remains to be seen if public opinion will be enough to prompt a reexamination by Calvin. I doubt it. They have said in clear terms that what is at stake here is identity itself: the particular vs. the universal – and in this battle, the universal (white) has won.
