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Members of underrepresented minorities often find themselves isolated in professional settings: they may be the only African American, or Latinx, or Pacific Islander, etc., in their classroom or department, and that can lead to a feeling of wondering if you belong in this field, if maybe you should just give up and go somewhere else where you belong better. A conference like this gives these minority scholars a place where, just for a couple of days, they're seeing lots of faces that look like theirs, an encouraging reassurance that, yes, they belong in this field.
There are plenty of conferences dominated by white people. Let our ethnic-minority colleagues have a day once in a while where they get to be in charge.
This reasoning suggests the following. It is necessary, for a minority, say Hispanic, to avoid questioning whether they belong in a field, say philosophy, for the Hispanic philosopher to conduct an ethnic census and know there are other brown skinned philosophers. It is necessary, for a minority to experience reassurance they belong in a field, to see other brown faces.
Well, it seems that those aren’t necessary. Minorities feel they belong in a field precisely because they are a minority, a much needed brown spec of humanity in the middle of a white page of colleagues. Others believe they belong because they have the brain pan for the field.
Of course, it is unknown whether the minority pow wow was conceived to sooth the emotional frailties of minorities suffering from isolationism or of that is the objective. Regardless, your comment ignores the fact the method of this minority get together is racist.
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