A House of a Different Color

Engineering junior Ellen Long doesn’t blend in with the other residents in her dorm. Although perhaps the most obvious dissimilarity is her skin color, Long finds that her upbringing and cultural perspective differ greatly from those of her neighbors. Long is a minority of the majority — one of the few white University students to experience living in the University’s 90 percent black residence, W.E.B. DuBois College House. And as she does so, Long is penetrating a boundary that affects much more than residential life, from dining at the Class of 1920 Commons to Spring Fling. “Prior to moving into DuBois, the house seemed like an unknown entity,” Long said. “Kind of like, what goes on in there?” She is quick to point out that her reasons for moving into DuBois were not “noble,” since she and her roommate were simply bumped out of the high rises into the building. But Long now lauds DuBois’s programming and commends its friendly atmosphere. At the same time, however, Long said she disapproves of programs that isolate specific groups in certain residences. Because she believes students choose to separate themselves, Long said the University should not facilitate segregation as it does through DuBois. In a University community including almost 10,000 undergraduates, Long’s mixed feelings about DuBois seems to mirror many others’ — apparent through the still-continuing 25-year-old debates on the subject. Even though DuBois has never housed more than 18 percent of the University’s black students, it is often used to represent opposing sides of the racial segregation argument — as either a symbol of separation or a source of community. During the last 10 years, diversity has become a buzzword on campus — but Penn is still predominantly white on the undergraduate level, with 6,207 Caucasian students. The 508 black undergraduates comprise 5 percent of the student body. From its inception in 1972, DuBois has functioned as a haven for black students attending the University. Education Professor Howard Stevenson, the residence’s faculty master, said DuBois especially helps students who find themselves continuously explaining who they are. He added that the house is crucial to combat the negative experiences many black students have in classes and other social groups. “Segregation is a historically violent word and should not be used to describe DuBois,” Stevenson said. “This mostly white campus uses that word to label the house — which is an interesting way of looking at freedom of choice.” He added that misconceptions of the house come from the “outside” and prevail because people fail to take advantage of another aspect of the academic residence — teaching the culture and literature of Africans and African Americans. Under Stevenson, the proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” has guided the DuBois community, which Stevenson said includes Caribbean, African, South American, Latino and many bi-racial students. “As an African American faculty member, I don’t fit in at a lot of places,” Stevenson said. “But if I spent all of my time talking about that issue, I wouldn’t get any work done. The pain is always present, but there aren’t enough ears to hear it.” Acting as Stevenson’s partner, Assistant Dean of DuBois Sonia Elliot, a former resident herself, said she constantly works to improve the “life experience” of Penn’s black students. To Elliot, that process includes the numerous events DuBois sponsors, such as the annual Souls of DuBois Conference, and the space the house provides for many minority functions — even if they are not house-directed activities. Elliot said she sometimes feels overwhelmed because she is responsible for administering the building, maintaining a base for black undergraduates and providing a cultural center for the entire West Philadelphia community. “Sometimes I feel like DuBois is similar to McDonalds — over five billion served,” Elliot said. “We do not in any way only assist the in-house community. The entire campus and surrounding community uses our services.” Elliot also emphasized that DuBois functions as a “home” for all black students who attend the University, even if they never live in the residence. But many people have criticized this very idea, saying it promotes separatism and impedes the progress of race relations on campus. English Lecturer David Slavitt said he thinks blacks in the United States have not made the effort to integrate fully into American culture, especially compared to Jews and Chinese over the past 40 years. Slavitt said it is “counter-intuitive” for Penn to support DuBois, adding that the only way students can learn from one another is if they live together. “When students live in a segregated residential setting, they are having quite a different Penn experience,” Slavitt said. “And it can’t be a good thing.” History Professor Alan Kors said he is an “integrationist” who believes the University’s residential goals should involve integrating the entire student population. DuBois houses 120 students, 68 of whom are freshmen. Kors said he