Diversity has been coming up a lot lately. The First Year Forum held a talk on race at Dartmouth recently. A week ago Beta had a student panel called “Branded” on the stereotypes that limit the Dartmouth experience, and my floor had a meeting about floor diversity. And of course, it’s Black History month. It seems like the discussion of diversity is everywhere and everyone has a unique opinion. But just what is diversity, and when have we achieved it?

The celebration of diversity is hailed as an emblem of progress in the realm of race relations. But when looked at closely, it’s not very progressive, or at least it’s not the most progressive option.

Diversity today sometimes boils down to pointing out that there is a white, black, and person of Asian descent in a room without bloodshed, so yeah us! However, while pointing out diversity points out that race relations have taken a turn for the better, it only continues to draw attention to race instead of transcending it. Real diversity, which exists in the hearts of the people, does not need to be noted—it simply exists.

In A Paler Shade of White, Eric Arnesen writes that “the very solidarity of language, of clear cut and well-understood categories and definitions of who was black and who was white, has given way to the widely accepted notion that race is not a biological category or a trans-historically fixed phenomenon, but is itself, socially constructed.”

Now if this is true, which I believe it is, then pointing out diversity of race is also a construct. It is excitement over a particular point in history where race is no longer taken as a natural indication to certain proclivities, and people of different races can exist in peace and harmony, but the troublesome notion of race still exists.

This age of diversity is not the end-all of racial history, but simply a happier period of it. Now we should focus on progress and trying to move beyond this period of celebrated diversity. The fact that diversity is held up as the ideal that institutions must be pushed to attain reveals that diversity does not address the real root of the problem: continuing to use race as a social category.

Also, the fact that diversity is applauded and pointed out shows that we are still far from diversity being the norm. Diversity is all well and good, but it is annoying to draw attention to it with such glee as if we’re being exceptionally good for exhibiting it. This means that diversity is not yet accepted as a common good.

Morgan Freeman’s views on Black History Month correlate to this celebratory stance on diversity. In a 60 Minutes interview in 2005, he said, “You’re going to relegate my history to a month? I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history.” As Freeman rightly points out there is no “white history month,” for it is commemorated all year long. Freeman goes on to say to the interviewer, “I am going to stop calling you a white man, and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man,” because the labels of “white” and “black” merely bring attention to and reinforce race (or racism). Pointing out race or diversity of race does not do anything to de-construct the divides of race.

I’m not advocating silence on race or the cessation of the social and academic dialogue on race; we still need these things for progress. But we should understand that a diversity of labels is not true diversity. We should understand that it is possible to move towards being a society that doesn’t need to draw attention to race, a society that doesn’t need to feel good about diversity, because lack of diversity is no longer a problem.