Legally Brown

A perspective on race at Connecticut College.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

The rhetoric around race in this country—and more specifically on this campus—is not only frightening, but I dare say, delusional. People are treated through the lens of their skin color. People are not colors. People are people with hearts that experience pain. People interact with their racial identity tattooed on them. 

However, Connecticut College holds brilliant minds who can create—through carefully constructed craftsmanship—the lasers that will fry the hateful nature of racial discrimination to a crisp. A crisp that will be blown away by the loving kindness that those in solidarity, with equality, exude through their thoughts, actions, and words. But in the present moment, just as in the movie Legally Blonde where a talented lawyer is characterized by the color of her hair, people cannot escape being characterized by the color of their skin. 

In my experience of being a brown individual, I can say with the utmost confidence that being heavily melanated has not been a burden for me at Connecticut College. In fact, in my experience on this campus, people have been courteous and respectful towards me and my property. 

Yet, brown students, particularly those who identify as “black,” are treated in every practical sense as privileged and prioritized members of the student body. This is completely unnecessary because all everyone has to do is just adopt a loving, kind nature towards everybody regardless of their appearance. What we are witnessing among students who support race ideology is herd mentality. At Connecticut College, we are supposed to use our minds, yet the mindset of people blindly following others is welcome. Cries of victimization, persecution, mistreatment, and discrimination run rampant when in reality they are not as prevalent as sometimes depicted. It’s not always about your skin color, a bad attitude is a bad attitude, and a threatening expression is a threatening expression.

As much as it pains me, let’s point out the obvious. There are affinity groups, spaces, events, and programs on campus where “white” students are barred. While I understand why people see the need for enclosed spaces for specific races, I firmly believe that there is no detriment to allowing people of any skin color to attend. Connecticut College should move past racial discrimination of any kind to achieve unity.