“I remember a time earlier this semester, I was talking to another kid and he happened to be Caucasian and I was telling him the taxi cab situation in D.C. is horrendous,” said Robert Wingate-Robinson (MSB ‘03). “A lot of times I had to have one of my white friends come out and stand there and catch the cab and then I jumped into the cab. It’s crazy. He had a hard time believing that the situation was that bad … That lack of knowledge keeps a gap in between the majority and the different minorities [at Georgetown].
Wingate-Robinson’s difficulty in catching a cab is nothing new to D.C.?African-Americans have had the problem for years. But, like many issues facing black students at Georgetown, it is news to many non-minority students.
The problem of a knowledge gap regarding black life at Georgetown actually starts well beyond the Healy Gates. In January 2001, Black Enterprise magazine published its list of the top colleges and universities for African-Americans. It was the second year the magazine had published a list, and once again, Georgetown held a prominent spot?ninth in the nation including historically black colleges and second, behind Stanford University, among non-HBCs. The first time the survey was published, in January 1999, Georgetown was ranked 11th.
The results do not seem to line up with reality. If numbers are anything to go on, Georgetown certainly doesn’t offer much?as of 2000, only 5.85 percent of the student body was black. For that same year, only 4 percent of the faculty was African-American, and hate crimes against blacks and other minorities have been a problem on campus as recently as 2000. Former Black Student Alliance president Erica Cannon (MSB ‘02) said that most black students were amused by the the survey’s results. But Cannon did note that Black Enterprise focuses on business. Georgetown graduates, African-American or otherwise, can go on to be very financially successful, which might account for the University’s high ranking in Black Enterprise.
Sitting in his office on the fifth floor of Leavey, Dennis Williams, the executive director of the Center for Minority Educational Affairs, mapped out his thoughts. “Here’s the thing I’ve told a lot of white people at Georgetown that they find astonishing. There are a lot of black people in this country who think that Georgetown is a black school.” Williams explained this phenomenon further via the 1991 movie Boyz N The Hood.
“The protagonist,” he said, “who is aspiring to get out of the ghetto and go to college, is wearing a Georgetown shirt throughout the movie.” While the detail seems minor, the cultural ramifications are not. For a more recent example, look no further than 2001’s Save The Last Dance. True, it isn’t a typical “hood movie.” But the main African-American character trying to escape the problems of inner-city Chicago is accepted to the only college mentioned in the movie?Georgetown.
Visiting Assistant Professor Maurice Jackson noted the same trend. “Walk in the inner city, a lot of times you will see two things,” he said. “A hat from the Oakland Raiders and [one from] Georgetown.”
The 1980s fame and success of the men’s basketball team under former Head Coach John Thompson is an explanation for why Georgetown has such recognition among blacks in America. But Georgetown wasn’t even close to being the first predominantly white school to field a mostly black basketball team. In 1966, Texas Western College upset the University of Kentucky to win the NCAA championship. Texas Western coach Don Haskins started five black players; he was the first coach to do so in a national title game, ever. By the time the Hoyas rose to prominence in the ‘80s, majority-white schools were regularly fielding majority-black basketball teams.
Regardless, Georgetown’s cultural status is undeniable.
“I’ve had a lot of people come to me and ask me about what school I go to, and I say Georgetown University and these people go, ‘Is that an HBC?’ and I’m like, ‘No, what ever gave you that idea?’” said GUSA representative Nazareth Haysbert (CAS ‘05). “For nine out of 10 of those people, their reason for thinking Georgetown is an HBC is because of the basketball team.”
It is possible that Georgetown now carries that association for black America both because the team’s ascendancy was so recent, so consistent (the Hoyas made the NCAA Tournament every year in the ‘80s) and so well-televised and because of Thompson’s dominating personality. Williams especially feels that Thompson is to credit with the Hoyas fame. “There is something else going on there, something about his persona and the way he represented the University,” he said. In addition, Washington D.C.’s black-heavy demographic is one of its best-known qualities, as illustrated by the 1975 Parliament hit “Chocolate City.” El Paso, Texas, where Texas Western College was located, has yet to be culturally immortalized for its African-American heritage.
