Letter to the Editor: A student's reaction to February 2 "Sticks and Stones

After reading Kristin Geyer's viewpoint Sticks and Stones I feel compelled to share my gratefulness towards her for finally printing the truth about the Multicultural Affairs on Campus and offer my own experiences as a white student on campus. At this "liberal arts" college I have been overwhelmed with the feeling of "guilt" for being white as Geyer described in her article. As a freshman I was introduced to this feeling for the first time in my life, as my roommate was not white. When I first met her, I thought absolutely nothing of this, and I also thought nothing of many of her friends that were not the same skin color as I am. I simply judged people on their character, there were some of her friends who I did not like because of their words or actions and there were some I loved. I entered sophomore year as the only white roommate in a four-person room, and as I came to know many more of the minority students on campus, I began to feel isolated. I had thought that by meeting new people I would become more of a well-rounded person, but in reality, I started to view people based upon their color. I would dread the times when a group of minority students would come into my room and completely ignore me, or the times when all of my roommates go to a group called WINGS (Women in Need of Guidance and Support) that only colored women are invited to, or the times where I would hear "white isn't right" from some of my own friends. Being from a predominantly white high school and not having much diversity, I thought that this was normal and apparently I had just had the wrong impression that everyone was equal. However, when I attended my first ALANA meeting with my friends and roommates, I found that the reason that this segregation existed on campus was because the group that was promoting "togetherness"-as Geyer put it, "completely isolating one another."

At this ALANA meeting I attended, I was first greeted by Brenda Safford, the director of Multicultural Affairs, who thanked all of the students that came, "especially the white students, because it is overwhelming to enter a group of all minority students." Throughout the rest of the meeting, I was referred to as an "ally" because I was white and "on the minorities side." Within minutes of arriving I had already been judged as "a rich, white, yuppie Catholic school kid," as Geyer put it, and had a label placed upon me. Little do they know that I am not rich and not Catholic (something which I have never been discriminated for even though this is a Catholic college). We then did an exercise where we picked questions out of a hat and had to answer them out loud. I randomly chose "What is your culture?" and as I read my question aloud, most of the minority students snickered at me and apologized that I had gotten this question, as in to say that I do not have a culture.

I could write more on how I have been discriminated for being white at this school, however, rather than lingering on the discrimination of certain groups of students as the Multicultural Affairs organizations do, I simply would like to commend Geyer's writing of the truth and hope that through this, changes can be made in the school to encourage togetherness rather than discourage it. As a white student who, unknowingly to me, is "privileged" as I pay my own way through college and struggle with many of the same problems that minority students have with friendships and schoolwork, I would encourage the Multicultural Affairs organizations to step out of the office and take a look around to each person's individual differences rather than, as Geyer correctly put it, "the amount of melanin in their skin."



Sincerely,

Cassandra Delp