There are a litany of offensive terms that will bring the bias intervention team to your door. But one equally offensive word won't. I will give you a hint; it's the word that most represents the most prominent form of discrimination today, economic discrimination: "the Townie."
"What is a Townie?" you may ask. We are working-class people with a permanent residence in Middlesex County. Some of us are raising our families on the borders of the Tufts campus, and our children go to the public schools in the area.
According to the U.S. census, about 70 percent are white, and 30 percent of us are non-white. That does not include any undocumented aliens.
Our median income level in Massachusetts is around $25,000, but African Americans here are averaging about $16,000 per year, and Hispanic groups average about $12,000 per year. Roughly 20 percent of us go on to get our bachelor's degrees, according to the Middlesex Country profile available at http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=22292.
In contrast, Tufts is roughly 72 percent white. There are no readily available income demographic statistics about Tufts students that I could find. I would venture to guess that 100 percent of us have graduated from high school, and that 91 percent of us go on to get a bachelors degree.
We "townies" do not hang out in bushes waiting to ambush Tufts athletes and assault them. If we are feeling threatened, however, we will defend ourselves. We are not all erratic drivers, and in fact my low insurance rates indicate that we are actually quite good at driving.
We do not live to crash frat parties. Sometimes we are curious about what it would be like to go to Tufts, and we want to have fun with the students just like regular college-age people do.
We have not earned the degradation that the label bestowed upon us may indicate. We do not deserve to be treated as criminals when walking across campus.
Tension between the local residents and the Tufts community goes back a long time. The administration under President Bacow has made many strides towards the great improvements we have seen, such as large endowments to Somerville and Medford, and even hosting events such as the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) meeting held here last week, which Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone and Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn hosted.
The UCCPS has put immense amounts of effort into bridging relationships between students and the community. This has helped the situation a lot.
However, what I want you to do the next time you are tempted to use the word "townie" is think about what it means and the effect it has.
To some locals, the only time we come into contact with a Tufts student is in passing on the T, when you are listening to your $300 iPod, holding a $5 latte and wearing Ugg boots and a scarf to look cool in 90-degree weather.
Or when you throw a party and keep our kids up until dawn with the noise. When we rent you our homes and they get trashed. We remember you often when we are picking up the trash on our lawns on the fringe of campus.
Neither of these descriptions are accurate depictions of who we as a campus or a community are. As someone from the community who goes to Tufts, I must tell you that some of us are very intimidated by the students. You have what most of us don't and may never get, but that does not mean we cannot all take it upon ourselves to better relations between us. The administration has done its part, and I think we as students need to do our part on an individual level.
How? For starters, we should not allow our media outlets to get away with referring to community members as anything other than their first and last name.
Just say hello to people on the subway instead of staring at the floor. If you see a mother on the subway with her kids or carrying something heavy, give up your seat, hold the door and offer to help. However, do not assume the role of missionary. Do not assume you know what we want or need unless you ask us first.
Make eye contact with people in public instead of pretending the locals are not there. If you feel like someone is following you and you are with a group too, just turn around and talk to them and introduce yourself. Don't escalate the situation by threatening them. Do not profile us like criminals.
Be conscious of your voice and the noise you are making when you are near homes. Challenge yourself by making friends in the community that do not go to Tufts, and don't assume anything about anyone.
When you know people and they have a face, it is harder to hate or discriminate against them.
In the near future, we will all be graduating from Tufts and moving into communities to work and raise families.
There isn't going to be a TUPD officer waiting to remove someone who you feel is not educated or wealthy enough from your neighborhood just because you have THAT FEELING about them.
Your neighbors do not have to score high on the SAT's to be there, and you cannot choose whom your children will go to school with. As a new transplant, you will be the outsider.
You can choose isolation or assimilate yourself into the community, it's your choice. Everyone can always use another friend, and who knows, you may even learn something from a "townie."
Anne Stevenson is a senior majoring in political science.
