Volume 25 - Issue 4

Volwne 25, Nwnber 4

The magazine about Yale and New Haven

February 5¡ 1993

Dress Globally

TheNewJoumal

visit our new location:

P UBLISHER

Rosita Choy EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

'Shop Locally l---------'

Open 7 days

Natural fiber clothing for women size XS-3 plus Pottery • Wooden Toys • Crabtree and Evelyn Toiletries • A beautiful selection of handmade sterling & gemstone rings, bracelets and earrings • Presents for children of all ages!

Winter Clothing Clearance Prices 40-70% off

Kathy Reich MANAGING EDITORS

Emily Baulon Charlotte Brooks BusiNEss MANAGER

TinaAsmuth DESIGNER

Annette Kirchner James Ross, Music Director ' ·Saturday, February 20 Woolsey Hall 8:00 pm

IP()IP5 C()~C if ii2T T{) 1131f~ lflf iiT C.A\.112.1P. (Connecticut AIDS Residence Program) featuring Richard Lalli, baritone Gershwin songs

PRODUCTION MANAGER

jay Porter PHOTOGRAPHY EDITORS

Valerie Burgher jennifer ~ng AssoCIATE PuBLISHER

Kathleen Weyman

Faith Middleton (CT Public Radio) narratingTh~ C. Duffl's Mike Mulligan aiid His Steam Shwel John Williams' Star Wa111 Suite ~ Ticket information: 4~2-41 ~

AssociATE EDITOR

jose Manuel usoro AssiSTANT PRoDUCTION MANAGER

joshua Civin CIRCULATION MANAGER

Sonya]oo

STUDENTS New Clients

Only With any perm, colour or foil highlights, get your haircut ($35 Value)

FREE

STAFF

Joshua Auerbach• Kate Brewster Elisha Cooper*• Jackie Cooperman*• Vikash Dhindhwal Regina Gelin*• David Gerber• Jackie Goldberg*• Erik Meers•Suzanne Kim•Savannah Neely• Cheryl Sheinkopf '*Elected to Staffjanuary 30, 1993 M~mbers and Dir~ctors:

Edward B.

Bennett III • Constance Clement Peter B. Cooper • Andy Court Brooks Kelley • Patricia Pierce Fred Strebeigh • Thomas Strong

91 6 whalley ave new haven

3876799

Not to be used with other offers Exp. 2-28-93

2

THE NEW jOURNAL

Fri.mds: Anson M. Beard, Jr. • Edward B. Bennett, Jr. • Edward B. Bennett III • Blaire Bennett • Paul S. Benne~ Gerald Bruck Jonathan M. Clark Louise F. Cooper • Peter B. Cooper • Jerry and Rae Coun • David Freeman • Geoffrey Fried • Sherwin Goldman • John Hersey • Brooks Kelley Andrew J. Kuzneski, Jr.• Lewis E. Lehrman E. Nobles Lowe • Peter Neill • Julie Perers Fai.rf.vc C. Randal Nicholas X. Rizopoulos Arleen and Arthur Sager • Dick and Debbie Sears • Richard Shields • Thomas Strong Elizabeth Tate Alex and Betsy Torello Allen and Sarah Wardell • Daniel Yergin FEBRUARY 5, 1993

TheNewJournal The magazine about Yale and New Haven

Volume 25, Number 4

February 5, 1993

STANDARDS ---------------------------------4 About this Issue 5 NewsJournals: Unrealized Goal; Bridging the Gap. 38 Afterthought: Talking to Ourselves. By C laudia Highbaugh and Kimberly Goff-Crews. page 15

FEATURES ----------------------------------8 In Pursuit of Power. by Stephanie Brenowitz. N~ Havens Latinos band together to ensure that the city hears their voices.

10

Closed Doors. by Emily Bazelon. For many black students, equal access to Yak facilities is the ideal rather than the reality.

15

An Elusive Definition. By Joshua Civin. jews at Yale struggle with age-old q_uestions ofidentity and practice.

18

The Dating Game. by Suzanne Kim. Asian-Americans who date interracially face pressures that range .from sexual stereotypes to ethnic solidarity.

20

A Pledge to Belong. by John Gorham. Ethnic fraternities and sororities foster a sense ofidentity that some say is misguidetl.

page 14

24 Integration Remembered. by Erik Meers. Three black alumni recall stages in Yaks halting attempts at integration. page29

26 Against the Tide. by Joshua Auerbach. Blacks students whose views diverge .from the main current oftheir community often find themselves cut adrift.

29 Not inTheir Backyard. by David Gerber. Morris Cove residents slam the

door as public housing tenants move into their neighborhood 32 Saving the City's Soul. by Jose Manuel Tesoro. New Haven s black

ministers wield moral and politicalpower that reaches bryond their congregations.. page 32

Cover Design by Annette Kirchner, Jay Porter, and Elisha Cooper-Cover Photo by Valerie Burgher.

(Volume 25, Number <4 TIN Nnu jttlnfllli is publisMd five times during tb<' school yar by l"ht! New Joum<LI ac Yak, Inc., Pooc Oflia Box 3<432 Yak Scation, New H~vcn. cr 06520.

9>f>yriglu ~ 99~ by The New journal at Yal<', lnc. All rittl>ts r~ ~ep_roductoon athu in or in pan wichouc wrinen ~ission o~ tb" publ~c.r and editor-on-dud" is prob•bitt!d.

Th';S magu.ne o$ pu~lish..d by Yale ColiC&! nu~ents, anCI Yal" Um~o<y 1$ nor rctponJobl" for ots conte.nts. EJ.,~ ~hou.san~ copoes of~ wue are dismbut..d fr« to members of tbe Y..le Umvcrsity communory. Th• Nnu jDunJIII is pnnt..d by Turley Publocauoru of P..lm.,r, MA. Bookkccpong and billong Krvoccs are provod..d by Colman Bookkecpong of New Haven, cr Office addrcs$: 305 Crown Suect, Office 312. Phone (203) <432-1957. SubJCriptioru ar<' available to tbOJ<: outside ihe Yale community. Rates: One year. $18. Two~"· $30. TIN Nnu j~ mcoura&CS lmt!rs co the: editor and comment on Yak and ~cw Hav~ iuucs. Wric<' ro ~thy Reich, EditorialJ. 3<432 Yak Station, New Haven, cr 06520. Alllc<tt!rs for publication mun indude acldr.s$ and signarure. 7« NN~ J•lnfllli reserves th" right to ..dn all lcnt!rs for publiauon.

w!>ok

fEBRUARY 5• 1993

THE NEW jOURNAL

3

r--------, I Cleaners 1

ABouT THIS IssuE

~nc.

I

10% OFF I

1 1

~DRY CLEANING (.1 WITH THIS '£rt COUPONII

1 1

I I D-y Cleaning • Alterations I I Repairs • LaundryService • Shir/$ 1 I Ndt to the Yale Co-Op I L - - ~=-~ ................................................., ..-------------------·------------------

I

ssues of race and ethnicity continue to split this nation apart. The riot that rocked Los Angeles in April 1992 sent us a message of rage and despair, and the SOOth anniversary of Columbus forced us to re-examine the impact of his discovery upon America's indigenous peoples. Race should have been on everyone's mind, especially during the 1992 presidential election.

But it wasn't. The promising racial dialogue that emerged from the riots faded as tiine passed. Yet the issues surrounding race and ethnicity continued to play a crucial role in the social scene of this country. At Yale and in New Haven, these issues have particularly strong resonanceyet often we do not discuss them. Much of the time, we consider racial issues too touchy or troubling to confront, or we are simply too exhausted to bridge the gaps in racial and cultural understanding that f~ce · our community. We feel that everything has been said, and that no one has listened.

This month's TN] tries to say something new in the racial and cultural debate. We've titled this issue "Rights of Passage" because many of the people featured in our articles are fighting for equal access to Yale and to the city.

But "Rights of Passage" has a double meaning. If the Yale community moves toward ensuring equality for all its members, the university itself will undergo a rite of passage, and approach a new level of maturity.

In this issue, we have not tried for comprehensive coverage of all the racial and ethnic issues that affect Yale and New Haven. But we have made a beginning-one which we intend to build upon in the future as we continue to cover racial and ethnic issues. We hope to provoke our readers to think about the changes that our university and our city so badly need.

-_... i~. c:::~:.:~:: .!~: 68 Whitney Avenue New Haven, CT 776-8465 ..,.

! !

I 0% off I 0% off I 0% off I 0% off I 0% ! off 10% off 10% off 10% off l~o off j J

J

l tii'VJL off any P~lfchase W/ this coupon l ! V 70 tutti! March 10 ! i l~o off 10% off l~o off l~o off l~o J

L~~--~~~--~!!__!~~-~-~--~-~-~~-~-~~-~~---J

WAVE 263 College Street • New Haven (203) 782-6212

Crabtree 6 Evclylt

-The Editors.

