“Humor is the weapon of the weak.”

-cliché
 

Shy leaves hide under their brethren as the icy chill dives and chases each one like a predator feasting on a school of fish. Branches slowly sway with each of these dives, yet still reach upward to the ominous sky as they brace for the upcoming arctic current. A jaded crow circles overhead searching for sustenance, but still watches the melée with particular interest. Then I realize…someone finally responded to one of my articles (beside the staff, faculty, students and alumni showing me support, much love).

You mean that after I stated that: off-campus is more welcoming than on-campus to students of color, prospective first-years may experience a high degree of culture shock, Macalester’s diversity index is nationally ranked 53rd in the same grading scale as the beloved Top 25, students of color have the burden of teaching their culture to other students and that the student of color population is diminishing regardless of what numbers are published…I finally received a critical response from a student. I was hoping that my articles would have received a response from the administration to foster a dialogue for solutions and/or strategies to address all of the above, but they have not. Maybe they think that if they don’t answer me, I’ll quietly go away. I’ve so far learned that silence really is deafening.

However, the response I received from Annie Taff raises many issues that I would like to address. To start with, for those who don’t know, I compared Ramsey Junior High’s amount of minorities to Macalester’s with the intention of highlighting the fact that they have more than twice our number. Taff argues that I “lack perspective” in this comparison when referring to the two student groups since “this population is not the same.” Hmm… www.webster.com defines perspective as “the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.” The web site also defines irony as “a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony.” I compared a private liberal arts college that is nationally ranked to a St. Paul public middle school. It is like comparing an organic apple selling for about $30,000 to a non-organic apple that is 45% low-income and 25% English as a second language. The two are so different that it is ironic to contrast them. If I had meant the comparison to be factual, I would have compared the amount of Macalester’s “domestic” students of color to another private liberal art college or university, as I did before in the diversity index article where I point out that we are tied with U of M-Morris and that Carleton has a higher ranking. Instead, I wanted to highlight the racial differences between the two spheres of education right across the street from each other.

I would like to continue analyzing Taff’s response since similar opinions have been expressed throughout the college. The assertion that “this population is not the same” and “we do not function as a grade 13 for local students and we can never expect the college to directly reflect the demographic makeup of St. Paul” scares me…it really does. Whenever I visit other higher education institutions in the Twin Cities, the majority of their students of color are local. Yes, the Twin Cities is very diverse. When I think about how many students of color we have from the Twin Cities…let’s see…off the top of my head we have one Latina, zero Native Americans (in one of the most densely populated Native American cities nationally), three to four African Americans (upperclassmen: zero) and about five Asians. That’s ten!

Of course, the standard response is, “Those students aren’t of our caliber.” Yeah, “caliber,” you didn’t know all the Black and Tan folk be packin’ heat? Apparently, I’m “armed.” But you do know Macalester is part of ACTC…so the students seeking shelter from the hail of bullets streaking across Summit are coming to Macalester for classes that they are destined to fail because of their “caliber?” Would this translate into SAT scores? Haven’t you heard the news recently? Berkeley admitting people with lower than 1000 score? No! They actually did. It caused quite a ruckus when UC Regent Chair John Moores’ report was leaked to the media where he states that people with less than a 1000 score “don’t have any business going to Berkeley.” The 30-page UC coalition report denouncing that opinion and the SAT, since it does not measure the future success or the desire of the applicant, can be found on the web for those who are interested.

Sorry for that tangent, but allow me to return to my critique of Macalester and its relationship with the Twin Cities. Whenever I hear somebody talk about Macalester, one of the key components is “we are in a city.” So…rather than aggressively admitting local students or sponsoring community organizations (besides the CSO), we consider the Twin Cities as a resource for internships and community service. Hmm…we should put that in the Macalester web site: “Come to Macalester; minorities are far enough away so that you don’t see them until you need credit.” The Twin Cities is a vital resource that we are exploiting. It bothers me when I meet people from the Cities and they think Macalester is in Wisconsin.

So then, what is this difference that creates a border between Macalester and the Twin Cities? Why hasn’t Macalester expressed similar discontent with the SAT? Why hasn’t the administration answered any of my columns within the last two months of publication? Does the theory of the ivory tower prove valid in Macalester’s case? Or is it mixed in with elitism? The icy chill continues to gain strength…questions are not answered…silence is being broken by the wind’s gust…I can hear it…30 years of struggle at Macalester…can you hear it too?