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Home > Resources > Inclusive Classroom > Students Introduction > Students of Color

Comments from panels of UO Students of Color (Winter, 2002)

Experiences with other students

• There's a lot of ignorance on campus. Students need to learn more about cultures.
  
• I felt a need to "prove" that I was qualified to be here.
  
• I always have to be an advocate.
  
• I was always stereotyped as an athlete.
  
• I felt pressured to represent my group.
  
• If I felt offended, I felt powerless. That there was nothing I could do.
  
• There are also many students of color who are culturally ignorant as well.
  
• White folks need to understand they have a culture and that opens the door to other cultures.
  
• If you are always a minority, it's tough to develop an identity and a sense of pride.
  
• People are more interested in how I am different than how I am similar.
  
• Social acceptance is the biggest worry for EVERYONE.

Experiences in the classroom

• Spend the first 10 minutes of class getting to know each other.
  
• My comfort level gets better if I see folks at events--that they want to educate themselves. That makes me feel like I can begin to trust them.
  
• Faculty support of student programming is important. Seeing faculty there is helpful.
  
• Professors make assumptions---"Oh, you're from..." DON'T make the assumptions.
  
• We've got to get at culture for white students too.
  
• If you make a mistake, just apologize. You don't need to go overboard. Apologize to the student and to the class.
  
• It helps if topics are put into the curriculum that are related to race.
  
• Start general from the beginning of class--where are people from?
  
• What faculty do that make students feel invisible.
  
• Students will give you a "pass" if you are trying
  
• It's not so much racism, as it is indifference.
  
• Faculty seem to not be selectively mean or bad--if sometime like that happens, it usually is being done to all students.

Link to Students of Color--Web Resources

 

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