With Black History Month upon us, one word comes to mind: diversity. When I hear the word diversity, I think about the variety of different people across our nation: people of different religions, socioeconomic statuses, and different skin tones. While this is one of the aspects of the United States that makes living here so admirable and desirable to many, it is also a cause of one of the greatest rifts in the American population.
Throughout my life I have had the experience of growing and learning with unique groups of people. The schools I attended were full of students of different ethnicities and cultures, but I never truly experienced the conflict that shakes the entire nation. While in the back of my mind, I have always been aware that there is a problem with race causing tension all over, it just wasn’t an issue I was directly affected by.
In fact, my life would look very different had I not been so immersed in diverse groups of people. My very first best friend in kindergarten was, in fact, black. Many of my closest friends as years progressed were also people of color. Throughout school, not a day went by where I didn’t have at least some interaction with a person with a skin tone different than mine. In the church I have attended for years and was baptized in last year, my pastor is black and there is an abundance of different races. Clearly, living among diversity has always been my norm. The reason I bring this up is to display how immersed I was in a diverse community no matter where I went; this was far different from what DU had in store for me
Little did I know, this norm would soon become a rarity for me as a student at the University of Denver. “Diversity” looks very different on this campus; while there are international students from all over the world, the student population displays a very clear pattern of whiteness. This isn’t opinion; it’s fact. This quarter, out of all the students in my four classes, there are only one or two black students I notice daily. Out of the hundreds of students learning beside me day-to-day, this number is staggeringly low – and a drastic change from the high school I came from. In addition, the number of black professors at the university is also low.
“DU is not diverse at all in terms of race. Most times I am one of few if not the only black person in my classes. Being a minority just makes me want to work hard and represent my race well,” – first-year student Brianna Florence
Although I was aware that the black population at DU was drastically low, I was still utterly shocked when I saw the numbers. According to College Tuition Compare, a website where prospective students can compare various traits of colleges, 3,885 of undergraduate students are white compared to the 139 black students. The numbers speak for themselves.
One heartbreaking, but necessary, example of the white culture that seems to dominate campus is the heavy presence of employees that are people of color working for the dining hall company on campus: Sodexo. Despite being some of the nicest people at the university, I have witnessed countless students treat them poorly. When mentioning this observation to LaDarion Wells, first-year student and one of the few black students at DU, he acknowledged his awareness of the issue as well.
“Most of the time [I think] privileged students often look down on Sodexo workers, because they think they are better than them. I don’t think they should have the right because it’s just plain disrespectful” he said. “They spend their time to make sure we have food to eat on a clean plate. They don’t disrespect us. Why disrespect them?”
One of DU’s goals is to continue to expand and reach all sorts of different people all over the globe. Go onto the university’s website and one will find that there is a whole tab dedicated to “diversity” in the “About Us” section. One statement found here says, “From 2011 to 2016, our population of Hispanic and Latino students increased by 31.5 percent, and our international student population also grew by 6.4 percent.” These statistics are encouraging; any increase in diversity is a start, however it also states that the university “strives to do more.”
I will give the university credit for their obvious attempts at trying to encourage and support diversity. One example of this is the university’s goal for implementing “Inclusive Excellence” within the Center for Multicultural Excellence. This program offers support to all groups of multicultural students, and the goal is to “value, engage, and include the rich diversity of students, staff, faculty, administrators and alumni constituents.” However, there is still lots of work to be done to fully implement this program.
One successful and greatly appreciated program by students of all backgrounds is the Pioneer Leadership Program (PLP). This program is geared toward developing leadership skills while emphasizing “community, curiosity, courage and action.” Hector Gonzalez, a first-year student who identifies as black, Puerto Rican, and Korean, believes that being a part this program has allowed him to connect with those of many cultures.
“Considering I live on the PLP floor in [Johnson-Macfarlane], from my perspective, [DU] is quite diverse. I have developed relationships with people from every race whether they are Indian, Vietnamese, or African American,” he said. “I cannot speak for the rest of campus, but I do notice that every classroom I’m enrolled in is predominately white.”
From the observation of a first-year student in her second quarter, “more” surely needs to happen, and I believe that it needs to happen in regard to aiming toward bringing in students from the black community. While the University of Denver is a fantastic university with much to offer, I feel greatly saddened at this time of the year when black history is being celebrated. It seems very difficult to properly recognize and celebrate this important holiday when the group of people we are celebrating is nearly absent from the community. Even though I am greatly taken aback by this change of scenery, I can’t even imagine the shock of this obvious disparity for someone who is a person of color.
While I recognize that there are many African American and black students attending DU, the ratio of these students to the white population is concerning. This is an issue that will not be solved easily, but will require intense thought and deliberate effort from the university. Furthermore, as students, we play a valuable role in bringing about awareness about this difficult subject; so, we should not be afraid to speak up. The voice of one person is all it takes to spark change.