“The diversity within lesbian communities is highlighted through our study of communities of disabled lesbians, landdykes, old lesbians, lesbians of differing races/ethnicities, lesbian mothers, military lesbians, radical activist groups, working class bar girls, separatist communities, transwomyn, butch-femme dykes and other lesbian communities who have rarely received scrutiny before.”

If you have no idea what you just read, you’re not alone. It may reveal your lack of understanding of diversity, but if you attend Iowa State, you’re in luck. You are required to take a U.S. Diversity course — one of which, Women’s Studies 203: Lesbian Cultures and Communities, is described above.

The complete list of these courses — all 205 of them — contains such titles as “Ethnicity, Gender, Class and the Media,” “Sociology of Masculinities and Manhood” and “Housing Environments for Elderly and Disabled Persons.”

The goal of requiring all students to take these courses, according to the university, is to “address significant manifestations of human diversity and provide students with insights that enhance their understanding of diversity among people.” This statement conveys nothing. The reader is left in the dark as to the definition of “diversity,” what constitutes “significant manifestations” of it, and, most importantly, why one should study it.

That “diversity” should be studied is usually taken for granted in academia. The most common justification, if one is ever stated, is that understanding diversity is necessary to combat racism.

The actual effect of ethnic studies is the complete opposite. Because ethnic studies approaches subjects such as literature, art, and history by focusing solely on a specific group or race, it implicitly regards group status as a fundamental feature of human beings. This is akin to separating people of different races into distinct areas of study as one differentiates between various species of animals in biology.

Racism, in the words of objectivist author Ayn Rand, “is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man’s genetic lineage.” This error, in turn, leads to the hatred that most associate with racism. Although ethnic studies is designed to combat hatred, it is still guilty of the basic error.

For example, a bigot would say “You’re fundamentally different, therefore I hate you.” Although someone involved with ethnic studies says, in effect, “You’re fundamentally different, but that’s OK.” Thus the division of education into African American studies, Native American studies, Latino studies, etc., acts to perpetuate racism by continuing to ascribe significance to a person’s genetic makeup.

The study of diversity as such is inherently misguided as a form of academic inquiry. When Isaac Newton felt the apple strike his head, he did not declare, “Ah ha! I shall embark upon a semester’s study of the falling of green apples in European lesbian communities!” Instead, he recognized that falling apples in particular are insignificant because falling is a property of all objects, not just apples. He then integrated this fact into a principle, the law of gravity, which could explain the behavior of all objects in the world, regardless of location, race or sexual orientation.

This illustrates a basic feature of knowledge. If one wants to learn about gravity, he or she does not set out to study different kinds of apples. Rather, it is necessary to study a fundamental feature which all apples have in common — namely, that they fall. Similarly, if one wants to study what constitutes good literature, or effective education, or a proper political system, it is necessary to study the fundamentals of those subjects. Unless race and gender are taken to be fundamental aspects of literature, education and politics, courses like U.S. Multicultural Literatures, Multicultural Nonsexist Education and Latino Politics are at best distractions from the true issues and at worst perpetrators of racism and sexism.

In place of these courses, I’d like to propose a new program: human studies. Offerings would include courses on human history, human literature, human education, human psychology, human philosophy and human economics. In these courses, one could gain knowledge relevant to human life, regardless of race, sex or heritage. In these courses, human beings would be treated like the single species they are, rather than a conglomerate of arbitrary groups that coexist but are fundamentally and forever separated.