Lately, I keep hearing the argument that minorities on campus are self-segregating. Before I get into things deeply, let me do a little introduction. I have a very diverse family. While I am of mixed Asian-European ancestry, I have first cousins who are black, white, Asian, Middle Eastern and Latino. No joke. I have a somewhat androgynous gender expression and identify as androsexual. My drag persona, Venus Dementia, is Tufts' only Asian hip-hop drag queen, and she has performed at five engagements this school year alone. Since I know this is going to come up, I do work at the LGBT Center, facilitate weekly meetings for Queer Men's Group and live in the Rainbow House.
I find using the term "self-segregation" a little problematic. It implies that minorities seek out minority friends at the expense of the white, heterosexual majority. I'm going to attack this idea on several fronts.
First off, I'm going to say that there is not one single person to blame for this phenomenon. White people are just as complicit as minorities. Yes, the cultural centers on campus recruit freshmen to their events before the school year has even started. And yes, I believe that these events encourage minority peer groups. At Asian American Center events, I've heard students say that it was a relief to finally have more Asian friends after coming from mostly white high schools. It isn't anyone's place to say who people can and cannot befriend on campus. But of course, it isn't that simple. To flip the coin around, how many white people do you know with a majority of non-white friends? Do you think monoracial dating on campus is a problem? Should gay people start force-dating straight people? Why is it that white students eat with other white students at the dining halls? I haven't heard these questions being thrown around campus that much, and I'd like to hear some answers.
As a resident of the Rainbow House, I know people are going to say that I self-segregate. The Rainbow House has always strived to be diverse in race, gender and even sexual orientation. Events we host are always open to our straight allies, and at the beginning of this year, we did have two straight allies living with us (who both decided to leave later for personal reasons). Are my friends mostly queers and allies? Yes! Why would I want non-ally straight friends anyway? While I moved into the Rainbow House because of a bias incident last year, I decided to stay because it's the most comfortable living situation I've ever had. Even going back home for break, I have to shut off parts of myself just to make other people comfortable, so it's a terrific feeling to be myself once in a while. Besides, the dorms were uncomfortable with my booty-short-wearing antics. I don't think of the Rainbow House as a place for self-segregation. I think of it as providing a service to a community that has suffered a history of violence for being different.
The truth of the matter is that hatred on campus is very real. Just log on to WebCenter and look at the lists of reported bias incidents. For as small a university as we are, you'd be surprised. Sometimes the people who claim to be tolerant with open arms have nothing to offer but finger-pointing.
My high school -- a small, private prep school in Fort Worth, Texas -- once performed a social experiment for an annual event called People Respecting Individual Differences Everywhere (PRIDE) Day. At an assembly, students were handed a note card with a number on it at random. During the assembly, they were told that these numbers would correspond with tables in the lunch room, which sent the auditorium up in arms. At lunch, students ended up switching note cards, eating outside or sitting at different numbered tables anyway. The experiment in desegregation failed. People can't make new friends just because you want them to. Friendship is about connecting with someone over similar interests and, arguably, socioeconomic status and/or background.
I am offering a challenge to the Tufts community. To the people who consider self-segregation a problem on campus, I want to hear your solutions. The Primary Source, this includes you. I'm tired of all the name-calling and blame-gaming. It's time people re-analyze their own friend groups and consider the idea that maybe they are part of the problem, too. It's time that saying "I have plenty of (insert minority here) friends!" no longer counts as a retort to accusations of hatred. And for my closing words, I'd like to say this: I'm not racist! I have plenty of rich, white friends!
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Richard Boussarath Malone is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He is a co-facilitator of the Queer Men's Group.
