Understanding a unique perspective

By Skylar Richardson

As a black Protestant, I am privileged to be a student at Santa Clara, especially in this season of change.

I am optimistic because both new presidents of our nation and university are poised to make great strides toward success. However, the tides of change Martin Luther King Jr. fought to protect have not fully watered our shores.

The pressure points of religious affiliation, ethnicity and political ideology still hinder us, whether we have a black president or not.

Santa Clara is a fairly nondenominational Jesuit university. People of different beliefs must be accommodated, and many students come to Santa Clara for the academics.

The primary reason I chose Santa Clara was because my English teacher at Mission College was a Santa Clara alumna. Her understanding of and passion for the English language made me so hungry for the passion she had that Santa Clara was the only school I applied to.

The secondary reason I came here was because I wanted to attend a university that nurtured my Protestant beliefs. However, the university is more secular than religious -- it has quite literally become all things to all men, except believers.

Nonetheless, I hope faith makes a comeback on this Christian campus, at least for the few believers here, both Catholic and non-Catholic.

Being a black American has given me a unique perspective of the world, as many black men and women will attest. I didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth -- I didn't even know what a silver spoon was.

After receiving my GED from the Inland Empire Job Corps, I went to community college for three years before transferring to Santa Clara last fall as a sophomore.

I applaud Santa Clara for their efforts to increase ethnic awareness. However, as an ethnic student, I take issue with some of the methods employed.

Once in a writing class, we were talking about diversity and ethnicity in particular. We got to a section in the class where we discussed African Americans in an open forum.

Everyone was talking about the black population on campus and stereotypes about black people.

I did not take part in the conversation, but felt extremely uncomfortable and walked out of the class halfway though the lesson. The ethnic flashlight was turned on. I have never felt so marginalized in my entire life.

I felt like I was being singled out that day, like a lab specimen, partly because I was the only noticeably black person in the room. After talking to a counselor friend of mine from another school, I e-mailed my instructor, who apologized for what had happened.

She defended the awareness part of the discussion, but admitted the method she used could have been better. I told her that awareness is good, but we should discuss strategies for empowering other ethnicities to succeed.

It's sad that ethnic inequality seems to be the thread that runs throughout all ethnic awareness curriculum I've studied. Personally, I don't need to pay thousands of dollars per quarter to learn how to be a helpless victim.

When ethnicity is discussed in class, all I hear about are problems: poverty, capitalism and the evil conservatives. I understand that these classes are probably to inform the ignorant, but to me, as a paying student and representative of the black community, these lessons are debilitating because they fail to address the empowering aspect of the bigger lesson.

In these classes, all I've seen is white people discussing issues they don't understand, while the school leaves the work of change to students who are ill-equipped.

Thus, any education in diversity or ethnicity should include strategies for growth and change, otherwise we are not fixing the problem -- we are just having a fruitless discussion. No book can give you a lifetime in another's skin, although, there are elitist theorists who claim otherwise.

To add complexity to the issues at hand, we have politics. From what I have observed as a transfer student, Santa Clara is a fairly conservative university, but to say so openly would likely offend many students because many consider themselves liberal.

I am convinced this is why so many conservatives on campus are quiet about their beliefs and core values. If this silencing continues, we will have another underrepresented group at Santa Clara.

However, I have faith that the voices of devout believers, persons of color and political conservatives will be restored on campus to balance the ideological playing field. Everyone's voice is significant.

Skylar Richardson is a junior English major.