Column:
Diverse but separate
Published Sept. 1, 2009
Allow me to ask a question: When was the last time you ate dinner with someone of a different race? Or, when was the last time you ate dinner with people who were all of a race other than your own? For most of you, it has probably been a while.
Scan the tables of Plaza 900 one night with a critical eye and you will see what I am talking about: whites sitting with whites, blacks with blacks, Asians with Asians. At a time when racial separation is supposedly a thing of the past, it sure seems as though it is thriving.
My boss last year asked me if it is common to see students of all different backgrounds sitting together in class, eating together or even just walking around campus together. I was ashamed to answer honestly, partly because my answer had to be "no," and mostly because prior to that conversation, I had never noticed the racial disparities of our campus.
The registrar estimates that in fall 2008, more than 84 percent of the newly-enrolled students reported themselves as white. This implies that the other 16 percent of those students are something other than white. For last year's enrolling class of more than 7,000 new students, this translates into roughly 1,100 non-white students.
It is clear that MU is home to a racially diverse group of people. Once we include international students in our figures, the diversity of the campus only intensifies.
The self-imposed segregation of our campus deeply concerns me. Many of our students come from either the St. Louis or Kansas City areas, two metropolises considered by many to be the most segregated cities in all of the United States. The lives those students led prior to coming to MU are likely ones of similar unwritten segregation, so it is not illogical they would lead their lives similarly in Columbia. This is one of the instances where illogicality must be preferred over logic.
What unnerves me most about the whole situation is my own ignorance. I have always considered myself culturally aware and open, yet I had never really noticed our campus' racial segregation until another person indirectly pointed it out to me. The uneasiness this has caused me is similar to the feeling one gets when wearing pants one size too small: You can initially ignore the discomfort, but soon you find yourself tugging at the waist in a futile attempt to relieve yourself of your constrictions. These past few months, I have been pulling at my own hidden biases and stereotypes, vainly trying to convince myself their constraints will loosen simply with my realization they exist. It is clear that just like with the too-small slacks, I needed to change.
My change came swiftly. This year, I am living in the Pangaea Learning Community, which houses many international students. Many of the international residents are living with American students, and even some international students live with other international students. The richness of backgrounds in Pangaea almost forces people, myself included, to broaden their horizons.
I cannot force people to interact with others outside of their race. All I can do is hope. I hope our campus' segregation is for the same reason as mine was. I hope we lead narrow lives because we do not know any different, not because we choose to shut ourselves off to anyone different from ourselves. I hope we did not make a conscious decision to be exclusive and instead do not know how to be inclusive. I hope we can accept our faults and attempt to change. It is something I am still working to accomplish.