Dear Editor,
Although you chose not to editorialize on the contentious issue of race, please permit one concerned student to do so here.
Yesterday, the Daily reported in the article "At open house, students draw attention to Tufts race relations" about a group of roughly 40 students, of which I was one, that wore matching T-shirts to the Academic Quad during April Open House (AOH) and used them as a catalyst to discuss students' race-related experiences on campus with admitted students and their parents. The T-shirts read either "Ask me about my experience as a student of color at Tufts" or "Ask me about white privilege at Tufts."
The reason for raising these concerns through conversations at AOH was twofold: to engage incoming students in a discussion on the reality of students' experience here at Tufts, as well as to bring the administration's attention to the problem that these experiences expose. It seems that both goals were met. In the article, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin was quoted as being offended that students would use AOH as a venue for airing concerns about race relations at Tufts. With all due respect to Dean Coffin and other administrators and students who feel similarly, please don't take offense; take action.
Dean Coffin was concerned that a conversation with a T-shirt-wearing student would not give an admitted student a fair understanding of the whole campus. That may be true, but it is not a reason to let that student's experience go unheard. According to senior Carolina Ramirez, a participating student interviewed by the Daily, such conversation is an even greater necessity because incoming students are rarely made aware of the negative experiences that some students of color have.
Rather than denying that racial imbalances occur by painting a false picture of perfectly harmonious diversity, Tufts should encourage students of color to acknowledge the troubles that they face and then work together to alleviate them. There is a difference between vision-casting for a better future and whitewashing a present reality. In openly admitting elements of tense race relations, even to incoming students, Tufts would have an opportunity to differentiate itself from its other predominantly white sister schools by showing them what Tufts is doing to make them better.
And what might Tufts do to make it better? Establishing an Africana studies department would be a huge start. In addition, it could more strongly encourage students to take a class on race, perhaps under some type of "social justice requirement" or even as a class option via the freshman English requirement. The Common Reading Program is also a great way to get students talking with each other about race, and I hope one such book, "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?," will be selected for this year's read.
I love Tufts, and I want to make that clear to every prefrosh I meet. What saddens me, however, is that some of my friends here do not love Tufts as much as I do on account of negative experiences they have had regarding the color of their skin. The cards we handed out at April Open House said, "An injustice to one Jumbo is an injustice to all Jumbos," and that, in a sentence, is our message — unity, justice and a call to action.
Sincerely,
Charles Skold
Class of 2011
