A Great Divide?
High school, according to “Mean Girls”’s resident “outsider” Janis Ian, is complicated. It takes an expert to navigate the dangerous terrain of the high school cafeteria, where everyone from the “Nerdy Asians” to the “Unfriendly Black Hotties” is neatly divided into categories. Unspoken divisions reign supreme. While this may be an accurate portrayal of the high school social scene, Harvard students like to think they have progressed past this type of self-segregation. But in reality, Harvard’s campus is not free from the high school cafeteria syndrome. Why, for example, are there single-race blocking groups? Why don’t more minorities run for the Undergraduate Council (UC)? And even if self-segregation exists, is it a problem?
Self-segregation occurs when, for whatever reason, members of a racial or ethnic group isolate themselves from the greater community. In a Crimson dining hall survey of 45 students, about 58 percent of students believe Harvard to be at least somewhat self-segregated. But self-segregation is a loaded term: it implies something is wrong with the way in which people interact with each other. “A lot of people would take issue with using that sort of language. Many people, myself included, feel that there is a space for individual communities on campus,” says Edward L. “Teddy” Styles ’07, who is an intern at the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.
Jason C.B. Lee ’08, president of the Black Students Association (BSA), objects to the way that some students characterize social groups based along racial and ethnic lines. “Segregation has a negative connotation, like ‘black students are imposing this extreme negative on themselves. Segregation is terrible and now they’re doing it to themselves.’ We kind of balk at the term ‘self-segregation’ because we feel good about what we do here, how we interact with each other,” he says.
Because of the racial connotations of the term, self-segregation is often overlooked in situations where race is not the uniting factor. “There are also situations where people associate with others who have a shared experience, not necessarily a cultural background, but it doesn’t have the same kind of stigma attached. It might not be as obvious when things like that happen,” says Deborah Y. Ho ’07. In other words, what we call self-segregation might just be a more visible manifestation of the relationships that exist all over campus. “When something’s visible and people are sensitive towards it, they notice it more,” says Ho. “It’s easy to notice the things that you’re trying to notice and I don’t think that’s productive in any way.”
COMMUNITY AND COMFORT
According to a 1995 sociological study in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, self-segregation is often used as a “defense mechanism to insulate black students from the harsh realities of institutional racism” at predominantly white universities. Indeed, for all minority groups, the perception of racism can lead students to create support groups and cultural organizations where they can feel free from these biases.
Leaders of Harvard’s cultural organizations view their groups in terms of two ideal values: community and comfort. Students look to these groups as a source of warmth and familiarity in a Harvard campus that can seem overwhelming. Lee describes the BSA as “a support network for all students, in an otherwise isolating and cold place.” Likewise, Jimmy Zhao ’08, co-president of the Asian American Association (AAA), says one of the club’s goals “is to provide a community for our members, to provide space where our members feel safe. In general, people would agree that you can’t always let your guard down here. In high school, you have your clique; here, you’re missing that. At AAA meetings, you’re around people who make you feel comfortable.”
But the tight-knit structure of these groups doesn’t necessarily mean that students involved don’t interact with non-members. “It’s a lot easier to talk with people who can relate to your type of experience. That’s a way of dealing with it, but also a way of moving beyond it,” says Charles J. Hamilton III ’07, the president of the Black Men’s Forum (BMF).
Although these groups are for the greater part ethnically homogeneous, many do boast the odd member who is not of the predominant race. “In my time, [the BMF] hasn’t been limited to black men,” says Hamilton, “Our social chair is Latino. It’s very much about where your heart is and where your mind is. And how you’re viewed and judged by your peers.” April D. Youpee-Roll ’08, president of Native Americans at Harvard College, says “We wouldn’t get anywhere if we were only interested in native students at Harvard. We’d just be this sort of fringe group outside of the Harvard community. I think we’d probably get bored, too.”
HOUSE PARTY
In one of the most visible manifestations of “self-segregation,” many blocking groups are predominantly or entirely composed of one race. The Harvard administration does not release racial statistics in blocking, so it is difficult to evaluate the diversity of blocking groups. The phenomenon was easier to notice in the era before the randomization of the housing system, when students had a great degree of choice over the House in which they would be placed. According to a 1994 Crimson op-ed, 80 percent of Black students opted to live in the Quad.
