Notes

I’m going to quote one of the tumblr posts and say that being black on campus is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because of the community here on campus. Older students on campus really try to make our experience on campus really fun and meaningful. Great bonds are made amongst people who have a common struggle and I find that to be true here. There’s only 73 of us (excluding black Latinos) but I feel like there’s more just because of who I surround myself with. Interactions with white people on campus (in my experience!) have been generally positive. Just typical interactions amongst college students. However, there are certain instances where people just talk out their ass. I haven’t had many, and the few I’ve had, weren’t extremely offensive or anything. I’ve just experienced micro-aggressions in a few instances. You can either brush them off and move on or take that opportunity to educate. But never feel like you have to educate others on campus because it’s not your job. We are all students.

In regards to classes/academics, you will know your black the second you walk into a room full of non-black students or just white students. There’s always a feeling that you must speak for a whole race, especially when something relatively black related comes up. Just remember you can only speak for yourself and not a billion other people. I took a class called Black Comic Cultures my first semester which was a nice transition into a white college because black people were a majority in the class and it felt more comfortable.

The curse of being black on campus extends beyond the pettiness of some students or even professors (there’s a good chunk of stories where professors were offensive to people of color, too many to type lol). I felt the curse of being black on campus when the administration prioritized others happiness over mine. Long story short, this past week African American Alliance and a few other groups were supposed to go to a black solidarity conference at Yale but the school canceled it because of weather (the same thing happened last year). Mind you, the squash team was able to go to their event and the debate team was able to go to Yale. Yes… us and the debate team were going to the same place at the same time and they got to go and we didn’t. Clearly weather wasn’t that bad. Just know that while administration might smile in your face, shady business is occurring. Even with Posse. Staff you’ll eventually meet, they may seem like their on your side and sometimes they are, but just know who the priority is. I just learned this lesson, and I think it’s important other people of color learn this asap as well. Just remember that this is your school just as much as anyone else. Unfortunately, due to race we have to work twice as hard as everyone else, just to get half of what they got but this applies to life in general. There’s literally so much more to say, but it would be as long as a thesis tbh.

Academically transition from WY to Midd was so smooth. I’ve never been so thankful for WY until I came here. I was more than prepared for the rigor here at Midd. I was able to get the hang of college academics in a few short weeks. You will definitely be prepared for the reading, writing, and critical/analytical thinking required to succeed. Socially, the transition was fine as well. It didn’t take me long to find a good set of friends on this campus. A lot of great bonds are made if you take the time to get to know people. For fun, there’s always events going on. Shows, performances, parties (although most kinda suck except for the ones hosted by POCs tbh but that’s a whole other topic) and other random things. Like this weekend there’s a dance marathon going on, which I’ll be missing for the Posse Plus Retreat but it sounds like fun. MCAB has a lot going on as well. If you look, you can definitely find cool things to do. Also T-Pain is coming here in April which, shamelessly, excites me. You can find your fun on campus.

The transition was a bit rough just because of the huge culture shock. New England is a whole other place. There’s so many terms and slang that you will learn here and be like what? You’ll really see a glimpse of middle-upper class white New England culture and it’s pretty different from the middle-upper class white Chicago culture. Shops close much earlier here. There’s not too much in town. Be prepared for less options off campus. There’s a McDonalds and TJ Maxx and two grocery stores but they are far via walking and it gets even worse in the winter. It gets really dark here which has a shock for me, especially my first night. It will get easier, it will take some time but it isn’t too hard to get into the rhythm of life here. Just be aware that the differences between Chicago and rural Vermont are real and can take a toll on what you do off campus.