~ 15% off on one item

with this ad through February 4

THE NEW jOURNAL

Editors' Note:

Jackie Cooperman's profile of professor Hazel Carby will appear in the April issue.

FEBRUARY

5, 1993

Unrealized Goal Released four years ago this May, the "Report of the Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Minority Group Members on the Faculty at Yale," better known as the Rodin Report, ended "on a note of urgency and with a call for greater equity and diversity at Yale." The report established ten-year targets for minority representation on the faculty-targets administrators now doubt Yale can meet. In nearly every school and department, percentages of minority faculty, especially blacks and Hispanics, continue to hover at the pitifully low levels the Rodin Report deplored.

"The numbers are not good at Yale, and they are not good nationally,, said Frances Holloway, director of the Office for Equal Opportunity Programs. She and Deputy Provost Charles Long oversee University-wide affirmative action. Both claim that national trends have thwarted Yale's good intentions. Long painted a grim picture of fierce competition among institutions of Yale's caliber for a tiny .. pool of qualified minority candidates, with universities routinely "raiding" each other to boost their percentages, only to be raided in turn the following year. "It's not a solution on a national level,, he said. "We have some exciting candidates in searches now ongoing, but we're still talking about people you can count on one hand., Holloway monitors the English department's yearly search to fill three or four open-field junior positions, which usually draws three to four hundred applicants. "I know the department knows what to do, but they have not been successful in finding black or Hispanic finalist candidates," she said.

"Those candidates just aren't there.

There is nobody, and I think that's outrageous."

Nationally, whites made up about 90 percent of all faculty in 1985-86, FEBRU.U.Y

5¡ 1993

according to the Rodin Report. Only 8.1 percent of Ph.D.s in the humanities awarded in 1991 went to people of color, who account for about 20 percent of the U.S. population. In other words, a college or un iversity that wants to hire a black faculty member in the humanities competes with 3~000 other institutions for about 100

judith Rodin chair~d th~ committu on minority faculty. new Ph.D.s each year. "The numbers are scary," said Long.

Among its 22 recommendations, the Rodin Report urged more recruitment of students of color to academic fields at every level in the "pipeline," the path to an advanced degree that starts in high school. Yale College minority enrollment has continued to rise, reaching 29 percent this year, and representation at the School of Medicine has climbed to 40 percent. The Medical School leads the pack in faculty hiring as well. "If I had to pick a spot where I see progress, at a very junior level, it would be the Med School," said Holloway. But in the Graduate School, the percentage of all students of color has reached just 12 percent.

The Rodin Report attempted to address both the broader causes of the low numbers and to suggest changes in

university policy that would bolster affirmative action in hiring and retention. It urged a more extensive system of mentors for graduate stud ents and junior facu lty, compensation fo r the "special burdens" on minority faculty members spread too thin among myriad committees, and efforts to locate and attract candidates of color that include hiring them outside of formal searches.

Mixed results imply that such tactics can only go so far, and the universiry already seems to have abandoned some of them. T he report suggested the teaching load might be reduced for faculty of color, but according to Long, Yale's teaching load is already quite low.

Candidates and junior fac ulty continue to be lured away by institutions such as state universities on the tenure-track system, which guarantee tenure when they first hire--a guarantee Yale refuses to match. "Yale only gives tenure to the very best," said Long. "We have already gone as far as possible in lowering budgetary barriers so as to provide opportunities for minorities and women." Strategies for lowering these barriers include "mortgaging" positions by hiring new faculty members in anticipation of retirements, which has proven successful.

"But otherwise, the only possibiliry is to make us a tenure-track university, and we can't afford to do that,, said Long. "No one would seriously argue that Yale should lower its standards."

The administration's main statement on p rogress since the Rodin Report, this December's updated "Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Policies," mostly contains descriptions of new procedures and monitoring committees. Reports of proportionate ethnic representation on the faculty seem years away.

Holloway blames lack of Ph.D. funding and role models on the arts and sciences faculty for the high number of people of color who instead turn to fields like medicine or law. Her office THÂŁ NEW jOURNAL

5

continues to monitor searches as she urges departments to work towards "the real affirmative action," which she describes as taking place on the level of networking, informal conversations, and overall attitudes. While she said that departments seem genuinely suppo rtive of affirmative action in her dealings with them, she emphasized that no office can ensure the intangible atmosphere that will make, for instance, a lone black faculty member feel completely welcome. "All the monitoring is necessary as a check on the system," Long observed. "But until higher education in general seems a more attractive path to minorities, these efforts, while laudable, are bound to be effective only in a very Limited way."

-Ka~ B~stn-

Bridging the Gap Students and administrators established the ethnic counselor program to ease minority students' transition to Yale. Although hindered by their uncertain status within the freshperson counseling program, ethnic counselors do their best to uphold the principles behind their positions.

"Because minority students have their own unique experiences at Yale, they need guidance from a person who canshare similar kinds of experiences," said Don Nakanishi (SY '71), one of the first ethnic counselors. However, some students debate the need for ethnic counselors and see the program as encouraging separatism.

The e thnic counselor program began in 1972 through the collective effo rts of student groups, minority students , and administrators who acknowledged the changes that greater diversity and coeducation had brought to Yale. At the time, most minority students came from inner-city or predominantly ethnic neighborhoods, and Yale provided their first experience 6 THE New jouRNAL

of life in a largely white community.

The program provided students of color with upperclass ethn ic peers who could help them confront issues of racial, cultural, or linguistic difference. "When we admit certain students who we feel can succeed here, we must provide them with adequate support," said Assistant Dean Mary Li Hsu (SY '80), Coordinator of AsianAmerican Student Affairs.

Despite good intentions, a lack of focus plagued the program in its early years. The first ethnic counselors, called "floating counselors," did not live on Old Campus, and few clear goals specified their roles. As a resulc, the position brought with it broad and open-ended re.s ponsibilities. But as time passed, the program developed into a more structured and independent institution.

At present, 11 ethnic counselors join the freshperson counselors for an intensive three-day training program in August that includes lectures, discussions, and role-playing on mental health and student issues. During the school year, ethnic counselors contact counsdees in much the same way residential counselors d o--through study breaks and dinner dates.

Ethnic counselor Julia Gore (CC '93) believes that her role encompasses facets of undergraduate life not covered by the general freshperson counseling program. " I am a residential counselor with an ethnic perspective, an ethnic sensitivity," she said.

Gore does not exclusively handle issues of race, but some students feel uncertain about approaching an ethnic counselor with problems other than those related to ethnicity. " I wasn't sure if I had to differentiate my problems as either personal or ethnic," said Nicole Rodriguez (CC '94). "Was I supposed to go to my residential counselor for certain problems, then to my ethnic counselor for others? I felt that my residential counselor should have been able to handle any problem that I confronted."

Some stud ents voice discomfort with the ethnic counselor program for other reasons. International students are assigned ethnic co unselors, although they may feel distant from U.S. issues of ethnicity. And often studen ts who come from predom inantly white neighborhoods do not feel they need an ethnic counselor to help them cope with living in a fam iliar environment.

T he ethnic counseling p rogram has also come under attack for unfairly benefitting students of color in a way that leads to separatism. Gloria Akan (DC '94) said that a few white people sh e knew freshperson year expressed annoyance that she had an extra counselor because of her ethnici ty. " I wasn't sure if their discomfort was because they felt disadvantaged," she said, "or because they thought I was receiving preferential treatment."

Assistant Dean Valeriano Ramos (ES '81), Coordinator ofPueno Rican Student Affairs and administrator of the ethnic counselor program , denies that the ethnic counselor program polarizes the campus into separate communities. He believes that a student's integration into an ethnic community is part of his or her adjustment to Yale. "The ethnic counselor is there to offer all minority students the chance to find their own com munity at Yale, not just to become a p art of only th e e thnic community, " said Ramos. "Integrating freshpeople into the larger Yale community is a task that's as important."

To Ramos, charges of separatism are the least of the challenges that face the ethnic counselor program. Instead, he admits that certain logistical aspects of the program hinder a cou nselor's effectiveness. Because students of color are assigned to ethnic counselors on the basis of similar ethnic backgrounds-rather than on an equal number of students per counselorethnic counselors handle students from three to six colleges, with an average of 16 to 50 counselees per counselor.

FEBRUARY

S¡

1993

l

breaks in t he chai n," Go re.

For ~ instance, one eth nic ~ counselor was left in the ~~-"5 dark for a week abo ut •..ta~lll ~ one of her counselee's Jl health problems.

'5 Freshperson coun~ selor Steve Ribisi (CC '93) acknowledged the u n intentional commun ication gaps between the residential and ethnic counselors. "I feel com fortab le talking with the eth n ic counselors about the freshpeople, but chere is a little division," he said. " Residential counselors li ve and work as a team.

