So every now and then Sarah Lawrence College forces its fellow students to fill out extremely pointless surveys. The latest one is no exception. The general idea is the "campus climate." Sound confusing? That's because they are confused, and have been for a long time. It basically asked me questions about whether or not I've ever felt welcomed on the campus or if I hang out with "minorities." Ignorance. Hilarious. They probably won't laugh too hard after reading my response. They shouldn't have left room at the end of the survey for COMMENTS, because I had several:
"Firstly, this survey was extremely marginalizing, and I did not appreciate spending my time on something that clearly is only meant to represent the feelings and experiences of the white majority at Sarah Lawrence College. Next time you decide to get ALL STUDENTS to spend their time on a survey of this nature, make sure you're thinking about the students of color on this campus as well. I am a marginalized Black woman at Sarah Lawrence, and this survey just helped in proving why I'm consistently marginalized by the college as a whole, not just my peers. Also, the question about majors was ridiculous, and not because Sarah Lawrence doesn't necessarily have "majors," but because it completely disregarded African-American History, Africana Studies, Black Women's History, and Women's History - all of my concentrations. I should not have to be brought down to "other." Another reflection of the racial problems this school is clearly trying to brush over. I refuse to be boxed into "humanities" and "history," because history is written generally to leave out the narrative of the Black Struggle and, especially, the narrative of the Black female struggle. If there is one thing this school needs to work on, it is the dropping of this 1990s multicultural, coming together to share our different "ethnicities" and "cultures," and get serious about talking about the racial problems existent on this campus. We need to talk about why it is ridiculous that in the last four years I have had to feel like the "other" at the expense of the school's marketing strategies and privileged white students at this college. If Sarah Lawrence really cared about the emotional pains that students of color suffered through on a daily basis, they would have already tackled this issue. Sarah Lawrence is stuck in 1925, and that will NEVER CHANGE. Students of Color will just have to keep filling out surveys such as this to constantly remind them of the pain of their existence upon this campus. Thanks."
