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A little bit about me...

Before coming to Syracuse I was anxious and excited. I could not stop thinking about what my college life was going to be like; I was excited to start this new independent chapter of my life. I imagined almost every aspect of my college life except for what my academic and social experience as a minority on the campus would be like. I was over consumed with thinking about dorm life, making new friends and getting acquainted to college life that it was not until I went through first couple weeks of classes that I realized that there were a few students of color in my classes. I went to a high school that was predominately white and the ironic thing is that I was never conscious of the fact that minority students only made up 10% of student body. I was surrounded by other minority students therefore creating an environment in which I did not have to think about my skin color. On the contrary here at Syracuse after about a month on campus I found myself well aware of how different I was from white students who made up majority of student body.
Freshman year fall semester writing 205 had to be the one class that I felt most uncomfortable in, I was one of two black women in the classroom and I never spoke to the other black female in the class. It was in this class that I felt as though the color of my skin was all that the other students saw and also many times all that the instructor saw. It was in this class that I truly understood what white privilege was. One of the topics that we discussed in the class was education and how education systems lack funding and resources in certain neighborhoods that to no surprise are made up of predominately minority populations. It was in this class that I realized I had a premature way of thinking when it came to understanding experience of non-white Americans. This class challenged me intellectually in ways that I have never been challenged before. During classroom discussions when I found that white classmates knew more about institutional racism against minorities I felt ashamed and inadequate. It was almost as if I had been living in a glass bottle the past four years of high school because I was never taught how minorities are systematically and institutionally oppressed. Once I was aware of all the knowledge that I had not been introduced to it was amazing just how much I was able to begin to learn and am still learning till this day.
Syracuse University is not a perfect campus and I feel as though it is the job of every minority on this campus to make sure that they take full advantage of all the opportunities that Syracuse has to offer, even those opportunities that may require a fight. It is extremely important that minority students support each other academically and socially. We already have to compete against white students and against stereotypes and stigmas that are associated with minority students and to allow for juvenile things such as juicy campus to exploit the personal lives of some of our minority students is not only degrading but an embarrassment that we are not only oppressed by whites but that we are further oppressed by our own people. I hope that this blog allows students to come together and support each other…I strongly encourage anyone who is interested to participate.

Senior: Social Work and Spanish major