Kicking off its "Dialogues on Race" program, the University held the first in a series of discussions on campus race relations yesterday.
About 25 attendees were divided into three groups in Houston Hall to consider issues affecting racial integration on campus.
College senior Chevon Walker, one of the event's organizers, called the discussions a success.
"We'd like more people to sign up so we can keep doing them," she said, "because we think they're pretty useful."
Walker said that it was important to give students the opportunity to discuss diversity with peers.
"People don't know what [diversity] means," she said.
Yesterday's discussions were part of a larger series of events organized by a committee led by University Chaplain William Gipson.
The Dialogues on Race are meant to address concerns of racial tensions on campus and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision striking down racial segregation in public schools.
The discussion focused on integration at Penn.
"There's something about clustering that we do," said Gary Baker, a nuclear medicine fellow at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. "Go to your dining halls, and you'll see the same thing."
College junior Helen Maher said that while the natural instinct to associate with similar people can often lead to intimate relationships, it can also "draw you away" from other communities.
"People are convinced that they won't understand each other," she said.
Attendees then participated in an activity called "Step In, Step Back." Discussion leaders read various statements and participants stepped forward when each statement applied to their lives.
Statements ranged from the media's portrayal of one's race to the availability of Band-Aids that match skin color.
"I can easily arrange to be with people who are of the same race as me," one read.
Students silently -- and, at points, solemnly -- stepped into and out of the circle as the exercise continued.
Others included "I feel comfortable walking into DuBois" College House and "People question my acceptance to Penn because of affirmative action policies."
As the group paused to reflect, participants were divided on campus race relations.
"I don't believe in self-segregation," said discussion leader and College senior Kamaria Shauri.
She objected to the notion that "self-segregation" is often viewed as "resistance" on the part of minorities.
The University is planning to offer a similar discussion on March 18, as well as a culminating lecture on March 23 featuring University President Judith Rodin and Spelman College President Beverly Tatum, author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
Several participants expressed hope for wider awareness of issues.
"People's eyes aren't opened," College senior Diana Feinstein said. "We are part of a very small portion of the population" that care about race relations.
"I hope that the University takes this opportunity to address this issue ... and not sit in their little niches and complain about 'the race problem' at Penn," Shauri said.
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