The “coloreds” love Jim CrowThe Undeniable Truth

A couple weeks back I got an email from Dean Takesue. It read: “FALL RETREAT FOR STUDENTS OF COLOR. Leaders with a Life: Balancing Organizational Demands with Personal Responsibilities or Why am I licking envelopes at 3:00am?” The event was to take place on Friday, October 12 in Arnold Lounge. The invite went on to say that “All students of color who hold leadership positions” are welcome to come so that they can “Meet other students who are devoted to enriching the experiences of students of color, learn more about how the TWC, OSL, and Psych Services can support YOU and your organization,” and “have fun interacting with new people and gaining valuable.” As a black student leader, I decided to RSVP. I wrote a sarcastic email that declared my race as a Negro student wishing that instead of pizza they would accommodate the audience by serving fried chicken.

My sardonic reply was not well-received, as you can imagine. But I think that it points out the very real double-standard we hold at Brown University (and, perhaps, among liberal institutions nation-wide). The most racist people at this University are the people screaming about other’s being racist. The TWC exists to perpetuate racial boundaries broken down more than 50 years ago. Because of programs like TWTP there is a racial divide at Brown University, and because of events like students of color leadership retreats there will be little in the way of integration now or ever. Can you imagine incredulous gasps that would resound throughout the campus were someone to announce plans to have a whites only event? The planner would likely be lynched. But somehow, it’s less racist when a bunch of “colored” people get together at the exclusion of whites.

I challenge anyone to give me a good reason why separation of this sort is even nearly acceptable. Think about it, what sort of problems or interesting dilemmas do organizations with students of color (any color) at their helm encounter that organizations with white student direction do not? Perhaps it is the fact that a black student leader has less time to lead because he has to pick his hair. Or perhaps, Asian students study so much that they forget to eat regularly thus not having enough energy to lead their respective organizations. Maybe Brazilian student leaders can’t stop doing Capoeira and their members are threatening to quit because their leadership keeps kicking them in the face. Or, perhaps, Cuban leaders can’t stop drinking beer because they just don’t know whether it’s time to dance on the grave of their soon-to-be-dead-at-some-unannounced-but-hopefully-sooner-than-later time. No! Student organizations, even those with predominantly minority students, all suffer the same problems: uncommitted students, over-committed staffs, and overload of schoolwork. Responsibilities are difficult to manage for every student. And that was what was addressed at the retreat. My assessment, the retreat was well organized, and the information was relevant and useful. It’s too bad that white students didn’t get to go.

It all points to the moronic drive to be diverse. Everyone wants diversity, but no one wants integration. Brown University wants a bunch of black kids to walk through Van Wickle Gates every year so that they can look at the nation and with a quasi-straight face say, “look at us, we are good, not racist people.” Brown is no longer interested in educating us. As an institution, it is interested in appearing tolerant. It’s this shying away from education that allows people like the BDH’s columnist, Renata Sago, to say with certainty that sickle cell anemia is an ethnic disease caused by sociological racism (I’m sure she learned that in some Africana Studies course). It’s that same tolerance that allows a professor to teach that sort of drivel without getting fired for being too stupid to wield a PhD (can you fire someone for stupidity, or is stupidity now considered a disorder?)

When I was called into the office of the TWC dean (as a result of my offensive response), I was told that I was racist and insensitive. Apparently it has become a racist offense to point out good practice. Didn’t we realize a long time ago that separate but equal was anything but. I guess Brown’s liberal, biased administration forgot about that. I guess I’m a racist for despising the doctrine of separate but equal. I hope someday to be enlightened enough to see my own racism so that I too can come to understand how much better the world would be if we all just understood that sometimes separate can, indeed, be equal.