Posts Tagged ‘race theory’

Transition to Intentional Community

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2017

As a high school senior, I really didn’t know what I was doing when it came to college. The year was 2012, I was seventeen, and I still had no clue which college to attend. I procrastinated up to the line, until it was National College Decision Day and I was forced to finally choose. Originally planning to attend college in Los Angeles, I settled on Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, thousands of miles from my home in California. I had visited Calvin a month earlier, in April, and toured the newest dorm, named Van Reken after one of the many Dutch alumni who sponsor Calvin. My mom had discovered a living-learning floor for Honors students and, being an overachiever in her college days, encouraged me to apply.

By June, I dragged myself onto the Calvin website to fill out the Honors floor application. However, a description of another floor in the same building caught my attention. Called Grassroots, the floor was dedicated to exploring multiculturalism and combating racism. Every two weeks, students were required to attend a one-credit Contextual Diversity class, which investigated racism in modern America. Forget the Honors floor; I knew I had to apply.

My parents had become involved in anti-racism work before I was born. They were the area directors for Young Life, a Christian program for students, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for eight years. My dad had become involved in diversity trainings around the time when my parents married, and as a result, tried to integrate the largely white youth groups in suburban Kalamazoo with the largely black youth groups in other parts of the city. He was met with opposition, so, frustrated, my parents decided to relocate to Sacramento, California.

My parents’ vision was to form a multicultural community, with a church at its center, that fostered sharing life and learning from each other. They brought together groups of people that normally would never interact. And it was harder than they could have imagined. There was conflict, there was fallout, there was pain. But there was also compassion, and mutual benefit, and true friendship.

It was in this environment that I was raised. I had seen the heartbreak, but I had also seen raw connection that resulted in rich learning. By the time I was applying to live on intentional living-learning communities in college, I was hungry for that type of interaction. Even as a seventeen-year-old, I knew I wanted to engage in racial justice work.

Several months later, I moved onto Grassroots as a freshman. The floor was was the catalyst for not only my interests, but also who I was as a person. I was launched into community, and I had no clue what I was getting myself into: late-night talks about race theory, arguments, and the formation of lasting friendships. I was terribly uncomfortable, I learned a lot, it was the best and hardest two years of my life.

2nd VR women

The women of Grassroots during a dorm banquet.

Grassroots was a crucial step for me on a journey I hope to continue to take.

By Anna Lindner


Anna is a Campus Clipper intern and a first-year student in NYU’s Media, Culture, and Communication program. Her research interests include critical race and gender theory and their resultant intersectionality. When she’s not studying, Anna enjoys visiting friends, catching up on TV shows, and lifting weights. For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC, from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourage them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing and services.

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books; we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings. 

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De Facto Segregation in Education

Tuesday, August 15th, 2017

As a college student, I have become invested in combining study with my personal life, to the best of my ability. I was a Spanish and History double-major as an undergraduate, but because I attended Calvin College, a liberal arts school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I was also able to count several sociology classes toward my degree. These classes focused on dissecting and explaining the reality of American society. For example, schools today are more segregated than they were immediately following the Brown v. Board of Education decision. This was not the legal version typical under Jim Crow, which was finally dismantled in the 1960s. Rather, it was de facto segregation- not enforced by law, but a reality brought about by social structures. Despite attempts to integrate, factors such as continued discrimination, the generational accumulation of wealth, and investment in schools based on property tax contributed to the current state of segregation.

The weathered, wooden sign delineating the boundaries of my neighborhood.

 

I understood the history and the facts behind the reality of segregated schools. But what was more, I had seen this segregation while I was growing up in Sacramento, California. We moved  to Gardenland/Northgate, a neighborhood just north of downtown Sacramento, when I was seven. I was homeschooled, but as I entered sixth grade, my parents decided to supplement my home education with a co-op program at a charter school in Natomas, the new suburbs being developed north of our neighborhood. I attended Natomas Charter School from sixth through eighth grade as a home-schooler, but upon my debut as I high-schooler, we decided that I should enter full-time school. This decision gave rise to another question: which school should I attend? Grant High, which was only a few blocks from my house, was in one of the “worst” school districts in Sacramento. Because it was under-resourced, Grant had struggled to meet state standards for years. My parents were torn- should they send me to the failing school around the corner, or ship me off to the suburbs for a potentially richer academic experience?

So probably for my own good, my parents contributed to segregation, albeit in a micro-sense. They sent me to the suburban school, rather than our local high school. They made the choice that parents who have the opportunity to do so usually make. Investing in our neighborhood school wasn’t worth the risk of me becoming beaten down by the public school system. It wasn’t worth me losing my love for learning, and it wasn’t worth negatively impacting my chances for success.

The de facto segregation of schools, which is tied up in the segregation of neighborhoods, of opportunity, of American society in the most general sense, decides the future for most of America’s youth. I will most likely succeed, when other young people who are just as talented and dedicated as I will might never have the chance to go to college. Who decided that I would have access to better chances than my neighbor, not by virtue of my own effort, but merely due to generational privilege? Is it my duty to level the playing field that has been uneven since before I was born?

To this day, I’m not sure if I agree with their decision or if I would have done differently. The self-discipline I developed in high school allowed me to thrive in college. I was an honors student who read every page I was assigned, and I decided I wanted to pursue critical race and gender theory and research.  I will begin graduate studies at New York University in a few weeks. I have continued the trend begun by my parents in terms of education: seeking out the most prestigious (and expensive) option, one that will be most likely to guarantee my success. The internal turmoil continues: although I have chosen academia, I don’t want to lose focus. My hope has always been to do justice, not just when it easy, but also when it requires personal sacrifice.

The research to which I have dedicated myself applies abstract theory to practical issues. I study phenomenons like modern de facto segregation not only out of my own interest, but because of its overwhelming relevance in American society today.  I hope my research can join the current body of evidence of social injustice and assist in making society a bit more just.

By Anna Lindner


Anna is a Campus Clipper intern and a first-year student in NYU’s Media, Culture, and Communication program. Her research interests include critical race and gender theory and their resultant intersectionality. When she’s not studying, Anna enjoys visiting friends, catching up on TV shows, and lifting weights. For over 20 years, the Campus Clipper has been offering awesome student discounts in NYC, from the East Side to Greenwich Village. Along with inspiration, the company offers students a special coupon booklet and the Official Student Guide, which encourage them to discover new places in the city and save money on food, clothing and services.

At the Campus Clipper, not only do we help our interns learn new skills, make money, and create wonderful e-books; we give them a platform to teach others. Check our website for more student savings. 

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