Blacks and Whites- conversations on Community and race relations

Blacks and Whites- conversations on Community and race relations

The article describes a culture of "self-segregation" between white students and black students. The article highlights an orientation program for incoming black students that began to run in 1970. This orientation had the purpose of aiding/assessing the students academically and giving the students a chance to familiarize themselves with each other, the campus, the administration, etc. According to Arnold McKinney (Assistant Dean Of Students), admission into this orientation is extended to "blacks" who have "'had some advantages and some of the disadvantages and their record looks pretty good" as well as the kids whose "admission is contingent on [them] attending", as opposed to the "regular Middlebury ski student except that they're black". Some students argue that this orientation process further isolates that lack students who attend, while others argue that it helps them to find a sense of community.

Volume 71, Number 12

Stan Fields

The Campus

2/26/1976

Idalia Perez '78
John Spencer- Professor of History
Arnold McKinney- Assistant Dean Of Students
Ali Aden '79

"'I think blacks are not having a good time here'"- Idalia Perez '78

"Quite a few of the black students who come up already have enough problems and we're trying to sort of get rid of one of the problems'"- Arnold McKinney

"'I got an invitation to Orientation', said Ali Aden ('79), who is from Somalia, East Africa. 'I said why only blacks? I felt like I was taken into custody in a sense... I was totally against the whole thing."

"A black society within a larger white society does not really exist (at Middlebury)... Orientation helps. What it's doing is giving you a ghetto away from the ghetto."

"Ed Young '77 did not go to the Orientation program his freshman year. 'A lot of my friends from home we're going on to these orientations. I got the feeling that 'You're considered not quite as smart... I thought that I was just as prepared...[orientations] were more degrading than helpful."