Examining the methods used by DayStar Educational Research, which conducted the survey for Black Enterprise, reveals that they may have relied on little more than Georgetown’s image in the public’s mind. DayStar submitted a list of four-year schools to more than 1,000 African-American higher education professionals and asked them to rate the schools’ academic and social environments. They received back surveys from 506 of the participants. None of those who returned surveys seem to have been from Georgetown; Williams couldn’t find anyone they contacted in his office, or in the Affirmative Action Office or the Office of Special Programs.
The danger of a survey that propagates the stereotype that Georgetown is top school for African-Americans is that it can mislead some students. “They say that Georgetown is supposed to be this top school for African-Americans and when you come in here you think that,” said Wingate-Robinson, a co-captain of the track team and a member of the Muslim Student Association and BSA. “When you come into this school you think that it’s going to be this heartfelt, warm welcome and then when [the hate crimes that occurred in 2000] happen, it’s really disconcerting,” he said.
Clearly, mapping an entire minority’s collegiate experience is impossible, just as it would be impossible to completely articulate the college experience of America’s white students. To be black is to be anything and everything. But frequently, it also means to exist simultaneously inside and outside the mainstream campus community.
“Someone was just asking me, ‘What does it mean to be a black person?’” said Cannon. “I just gave them the typical, W. E. B. DuBois statement: It’s double consciousness; it’s just that simple. I understand what it means to be an African-American person on this campus and I believe I understand what it means to be a white person on this campus. I switch back and forth every day.”
For African-American students, that doubling can be take many shapes?an imposition of “blackness” on the cultural default of the majority, a partial overlap between the two or even outright conflict. And many perceive the experience as being a one-way street. If blackness exists in contrast to the norm, then non-minority students are not necessarily aware of the nature of the dichotomy.
“I think that people don’t realize, can’t realize what being an African-American student [means]” said Donald Sherman (CAS ‘02), a member of the Healy Fellowship, which involves active minorities and alumni dedicated to community service. “At least in my experience, it’s a lot of pressure. I think about it a lot,” he said.
Wingate-Robinson also noted a dichotomy in his experience. “I think a lot of African-American students here face that dual role, that dual consciousness where you have to be conscious of everyone else’s lifestyle and you also have to be conscious of what they think your lifestyle is,” he said. “A lot of coaches, a lot of African-American leaders here are constantly trying to get students not to fall back into these stereotypes … and that’s a hard struggle to have to go through every single day.”
For GUSA representative Trey Street (SFS ‘03), playing dual roles can lead to conflict between the black community and the University at large.
“It’s a tough line to walk,” he said. “Anyone who’s involved in mainstream activities has to still be a part of the mainstream and think about what is good for all of Georgetown. Then also we have to try to adapt ourselves to the African-American community because there are different things that they want which sometimes conflicts from what the mainstream wants. Because I am in a mainstream position then, I have to walk the line of, ‘Do I do what my community wants, or do I do what the mainstream wants and what is best for the community at a whole?’”
While overt racism may not be completely a thing of the past, most agree that it is no longer a serious threat. Professor Jackson, who grew up in the segregated South, noted this critical difference. “[Georgetown’s] not a hostile environment,” he said.
However, covert racism and stereotyping continues to plague campus life and put pressure on African-American students. “For me at least, I feel that if you’re the only African-American student in class … you really have to be on top of your shit,” said Sherman. “If you want to slack off, you can’t be a slacker on your own; you don’t want to be known as that black kid who is a slacker,” he said.
Jamillah DeLoatch (CAS ‘04), a member of Black Movements Dance Theater, feels similarly. “If I’m in a class, a lot of times I’m the only black person in the class,” she said. “Sometimes it makes me wonder what the other people think about me. Especially, since I’m not a person who talks a lot, they might be like, ‘Is that black girl stupid? Is that why she’s not saying anything?’”