believes segregated housing is especially detrimental to those first-year students. “The friendships and contacts formed in freshman year are vital, and they tend to last and to have ripple effects throughout a student’s four years here,” Kors said. “Students meet freshman year, when they share a profoundly unifying experience? that so often creates friendships and mutual understandings that transcend those identities by which many would separate people at Penn.” On the other hand, Stevenson and Elliot maintain that without the security of DuBois, some minority students wouldn’t be able to succeed at the University. When people ask Elliot if she feels DuBois is necessary, she said she laughs to herself. “I know a lot of students depend on us,” Elliot said. “And I really believe the University is committed to us being here.” After spending four undergraduate years in DuBois, 1996 Wharton graduate Nicole Maloy describes the housing experience as “invaluable.” Coming from a predominately white high school, like many DuBois residents, Maloy spent her years at DuBois learning about African American history and culture — through both planned house activities and informal gatherings in the house. She said the greatest misconception about DuBois is that all residents are similar — an idea she said is false “both literally and figuratively.” She points out that as an undergraduate, she was involved in numerous activities, ranging from track to singing groups. “This is not a black school and I couldn’t avoid white people even if I wanted to,” Maloy said. “How can anyone say that we are restricting ourselves by living here?” As an alumna, Maloy continues to frequent the house. Whether it is for the superior room size, family-like atmosphere — complete with a desk receptionist who they call “Mom” — or learning opportunities, many current students say they would choose to live nowhere else. “Mom” has been a fixture in the house for five years and many residents say she is the best representative of the house. Stephani Barnes-Robinson models her life around helping students, holding special “walk-in” talk sessions or passing out hot soup on cold days. “I worked for a year in High Rise North, but I didn’t like the job because I couldn’t get to know the students very well, even though I never forget a name or zodiac sign,” Barnes-Robinson said. “I can give my heart to DuBois because I love the family atmosphere here — it’s just the natural thing to do.” College sophomore Rasool Berry, who serves as vice president of DuBois’s House Council, said he decided to live in DuBois as a freshman because it provided him with a dynamic support group. Berry noted that the residence stimulated his personal growth and “insulated” him from some of the prejudice that “surrounds people of color in an elite institution.” DuBois, he said, provided an atmosphere that allowed him to succeed both academically and socially. “Some might consider it presumptuous and even detrimental to predict that an institution has racism before ever stepping foot on the campus,” Berry said. “But such is the reality for African Americans in this society.” College freshman Charles Howard said he is disappointed by some students’ ignorance about the house. “I find it quite interesting that no one questions the existence of the Latin American program, which is very similar to the DuBois house program where many Latinos live together,” Howard said. “Or perhaps the equivalent for Asians that exists in High Rise East or maybe even the [floors in High Rise North] which exist for Orthodox Jewish people.” Noting the difficulty of being a minority, Howard is one of only 40 black males scheduled to graduate in 2000. “It is hard for some of my Asian friends to understand the anger that I get when I see the Georgia state flag with the Confederate flag on it as I go to midnight breakfast,” Howard added, referring to a Quadrangle resident who hung the flag outside his window. College freshman Steven Jessup said he didn’t consider the usual factors of room size, location or programming while deciding where he was going to spend his first year at the University. “I chose DuBois for one simple reason — I wanted to be around black people,” Jessup said. To some University students, however, DuBois’s existence is not productive for the campus as a whole. College senior Cara Reiner said she believes DuBois should not be an option for freshmen. “Freshman year is a really good time to break down stereotypes,” Reiner said. “And I don’t think the need for a safe haven is as strong as when DuBois first opened.” On October 29, a group of 25 Penn students of all races attended a forum held in DuBois entitled “Everything You Wanted to Know About Black People But Were Afraid to Ask.” The event, sponsored by Ma’at, a black student group, included discussion about self-segregation, among other campus issues. “I thought this was a terrific activity because I always wanted an excuse to come into DuBois,” said Wharton junior Helen Horstmann. “And I finally got my chance.”

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