The ethnic counselors are not pare of the same bond because we don't see them Ethnic couns~lors try to ~as~fteshp~ons' transition to Yak. o n a daily basis."

Ethnic counselo rs In comparison, residential coun· o nly k now a fractio n of a college's fresh people, w h ich distances them selors take on o nly eight to 22 freshpeopl e each .

Ethnic counselor from aspects of the weekly counselor Catherine Lee (PC '94) believes that meetings. Still, they do not necessarily the higher number of counselees lim its ~ view reaching out to all freshpeople as opportunities fo r close ties. "It just"" part of thei r job. "Ethnic counselors will always be separate because they do d epends o n how often our paths tend h > cross," she said . In add ition, many not serve the entire community," said ethnic counselo rs do not live in their Lisa Burgos (MC ' 91), a former ethnic counselees' resid ential halls, which counselor. leaves th em unaware of some cou nseNevertheless, Dean Ramos argues lees' pro blems. that the p rogram benefits all in the O ld Campus security regulations Yale community, including white stualso dictate th at counselors can o nly dents and counselees who do nor seek access four Old Campus enrryways. "I out thei r ethnic counselors. He felt it was ridiculous having to choose believes that ethnic counselors create a wh ich counselees' dorms I had access greater sense of personal awareness in their counselees, thus providing other to," said M ialisa Villafane (PC '93), head ethnic counselor. students with a chance to learn about Yale's loo p o f support fo r fresh- these students' cultures and communipeople also som etimes leaves ethnic ties. "Yo u have to provide channels counselors on the outside. T he ethnic th ro ugh which issues of ethnicity counselo rs must both b uild lines of come out," he said. "Without the inp u t from eth n ic groups, the larger communication with the fresh person counselors and the dean of the college com m u nity wouldn't understand the they serve, and stay in touch with their issues confronting these groups." counterparts in other colleges. "It can gee really confus ing because there are -&gina c~tin ~ sa id

..

F £allUARY

5· 1993

ExtraOrdlnaty Flowers & Plants.

Creative Oesjgns

-<2~~;;;;u9 On. Whitn•y Avcnu.

N.w Haven, C~cut 06510 De/Ill 1:30 A.M. • 5:30 P.M. ~ t A.M. • 5 P.M.

HOUSE OF

We serve traditional fine Chinese food

CHAO CHINESE RESTAURANT

~ ll::D:nl-1~

Sattt llpm SLn f)()()l')-9:xPc'n

HAVEN , CT (IN WESTVILLE V ILLAGE) • 389-6624 TAKE OUT ORDERS • VISA • MASTERCARD

Four-course prix fixe dinner $19.95

RESTAURANT

Only a 3 minute walk from campus

Serving Lunch M -F a nd Sunday Dinner a t 5:30 9 Elm St., New Haven 777-1962

COLMAN bookkeeping services Q04 urolley owooe

new holl0n. ct Ob515

THE NEw JoURNAL

7

In Pursuit of Power Stephanie Brenowitz ike other immigrants who have made America their home, Latinos have come to the United States seeking a bener way of life. In the cities, they search for jobs, housing, and education. But many obstacles plague their American dream. The formidable language barrier is just the beginning of a s~ries of other difficulties: lack of effective education, scarce employment, and discrimination.

Several different Latino nationalities share the same ethnic label on the census, but only Puerto Rican immigrants can claim automatic citizenship. Despite the potential divisiveness of this distinction, Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in New Haven have come together to form service and political organizations, to combat their shared difficulties and disappointments, and to serve their community's needs.

New Haven Latinos, who make up 13 percent of the city's population, primarily consist of Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, with other Latin Americans in smaller numbers, such as Colombians, Salvadorans, and Peruvians. Puerto Ricans, U.S. citizens since 1917, make up 80 percent of the Latino population, with 17,000 residents; Mexicans, the next largest and fastest growing group, cannot be accurately accounted for, since many are illegal aliens that standard population measures do not include. Estimates of their numbers vary from one to ten thousand. "New Englanders are still trying to figure out what a Mexican looks like. They think we are all Puerto Ricans," said Angel Fernandez, board member of Latino Youth Development. "The white community in New Haven doesn't know the difference, doesn't recognize the diversity in the Latino population."

Stereotypes can overshadow the lives of Latinos with Hollywood images, according to Valeriano Ramo (ES '81), director of the Casa Cultural Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rican Cultural Center). "Puerto Ricans are seen as hot-tempered, fighting each other all the time, carrying switchblades-like in ~st Sid~ SUJry," he said. "Mexicans are seen as docile, lazy, unwilling to work." Ramos bemoans the effect that such generalizations have upon his community. "You can just imagine what it's like to be misunderstood in this way by the dominant white culture."

Puerto Ricans have been coming to northern cities like New Haven in search of employment since the 50s, often shuttling back and forth between Puerto Rico and the States. Mexicans began the journey north in the 80s in search of plentiful factory jobs. Although the jobs eventually dried up, the flow of immigrants did not, and many

L

8

THE NEW jOURNAL

found themselves unemployed, sometimes without skills or citizenship, often without knowledge of English.

Puerto Ricans, who have run service agencies for decades in New Haven, found themselves with neighbors who spoke their language but who had different customs, and little access to government services. Puerto Ricans have many advantages as U.S. citizens, including access towelfare and other social programs, and the freedom to return to Puerto Rico at will. But as Latinos, they also face linguistic and cultural barriers that separate them &om white society.

"Latinos are not just bilingual, they are also bicultural," said Fernandez. Sharon Mackwell, director of Centro San Jose, agrees. "Aside from the language difficulties, the cultural mores are different," she said. "Latin Americans look for trust and loyalty, for personal relations with people they can trust in the schools and the government."

Existing agencies have expanded to fill gaps by shifting their target groups and services to handle the needs of a changing community. To accommodate the influx of Latin Americans, Puerto Rican agencies have tried to provide services to all Latinos, a process currently moving slowly but surely according to Dennis Hart, director of Latino Youth Development. "The Puerto Rican community sometimes has a reputation in other Latin American countries for being difficult to get along with and not treating other Latinos very well," said Hart. " But now we have to get along."

Programs have evolved to better serve the current needs of the community. Latino Youth Development originally began as an after-school recreational and educational program for Puerto Rican children. When the organization opened its doors to all Latinos, it also created services for adults, tackling education as well as job-training, referrals, advocacy, and counseling for troubled families. "You can't help the kids without helping the parents," said Fernandez.

Latino Youth now serves all Latinos and even some AfricanAmericans. Its services include distribution of clothing and food when available. "Our job is to ease entry into New Haven for these people, to help them gain access to ours and others' services, to better their lives," said Hart.

Centro San Jose also began as a Puerto Rican service agency in the Fair Haven area, where many Latinos live.

Centro focuses on educational activities for children and adults. In addition, the agency conducts prevention programs aimed at the family that address drug and alcohol abuse, staying in school, and teenage pregnancy.

FEBRUAltY

s. 1993

"The idea is to get to the parents and kids before these things become problems," said director Mackwell. "For example, we target our pregnancy-prevention at fourth- and fifth-graders. Their ideas about these things are becoming concrete at this age. We try to show them that the world is not closed to them, that they have options."

The problem of ineffective or non-existent education for native Spanish speakers in the United States leads directly to employment problems. Many Latinos in New Haven do low-skill, low-wage work that offers little chance of upward mobility, and non-citizens have no unions or legal recourse for poor working conditions. Both Latino Youth Development and Centro San Jose provide job training and vocational instruction to improve the skills of Latinos, who often remain in the working class for generations.

With the recession, a sense of desperation among Latinos has become niore evident, says Mackwell. "The combination of a language barrier, cultural differences, and lack of adequate education make it difficult to find employment," she said.

Latinos, as the last group to enter the work force in New Haven, often lose their jobs first when a factory closes. "Even those with education and skills are out of work," says Alderman Eduardo Perez. Many immigrants from Latin America who received schooling in their native countries cannot find work in their fields because of the language barrier and must take lower echelon jobs.

Service agencies offer English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes for these clients as well as those stili in school.

Students in New Haven have also stepped in to help provide educational services to the community. Latinos at Yale work with the New Haven community through Despierto Boricua or el Movimiento Estudantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), the Puerto Rican and Mexican-American student groups on campus. The organizations work together on some issues of community outreach, such as their joint literacy tutoring program.

fEBRUARY

5, 1993

"Latinos at Yale have a lot in common with Latinos in~ New Haven, despite what many people think," says,!

Christina Gonzalez (CC '94), member of MEChA. ''A lot~ of Latinos at Yale are first or second generation, like the~ Latinos in this city." She also feels relatively few class ten-~ sions as a student at a prestigious, expensive university.~ "The people I meet in New Haven are usually encouraging.\3 They're pleased that I'm studying and tell me to keep at it."~ Language and a need for unity bind the Latinos on~ . commumty. .

