Ancestors and Race

On my fathers side we can trace our history back to my great grandfather who arrived at Ellis Isle from Germany. Sadly. we can't go any further back than that without genealogical tests. Since it was so few generations ago I can't imagine my fathers side of the family owned slaves, at least not in the United States. On my mother's side we can trace back to my great great grandmother. She also traveled from Germany to Ellis Isle. Since slavery was almost non-existent in Germany I don't believe that anyone in my family (thankfully) owned slaves.

While my family may not have owned slaves, we are still living in the US. Even by living in the US we are abiding and enforcing prejudicial and racist actions that were instituted years and years ago. What is interesting about my family however is that we never came from any type of money. A majority of my family has been poor, below or just above the poverty line, up until my uncle and my parents. I find this interesting because with my family coming from lower class I would presume there wouldn't be as much personal racism  (as apposed to institutionalized) in my family. However, and I discussed this with both of my parents, both of my grandfathers were very racist. I believe this had a lot to do with their upbringing. I don't know any of my great grandparents but I would venture to say they were personally racist as well leading to their children becoming racist.

Politeness

It seems to me that there is a difference between how polite someone is based on their class. I went to the mall over the holiday break and, because it was crowded, I bumped in to a few people or had to walk around them. The first time it occurred I didn't really notice; it was a middle aged white male and we sort of just bumped each other passing in the aisle. Neither of us said anything, we just looked at each other and he gave a quick little nod basically signalling everything was fine. The second time this occurred it was with a black man probably in his fifties or so and we just lightly brushed jackets as we walked past. The man immediately turned and apologized, trying to pull his jacket closer as he looked at the items on the shelves. That was when I realized that interactions between individuals can be quite different. I started noticing things as I was walking throughout the mall. A middle aged Hispanic male held a door open for me and told me to have a good day as I left one store. An older white woman ignored me as she rushed past and hit me with her large purse. There were several other anecdotal incidents but my point is that the colored individuals that I met and interacted with were much more polite about the interaction than the non-colored. I only link this to class because of how each individual was dressed. The white male was in a suit, probably a businessman of some sort. The older black gentleman was wearing a rather beat up Eagles winter jacket and blue jeans. The Hispanic man was wearing jeans and a jacket. The elderly white woman was wearing a dress and had several rings on her hands and a rather large hat along with the large purse. Regardless of whether these things signal true class levels, I believe my point is still made. Class and race are related because of the institutionalized efforts of the US society to pressure colored individuals in to lower class rankings. I feel that this may make these individuals either more self-conscious of their actions or simply more polite. I'm not trying to make any sweeping generalizations. I have met very nice white people and rather impolite colored people. I simply found the whole day sort of like an experiment of sorts. I'm wondering how different the entire experience would have been had I been colored as well.

Ursinus College

Ursinus College makes a very strong effort to show the face of a diverse campus. The Ursinus website is a good example of this. The website always shows a person of color in one of the top five bullets. Currently three of the five bullets show colored students and the other two are pictures of the campus. I only bring this up because the college boasts a surprisingly small diversity percentage especially with its closeness to Philadelphia. Why does the school show diversity on it's website, without actually having the numbers to back up this praise? Is the school trying to show diversity to persuade other students to attend here? Anyone can easily access the statistical information of Ursinus' diversity of current students and I'll post them below.

• African American 6%
• Asian 4%
• Bi-racial 1%
• White 75%
• Latino/a 4%
• Nonresident Alien 1%
• Unclassified 9%

It seems strangely coincidental and quite intentional that Ursinus has only 6% African American and yet three of the five pictures on the websites homepage shows African Americans. I believe Ursinus is quite misleading to a lot of prospective students in this way. I feel that there are betters ways to communicate the appreciation for diversity than trying to mislead prospective students into believing the diversity on campus is higher than it actually is.