In 1995, Harvard switched to the current, randomized process where blocking groups have no control over the house in which they would spend the next three years. The endeavor aimed to foster racial mixing and end the concentration of minority students and athletes in certain houses. Reaction to this plan was fairly mixed at first, with some student minority leaders expressing doubts about the consequences of the move. For instance, Derrick N. Ashong ’97, a former president of the BSA, worried that the plan would cause splintering in the Black community.
Today, BSA President Lee asserts that randomization might even increase the time Black students spend with one another: “It seems almost counter-intuitive. Because we’re separated, we work that much harder to come together. At a school like this, I do recognize the importance of getting to know members of the black community.”
According to a 2003 article in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, residential self-segregation on campus is “far less common than people believe.” At Harvard, many minority students say that their time is not spent, as some claim, primarily with other minorities. “As involved as I am with the Black community, most of my time at Harvard [I am] in the minority, dealing with non-black students, with all my academic settings and all my housing,” says Lee. “I think the nature of Harvard does not allow as much segregation as it thinks.” And Lee should know: he appreciates the relative diversity of Harvard after transferring from the historically Black Morehouse College.
MINORITIES IN THE NON-MINORITY
Recently, a number of prominent campus organizations—including The Crimson, the Institute of Politics, and the UC—have undertaken efforts to address a lack of diversity in their membership, such as UC’s “Vote or Die” campaign, which started in 2004 in the hopes of increasing minority representation on the Council. There are many explanations for the lack of minority involvement in these groups, but one big reason is the time many minority students devote to their ethnic communities. “When I’ve talked to various leaders and they try to increase Black participation in groups, there are limitations,” says Lee. “The Black community at Harvard is extremely active. It doesn’t leave as much time for me to comp the Crimson or be heavily involved in the Dems. Instead of being on The Crimson, you might write for the BSA’s literary organization and get involved in that way.”
In addition, the relative lack of visible minority leaders in these organizations may give some the impression that they won’t find community or opportunities for leadership. “Most of those organizations don’t have a lot of black people in them,” Lee says. By joining groups like the Association of Black Harvard Women, “you know that you will have a chance to be vice president or what have you,” Lee says.
But Hamilton believes Harvard students can straddle the border between being involved in a racial community and taking part in other activities. “People feel they have to make a choice: You can either be a part of the black community, or you can do something else, but you can’t do them both. I don’t think that was anyone’s deliberate impression to give people. Now that that is being realized, I think greater efforts are being put forth, within the greater Harvard community, to really show people the opportunities. I’m certainly a proponent for people understanding that it’s not one or the other; it’s preferably both.”
Conversely, there are students who believe that race should not be the uniting factor around which we join organizations. One biracial student, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “I just don’t feel like my race has ever been enough of anything to be the sole reason for why I would enter into a community.” The Crimson granted the student anonymity because revealing her identity would compromise her relationsihps with members of cultural organizations. This student has chosen not to take part in her racial community, but she questions the role cultural organizations have on this campus. “It all comes down to whether these communities are open to people of other ethnicities and I haven’t seen that a lot. It is easy to fall into the trap where you say this is a community that celebrates a certain ethnicity, but it’s actually only celebrated by that ethnicity.” Although Nathan P. Whitfield ’09, who is a member of the BSA, acknowledges the importance of ethnic and cultural groups, he worries that students who spend a lot of time devoted to their racial community often “get into the habit of sticking with these groups.” He says, “Just having those groups on campus is divisive. As many good things as each of these student groups do, you have to acknowledge the fact that their presence is saying that this is where the Asian students go, this is where the Black students go, and that is not good at all. You’re not looking towards the student body as a whole.” The fundamental assumption within these groups seems to be that if two people are of the same race, they have a shared experience and a common bond, which may be true to some extent, but is also worth considering as we hope to move toward an increasingly egalitarian society.