"Language ts . one 1! ..tcampus to the greater Launo of our commonalities," says Eva Blanco (CC '94), a mem- ~ her of MEChA. "To create power and movement in any '" community, Latinos have to unite."

Increasingly, Latinos in New Haven have united as voters. Most recently, the city elected its third Latino alderman, Eduardo Perez, in addition to Alderman George Perez¡ and President of the Board of Alderman Tomas Reyes Reyes may run for mayor of New Haven, a testament to the greater power that Latinos still seek.

"In the last few years, Latinos have been voting more, getting more involved," said Eduardo Perez.

"As they become citizens and get more educated, they become more aware of what's going on, of their responsibilities and their rights." In the future, Eduardo Perez hopes to see more Latino candidates.

"Before Reyes, politicians weren't Latinos. Now there are many, and I hope there will be many more."

Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans have come together as service providers and as a voting block, rather than dividing along lines of nationality. With the possibility of a Latino mayor on the horizon, they may be looking at one of the high points of their efforts to bring the community together to fight for their ri&il and needs.

Stephanie Brenowitz is a sophomore in Timothy Dwight College.

THE NEW jouRNAL 9

Closed Doors Emily Bazelon

0

n a walk home from the gym one evening last spring, Yusef Poole (BR '95) and Jason Watt (CC '95) noticed a white female student in front of them looking over her shoulder and then moving out of their path. "She made a great effort to get ou t of our way," said Watt. "She clung to the wall on the side of Morse and looked at us like we were about to attack her."

Black students at Yale report that fellow students, faculty, and police often treat them as if they pose a threat. With deadening regularity, students wh o are not black speed up to get away from black students on the street, ask to see their identification, and slam college gates in their faces. For

<(What is a Yale student, that you assumed I wasn 't one? Why would you stop and question me as opposed to another student?n many black students, suspicion becomes the stuff of daily interactions, so much so that they almost cease to notice it. ''I'm so desensitized," said Rhassan Manning (BK '94).

"This happens a lot to me and my friends, but it's strange to think of it as an issue."

Yale's urban setting brings into sharp focus the question of who belongs on campus. Many students and faculty react warily to people who look like they might not be affiliated with Yal~those whose color or dress stands out from the expected clean-cut student look. Black students often become the targets of such suspicion. The encounters that result may stem from whites' desire to protect themselves against the anonymous dangers of New Haven, yet they take place one-on-one, in the realm of the inescapably personal. As a result, they often undermine black students' sense of themselves as members of the Yale community.

Black students believe that most of the suspicion they face comes from the connection, conscious or unconscious, that whites draw between blacks, New Haven residents, and crime. Split-second judgments based on the assumprion that blacks are trouble create misu nderstandings and worse.

"You think, 'I can't tell a dangerous black person from a Yale student black person,' so the next logical step is to treat 10 THE NÂŁw JouRNAL

them all like outsiders," said Orlando Bishop (PC '94).

The pattern of fear and suspicion that black students face on the street intensifies at campus entry points.

Tension over who has the right of access rises most at college gates and entryway doors-sensitive spots for outsider intrusion. According to Yale's security policy, anyone who tries to get into a college without a key must show his or her ID. But most students apply the policy selectively. While white students hold gates for each other without asking questions, black students say they receive a different kind of treatment. "Often it's hard for someone to open an entryway for me," said Crystal Marie Smith (DC '93). Like many students, she has most frequently met with such . problems on Old Campus. "Last year I'd go to visit a friend there and ask a group of 15 people to open the door, and they'd all say no."

Much of the suspicion from white students expresses itself in a ¡vague pattern of looks, gestures, and uncomfortable moments that black students can neither prove nor ignore. "People close gates in my face, walk faster, or eve9 just hesitate," said Bishop. "A lot of people get startled o'r frightened if they come out and see me in a hallway."

Because these encounters take place in fleeting moments of personal contact, they remain difficult to confront. "With a lot of this stuff it's subtle," Bishop said. "You can't pinpoint it. That's what's frustrating. Over time you see a difference in the way you're treated, but other people can argue that there isn't one if they don't want to see it."

The subtle difference in treatment becomes even more difficult for black students to address when it comes from faculty and administrators. When Fra~gher Williams (CC '92) went to look for a friend one afternoon in the William L. Harkness (WLH) classroom building, a professor watched him as he walked the hallway looking in classroom windows. Williams went up to the second floor, and the professor followed. As Williams started back down the stairs, the professor stood at the bottom and blocked the way. He asked Williams to state his purpose and show his identification.

Williams explained himself to the professor and left WLH rattled and upset. He went to talk to a friend, who advised him to go back. When Williams found the professor, he questioned the faculty member about the reasons for his suspicion. "I asked him: 'What is a Yale student, that you assumed I wasn't one?'" Williams said. "'Why would you stop and question me as opposed to another student?'"

FEBRUARY

5¡ 1993

The professor's answer only made Williams feel worse.

"He said: 'There's been a rash of New Haven people in and out of the building," Williams recalled, "and I thought you were one of them.'" uch responses are common, and they pose a doubleedged problem for black students. On one hand, many feel bitter about whites' assumption that because they are black, they must not go to Yale. But at the same time, black students do not want to disassociate themselves from the New Haven black community. By protesting their treatment, black students risk shifting attitudes of trust and acceptance to include themselves, but not other blacks.

These concerns especially apply to black students' attempts to improve their interactions with the police.

Although black students know that as Yalies they should not have to tolerate suspicion and harassment, they worry that putting the problem into student vs. non-student terms fails to overturn underlying racist stereotypes. "It's messed up in the sense that cops still assume that if you're black, you're a criminal, but if you're a Yale student, -then you're cool," said Eddie Poteat (TO '94). ~ Confrontations with police make black students keenly aware of the shaky ground they stand on. Many report that police are quick to question their place in the Yale community. In November of 1991, a police car approached Shawn Golden (BK '94) just before midnight on Beinecke Plaza. The police officer reported that as he ~-:-~~ drove up, Golden turned to walk away; Golden says that the police officer shined the car's headlights into his face.

The officer got out of the car and asked if Golden knew anything about some typewriters that had been stolen from Woodbridge Hall. Although other students also passed by, he questioned only Golden.

Because Golden was not enrolled at the time and so did not

S

fEBRUARY

5, 1993

have a student ID , the police officer did not believe his claims to be a student. EventuaUy, he let Golden go, but his report of the event remains in Golden's permanent Yale file.

Golden believes that the police officer stopped him because he is a young black male who chooses not to dress like a "typical" Yale student. His assessment exposes an added twist in the question of who gets treated like an outsider on campus. Because appearance is often the basis for suspicion, dress, hair, and personal style play a role in which black students get stopped most. Students who wear "preppy" clothes and look traditionally "clean cut" face fewer questions than those who wear baggy pants, high top sneakers, and baseball jackets. "I have less of a problem than some other people, because I have that 'nice Negro image,"' said Anthony Miles (BR '93). "That's who I am , the way I'm comfortable, but I'm also not deviat-l ing from or chal- ~ lenging the main -~ stream cuI ture. " J; Many black ~ students buy Yale R. hats, book bags, or ~ sweat shirts to iden- :ยง tify themselves; iil others choose to ~ dressj

THE NEW JouRNAL u

conservatively. This strategy helps, but it is far from foolproof. "The way I look," said Miles, "doesn't mean I don't get stopped by the police." orne black students deal with harassment by changing their 'behavior rather than their appe~rance. Some don't drop in on friends without calling first to avoid asking white students to open gates or entryways for them. Some choose to distance themselves from the rest of the student body as a result of the attitudes they perceive around them. "I have my friends, and that's who I hang out with," said Kassem Lucas (TC '94). "I've accepted the situation and dealt with it."

For some students, encounters with suspicion fuel the urge to move off campus. In their own apartments, black students can close the door, at least part of the time, on the problems they face at Yale. Some black students have moved to a cluster of streets behind Pierson College where they can make a space for themselves in a predominantly black neighborhood. ''I'd rather be in a neighborhood where I feel like I belong, and here on Edgewood I know that no one's going to stop me," said Valdir Barbosa (TD '94). "For me, moving off was a matter of leaving Yale so that I could feel comfortable in my own home."

The number of black students who move off campus matches the 12 percent of the general Yale undergraduate population. But the reasons that bla'ck students give for moving off differ from those of white students. Black students often speak of deep-rooted feelings of alienation and cultural difference. As a result, they often do not maintain close ties with campus life. ''A lot of black students who move off never hang out in their colleges," said Smith. "They go to register, drop off their schedule, and that's it."

For other black students, the decision to remain on campus reflects a commitment to dealing with the prob-

S

12 THE NEw JouRNAL

Anthony Miles (BR '93) faces questions at Yale gates despite his conservative dress.

lems they have encountered at Yale.

