“What Happened to the Love II: Does Unity Equal Conformity?” a forum sponsored by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College offered students an opportunity to have an open discussion about race relations and other topics pertaining to unity at BC. The forum was held in the Gabelli Lounge last Monday.
Vincent Lake, A&S ’01 and a member of the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC), and Brian Lam, CSOM ’02 and Co-Director of UGBC United Nationalities Integrated Throughout the Year (UNITY), ran the forum.
Lake began the discussion by asking those present if they thought people at BC sacrifice their individuality in order to fit in.
“BC is very homogeneous and it is possible that this perpetuates itself. Some people may come to BC for just that reason. BC may be just like their high school,” said one student.
Lake agreed, “[I have] talked to people who went to Jamaica and Cancun over spring break and could tell if someone they saw went to BC.”
“I think people here sacrifice their individuality. If you refuse to conform to the norm, you may spend a lot of time by yourself or be labeled,” said Isaac Rolle, A&S ’01 and Executive Director of the ALC.
Another student agreed “a lot of colleges are places where people embrace people of different backgrounds. BC seems to still embrace convention and doesn’t make an effort to increase dialogue between people.”
Students at the forum voiced their concerns that many entering AHANA students may feel the need to hang out only with people with the same background because they were scared after hearing that BC may not be a welcoming place for minority students.
“A lot of times, BC tries to address diversity issues but sometimes it may scare incoming freshmen so they may feel the need to ‘click’ with people of their own background. It can be an intimidating situation,” said Toni Mardirossian, A&S ’02 and Co-Director of UGBC Women’s Issues.
Another topic treated at the forum was the way people viewed diversity on campus. “What we have on this campus is diversity without pluralism. We have people here from various backgrounds, but we are not bringing people together.” This sentiment was voiced by Candace Ashir, A&S ’00 and Director of Student and Community Issues for the ALC. “In diversity, BC looks really good on paper compared to schools we usually compare ourselves to, but diversity should be interaction and knowledge of different cultures.”
After sharing ideas about racism and diversity at BC, the scope was broadened and the topics were looked at as they are in society as a whole. One student indicated that he felt the subject of race relations is seen as “untouchable” and that a reason for that may be that people do not know where to start.
The point was raised that institutional racism is a much bigger problem in society than instances of individual racism. The concern was brought up that this is not addressed by the administration. An example given was the handling of the racist e-mail incident last year.
“My one complaint about the handling of the email incident was that BC treated it like it was the work of one [jerk], but that wasn’t what the AHANA population was worried about. It was the feelings underlying the actual e-mail that was worrisome,” said one student.
“A lot of people just don’t want to think about the deep-seeded issues underlying racism. This isn’t limited to BC. It’s our society as a whole, but it’s sad that this occurs at an institution of higher education,” Mardirossian said.
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