Opinion | Divided by Race on the “Integrated” Campus

“Don’t run away from me, white girl.” That’s what I thought as a young, white female took off upon noticing that I was walking behind her. I was on my way to 7/11 in my neighborhood near campus. Whether she felt threatened because I am black, male or both can be debated. Too many times I, a student who just needs pizza to go with my Netflix, feel like a threat. I eventually yelled to the girl, who was now a great distance away, “I’m just going to 7/11!”

I transferred from Whitewater to UWM in search of two things: activity and diversity. I got them, but why wasn’t I satisfied? There were plenty of people for me to brush shoulders with; surely there was a wealth of racial diversity, but I wasn’t pleased. After days of people-watching in the Union, I realized the problem: segregation. I noticed Caucasian guys walking together, Asian-Americans eating together, African-American girls talking in a group, and so on. Where was the integration all the college brochures promised was what made UWM the place to enroll?

It seems to come down to a level of comfort people feel within their race. It’s as if we see someone who has little in common with us, but find comfort in seeing that “hey, we match!” But let’s take it from the mirrored perspective. From here, we can say a person with lighter or darker skin from our own might not believe in the same thing, listen to the same music or even share the same level of intelligence or morals. Is this the perspective the runaway girl had when she saw me? Did I, or someone who looks like me, do something wrong, or was it the media or her environment?

Race is a tough issue, and I’m not sure what the solution is. On one hand, we should talk about it in order to break down barriers. On the other, not talking about race would be helpful in reducing its role as a factor of separation. Maybe race isn’t meant to be resolved, just tolerated.