Although the professor who stopped Williams in WLH later published an apology in the Yale Daily News, for Williams the episode had a lasting impact. "That professor put me at a loss," he said. "It was the low point when I really lost confidence in Yale. I was hurt and shocked at the time, and it still bothers me." Yet in spite of that incident and others, Williams put aside the impulse to leave campus and lived in his college throughout his four years as an undergraduate. "I made a conscious decision to keep a presence in my college," said Williams. "I wanted to stay in Calhoun because there are so few black students there. " Whatever personal decisions they make in terms of how and where they

live at Yale, experiences of harassment lead black students to call on Yale's white students, administration, and police to examine their own behavior.

Only if the white community devotes energy to finding solutions, they say, will the problem begin to fade.

To date, the police department has been the part of the Yale community most involved in dealing with black students' complaints. In the past two years that effort has begun to pay off, and the relationship between police and black students has improved.

Both police and students give much of the credit to communitybased policing, the patrol system Yale Police shifted to in 1990. Between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., Yale officers monitor fEBRUARY

5â&#x20AC;˘ 1993

MAIN GARDEN regular beats on foot. Their job includes meeting with neighborhood residents to determine the sensitive areas and issues of their beat, and then working with a supervisor to come up with solutions. "Community- b ased policing is a change to a more proactive approach," said Assis tan t Police C hief James Perotti. "When police are that involved in their beat, they know what's going on and that earns them a lot of support." Officers on patrol even have beepers with numbers that they can give to the people on their beat.

Eventually, the university plans to use the system around the clock.

W

th community-based policmg has come another innovation that seeks to ease tensions between police and community-renewed emphasis on sensitivity training. The police department claims that every new officer receives such training, which includ es day-long seminars on how to handle the myriad. issues that arise in a diverse community, such as hate crime and harassment.

Some police have sought to reach out to Yale's black students in more direct ways as well. Even before communitybased p olicing started, a few of the black officers on the Yale police force spent time in the Afro-American Cultural Center getting to know students.

The police departm ent's attempts to address bl ack students' concerns have not gone unnoticed. "It's gotten a lot better since freshman year, since they sta rted the com munity-based policing and the sensitivity training," said Poteat. "The police are getting to know people within the community."

In general, black students point to a m easurable improvement in the pattern of their interactions w ith police.

"Freshman year, I had some problems with police," said Mangum. " But this year, they've been a lot more friendly and personable."

Changes in police training and procedure point the way to steps for fEBRUAJlY

5, 1993

improving race relations among students as well. Some black students would like to see sensitivity workshops on race for incoming students, along the lines of the safety and alcohol discussions that first-year students now attend. Next semester, the Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY) plans tg sponsor a foru m on harassment, open to students of all colors, with

Some black students would like to see sensitivity workshops on race for incoming students. police and university officials. BSAY hopes to raise awareness among white students who may not have given a lot of thought to their own behavior.

Flemming Norcott, an Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court who teaches th e political science course Blacks and the Law, supports BSAY's stategy. He advises frustrated students to organize if they want change. "The university is certainly responsible for taking more affirmative steps towards solution-making," said No rcott. "Som etimes they may be slower than we want them to be, but that doesn't mean we can't try to push them."

Norcott believes that as an academic community, the university offers a unique opportunity for working toward easing racial tensions. "The university is fertile ground, m aybe the most fertile in the world, for resolving misunderstandings rationally," he said.

"If we can't do that at the university, then where can we? This is the perfect place for attempting to understand each other."

Black students also speak of creating su ch an environment of understanding. On the personal level of day-

o/1

fj] Chinese food

376 Elm Street â&#x20AC;˘ New Haven

TEL: J203) 777-3747

OPE 7 DAYS A WEEK MON.-THURS.: 11AM- 1 AM FRI. : 11 AM-2 AM SAT.: 12 NOON-2 AM SUN.: 12 NOON-12 MID $12 minimum delivery for Yale Students only.

Visit CAJr Mid-Cancus Cenler b- FREE Coooseling cr.d FREE [)iaglOSiic Testing.

Call 789-1169

KAPLAN .................. "'--

LIFE across from Old Campus is so convenient.

With apartments ranging from a studio to a 3 bedroom , we h ave something to fit your lifestyle.

Call or just stop in at our office.

SRDC 1032 Chapel Street New Haven 777-3017 Business Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:3o-s:oo THE New jouRNAL 13

..... ~

CALL NOW!!

9 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, 498-8271 14 THE NEW JouRNAL

to-day interaction, they call on white students to recognize their actions and consider th e reasons behind them. "If every student acknowledges that yes, I did hesitate, or look at you funny, o r decide not to open the gate, it would help," said Bishop. "It doesn't mean you're a worse person, just that you've learned the lesson well. If you don't acknowledge the problem you' ll never stop doing those things to people ..,, Black students also believe that whites need to address the way in which racially-based suspicion affects their attitudes toward blacks who live outside the walls of Yale. They claim that the widely-held assumption that black New Haven residents commit most of the crime on. campus is misplaced. "I really think that if people would stop watching the black people who are walking around Yale and start watching their roommates and hallmates, they would find out where their things are going," said Bishop.

"The general public doesn't have the kind of access to Yale to steal all the things that get stolen."

As they look toward the future, black students hope to pass much of the responsibility for change to white students and the ¡Yale administration.

Although they may support efforts like BSAY's symposium, most black students don't want to spend a large part of thei r undergraduate years educating th ose around them.

Instead, they put most of their energy into making their own experience of life on campus the best it can be.

"I don't like the looks I get or the way people react to me sometimes, but I don't feel like it's goin g to change anytime soon," said Mangum. "I do what I can to stop it, but I have to do what I came to do here. I can't let this stuff get in my. way."

1811

Emily Bazelon, a senior in Pierson College, is managing editor ofTNJ. FEBRUARY

s. 1993

An Elusive Definition joshua Civin t's Friday afternoon outside Yale Station. As a student opens the door to the post office, she hears a persistent voice in her ear: "Are you Jewish? A re you Jewish?" A black hat, a beard, and a hand full of pamphlets stretch towards her.

For Jewish Yale students, the question posed by th e Lubavitcher Orthodox H asidic Jews who run the Mitzvah Tank underscores the dilemma of choosing how and whether they define themselves as Jews. Most students spend time trying to integrate identity into community. Before Jewish students can determine this, they must figure out what, after all, is a Jew. Certainly th:e term "Jewish" describes a member of a specific group. But is Jewish a religious, cultural, racial, or ethnic designation, or some combination thereof? Ever since Moses Simons (BA 1809) the first Jew to attend Yale, arrived on campus, the lives of Jewish students have reflected a variety of approaches to the question of Jewish $ identity.

Historically, Jews have not always had the luxury of finding their own definition of Judaism. Instead, mainstream society, through both overt and implicit prejudice, imposed one on them. For many, the Holocaust stands as a devastating testament to social labelling ofJews. "If it had not been for the Nazis," said history p rofessor Peter Gay, "if someone asked me if I was a Jew, I would have said no." Jean-Paul Sartre took this perspective to an extreme in his book AntiSemite and the jew. "If the Jew did not exist," he w rote, "the anti-Semite would invent him." man~ As Yale, like American society, has become more accepting of different cultures, the luxury of tolerance has ereaced the difficult task of selfdefinition. For many, Jewish identity involves more than a birthright. Rather, it rests on a conscious decision. "I definitely chink you can stop being Jewish by deciding it's not important to you any more," said Angela Warnick OE '94) .

I

"More important than having some Jewish blood is that you do things that show that you are Jewish. " Some take Warnick's position a step further. Mitch Zacks (SM '95), Hillel Executive Committee Co-Coordinator, believes that to be Jewish, students must in some way affiliate themselves with the Jewish community. "I think if you are a Jew at Yale, you must at the very least come co the Kosher Kitchen once in your four years, '.' he said. "Or if not that, find some way to contribute to Jewish life on campus."

Many ritually observant Jews like Zacks believe that the repetition of Jewish ceremony and worship sustains the identity of the group. Orthodox sects believe that only those who obey strict laws set out in the H ebrew Bible and Talmud count as true Jews.

"Hasidim insist that either a Jew serves God and is mamish a J ew-really a Jew-or is a Jew awaiting full expression of his or her Judaism," said Rabbi James Ponet (TO '68).

But Jews who do not follow traditional observances agree neither with this Orthodox argument nor with Zacks' minimalist stand ard. "As a religion, Judaism does not have a strong part in my life," said Beth Gardiner (PC '93). "But instinctively, I guess l would define myself as Jewish." Secular Jews tend to see Judaism as based on common culture, although they may not feel comfortable specifying its parameters.

To others, the concept of a cultural definicion ofJudaism seems nonsensical. "I don't think I'm touched by Jewish culture at all," said Gay, who rarely goes to synagogue and who holds classes on the High H o lidays, the holiest days of the Jewish year. "I'm not even sure what it means. Is there a Jewish way of conducting a symphony?"

