Darcy Richie: Diversity and the need to affirm identities

"I lived in the white dorm freshman year," I told Spelman College President Beverly Tatum as we sat around our small lunch table previewing the issues of diversity and race that she would touch on in her subsequent conversation with Judith Rodin last week. As one of only four black females who lived in the Quad my freshman year, the conversation around housing, race and the larger issue of diversity has always interested me. Tatum's day on campus helped to bring these issues back into our daily dialogues and articulate points that we tiptoe around all too often.

Tatum made one point that stuck in my mind: A university has the responsibility to uphold diversity through the affirmation of its students' identities. This responsibility, in my opinion, crosses all lines of color, gender or sexual preference. In the image presented by Tatum, we all need to see our faces in the larger picture of the university in order for that university to "systematically communicate" that we are a part of the larger fabric. We need to see ourselves represented in the university's ideals, functions and, in this case, infrastructure. If we can accept this need, then we can enter into more substantial discussions about ethnic programs on campus, such as the Latin American program or the East Asian program.

I could never understand why some people disapproved of a place like DuBois College House. On one hand, I thought it was finally understood that the majority of black students do not live in DuBois, that DuBois is not entirely black, and that DuBois is not the "black dorm" but an African-American residential program.

Furthermore, I am always surprised that so many people are not ready to accept that the Quad is the most racially segregated dorm on campus. However, entering into discussions around these facts is futile, because in the end, racially uneven numbers exist all over campus in places like King's Court/English and Hill college houses. Disapproval of DuBois College House is not about numbers, and not even about racism. It's about the disapproval of racial affirmation.

It's about students remaining silent when majority white fraternities and sororities engage in loud, late-night rush activities but disapproving of a self-affirming Onyx ceremony.

During the lunch with Tatum, a student began questioning how minorities could advocate for a place like DuBois and at the same time want "diversity." And then, with a disdainful voice, he said, "It's like they want to have their cake and eat it, too." Ouch! The point expressed here was that DuBois was seen as an impediment to "integration." If minorities want places like Penn to be "integrated," then why would they "self-segregate" in places like DuBois or in ethnic-specific organizations?

It is not solely the responsibility of the minority to "diversify" or edu-tain the majority. Tatum's concept of affirming identity helped to express that minorities should not have to take on this responsibility. Diversity is a university-wide initiative, and simply focusing on practical issues of "integration" without looking at what integration really is, or without understanding the fears or misunderstandings behind segregation, causes us to persist in PC isolation.

DuBois is both a powerful place and idea on this campus. The parallel between DuBois and the crowded, almost homogenous lecture hall forces us to acknowledge the daily isolation many students feel. Living in the Quad freshman year, this isolation was blaringly obvious to me and made me painfully aware of my racial responsibilities and demands.

Was the Quad seen as diverse to its residents because I lived there? I felt as though all eyes were on me to constantly speak, defend or translate for all blacks in any conversation about race, socio-economic disparity or West Philadelphia in my classrooms, on Locust and in my dorm.

Basically, diversity is never cut and dry. For me, the difficulty centers around expressing my enjoyment at living in the Quad, my Quad relationships and my desire to work with, joke with and learn with people with whom I share racial similarities. Clearly, we all have this desire every once in a while, but my desires are as conspicuous as my skin or my gender.

However, refocusing the goal from simple "diversity" to "reaffirming identity" acknowledges the complexities of this issue. It also helps in understanding an ideal makeup of a mixed community. It helps us accept places like DuBois but strive to desegregate places like the Quad. Accepting that everyone must affirm his or her identity helps us begin to discuss the difficulties facing a minority student on a majority campus, the resentments and fears felt by majority students in potentially entering a minority gathering, and the daily isolation that, at times, we all experience. If we say it's OK to be here and black as long as you keep quiet about it, that is hardly true acceptance.

Darcy Richie is a senior urban studies major from Birmingham, Mich. Strange Fruit appears on Wednesdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.