A few days ago, a dismaying story about woke-minded universities' removal of portraits honoring distinguished medical innovators and Nobel prize winners from their walls, solely based on the fact that they all, or most, were white male, was making the rounds.

Here's a stunning good tweet in response to the logic of that and why it's a problem from Chloe S. Valdary, a young black writer for The Atlantic:

In my view, this isn’t about diversity but about a lack of vision and imagination. When did we decide that if a person doesn’t look like us, we can’t see ourselves in their story? https://t.co/DqQIcdWvdB — Chloé S. Valdary 📚 (@cvaldary) August 31, 2019

Which makes absolutely perfect sense. Who among us hasn't, as a child or young adult, idolized someone who wasn't exactly like them? When I was a little kid, I played with dolls that didn't match my race or even hair color (I was blonde, my favorite dolls were brunettes, and some were black). What's more, I enjoyed reading about 15th century Renaissance statesmen, Confederate and Union generals, Napoleon and his soap opera family, Israeli sabras and freedom fighters, and Parisian impressionists. I even, gulp, enjoyed reading all about Che Guevara and his appalling revolution. And I was young enough to play 'house' with my little friends pretending to be such characters.

I also remember trying to encourage young girls with some African ancestry to play with black dolls or to feel free to draw black saint figures in the catechism class I taught because such figures would look like them - and I rapidly learned that that was nonsense - from the kids themselves, wh resisted. Kids don't need someone who looks exactly like them to be inspired by them, they can use their imaginations to be inspired by anything they like. I recalled my own experience dolls -- and I stopped pushing that, because I knew the kids were right.

It's significant that this writer - who seems to have a poetic sensibility based on her other interests and tweets - points out that the big problem with this diversity-oriented political correctness in wall portraits -- is in fact a failure of the imagination.

She put her finger right on the problem. That's why the tweet was so powerful.

Image credit: Twitter screen shot