If a broad notion of shared culture cannot bond all the divergent Jewish viewpoints and practices to{;ether, can

For common historical memory stands as the only strand ofjewish identity that all jews can¡share.

FEBRUARY

5,

1993

THE NEw JouRNAL 15

race? Judaic studies professor Paula Hyman dismisses such a claim. "Not only is it disturbing that race was used as a club to destroy Jews," she said, "but you just have to go to Israel and see Jews not only from Ethiopia but from North Africa, the Middle East, the Soviet Union, and Western Europe to know that Jews do not constitute a

raJ." However, the concept of Jewish identity as a product of biology still holds for some facers of Jewish practice. Because Judaism traditionally passes from mother to child, anyone with a Jewish mother can claim Israeli citizenship. Ponet, however, pointed out a limitation to using biology to define who is Jewish. "You can convert to becoming a Jew," he said. "You cannot convert to becoming an MricanAmerican."

For many, a common history stands as the only strand of Jewish identity that all Jews can share.

"Avraham Enfeld once said that we consider that each of us personally received the ten commandments on Mr. Sinai," Warnick said. Shared memory, whether focused on the Holocaust, the Biblical Exodus, or even the aura of a childhood Passover Seder, ties Jews into what Hyman calls "a religio-ethnic legacy."

But some Jews question whether the minimalist definition of a people linked by history can sustain modern Judaism. "Everyone has numerous identities, and if I have to prioritize, Judaism is the one I would place the most faith in," said Peter Beinart (BR '93) bur my Jewish identity feels a little hollow. I have a much richer grasp of the intellectual components of being an American than of being a Jew." Others wonder whether Jewish continuity can rest on symbols of the past rather than a vibrant self-perpetuating culture. "In contemporary America, secular Jewish identity has no structural basis," said Hyman. "We are losing touch with the identity of past x6 THE Nsw JouRNAL

generations, which was rooted in a culture that derived from Eastern Europe and was associated with the Yiddish language." n the surface, Yale's Jewish community seems to defY any dire predictions of total assimilation. Ponet sees a positive contrast between today's university environment and the Yale of his student days. "There were many Jews who were hidden," he said. "Today's Jewish students wouldn't think of shedding their Jewishness. It's a responsibility, an opportunity, and sometimes a burden. But it's who they are."

Nevertheless, the few visible Jewish campus activities create the illusion that the Yale Jewish community has more active members than is actually the case. Some professors have noticed a trend away from broad participation. ''A large group of Jews have become less involved while a small group of students has become more involved and more open about the assertion of their Jewishness," said Hyman.

The small core of active Jews on

0

campus provides the backbone for activities that range from the largely Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, to student groups like Yale Friends of Israel, to three different versions of Shabbat services. However, the majority of campus Jews do not participate in such organizations. "It disturbs me that there are perceived to be two groups of Jews on campus: secular Jews who see themselves as liberal and progressive, and those who are far more active in the Jewish community and more ethnic-centered," Beinart said. "I have friends who are still very uncomfortable going to the Kosher Kitchen because they feel their beliefs are not really accepted."

Some Yalies who feel alienated in the HilJel setting express their Jewish values in other ways. "I don't think the religious life of the colJege is thriving, but I think the intellectual Jewish life definitely is," said Warnick. Many Jews investigate their heritage by taking courses in Jewish history; others express shared political views in the Liberal Parry of the Yale Political Union. For these Jews, involvement in Hillel-sponsored activities does not fEBRUARY

5, 1993

~':7 adequately measure a sense of identifi- Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, cation. scheduled to open in the fall of 1994, The divisions in Yale's Jewish to bring together the disparate elecommunity largely arise from the ments of Yale's Jewish community. "I evolving debate over the role that believe it will provide a transformation minority groups should play in the (( T: university. At the beginning of the century, Jews and white ethnics at Yale tried to gain acceptance by mastering the curriculum and the extra-curricular activities already in place. In contrast, the succeeding wave of nonWestern ethnic groups began to question the very nature of the universiry curriculum. Today, secular Jews view ethnicity and religion as private matters, while an emerging group of more of Jewish life in the most dramatic active and observant Jewish students sense," said Ponet. "Corporately we are promote the assertive concept of idenhidden at Yale as Jews. Our center will t ity advocated by many students of be the place where the living fruits of eolor.

Judaism will be accessible to everyThese Jews support increased unione. " Some students hope the center versity recognition of Jewish ethnicity. will provide a social focus for Yale's Some see the need for a Dean of Jewish community-a place that will Jewish students to represent the needs be comfortably and inclusively Jewish. of Jews and mediate relationships in "There's a lot of fragmentation in the the community, like the other ethnic communiry because all of the activities deans. They point out that Jews a_~ take place.separately," said Warnick.

Yale do not have an activity space lik~ "Having a center will unify the groups the cultural houses or a worship space and maybe people will finally start to t h at parallels the churches that Yale hang out together."

Christians attend. "Most on-campus The hope, uncertainty, struggle, J ewish activities take place in base- and conflict that Jewish students ments," said Zacks. University dining express point to their attempts to conhalls also fail to cater to Jewish stu- struct a modern ethnicity. As Jewish dents by not ,routinely providing students w.resde to find their own kosher meals, so kosher students must sense of Jewish identity, some also eat at the student-run and donationteach classes at the religious school run supplemented kosher kitchen. "It is

by Yale Hillel. The priorities and never easy to be a Jew," said Zacks. work of the undergraduate teachers "But the university makes it harder." provide a clue to the shape that their Others maintain that Jews as a Judaism will take. "We try to give the group occupy a relatively comfortable kids a sense of the fun and intellectual position in the Yale community. "Jews excitement which is what Judaism are an established minority at Yale. really should be about," said Adam We've arrived," said Ponet. "A minoriShear (SY ' 93). But "what Judaism is ty by Yale's defmition is a group that is really about" remains naggingly openended.

18) economically, socially, politically, and therefore educationally suffering and impoverished. But we've broken joshua Civin, a freshperson in Calhoun Colkge, is associate production manager through those barriers.'~ Some look to the planned Joseph ojTNJ.

Jews are an established minority at Yale. We've arrived, "said Rabbi j ames Ponet.

fEBRUARY

5• 1993

Everything fr om Apple Br an Muffins to Zucchini Lasagne Eat in or take ou t delicious vegetarian food.

1000 Ch a pel Street at College.

8 a.m. til 10 p.m d aily.

562-3888 Under strict Rabbinical Supervision

clatres Remember you r last gynecological e xam? ... M aybe it's time for a change.

Planned Parenthood of Connecticut offers top-quality reproductive health care at an affordable price. Call and compare. Then make an appointment with Planned Parenthood of Connecticut: 865-5158.

Planned Parenthood of Connecticut, Inc. 48 Howe Street (in the YWCA)

TH£ N£w JouRNAL 17

The Dating Game Suzanne Kim ian-American students who date interracially are bombarded by competing pressures. On one side lie acial stereotypes. On the ocher stands the disapproval of fellow Asian-Americans, many of whom believe that members of their community should date exclusively within their ethnic group.

A recen t article in GQ magazine calls the Asian-American woman "the ultimate accessory. " Statements like these co ntribute co the image of Asian-American women as submissive and sexually passive, says an Asian-American student. " People think that they're the perfect sex partners," she said, adding that some men deliberately seek out Asian-American women for that reason .

"They have Asian woman fetishes. In my Japanese language classes I met men who talk abo t 'conquering Japan' and how they want to marry Japanese women," she said "They; t a I k about h 0 w they'd e a II y like to go work tn Japan and meet geisha.

This is typical fare from white guys in the classroom."

Awareness of these preconceptions has created suspicion in the minds of some AsianAmerican women. "I'm wary because I'd rather not be objectified," said Anne Lin (ES '95). Her caution extended to the initial stages of her present interracial relarionsrup. "I wasn't sure if 18 THÂŁ NEW JouRNAL

he liked me because of me, or because I was Asian," she said.

Jack Hasegawa, general secretary of Dwight Hall, notes an imbalance in the gender ratio of interracial couples, blaming the pressures put on men to iniriate dating for the fewer number of Asian-American men who date outside of their race. "There's an external message from white society that says, 'We're not sure about you, we don't want you to cross the racial line in dating,"' he said. " For an AsianAmerican woman to go out with a white guy means she got asked. But if an Asian-American guy goes around asking white girls out, you're going to run into trouble."

