Don't Be So Open-minded That Your Brains Fall Out

What does it mean to be tolerant and open-minded and diverse?

Now that my ten readers have just lost interest...

There's a lot of talk about diversity at Columbia and specifically at a group I'm part of. And the bottom line is that Columbia is not particularly unique. Call it the most diverse Ivy League university but that doesn't really mean very much. We may be ten blocks away from Harlem, but the fact that the Harlem community is none too pleased with Columbia says something. The extracurricular I work on is the most color-blind place I can imagine but that alone doesn't make it any more diverse. I spent a Shabbos meal today with a group of seemingly very nice people who had some very, let's just say, politically incorrect things to say.

Which brings up a whole other issue of what it means to be frum and tolerant.

Because how can I justify the fact that I was appalled at the Shabbos-table conversation when I think a gay pride parade in Yerushalayim is a travesty? Which is not to say I would have been out there throwing rocks--I most certainly would not have been. And while I'm always sad at the bad press my group gets for not being diverse enough, I know that we're color blind and I don't know how to solve the problem--or even how far out of our way we should go to solve the problem. But then again, I do think it's a problem.

Where does that leave me? I think people have the right to make their own life decisions and so long as that decision does not negatively hurt other people I think they have the right to be respected regardless of how they choose to live their lives. People have inherent worth and people should be respected even if they've made choices that wouldn't be my own.

I think we learn from people who have different values and different life experiences than we do. And I believe in equal opportunity--to succeed, to get into college, to participate in extracxurriculars, to get jobs, to achieve your dreams--which means not discriminating ever. But it also means evaluating people based on talent and effort, not skin color.

I don't believe in stereotyping whole groups of people, no matter what their race or ethnicity or religion. None of those things make you a killer or a saint or good or bad or in between. I believe in judging people for who they are, not what they are.

I also believe that respect is reciprocal. I will respect you for making a lifestyle choice I don't agree with but don't spit in my face or be resentful that it's a choice I don't agree with. Be respectful of my choices as well.

I guess I haven't quite been brainwashed by the evil liberal Columbia University yet...