| Minorities underrepresented (4/05) | | Print | |
| Written by Derrick Lomax & Mellina Stoney | |
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February is long gone, but unfortunately, the African American struggle is not. No matter how much people would like to dismiss the problem, blacks still experience prejudice and discrimination, even at Lowell. Everyday the courtyard buzzes with activity, as students sit around eating, playing and having fun. From the outside, it seems as though Martin Luther King, Jr’s dream has been realized — students of different races are socializing together in one place — and in a way, it is true. But once you look more closely, it is obvious that blacks occupy one table, Hispanics occupy another, whites occupy yet another and Asians are sporadically positioned throughout the courtyard. We are not saying that Lowell is full of racists. To say that would be wrong. The segregation is about preference. People are going to hang out with those whom they have the most in common and feel most comfortable. For us, it is like a breath of fresh air to leave a room where you are the only one of your kind and go to a place where you can interact with people who have just been through the same thing. Because African Americans are so underrepresented, we feel that our voice is often ignored. Just 56 African Americans make up 2.2 percent of Lowell’s population, according to the San Francisco Unified School District’s website. Blacks make up eight percent of San Francisco’s population, according to Urban Structure (www.urbanstructure.com). With these numbers, it is easy to see why we feel this way. Upon receiving our acceptance letters in the mail, we each asked ourselves one question: How many people will I see who look like me? The answer hit us pretty hard on the first day of school: not many. Even with all of the “support clubs” in Lowell — the Black Student Union, La Raza Unida, the South Asian Society and the Middle Eastern Club — it is still easy for a minority student at Lowell to feel incredibly outnumbered. Because of this, if we were asked to speak to a group of black teens urging them to come to Lowell, we feel justified in suggesting that they think very carefully before enrolling. Although Lowell is an excellent institution for learning, it does not cater to students looking to learn more about their culture. We spent weeks on the Opium War, the Meiji Restoration and Doctor Sun Yet-Sun in our Modern World classes, but would have liked to learn about Nefertiti, Amina and Nzingha, who were great African queens. Because this has been happening for so long, we feel the Lowell community will not change. Why would this school want to add Swahili to its offering of language courses or serve Soul Food in the cafeteria? The chance of Lowell becoming a melting pot where different cultures can indulge in their differences is slowly going away. A new wave of intelligent black students is looking at Lowell as a place they do not want to attend because of the numbers and issues that go along with being a small minority. We don’t blame them. |
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to listen.