PRESSING US TO CHANGE
In many ways, Harvard’s campus provides a perfect venue for working to combat the “self-segregation” endemic to predominantly white colleges. One campus organization that works directly against isolating impulses is the Harvard Foundation. In 1981, then-University President Derek C. Bok and the deans of the College created the Foundation to “improve relations among racial and ethnic groups within the University and to enhance the quality of our common life,” according to the group’s mission statement. The Foundation, which organizes campus staples such as the annual Cultural Rhythms shows, has been led by S. Allen Counter for its entire 25-year history, and a team of paid undergraduate interns works to publicize inter-cultural events and foster discourse on topics like diversity and racial communities.
The Harvard Foundation is housed in a low-ceilinged three-room office in Thayer Basement. It’s the kind of space that’s bright and welcoming, and yet has not been particularly well publicized on campus. In a Crimson survey conducted for this article, about 61 percent of students said they had heard of the Harvard Foundation, but only 30 percent knew what it did.
“We haven’t had an open house yet, but we’re having one soon,” says Christina Dias, an administrative coordinator for the Harvard Foundation. “At that point, we really hope to welcome everyone, to offer all of our facilities, computers and copiers, student assistants. We would like to see our office as a workspace for the student organizations, for programs and initiatives and projects. We primarily see it as a place where intellectual conversations are taking place, things are getting done.”
The Foundation, which celebrates Harvard’s diversity and hands out thousands of dollars in grants to cultural organizations, does not see self-segregation as a problem that needs to be solved. Dias says, “I would say that the mission of the [Foundation] is an umbrella organization for cultural groups.” For the Foundation, it is not worrisome that cultural organizations exert a pull on minority students as long as there is discussion between these groups.
Another organization on campus, Diversity and Distinction, encourages cultural discourse through publication. Frank W. Chen ’10, the co-managing editor, says the magazine “provide[s] a common space, a forum in which people can discuss issues of civil rights and social justice. Discussions will go on between different [ethnic] groups, but the Harvard campus won’t necessarily hear about it. By printing it, we’re making it accessible to the whole community.” In the eyes of organizations like the Harvard Foundation and Diversity and Distinction, it is essential to have outlets for cross-cultural collaboration and productive conversation.
COMING TOGETHER
In the end, the predominant question is one of principle: is “self-segregation” wrong? Is it harmful? Periodically, Harvard students have called for an end to the self-segregation that ethnic groups supposedly perpetuate. In a 2005 Crimson column Jason L. Lurie ’05 wrote, “Unlike the segregation that was forced on African-Americans in the South before the 1960s, self-segregation is instituted voluntarily by the members of the affected group. It is facilitated here at Harvard by College-endorsed student organizations which serve as central locations at which to meet other members of the group in a free-from-outsiders sort of way.”
But leaders of student organizations see their groups as venues for collaboration as much as community. According to Ho of the Asian-American Women’s Association, “We hope the role that AAWA plays is something that promotes forward-thinking, the creation of some kind of community that can be respectful of, but can also cross cultural boundaries.” Similarly, Lee says, “There’s always room for more collaboration, not just between black students and other students, but between Muslims and Christians, between Republicans and Democrats, etcetera.”
One of the goals of AAWA, says Ho, is to encourage members “to be part of the general Harvard population...it’s about bringing together people who have different experiences and creating some kind of learning experience out of that.”
And perhaps there’s nothing wrong with that. “I think that the perception is that because these organizations and these communities exist, that means there’s segregation, whether that’s on the university’s part, or whether it’s self-segregation,” says Hamilton. “You absolutely have to have those communities. Whether you decide it’s right or wrong, the communities will still exist, and the organizations will still exist. So in my mind, that’s not even a debate worth having. The ultimate goal is to have a Harvard community, in which everybody is welcome and communicating, and I think we’re definitely moving towards it.”
Ultimately, self-segregation, says Ho, “is not a ‘problem’ that needs to be fixed. It’s a ‘problem’ that needs to be understood.”
—Nicola C. Perlman and Jun Li contributed to the reporting of this story.
Sidebar: Artistic Differences: Divisions in the Arts