Mark Jean (MSB ‘05) is a BSA board member and is involved in the Gospel Choir and the R & B a capella group Essence. He also iterated the subtle tension between white and black on campus.
“I think that Georgetown is a welcoming place, but the things that people say can be considered ignorant. People don’t think what they say could be thought of as offensive, but it really is. Just the little things. A lot of people here haven’t had much experience with African-Americans other than what they see on TV and in the media,” he said.
Not surprisingly, this tension can play itself out as segregation. But even if such a divide exists, it’s boundaries are only partial.
“The overall appearance is, a black campus and a white campus, and I think part of that dynamic is in terms of social life,” said Jennifer Jackson (CAS ‘02), a former member of Black Theater Ensemble. “Come Friday, even though my roommate and I are the best of friends, we go our different ways?she goes to white parties, I go to black parties.”
Street echoed Jackson’s sentiments about Georgetown night life.
“It’s much different if you walk into a party with four black guys then if you walk in with me and three other white guys. It’s much easier to get in parties if you’re with the mainstream type of people.”
While discussing Georgetown’s high reputation among African-Americans, CMEA executive director Williams revealed that he believes that the administration could do more for black students. “I don’t think the University has been doing all that it should in order to deserve that asset,” he said.
Jennifer Jackson identified the University’s dearth of African-American professors as a key issue.
“I really think the lack of black faculty is a concern,” she said. “We do have some, but I know people who don’t even know of them because they’re spread out in different disciplines; unless you’re interested in history, you wouldn’t know that Professor Jackson is in the History Department.”
Crystal Tomlin (NUR ‘02), 2000-2001 BSA president, pointed to the curriculum as an area for improvement.
“I think in light of everything that has happened with hate crimes, it makes sense to put a diversity requirement in the curriculum. Hopefully it will change. In the next couple years, I think it will, because a lot of minorities, be they race or gender, are getting tenure. Hopefully, once they get tenure, they’ll push for something.”
However, Cannon outlined the difficulties in lobbying for such institutional changes.
“You have to be a very active student on this campus if you want any of your views to be heard. We had homophobic and racial slurs written on the walls?the University did nothing,” she said, referring to past hate crimes on campus. “Students had to stand up and say, ‘This is wrong.’ It’s hard, it’s really really hard … What happens is, you have a big Superman “S” on your chest [for generating social and administrative change]… but you have an “F” on your back; my grades suffered so much.”
After a push from faculty and student leaders, it looks as if students in the College may be able to minor in African-American studies as early as next semester. Such a step could take the University closer to living up to its reputation in the eyes of the African-American community. Haysbert sits on GUSA’s academic affairs committee; an African-American studies program has recently been the committee’s main focus. He iterated the importance of an African-American studies program to the wider community:
“For us to be one of the last major institutions on the East Coast without an African-American Studies program, well, you can base your own interpretation out of that … Other schools I’ve heard about have really good programs that are geared to accepting and really making not only African-Americans, but all minorities feel a part of the community.”
Wingate-Robinson argued that such a program would be a step in the right direction for the entire student body, not just minorities. “I think that Georgetown has a responsibility to teach equally all cultures because that’s going to effect the way that the students interact with each other,” he said. “When the students get into the real world, it’s going to affect they way they interact with people and their concepts and misconceptions that they have of different cultures. So instead of having Georgetown students go out there and operating off of stereotypes … Georgetown has a responsibility to teach these kids what’s really going on instead of stereotypes.”
Sherman identified a possible drawback to expanding minority-studies programs at Georgetown.
“Being somewhat cynical, my one fear is that an [African-American studies] department would marginalize the African-American experience in other disciplines, [which] leaves everyone at a disadvantage,” he said.
If the University is going to close the gap between the perceptions and realities of life on campus, an African-American studies program is a step in the right direction. It certainly won’t bring Georgetown to the forefront of schools for African-Americans; most of Georgetown’s peer schools have had such programs for years, so instituting an African-American studies minor may not even bring the University up to par. Living up to the hype is another matter entirely.
