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Minorities make their voices heard
By Adam Petty
Features Editor
FILE PHOTO
Youngbin Kim speaks about his background.
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You’ve heard the jokes. The ones about Calvin being whiter than sour cream on cottage cheese. If you’ve laughed at these, it’s probably because there’s some truth to them. This is a school founded by the Dutch, after all, and it is true that many of the students here are of Dutch descent.
But that’s certainly not to say that there aren’t any minorities here. Many different backgrounds are represented by a range of students. On the whole, these students are willing to talk about their different experiences, as long as they are asked.
If a student here is a minority, it is more than likely that they are an international student. Calvin College is promoted at many international schools all over the world, which is where many students will first hear of it.
Freshman David Tannor is one of these. Originally from Accra, Ghana, he and his older brother first heard of the school through an international organization that helped locate colleges. Calvin’s reputation for high academic standards is what drew him to the school.
“The education here in the U.S. than what we have back home,” he said. “The schools here are more advanced and have better equipment, and there are good professors here.”
Since the quality of education is what draws many international students to study in the U.S., Tannor feels that studying is a high priority for them.
“Academics are the main reasons they come here,” he said. “They want to get a degree and go, so they might not want to fit into the larger student body. But that’s not what I want to do. Life isn’t all about studies.”
Senior Chinelo Onwualu, a student from Nigeria, thinks that there’s a “mystique” surrounding African students.
“There are some ideas that the African guys are the coolest guys on campus,” she said. “Some students are intimidated by international students on the whole, and African students in particular.”
A perception that many have about international students is that they tend to socialize among themselves. Onwualu says that there is some truth to this.
“I try to have an open mind when it comes to American students,” she said. “But I wouldn’t say that I go out of my way to get to know them. Some relationships seem rather superficial, with the ‘hi, how are you’ sort of thing. I learned quickly that that’s just how some people relate, and I’d rather not bother with that.”
In a quick estimation of the African students he know, Tannor said, “About a quarter of them will try to get to know other people, and the others will tend to stay in their own groups.”
Junior Youngbin Kim, who was born in South Korea and grew up in the Phillipines, says that this tendency is understandable.
“It’s inevitable that you feel more attracted to your own people,” he said. “But I think that it would be good for both international and American students to get out of their comfort zone. As an international student at an American institution, I should try to learn more about American culture. But when people meet and they have different backgrounds, it does make it more difficult to communicate.”
That’s not to say that there aren’t common grounds between students. Freshman Deena Thomas, who attended high school in India after being in the states for a number of years, says that she may have had an easier time adjusting to residence life than others.
“I went to an international boarding school, so I was used to living in a dormitory with other people,” she said. “I think I had an easier time adjusting to homesickness, because I had been away from home before.”
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Megan Hook describes her view of Calvin.
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Just before the beginning of academic each year, all of the international students have an orientation section specifically for them. This makes traveling arrangements easier, and also gives them to chance to get to know people they may have more in common with. All of the students interviewed for this article spoke highly of the orientation group.
“All of our situations were similar,” said Thomas. “We could trade quirks about our countries and talk about how we missed the food. There was also older international students there who made an effort to check up on us. By the time all the other students came, we already knew some people and knew which faces to look for in a crowd.”
When asked if Americans have a responsibility to reach out towards minority students, Thomas said, “It would be nice if they would. But it’s hard for anyone to step out of their comfort zones. International students do need to make an effort to get to know more students. But I’ve never thought, ‘Oh, there’s an American” when I see someone.”
The other minorities at Calvin College are those from the U.S. There are fewer of these students overall, but they still have a noticeable presence.
When junior Steve Williams first visited the school, it was during spring, and so the campus was understandably empty. However, he got the impression that the school was more diverse than it really was.
“A lot of the pamphlets and brochures made it seem like there wasn’t that large of a ratio between minority and majority,” he said. “I didn’t know that there was so large a spectrum.”
Even so, Williams says that not a great amount of difficulties are faced when trying to relate to other students.
“Some in the student body will attempt to understand what my history in getting here is like,” he said. “Some of those might be awkward at first, like asking if they can touch my hair.”
Onwualu considered such queries as these to fall under the “stupid questions phase.”
“But things that are really hurtful don’t happen too often,” said Williams. “But when they do, they leave a mark. For instance, I knew an African-American student who was in a history class, and the professor asked the students to trace their European roots. Obviously, that student couldn’t do that.”
But when considering the over all job that the administration has done, Williams has a positive opinion.
“I think they’ve done a great job,” he said. “They’ve been supporting groups like MSAB and CART. I’m on MSAB myself, and what we’re trying to say is not that everyone is racist, but that racism does exist on campus. The administration has been a part of that.”
Another program in place is the Entrada scholars program. This is held in the summer and is designed to let minority students get a feel for what Calvin College is like, and also to take a class for college credit. One of the students who went through Entrada is sophomore Megan Hook.
“I knew coming here that there weren’t many minorities here, but I felt like God wanted me in this place so I could make a difference,” she said.
When she first came here, Hook was involved with the student organization Banderas, which exists for students who are interested in Hispanic culture to learn more about it.
“Last year there was the sense that it was only for Hispanic students, which isn’t true,” she said. “This year we have more students of different backgrounds, and more have been coming to the meetings. One thing we did last year was to set up an altar outside of the library as a way of celebrating the Mexican festival of the Day of the Dead. Some people didn’t understand what we were doing at first, they thought we celebrating the dead, but when people talked to us we told them that we were just recognizing the holiday.”
Hook sees attempts at people from different cultures getting to know each other as being beneficial not only for Calvin, but for the students in the future.
“As we mature in this world and move into the world we’ll come into this mesh of people,” she said. “And right now when our nation needs us we can’t be divided. We can’t just look at colors.”
When asked what advice he would give about how to relate to each other, Williams said,” To the majority, keep asking questions. We’re not going to jump down your throat. To the minorities, keep on fighting and keep on persisting.”
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