Michael J. Thompson

While visiting with conservative students on the bucolic campus of Boise State University, a school known primarily for its blue-football field, the shocking and repugnant stench of intolerance was in the air.

But this scent had a most peculiar origin, as the odious hate spewed from the coordinator of Boise State’s Cultural Center, Ro Parker, who posted an image for her Facebook profile picture that offended many on Boise State’s campus:

The distributor of the fliers copied an illustration from Cultural Center coordinator Ro Parker’s Facebook page and said it depicted racism.

The illustration shows two black women, one of whom is pointing a finger in the face of a white man. He is holding his hands up in a position of semi-surrender.

The caption reads “Shut the F*** up, Whiteboy.”

The Cultural Center at Boise State has this stated purpose: 

The Cultural Center is committed to raising awareness and understanding about marginalized and oppressed groups in both non-dominant and dominant cultures, understanding about the needs of these groups and providing opportunities to all for action and interaction.

Here is Ro Parker's objective as listed on her BSU profile page:

Her goal for the Cultural Center staff this year will be to plan programming that will raise awareness of marginalized groups, white privilege, identity and oppression.”When the head of the Boise State Cultural Center is posting objectionable material that ostensibly seeks to censor a group of people, one is forced to question the whole concept of that center’s goals.

Erin Marlor, a student at Boise State, said this entire episode showcases the hypocrisy of the center’s goals. "Most students on this campus are here for an education that will help them in the future, but it appears the Cultural Center is attempting to re-educate students. The sensible thing would be for [Ro] Parker to resign over this incident, to maintain the integrity of the Cultural Center," she said.

One thing is for certain. Cultural Centers and Diversity Centers are well funded across the nation. They employ thousands, if not tens of thousands of individuals who work to create environments of tolerance and peace on college campuses.

They enforce a strict orthodoxy of inclusion and tolerance, and have large budgets to perform this task. However, the coordinator of the Cultural Center at Boise State University has posted a shocking image that should cause reflection among those who question the allocation of resources that go towards departments that serve little educational value, save for the censoring of individuals they deem insufficiently diverse.

Boise State University students and SGA officials are working to see that proper actions are taken to ensure that BSU doesn’t harbor a climate for hate. Ro Parker is an employee of the state of Idaho and the mere action of posting this bigoted picture on her Facebook profile warrants immediate removal from her post as coordinator for the Cultural Center.

Diversity and tolerance mean inclusion for all, not just for those groups the Cultural Center deems worthy of protection. Right?

Or, does diversity and tolerance mean the censorship of white boys, as Ro Parker of Boise State seems to suggest?