So as most of you know I am currently an undergraduate student at Stevens Institute of Technology where it is pretty safe to say has a lot of diverse people from all over the place. So imagine my shock when I hear the following conversation as I walk out of my Political Science class this morning. I was walking in front of two guys and never looked back to see who they were.
Guy 1: So for not being a morning person, that guy was totally bouncing off the wall.
Guy 2: Yea, everyone told me to take a “Wharton” class but what everyone failed to mention was that he was BLACK!
Let me give some background information for those who are not familiar with Wharton. He is a professor here at Stevens while currently getting his Ph.D. from Howard University down in Washington D.C. He is one of the most energetic personalities on campus and certainly a great professor to be taught from. I have had him now for several classes (Sixties: Decade of the Protest, Political Science II, Modern East Asian Studies). He always keeps his classes lively, he seems to fit in like a regular student and you probably would not even know he is a professor if you saw him the first time. So certainly, comments like that up there take you back about the bias and the perceptions people form only from a person’s skin color. It is disgusting.
It is my third year here and it had been pretty good but it just goes to show people like that are still all over the place and maybe somethings will never change.
This post has blown my mind! I cannot believe that people like this go to my school. I guess it was too much to assume that people getting a higher education are more tolerant. Why can’t people get passed a stupid issue like race and factor on something that really matters like Wharton’s incredible energy and teaching ability?
Believe it. Race matters. I was equally shocked when someone recently offered me a “Happy JER Day”. Clueless, I asked, what is “JER DAY”? Response: James Earl Ray Day. Funny? I think not.