#self segregation

[dosesofcommonsense]

[astra-girl]

I don’t like the self segregation of the black students in housing because I’m afraid it will create a rift and bring about more racial prejudices but I do understand why the black student union wanted it. Especially in all the political unrest, it’s nice to have a community where you feel safe.

[pmsingportia]

[brownoneout]

You Can't Sit With Us!

Asian nerds, cool Asians, Unfriendly black hotties - the scene from Mean Girls could have been describing a college dining hall as easily as a high school cafeteria. Maybe the titles would be different but the delineation between groups, particularly along racial lines, is still as clear as day. They persist even though no one is demanding that these divisions exist. In actuality, a lot of us have the tendency to naturally self-segregate ourselves.

Sometimes we unintentionally create boundaries when we find our own bubbles and never leave them. Not everyone can be a floater and drift from group to group. Not everyone wants to be. Often we are able to find refuge with those who are similar to us due to a lack of acceptance from others.

On smaller college campuses it is really easy to learn who all the Asian (or Black or Latin@) kids are, they stick out! From there, a lot of time can be spent with people in your racial group. They may be strangers at first, but they are strangers with a shared trait.

After becoming a Peer Liaison, it is indeed true that a significant portion of my closest friends are now Hispanic, but to frame that development in a way that makes it seem as though my friends and I are purposely forming a selective in-group is both wrong and harmful. It is not a crazed, revolutionary claim to say that common backgrounds ease the forming of friendships…The problem is not that these commonalities cause people to gravitate to one another, but that there is a lack of cultural understanding between people of different backgrounds that should be better bridged. 

Gravitating towards people of a similar background can be enriching. From sharing and growing with each other, you can then go on to share with other groups. Even just having conversations and interactions within your group can be helpful and fulfilling (it can also be a coping mechanism for shifting).

There's a lot of push towards diversity and cross-race interactions but for many people, self-segregation is necessary aspect of their lives. It provides spaces for conversations. It leads to vital friendships. It creates opportunities to understand culture, within the group and beyond. Self-segregation is a natural phenomenon for many students of color who are looking for comfort and understanding on campus.

Sources:

Borja, Yvette. "In Defense of La Casa at Yale." Huff Post Latino Voices. Huffington Post, 24 Sept. 2011. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

Edwards, Isabelle. "Why Do All The Black Girls Sit Together?" Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 6 June 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

FungBrosComedy. "Asian College Bubble."  Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

[neelarangeela]

Kuchipudi Problem

The thing about being a North Indian girl taking a South Indian dance is that there will always be some sentiments I don't understand. Like the how the music is in a language they understand and I have to have it translated or our celebrations or just simply the attitude. However, the thing I've noticed recently is that I'M the one who is making it a big deal. People are different and that's okay, and it's about time stop self segregating.  I love my Kuchipudi family and that's never going to change.

[memoriasconsazon]

it's actually funny how when people in power create legislation n structures to segregate people, everyone's just like "that's just the way it is & we can't help dat that's how the cookie crumbles." butttttt LAWD forbid some black and brown kids want to sit together at a lunch table or sharing a living space on campus, everyone's running around yelling "SELF-SEGREGATION! They don't want to be around people who are different from them!" so people more than comfortable with institutional segregation but when we as PoC and/or working class folk choose our own groups, we are the reason racism exists and groups aren't interacting?! boobai.

[iamduhrail]

My Target Guest

Interesting conversation with an intelligent black woman at work today. She complimented me on how intelligent and cultured I was. The unfortunate thing was that she felt the need belittle those she didn't see as her intellectual equal. I love being a college educated black male. I love helping others reach that same milestone even more.

[lovelylavenderchild]

Segregation

"Have we self segregated? Look at Chicago, it seems like it."

Truly it’s segregation on many levels but it’s a yes nonetheless. Let’s start from the beginning(besides the historical slavery we are forced to learn and what we discover) with how suburbs were created and the “bad” areas of Chicago were formed by blockbusting. How white people moved to suburbs to avoid black people. Now? It’s literally an engraved ideal that we just segregate ourselves because of the grand segregation that’s been instilled to people. And you can say that segregation is gone but that’s only by laws that they aren’t present (kinda calling bullshit on that though) It’s still present in culture, society and ourselves. In the end the psychological knowledge and backlashes from slavery and racism cause people to look down on other races and ethnicities instead of embracing cultures as a whole. It’s something seen at school all the time, African culture used to be something kept hidden and away from the public. Now it’s more public but only in clothing and not for the rest of its beautiful culture and history. It gets bad to where we stereotype our own races to become something better than that supposed “person” that no one wants to be. I could go on further but that’s something I would talk personally about.