Yes, Tulane has a race problem

Tulane, it’s time for some tough love

The recent action Tulane has taken to become a more diverse and welcoming community are great first steps, but we shouldn’t get complacent.

Discussions about race have gotten more attention recently at this university. More than 400 people gathered at the Call for Unity last November to share their experiences with racism on campus and demand accountability from the university. Students, staff, and faculty packed Kendall Cram on January 19 for the Town Hall on racial issues. Administrators and students created the Commission on Race and Tulane Values to start the long process of addressing some of the issues regarding race that face this university.

All of these actions are great first steps that were sorely needed. But don’t think that all of our issues will magically go away just because we sat around the proverbial campfire to talk about race. The fact that it has taken this long for something to happen is shameful and there’s still an incredible amount of work to be done.

So many issues currently facing the university are the administration’s responsibility. For example, the low number of students of color on this campus isn’t because so few minorities are qualified, it’s because Tulane doesn’t make it a priority to recruit them. 73 percent of Tulane students are white. The other 27 percent is “everyone else.”

What does that look like in numbers? Here’s a quick example: out of the 3,976 undergraduate women currently enrolled in Newcomb-Tulane College, only 113 identify as black. So to my fellow black women, yes, you really do know every other black woman on campus.

And we’re way behind our peer universities. This year, the incoming freshman classes at Emory, Vanderbilt, and Rice were 38 percent, 54 percent, and 37 percent white, respectively. Tulane’s class of 2019 is 73 percent white. “Geographic diversity” doesn’t make up for that number.

It doesn’t stop with recruitment. University-sponsored days of service often seem to operate on the assumption that the black population of New Orleans must be in need of some privileged Tulane students to come and pick up trash for a morning, which is demeaning and shows a real disconnect with the city.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs, which provides a safe space for many students of color along with countless other important services and programs, is severely underfunded and understaffed. Students from the School of Continuing Studies, which mostly consists of students of color, aren’t allowed to live on campus or receive a student discount to use the Reily Center.

But it’s not just the administration that needs to step up its game. The student body has issues, too. Not sure what I’m talking about? I’ll break it down for you:

Minority students have to fight against stereotypes and assumptions every time we dare to take up space on campus. Newsflash — not all black students are athletes, not all brown and Asian students were born outside of the U.S., and yes, we did have the grades to get in here. Complimenting us on our English as though you expected us to speak poorly is insulting.

No, we will not be your token friend, and no, you can’t touch our hair, so please stop asking.

An alarming number of Tulane students still see nothing wrong with cultural appropriation in the name of partying. (Dranksgiving participants with headdresses, I’m looking at you.)

And let’s not forget the disgusting racism that people put on display on Yik Yak last year.

Minority students have been speaking out about the racism we face on campus for years, but the university only decided to respond when racist Yik Yak posts went viral and made the problem impossible to ignore. That is not an accident.

This post may imply otherwise, but I genuinely love my university. I’ve stayed here for an extra year for my master’s degree and dedicated countless hours during my undergrad years to ten different student organizations and university departments. I’m happy to be here and I wouldn’t change my college decision for anything.

But this love is not blind.

Don’t think that just because the conversation has started that all of the work is done. It’s easy to talk about the issues, but it’s much harder to actually put in the time, money, and effort to make any tangible change. Until that happens, students and administrators need to keep working towards a more inclusive and equitable Tulane.

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