Yo me!
So, on Wednesdays, I don't have class until 4, so I sit in my room and do a lot of thinking and e-mailing and project management and whatnot. So during one of these longhours hours are always longer on Wednesdays when I have so much I could be doing, but don't do it. And somewhere around longhour 3 I realize that I will not have a roommate next year because I'll have a single. And that made me think that my roommates won't have me as a roommate next year. This second thought was not half as disconcerting until, quite suddenly, I realized that this year could possibly be the last time in their lives that they ever live with a Black person or a gay person, and what are the odds that they'll ever actually live with another gay Black person, let alone someone with analysis as vocal as mine? And then when I realized that because BU is so large and even though PoC representation is around 40% (in line with the national population according to the last census, though the subcategories here at BU do not match up) it's also quite possible that they'll never live with another Person of Color. And I was awed and stupefied and confused and a little angry.
Angry at the situation, not the fact that there aren't more PoCs at BU, because with our 2.3% Black population (that's 345 students out of 15,000 undergrads) I can see why BU isn't exactly most Black people's first choice, let alone that of other PoCs. Immediately, I kind of switched into this mindframe: Oh my God, time is running out and I haven't been a good ambassador of the African nation. Fuck, only 2 more weeks and there's so much more to show them about us! And then I realized that that was rediculous, though a fun throwback to some of my older IRO issues. So, I sit here wondering, with less than 10 minutes until my class starts, how has living with me affected these 3? What will they have learned about Black people, queer people, middle class activist people at the end of this year (May 11th for me)? And how will I ever know?
That's life, sigh...
Angry at the situation, not the fact that there aren't more PoCs at BU, because with our 2.3% Black population (that's 345 students out of 15,000 undergrads) I can see why BU isn't exactly most Black people's first choice, let alone that of other PoCs. Immediately, I kind of switched into this mindframe: Oh my God, time is running out and I haven't been a good ambassador of the African nation. Fuck, only 2 more weeks and there's so much more to show them about us! And then I realized that that was rediculous, though a fun throwback to some of my older IRO issues. So, I sit here wondering, with less than 10 minutes until my class starts, how has living with me affected these 3? What will they have learned about Black people, queer people, middle class activist people at the end of this year (May 11th for me)? And how will I ever know?
That's life, sigh...