LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Forced interaction won't work

To the Editor: Healthy cross-cultural interactions occur daily on this campus when individuals take the initiative. However, these interactions go unnoticed; only negative aspects are focused on. I am willing to bet that within the upcoming weeks we will see articles about how Spring Fling is the white weekend and Penn Relays is the black weekend. Break these stereotypes! As students, we pay too much to go here and not participate in the activities offered for the whole community. If you want to increase your cultural knowledge, take a class, attend a lecture or simply ask someone of that culture. Just stop them on the Walk and ask them; trust me, I have done this myself. There are too many opportunities for cultural interaction on this campus for a person not to take advantage of them. If you graduate from this university having never developed a relationship with anyone aside from those who look or think like yourself, it is no one's fault but your own. Anthony Crawford Engineering '98 Self-segregation impossible To the Editor: I am writing in reply to Mike Nadel's column concerning racial segregation ("Coming together," DP, 4/11/96). I have a grievance with Nadel's column and with the racial/residential segregation issue on the whole. First, the argument that blacks are limiting themselves to a black world by living in the W.E.B. DuBois College House presented in the article "Close to home: Students address residential segregation" (DP, 4/8/96) and the argument that different races do not live together presented by Nadel are foolish. There is no way a black person on this campus can limit himself or herself to a black world. The majority of the student body at this University is "white." As a minority, most of the people in your classes are white, your professors are usually white and even if you do live in DuBois, some of the people you live with are white or of different races. There are people other than blacks in the computer labs, on the Walk and in the workforce. I don't understand why everyone feels the need to pick on DuBois as if it is the center of all the so-called racial problems on campus. DuBois houses approximately 200 students, not all of whom are African American and not all of whom are freshmen. That number isn't even a quarter of the black students on this campus. There are more black freshmen who live in dorms other than DuBois than there are who live in DuBois, so the argument that randomizing freshman housing will diversify the campus is also foolish because the numbers we are dealing with are minimal. In his column, Nadel says, "Maybe blacks are wrong for isolating themselves in DuBois House." This statement is downright offensive. There are no bolts and chains on the doors of DuBois College House and there is no sign that reads "Blacks Only." The W.E.B. DuBois College House is a Living-Learning Program where anyone can learn about African American heritage and culture. So don't blame the blacks in DuBois who are trying to learn about their culture for your not wanting to come in and find out what DuBois is all about. Their job is not to educate you. They are here for the same purpose as everyone else -- to educate themselves. T. Kael Coleman Wharton '98 Segregation by interest To the Editor: I am writing in response to the racial and residential segregation issue that has been recently discussed. Those who feel there is a racial segregation problem on this campus are neglecting the fact that people with similar interests hang out together. Friends usually have something in common, whether it is the fact that they have the same heritage, they like to do the same things or they are on the same team. I believe the reason that people make a big deal out of blacks and/or minorities hanging out together is that they have a different skin color so it is more noticeable. However, if one were to color all the people who have a certain interest a different color -- for example, paint all the football players blue, all the track runners red, all the Jewish people pink and the fraternity brothers and sorority sisters purple and green -- we would notice a lot more "segregation" than people would like to see. So leave minorities alone. They are not doing anything that everyone else isn't doing. They are just hanging out and living with the people that are most like them. Sometimes they are of the same race, but other times they aren't. I am African American and I live with two other African Americans, a half-white/half-Filipino girl and a half-white/half-Chinese girl. What we all have in common is that we are all red people; we all run track. If the people who argue there is segregation would look at their own friends, they would notice they are also "segregating" and that there is something they and their friends all have in common. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that. Just because people are the same skin color does not mean we are all the same person. Just as there are Jews, Irish, Russians and Germans, so there are Africans, Jamaicans and African Americans. I find it very annoying when people talk about all blacks hanging out together as if we are all the same people. Just because a group of people who have the same skin color hang out together, that does not mean there is no diversity in their friendship. We are all different people from different backgrounds. I think it's silly that people make a big deal over the DuBois College House and say it stifles racial diversity. Renata Clay Wharton '98 Racist tendencies? To the Editor: The Penn Police have the very difficult duty of looking after the welfare of thousands of students in an urban setting. However, the weekend before Spring Fling, I witnessed a blatant display of racism on their part. I was exiting Wawa at 3 a.m. when a fistfight broke out between a black male and a white male. There were three other white males with the white male, and another black male with the black male. Two Penn Police officers were also in the store. The officers immediately responded to the incident, but each officer took hold of a black male and threw him to the ground, while the white males watched. The officers frisked the two black men and demanded identification. Once identification was provided, the officers instructed the two parties to leave the scene. Why weren't the males who were fighting the ones subdued by the police? The black bystander did not do anything warranting the action taken by the police officer. Clearly, the police officer presumed that the black males were dangerous based solely on their color. This type of action is not restricted to campus. Will it ever come to an end? Justin Reger Wharton '98