Lin attributes the imbalance to society's conventional measures of attractiveness. "I think Asian-American women fit the white standard of beauty more perfecdy than Asian men because most Asian women are petite with small bone structure and high cheek bones," she said. "But Asian men are generally smaller chan white men, and that wouldn't be considered as beautiful. " The mainstream media has translated the physical characteristics of the Asian-American male into a prototype of asexuality, explained Quentin Lee (GRD '93). A director of several independent fUms, Lee counters the desexualization of the Asian-American male in Anxi~ty of ln~prmion and th~ Oth~rn~ss Machin~. In his film, Lee presents the AsianAmerican man as one who wants and enjoys sex by tracing his relationship with his biracial male lover. "My video responds to the mainstream media desexualization of the Asian male," he said. "Asian males are portrayed in rather desexualized roles, which obviously creates a sense of anxiety and a need to become resexualized in the western masculine stereotype."

But Lee's film practically stands alone. Hollywood productions rarely foc us on the love interests of AsianAmerican male characters. Hasegawa points to Th~ Karau Kid movie series as one of Hollywood's recent attempts to tread the ground of Asian-American romance. The moviemakers suddenly imbue the previously asexual Mr. Miagi with a desire for romance, but only after he returns to his native Japan. "In order for him to have a love interest, they have to fly him from Los Angeles to Okinawa to meet a woman who greets him wearing a kimono. If you've ever been to Okinawa, you'd know that the number of women who wear kimono is very small. But it's the only way that Pat Morita can have a relationship with a woman," said Hasegawa, a Japanese-American who has himself challenged FEBRUARY

5, 1993

the traditional plodine by marrying a white woman.

Like their female counterparts, Asian-American men get pegged as passive and submissive. "If you go to this gay bar in San Francisco, it's basically just white men picking up on Asian men," said Lee. "Certainly the stereotype out there is that Asian men are more passive."

Some blame the media representation of Asian-American men for creating sexual stereotypes. "A lot of white gay men are looking for passive, submissive men and they think that Asian men will be that. The media representation makes them appear passive," said a white student who is dating an Asian-American man. ressures from peer groups can force Asian-Americans who date interracially to choose between their ethnicity and their relationships. As a result, resentment of stereotypes adds to a fear of betraying their race. Some AsianAmerican women believe that men who react negatively co interracial relationships do so because' they feel threatened.

"The first time I went to a KASY [Korean-American Students at Yale] meeting, I overheard a man saying that he adamantly believed that Asian women should not be dating non-Asian men because it made Asian men feel inferior," said Jeannie Rhee (TC '94).

Another Asian-American student active in the AsianAmerican community at Yale has found it particularly difficult to balance her personal life and her politics. "When I first started dating someone white, I had a lot of personal problems," she said. "I thought that in order to be politically active and aware, my personal life had to fit in with my politics. I ended up realizing that I have a right co be happy and that I don't have to live my life according to a straight identity politics line."

Rhee, who is also dating a white man, does not feel that she must make a choice between her allegiance to her race and her interracial social life. "I don't feel like my relationship in any way hinders my expression of my own identity and eth.nicity," said Rhee. She does not have close ties to the Asian-American community at Yale, in part because of remarks like the one she heard at the KASY meeting. "Those attitudes make me hesitant about the way I would fit in, regardless of my relationship," she said.

Some Asian-American students who date interracially have discovered that prejudice can be implicit as well as overt.

To them, the attitude that race plays no role in interracial relationships seems like passive racism. "In a lot of ways I'm

P

fEBRUARY 5, 1993

afraid that people are so accepting of my relationship because they don't perceive me to be 'Asian,'" Rhee said. "The acceptability and respectability comes from the fact that I don't have very close ties to the Asian community here."

Rhee believes that the interracial nature of relationships cannot be ignored. "I think you can go too far in the other direction, where people can be blind to the fact that I'm Asian, or that they are dealing with an interracial couple," she said. "In a lot of ways it defines who we are as a couple, and it defines who I am as a person."

Some students claim that race does not factor into their dealings with each other or with their peer groups. Rachael Nevins (BK '95), a white woman who is dating an AsianAmerican man, said, "The difference in race has never been a problem in any real way. It's not something that I really think about." ...o~~~~~!llllâ&#x20AC;˘!!!â&#x20AC;˘ll!!!...:,.

But for others, their interracial relationships take on

t

c a

nature against their will. "I'm not going out with him as a political statement," Rhee said. "It's unfortunate that it has to be perceived that way."

Ia)

Suzanne Kim, a fr~shp~on in Saybrook Colleg~. is on

th~ suzff

ojTNJ. THE NEw jOURNAL

19

A Pledge to Belong john Gorham

'(B

eing in a black sorority is like being in a family.

You are not constantly reminded that you are a woman or that you are black," said Julia Gore (CC '93), president of the black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. The structure of a black sorority gave Gore what her life at Yale lacked. Yet the concept of ethnic fraternities and sororities remains unfamiliar and at times controversial to the majority of white students. At best, most have a hazy sense of these low-profile organizations, which include a Jewish fraternity, a Latino fraternity and sorority, three black fraternities, and two black sororities. Members of these organizations defend ethnic fraternities and sororities as support mechanisms in an environment often hostile to their needs. However, other students claim that ethnic greek organizations encourage a separatist mentality among both members and non-members.

In contrast to their non-ethnic counterparts, ethnic fraternities and sororities emphasize community service over social drinking. "You're not supposed to get drunk with your pin on," said one sorority sister. A separate national governing body administers the black organizations.

Frequendy members belong to New Haven chapters composed of a variety of surrounding schools. The role ethnic greek organizations play in their ethnic community on the Yale campus and in the larger Yale student population, however, most distinguishes them from other fraternities and sororities.

To m~ny members, joining an ethnic fraternity or sorority provides a niche in a university environment they find indifferent. Diahann Billings (ES '94) of Alpha Kappa Alpha claims that as a black woman, white students often pigeonhole her views. "For instance, it's commonly thought that black women are pro-choice,,. she said. "But your sorority sisters would not assume that about you."

M'Balia Singley (SY '94) believes that Yale offers few opportunities for women to bond intensely. Women of color, according to Singley, especially need this outlet.

"People of color here are very thirsty," she said. "They need places where they can vent their creative talents-where people respect them totally on the basis of their intellect."

While Singley chose not to belong to a black sorority because she found her own support system within the campus artS community, she sympathizes with women who feel a need to join.

Lambda Upsilon Lambda, a Latino fraternity established last year, tries to foster support and ethnic identity in 20 THE NEW JouRNAL

much the same way as black sororities. During the rush process, pledges incorporate Spanish and pre-Columbian symbolism into their activities, frequently in the form of chants and songs.

The Lambdas also envision their fraternity as a way to unite the entire Latino community and create a dialogue with the larger Yale student population. LUL, in addition to being the abbreviation of the fraternity, also stands for c'La Unidad Latino," the Latino Unity. Geoff Heredia (CC '93), one of the founding members, finds this goal elusive in a Latino community that frequently divides along national, language, and class lines. Both Chicanos and Puerto Ricans, for example, have separate student groups.

Heredia believes LUL can share goals with the two organizations, especially in .regards to ethnic diversity in the curriculum, faculty, and student body, and also represent the entire Latino community.

"We want to work with everyone," he said.

"We don't want to isolate ourselves from Yale. We want to be an integral part of this university."

Like traditional greek organizations, ethnic fraternities and sororities place a great emphasis on close ties among the members. "I know I can always count on my brothers," said Kassem Lucas (TC '94), a member of the black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi. "My bond with my brothers is much stronger than any other relationship I have at Yale." Other black fraternity members, like Keith Price (PC '94) of FEBRUARY

5â&#x20AC;˘ 1993

Omega Psi Phi, brand themselves co signify their life-long allegiance and commitment to the fraternity. · Members claim rhat the hazing in black fraternities, also called "going on line," forges a sense of brotherhood.

Banned in 1990 by the national black greek council, going on line often involved whippings, beatings, and social probation in which members did nor speak to anyone except their fellow pledges and rhe brothers of the fraternities.

While all black fraternities officially accept the ban, the practice continues in certain fraternities at Yale, albeit more secretly. One brother said chat he opposed the ban because it prevented the new members of the fraternity from devel. . opmg a umque shared experience that has · historical meaning.

"The ten originaL brothers who founded my fraternity in the early 1900's were the only blacks on campus," he said. "No one would talk to them anyway."

T h e Latino fraternity, LUL, also has a stringent rush process. LUL puts pledges on social probation that forbids non-essential conversations in public, although no hazing or branding occurs. "We don't demean our pledges," said Heredia. "We're not here to break them down.''

While the intake process may be a positive experience for fraternity members, some non-members believe the practice leads to separatism. Adam Marks (BK '95), a member of the non-ethnic fraternity Beta Theta Pi. recognizes F!ARUARY 5· 1993

~

the importance of ethnic greek life for its members, yet sees g LUL's social probation process as a needless attempt to alienate him from friends who wanted to pledge the frater- ~ nity. "They are hazing the Yale community at large--defy-¢: ing any attempt at unity on the Yale campus," he said. ].

i'

L

<3 eas believes that white students, not students of~

i-

color, segregate themselves. He explains that whites arely come to any of the parties or lectures sponsored~ by the fraternity. "I don't think there is a relationship ~ between black fraternities and sororities and the larger Yale"'<: community,, said Lucas. "I don't think people take the time to figure out what we do." He considers the exclusion issue a matter of personal preference. "There's no exclusion," Lucas said. "I encourage anyone who wants to join the organization and who is dedicated to the fraternity to rush. It doesn't matter what color you are." However, no white has rushed the Yale chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi since its inception in 1985.

