ABSTRACT
Some culturally diverse scholars have argued that culturally diverse persons have a proprietary right to speak to, for, and about diversity issues. Essentially, the argument is that diverse people have a better understanding of their own position in a racist/sexist/homophobic society than do majority culture academicians. Some scholars have argued that majority culture academicians have historically engaged in the study of diversity issues largely for their own benefit. Minority culture academicians can fall prey to the expectations of their colleagues or academic administrators to adopt the role of the “diversity person” on the faculty, with its attendant duties of serving on diversity-related committees, teaching diversity courses, advising diverse students, and mentoring student projects concerned with diversity issues. Instructors who integrate diversity issues into their courses should also be mindful of the vacillating and occasionally contradictory ideas that students within these midrange statuses of identity can possess.
