Although the incident bothered them a lot they do not consider WPI to be a racist school, "but here you can definitely distinguish between the people who you can be friends with and those who don't want anything to do with you," said one of the students, as other interrupted him, "Did he mean that they as a fraternity own the school or that they as white people own the school? I really can't say for sure, because no racial slurs were used but racists don't go around yelling, 'Hey, I am going to be a racist right now.' People who have the luxury to say it was not racism will say so, but they have not lived our lives."
Over the past three years the number of African American students on campus has increased by 102 %, but according to them the school has not yet adjusted to their presence here. Two years ago, for instance, when the number of African American students first increased, a group of them were followed downtown by one of the deans of the school who was afraid they were going to cause trouble. "I don't see them following any of the fraternities or clubs when they go out, but we were different, right?"
They do not want to be treated specially, or have the school bend over backwards to help them out. " We want to come and get an education just like everybody else here, we don't want to be treated specially we want the same opportunities as everybody else."
This, however might not be so easy since cultural differences do exist. Some African American Students have had campus police called on them because they were playing their music too loud. They claim that it was not so much that it was too loud but rather that it was rap and a lot of students don't like rap, "they wouldn't have called campus police had it been rock or alternative." A similar incident, more frequent according to them, is to have other students turn down the volume of the TV's in Morgan's dinning room as soon as any of the African American "music" selection starts playing. " We don't do that, when they have country music on and blasting. I don't get up and turn the volume down. "We respect their choice. I don't like it but I listen to it, waiting patiently for my music to come up. I don't get up and turn the volume down on their faces," said a student.
"Last week for example, I selected a song and I was waiting for it but as soon as it came up I notice that I was not hearing it. Somebody pointed out that it was because somebody had just gotten up and turned the volume down as soon as the song started, I got up and turned the volume up again, but as soon as I sat down the same student got up and turned it down again. It happens all the time" added another student. "Some people just feel threatened by us... 'They own the school' remember?" commented another student.
When confronted with the question that they might be oversensitive to the situation they argued that was not the case, "it is not in our minds. I am not an angry black male. I am an intelligent young male who can see the difference on how some people treat us and how they treat others. Again, as I said before, the people who have the option to say it is not racism have not lived our lives," a student commented, while another added, "some people might argue that this is not a perfect world and that you will find that somewhere, does that mean we have to accept it?"
The students at the roundtable agreed that incidents like the one on Saturday the 10th do not happen very often at WPI, but the small incidents add up, " you take a little bit from here and a little bit from there what are you left with? They talk trash to us and they turn the volume down on us, what message is that sending us?" argued a student.
According to them the incidents, little by little, take their minds off the real purpose of why they came here and that was to study. They do understand that some people does not treat them differently out of hate to them but out of ignorance. "Most of the incidents arise from ignorance about our culture or us in general, the problem really comes when you have to decide how to deal with your ignorance, you either educate yourself and see what the black culture is all about, or do like other people that just don't want to learn. You can notice the difference between them."
They believe that educating the campus on their culture and black people in general is the key issue. Throughout February, BSU and NSBE have organized several events aimed to share their traditions and customs with the WPI community. "We want to bring cultural awareness, but we also have social events on which we forget about any racial issue and we just want everybody to have a good time like a party or the multicultural dinner which is open to everybody."
They really disagree with the notion that they isolate themselves. "This is a predominantly white school and we do have a lot of friends who are white. But they don't notice when we are hanging out with them. They only notice when we sit together at DAKA. Why is that? Why don't they complain when all the pledges from a fraternity sit together, or the crew team, or people from the same floor? They don't notice those cliques because they are white, however when they see us, all they see is black people instead of friends sharing a nice meal. Why is that? Why are they only seeing our color?"
Another student commented that a large part of the male population is in fraternities and that WPI does not have a common forum in which they could meet people. They said, the campus was very small, and after freshmen year, most students go to their fraternities and the few that are not in a fraternity move off campus and became close friends with their roommates. "It is very hard to socialize at WPI, this is not a black/white issue but an issue for everybody. To say that we isolate ourselves is a big lie."
One of the students mentioned that during his freshmen year fraternities did not show any interest in rushing him. According to him, brothers from several fraternities would come by his room and if his roommate was not there they would keep on going. If his roommate was there they would come in and talked exclusively to his roommate. "They never pursued me, so I never pursued them," he said.
As individuals they do have a lot to offer to the WPI community. "We are doing well academically and progressively becoming more involved in our majors, but the major contribution is on the diversity we bring to this campus." According to information provided by the office of Minority Student Affairs, they are right. Recruiters are very reluctant to visit mainly white campuses, not because they want to recruit minority students, but because of the exploding demographic distribution and the very diverse environment in the work force. Recruiters are interested in students who can interact with people from all backgrounds, and not just their own. WPI is now eligible to apply for grants from different companies who required a diverse environment. WPI's EMSEP program for minority students has also earned recognition from WPI and was selected as the top model program in the first year experience conference.
But despite all external differences, African American students and the rest of the students share the common goal of challenging themselves and get a college degree, and as they said "we should help each other out to reach that goal."
Present at the meeting where Kirk Burke, Steven Clarke, Jeremy Steele, Stacy Lewis, Abraham Pinates, Tamara Samuels and Theodric Panton.
Give feedback: newspeak@wpi.wpi.edu