There is an unspoken delineation between the borders of Penn and West Philadelphia -- perhaps not written on paper, but it doesn't have to be. Philadelphia is not very difficult to classify by section. That's a politically correct way of saying that Philadelphia is segregated. For the most part, people don't discuss this situation, or at the very least avoid it. But what effects do segregation and racial tension still have in Philadelphia and at Penn?
Recently, there have been incidents involving students from the Onyx Honor Society being told, "Shut up, niggers," and a group of students being called "Zulu warriors" and "chocolate sauce." These and others over the past few years have created a lot of concern in the Penn community and West Philadelphia.
The city of Philadelphia itself is divided on racial and ethnic lines. The less affluent parts of Philadelphia are pretty diverse, but can often be homogenous. West Philadelphia is predominately black, North Philadelphia mostly Puerto Rican and black, and South Philadelphia heavily Italian with a large influx of Mexicans and some Asians. Center City, the most affluent part of Philadelphia, is predominately Anglo.
Does the University City community mirror or deflate this image? For the most part, Penn students look at 40th Street as the border between the Penn and West Philadelphia communities. Most students try to avoid going past these borders unless they live off campus. When visiting friends near 50th and Osage streets, I get the sense that these borders have been built in the minds of West Philadelphia residents as well. You see it in how local students and tenants too often avoid each other on a sidewalk and in the suspicions of crime that permeate the conversation on this campus.
Do a diverse group of students interact on campus? Sure, you will see a mix of people on Locust Walk, because 43 percent of campus is Asian, Latino or black. There is a growing LGBT community and large religious communities on campus. Why then do people talk about "self-segregation" as a major problem in University City?
Do students of color segregate themselves? The main argument for segregation on campus many have made has been DuBois College House. Viewed by some students as the hub for black students on campus, many have chosen not to enter DuBois at all. DuBois' purpose does focus a great deal on black art, literature and identity, but it is also a place for students to explore new experiences, which I discovered as a pre-frosh. However, most black students on campus don't live in DuBois -- it is a small dorm, and the black student population is generally spread throughout campus.
Similar arguments have been made for Asian students who live in King's Court. And for Latino students, there is no real argument for self-segregation, because the Latino community at Penn represents about 4 percent of the population, and the Latin American community represents about 2 to 3 percent. Regardless, Latinos and Latin Americans are generally spread all over campus as well.
So why does the issue of segregation persist on campus? Talking to students who have lived in DuBois House and King's Court, they encourage other students from different backgrounds to live there and interact as a community. Yet, few take advantage of that opportunity.
There are no generalizations that can fully answer the question of segregation or racial tension in Philadelphia -- or at Penn in particular -- but there are some major symptoms that persist today. In particular, for black students there is a fear that has persisted in my time at Penn, a fear of being followed by police and security.
Many in the Penn community feel they are being classified as criminals, in particular black students. Some black students on this campus feel they are placed in a situation in which, because they look like the "profile" of a criminal, they will be followed or questioned by security and police and avoided by other Penn students. Signs of racial tension are starting to surface more often as those involved are feeling pressure, and because of that, there seems to be growing sentiment of segregation.
What can be done to ease this tension is hard to say, but the atmosphere on campus is becoming toxic. The question of how the University is going to resolve the situation is a difficult one. If what permeates University City is a sentiment that was supposedly ended 40 years ago, then perhaps we need to analyze how far we have really progressed.
People come to Penn and to Philadelphia to become part of a strong community. The opportunity exists for Penn to challenge itself, to have an honest dialogue and to take the hard steps to create a truly interactive community here in West Philadelphia. Nicolas Rodriquez is a senior Political Science major from Sanger, Calif. and spokesman for the Latino Coalition.
