What’s so depressing about the NYU segregated dorm issue is that you can learn so much about yourself through the prism of someone who is superficially different than you. In my first book I wrote about never having (to my knowledge) really known anyone Jewish before undergrad 1/
But that hallmate, who I only got the chance to know through this form of genuine integration not only became a great friend, but he even schooled me on jazz music—ostensibly my “own” culture but something that I’d never noticed was valuable until I heard it through his ears. 2/
Thank you @roottothejesse for making this point today. Living in a wildly diverse (in terms of race, class, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality) dormitory really changed my life. It’s certainly what led me to live abroad and see myself in the world 3/
I can’t imagine being lucky enough to embark on what Junot Diaz termed the “discovery years” of undergrad and cordoning off the world when it is finally opening up to you. This just feels sad that kids are being encouraged into segregation and being told it’s socially conscious.
Asked my father, who grew up in the Jim Crow South and attended an HBCU by choice what he made of this voluntary segregation now:
“Those who never lived under segregation are not likely to know best,“ is what he said.
“Those who never lived under segregation are not likely to know best,“ is what he said.
