Dear Editor,
I am now a junior here at ETSU. Since my very first semester as a freshman, I have been trying to get off the mailing list for multicultural affairs.
I have called the office at least twice a semester asking that I be removed from their list so that I don’t have to throw away every flyer and postcard they send out to those students who they believe to be a “racial minority.”
They even subscribed me to a Hispanic magazine without my expressed consent to do so. The problem I have is that all my calls to their office have failed to get me removed from their mailing list and I continue to receive their mail.
The last time I called and spoke to someone they informed me that I cannot be removed from their list because it is compiled by computer and there is no way to edit it manually. I find this to be highly unacceptable.
First and foremost, isn’t an organization like the office of Multicultural Affairs supposed to fight things like racial profiling? Why do they assume that because I have a Spanish last name, I automatically want to be signed up for a subscription to certain magazines, sent certain advertisements or even want to know what their office has to offer?
Like it or not, this very behavior is profiling.
I know this because my wife, who is Caucasian, does not receive their mail. This is also racial profiling because for all they know, she may be very interested in what they do, but because she is not a racial minority, she doesn’t receive anything from them.
I want the office of Multicultural Affairs to consider this, my public plea, for two things. First, please remove me from your mailing list.
Even if you have to find some other way to compile your mailing list, I want off it. It is a waste of trees to send me your stuff because it goes straight to the trash.
Second, I would like for you to stop the racial profiling. I don’t want the police to pull me over because I am not as light skinned as other people in this area and I don’t want you to target me for your junk mail because of it either.
Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that this office does some great things around campus and has a noble goal in mind. I simply prefer to choose whether or not I want to be notified about them and I don’t think that racial profiling should be accepted regardless of the intent.
James Villanueva

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