WHAT KIND OF SHEEP STAND UP IN THE FIRST PLACE?:

"Stand up if you identify as Caucasian."

The minister's voice was solemn. I paused so that I wouldn't be the first one standing, and then slowly rose to my feet. "Look at your community," he said. I glanced around the auditorium obediently. The other students looked as uncomfortable as I felt, and as white. ¨Thank you," the minister said finally. After we sat down, he went on to repeat the exercise for over an hour with different adjectives in place of "Caucasian": black, wealthy, first-generation, socially conservative. Each time he introduced a new label, he paused so that a new group of students could stand and take note of one another. By the time he was finished, every member of Princeton University's freshman class had been branded with a demographic.

This mandatory orientation event was designed to help us appreciate our diversity as a student body during the first week of classes. But what did it really accomplish? In compressing us into isolated communities based on our race, religion or gender, the minister belittled every other piece of our identities. He faced a crowd of singular young adults and essentially told them that their heritage outweighed their humanity.  The message was clear: know your kind and stick to it.

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