The Contemporary Chief Diversity Officer: The Reincarnation of the Plantation Driver?

• In Event: Realities of the Racial Realist: P–20 Educators Bearing Witness From the Sunken Place

Abstract

In this counternarrative, I reflect on my role as a chief diversity officer and draw comparisons between its contemporary manifestation of institutional change agent and the historical depiction of the rice plantation driver. By exposing the similarities that exist between the chief diversity officer and the plantation driver, this counternarrative highlights how though divided arguably by time and space the vestiges of plantation culture and life still influence modern university culture, climate, and structures of power. Specifically, by engaging in a critical examination of the CDO role through the lens of plantation politics, this counternarrative provides concrete illustrations about how I attempt to navigate the “Sunken Place” in an effort to liberate myself, and my people.

Author

• Franklin A. Tuitt, University of Denver