Page 9 - Programming Guide

*This guideline applies to all events, including online/virtual events. * SECTION 1-B: SOCIAL EVENT GUIDELINES
Title: An Ethic of Care to Prevent Stereotyping of Groups in Student Programming/Activities Responsible staff: Paul Chelsen, Vice President for Student Development
Responsible office: Student Development
Introduction:
The mission of Wheaton College includes a commitment to “educate the whole person to build the church and benefit society worldwide.” Holistic education includes preparing students “to understand and negotiate the global realities of a racially and ethnically diverse church, as well as to heal the division and strife in relations between people of different races and cultures” (Administrative Vision for Racial and Ethnic Diversity at Wheaton College).
The Wheaton College Community Covenant calls all of its members to “pursue unity and embrace ethnic diversity as part of God’s design for humanity and practice racial reconciliation as one of his redemptive purposes in Christ.” The Covenant also calls its members to integrity and responsible freedom, to display Christ-like love, to honor the name of Jesus Christ and uphold the God-given worth of all human beings as the unique image-bearers of God. These calls are facilitated, in part, “by the very structure and functioning of the community” (Administrative Vision for Racial and Ethnic Diversity at Wheaton College).
Planning student programming/activities is one of the structures and functions of the Wheaton College community. When such planning is done to pursue unity, embrace ethnic diversity, and practice racial reconciliation, it will contribute to the mission of the College to educate whole persons. When student programming/activities includes stereotypes of historically marginalized groups and other groups, the College’s mission is compromised.
Historically Marginalized Groups:
A stereotype is “a preconceived and oversimplified idea of the characteristics which typify a person, race, or community which may lead to treating them in a particular way” (Oxford Dictionary of Sociology). The members of Wheaton College belong to a variety of subgroups, including some who have been historically marginalized (e.g., African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Internationals). Portraying a tall African American male student in a skit as a basketball player may be an example of a stereotype if it operates under the assumption that all tall African American men play basketball.
Marginalization is “a spatial metaphor for a process of social exclusion in which individuals or groups are denied economic, political, and/or symbolic power and pushed towards being ‘outsiders’” (Oxford Dictionary of Sociology). A failure to recruit racially and ethnically diverse student leaders to plan student programming/activities is an example of a College function that may contribute to the marginalization of racially and ethnically diverse students.
Wheaton College considers stereotyping members of a historically marginalized group and/or portraying the rituals, symbols, behaviors and/or dress of a historically marginalized group for the primary purpose of humor to be a failure of our commitment to each other as described in the Community Covenant. Such stereotyping will likely have detrimental effects and ought to be avoided.
8