The Mentoring Institute at the University of New Mexico (UNM) has received a firestorm of disapproval over a supposed lack of racial sensitivity.
Laura Jiménez, a Boston University professor with no direct relation to UNM, apparently carried contention towards one of their brochures because it only contained white students.
According to a news report by Albuquerque KOB4, Jiménez asked, “What’s wrong with this picture?”
“Yet another instance of white privilege in academia!” Jimenez also reportedly quipped.
UNM was having none of Professor Jimenez’s snarky criticisms and responded with a tweet which read, “Every year we invite a great # of colored people to participate in our conference. Those who accept are given every opportunity to present.”
The now deleted tweet from UNM’s Mentoring Institute stunned the self proclaimed “expert in diversity” due to their use of the phrase “colored people.”
Jiménez is half Mexican, but has stated that she is visually white and doesn’t expect people to perceive her as a minority. Irregardless of her ethnicity, she continually expressed outrage towards what she perceived as a highly insensitive tweet; she blamed it on what she explains as “overwhelming whiteness” within the institution.
Jimenez pushed for an apology.
“Other organizations that have handled this well begin with an apology. They admit their transgression. They publicly outline what they’re going to do fix the problem,” she said.
Steve Carr, a spokesperson for UNM, did just that. He stated that “the tweet does not reflect the goals and objectives of the institute which is to further the reach and impact that mentoring has on the world on a local, state, national and international level.”
Last week, the UNM Mentoring Institute issued an apology, along with their interim president who backed up the Mentoring Institute calling the offending phrase “unintentional.”
“The Mentoring Institute at UNM expresses its deep apologies for the poor language used in a previous tweet earlier today and the lack of representation of people of color in the plenary speakers’ line up.
We ask everyone to accept our humble apology in the hope that this mistake does not affect the work of more than 300 concurrent presenters already scheduled for this year’s conference.”
The Mentoring Institute also took to Twitter in attempt to amend their statement.
They stated, “Our apologies, Ms. Jiménez. The term that has been used in this thread was ‘people of color,’ which is what we meant to say.”
Anyone with a clear head will see that UNM’s Mentoring Institute is not racist nor does it carry some sort of nefarious attitude towards minorities. In fact, the phrase “colored people” is still widely used today, even by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.)
