White Privilege (original) (raw)

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_totschlagen @ 11:26 am: White Privilege
Here is my final photography project from last semester. After much
agonizing, I ended up looking at the topic of white privilege, mainly
at Ursinus College, but it can really apply to any college or institution in the nation.

I'm not going to go into everything that I learned and how I'm a better person because of this project.

I'm just going to post it and let people think what they want.

By the by, the quality of these images is pretty terrible because there's some kind of scummy buildup on the underside of the glass on my scanner.

Comments are appreciated.

wow. what the hell's goin on out there?

/lombardi

Thank you so much for posting this. Thank you especially for posting it on a forum that prospective students look at. These are issues that they should know about before making their decisions. I feel that the higher-ups won't take notice unless this stuff starts to affect admission. Again, thank you. We all need to take whatever actions we can.

I totally agree. The admin seems to only do the bare minimum to keep things from getting to the press or to parents (ie. potential donors), rather than actually trying to fix the situation.

Honestly, these kinds of things happen at a lot of school. I'm tired of them happening anywhere, but especially Ursinus. Clearly there's a problem if the campus doesn't even know that some of these events happened.

We'll see what happens when I post these puppies in the student art show. I doubt the school will be buying them from me to add to the Berman Collection.

Yeah, I just got accepted to Ursinus, and through this community is the only place i've heard of these issues. Definitely makes me think, and the admin should definitely take more action!

i agree with you completely. this probably sounds very impulsive, but i have lost all interest i had in looking into this school after seeing these photos and hearing about these recent problems. regardless of my own race's social status, i refuse to endorse the suppression of others'.

If you really want to help, you could consider writing out what you just told me and sending it to President Strassburger. I know the problem doesn't really apply to you if you won't be coming here, but the administration doesn't seem to realize that they're detering possible students. Hopefully, if they actually got that message things would change.

i think that i will do just that! i hope that it is taken into consideration, for everyone's sakes.

I also think that it's important to take into account that these kinds of things happening isn't anything out of the normal. Things like this happen at every college in the US. That is why I thought this project was so important. This isn't an Ursinus Problem. This is a problem with our society, and an educational system which privelages people (usually white) from the highest economic classes, which is full of people who will scream "I'm not racist" until they're blue in the face, and then go and draw swastikas on eachother.

Racism is not dead in America. It's alive and well; just better hidden.

i understand and i agree with you, but i think that to knowingly go into a situation like this and endorse a school with your tuition would be horribly, horribly wrong.

Honestly, it doesn't feel like the same school I knew last year. Maybe we just got a bad batch of rotten freshman? All I know is that a lot of the things that I see and hear there disgust me, and I'm tired of this stuff happening anywhere; especially at Ursinus.

And thank you!!

One part of the problem, one that the admin really needs to address, is the fact that they want UC to become larger. They've added two new dorms, increased room occupancys...maybe it's financial, maybe it is for increasing reputation. Who knows. Each year I always heard "it's the largest freshman class yet!" which really makes one think that yes, an increase in size is a good thing, but only to a point. UC has, in my opinion, maxed out on numbers.

Now, that isn't the reason for the increase of tension on campus. But think about this: the basketball game happened during my senior year, and I didn't hear anything about it--beyond a rumor or two--until a few weeks later, when there was an article in the Grizzly. It is surprising what can be kept under wraps.

Kinda sad, really. The school that you knew and loved has become something much...less.

We definitely have a huge problem with the admin trying to keep things under wraps.

Thankfully, there are a lot more social activist groups then there were last year, so at least word gets through to the members, and then to the rest of the campus community.

That was kind of my point with posting the actual emails that were sent to students. Again, they only acknowledged things weeks after events had happened and they were forced to say something in order to halt the rumor mills.

I went to Ursinus in the late 80's. One of the reasons for the lack of racial tension was the lack of moniorities. Racism was still rampant, it just wasn't as obvious probably because the racists didn't feel as threatened. I don't know what it's like now, but there were like a grand total of 10 minority students then, and they definately caught some flack. I was specifically told not to bring any of my "moolie" friends to a party on more than one occasion.

I would like to point out as a freshman that in the context of this project two of the victims were freshmen, but that no known offender came from the freshman class.

Perhaps we should look less towards laying blame on others and look to ourselves.

Incidentally, hatred is not all about race. There were homophobic slurs written on a freshman center door today. I hope everyone who was upset by the racial slurs retains their righteous indignation.

Well, anonymous poster, I didn't really lay blame on anyone specifically. In fact, the entire point of the project is that these things are a result of aspects of our own culture that people don't acknowledge; thus, we are all to blame.

If you missed the point, sorry.

As for the homophobic slurs: yes, that is fucked up, too. Obviously.

You know, this is the first time something worthwhile has ever been posted to this comm. Thank you.

I'm not on campus right now, but I have heard a lot about the incidents from the past semester. It's downright disturbing to hear about it all. As bad as it all is, I am glad to see that there's been a strong reaction against it on campus. I'm glad people are taking action and starting to demand that the administration stop ignoring the problem.

These pictures give a very good idea of what racial tensions are found in UC, but I'm not sure if its really what I think of when I hear "white privledge," but that may be what you're trying to address as well. As for the "assault" incident at the track, Im not sure if that's really race related. Awesome pictures though =)

thank you for posting this. it's sad, but it needs to be publicized.

I attended Ursinus from 1969-1971. I'm from a southern state, and was mercilessly ridiculed for my accent and frequently lectured about being a racist. (All southerners are bigots, you know.) No one ever saw the irony in the accusations.

No one noticed that the four black students attending UC were shunned and always sat alone. The same girls who let me know in no uncertain terms that I disgusted them because of where I came from were the same who were upset when I invited a n*gger (their words. I was brought up being taught it's a taboo word) into Clamer Hall for a coke.

It sounds like not much has changed at UC. While the South has gone on to make progress in confronting racism, UC is still trying to pretend it doesn't exist.

Finally back to reality :) I have had a great time reading your posts and looking at all the great pictures! Thanks for letting me see the world through your eyes as I was slaving away in mine *grins* hokeyehy.

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