Some students of color see ethnic fraternities as unnecessarily exclusionary and secretive, evenin the black community. One student recalled attending an Alpha Phi Alpha party Jast year with a lot of black fresh people. "There was this big group of Alphas hanging out and dancing by themselves," he said. "Then there was everybody else just waiting to see the step show." The student compared this party to a Kappa Alpha Psi party he attended at Wesleyan where blacks and whites came in equal numbers. "Inside it was booming, and you could tell that was the place to be that night on campus," he said. "It was kind of like one of those big Yale parties that everyone goes to--like the Safety Dance or the Saybrook Courtyard Party.''

The student said he does not want to join a black fraternity because he sees them as removed from the Yale student body and even from the black student community.

Statistics from the Registrar's office support his claim. Of the 157 black males on the campus, 15, according to Lucas, have joined black fraternities. The New Haven chapter of Omega Psi Phi has only one member on the Yale campus.

The predominately Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi appears the most casual in its treatment of the issue of ethnic identity. lcs members acknowledge that Jews do not share the embattled status of other ethnic groups on campus. "For Jews to come to Yale is not a big deal," said AE Pi brother Mike lchenwald (SM '95). "I don't think that you can see yourself as a Jew and a minority at Yale." He estiTHE NEw JoUllNAL

21

This Valentine's Day, play Post Office at PAK MAIL. 865-5540

HEY YALE! Send your

45 High Street Corner of Chapel & High Fax: 865-0722

sweetheart a Valentine's Day Balloon in a box! includes chocolate ki~ses, mylar balloon & card, in a box- all for $9.95 (plus shipping).

UPS Authorized shipping outlet US MAIL • FAX • KEYS COPIES• BOXES, TAPE BALLOONS And much more ...

mated that AE Pi indues 40 of the 800 professed Jewish students on campus.

"I wish I could say that we're a Jewish fraternity, but really what we are is a fraternity of Jews."

Marks, who is Jewish, thought briefly about joining AE Pi upon arriving at Yale but quickly changed his

TWO FOR TUESDAY! BUY ANY FOOTLONG OR SIX INCH SUB AND MEDIUM DRINK AND

GET A SECOND SUB FREE! THIS OFFER IS GOOD TUESDAYS BETWEEN 11 AM AND 7PM ONLY. NO COUPON IS NEEDED. LIMITED TIME OFFER HIGHER PRICE PREVAILS

THIS OFFER ONLY AVAILABLE AT

1179 CHAPEL ST

,.SU B W R V"':J

12noon-12midnight

15 WHITNEY AVE

787-1030 place to belong.

2-for-1 College Night Wednesdays 9 pm to close 2-for-1 drinks, drafts, and domestic pitchers w/ Yale ID

Friday Happy Hour 4 pm to 7 pm No cover w/ Yale ID Huge complimentary buffet 2-for-1 drinks, drafts, domestic pitchers

PIZZA SLICES ALWAYS AVAILABLE

1 Broadway, New Haven 22

THE NEw JouRNAL

mind. " I wanted to be a part of a group that was not coming from a common background," he said. "It would have been too comfortable to join a Jewish fraternity." Indeed, Marks found that joining a non-ethnic fraternity enhanced his cultural identity. "Being in this group where I can see the differences between different ethnicities, I can understand more of what it's like to be Jewish," he said.

Some minority students say that ethnic greek organizations end up fragmenting their own ethnic communities on campus, or at least meddling in affairs best reserved for other kinds of student groups. Several members of black fraternities and sororities acknowledge the tension between the fEBRUARY

5, 1993

COFFEE BEANS AND TEAs FROM AROUND 1liE WORLD

GREAT COFFEE FINE P ASTRIES DECENT PEOPLE

different black greek organizations.

The ban on hazing in particular divided the community, with some organizations supporting and some opposing the ban.

Student groups of color do not always appreciate ethnic greek organ izations' attempts at ethnic unity, h owever well- intentioned. Jose Montes, a member of the Puerto R ican student group Despierta Bo ricua, believes that LUL's desire to bring together the Latino community is misguided. "All Spanishspeaking people get thrown into this amorphous term of Latino," he said.

Montes claims that Puerto Ricans di ffer from Chicanos-the other l arge Spanish-speaking group on campus-culturally, geographically, and in terms of their migration patt ern into the U.S. He acknowledged that D.B. and LUL share some goals and did not rule out the possibili ty of working together, but pointed out that LUL, which has a h igh percentange of MexicanAmerican s, naturally identifies more with the Chicano community than with the Puerto Rican community.

"When D.B. wants Puerto Rican studies in the curriculum," he said, "we advocate by ourselves."

At present, ethnic greek organizations involve only a small p ercentage of Yale students. However, last weekend the new Latina sorority h eld its first rush event, and plans are under way to start a Jewish sorority. As these groups become a larger presence o n campus, the controversy su rrounding them may grow. "Ethnic fraternities and sororities are good i n that they allow min ority groups to sustain their id entity in a larger community," said Marks. "But that doesn't mean that people should isolate them selves."

1111

foh n Gorham is a Saybrook Co/kg~.

FEBRUARY

s. 1993

sophomor~

in

776-5063 OPEN 7 D AYS

316 ELM STREET UNTIL

I AM

ACROSS FROM YALE Co-OP

A Coffee House to Talk About "Best coffee, cappuccino, caffe mocha and espresso in New Haven."

- CT Magazine, May 1991 Smoking and Non-Smoking Sections Available

c

c

WALKER • WDEN

c ...

G IFTS • ANTIQUES • HOMEWARE • GALLERY "Good grooming can take 20 years off a woman's age ... but you can't fool a long flight of stairs."

- Marlene Dietrich ( 1902-1992) Save 15% with this ad 680 Boston Post Road Corner of Whitney & Grove Guilford • 458-9368 New Haven • 865-8196

YQCC Paork

. .. -: 11

......

--

c

Yale Quick

Copy Center 149 York Street 432-COPY (432-2679) 8to 6 :30

J1l

H.lgb.

J ~

Monclay-l"riday

Resumes, Tabletents, Posters, Course material, Typesetting from Macintosh disks, & whatnot

Copies only 4¢ •per copy for more th&n ten ooples ot the same orlg1D&l; the price 18 4 " cents ea.c:h for one to ten ooples.

THE NEW jOURNAL 23

Integration Remembered Erik Meers

.

F

rom 1701 to 1870, Yale remained a whites-only institution. After the admission of the first black undergraduate, for decades only a handful more followed. In the early 60s, Yale inched up the number ofblacks to several per class, and by the end of the decade, as national consciousness focused upon such racial inequality, the university began to recruit actively. The stories below come from three AfricanAmerican men who attended Yale at different periods during its transformation from white bastion to integrated institution.

Growing up in New Haven, Levi Jackson (DC '50) always thought of Yale as the place where the rich kids went to school. Yale seemed unreachable not because he was black and virtually all Yalies were white, but because Yale · students seemed so smart and wealthy. But Jackson's football coach at Hillhouse High School convinced him to apply to Yale.

Yale accepted Jackson, and he deferred enrollment to serve in World War II. When he entered in 1946, the G.I. Bill financed $500 of his $600 tuition. To save money, Jackson lived at home in Westville and took the trolley to <;ampus each morning. He made the varsity football team as a freshman and divided his time between practice, study, and work. While his teammates dined at the "training table," which served special meals to athletes, Jackson waited tables in Commons to pay for his meals.

Jackson's excitement in attending Yale screened out some of the racism he encountered. "I went around in a daze.

I never realized I'd be a student at Yale. It was like a fairy tale," said Jackson. "Everybody was good until they proved themselves bad." The kindness ofJackson's classmates also insulated him from some ugly racial incidents. One Saturday night in his senior year, Jackson took his wife to a fraternity dance.

When an alumnus of the fraternity saw Jackson talking with some teammates, the man started moving toward him, saying, 'I'm gonna get that nigger.' Jackson's teammates formed a circle around him. As several football players escorted the man our, Jackson went on talking, unaware of what had happened. He did not even know about the incident until his wife told him as they left the dance.

Jackson only began to feel truly part ofYale in his senior year, when he became the first black man tapped by three senior societies: Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, and Berzelius. "I was told that if you were tapped by Skull and Bones you automatically got a $1 0,000-a-year job, but I wanted to earn my own way," said Jackson. He chose Berzelius.

24

THE NEw jOURNAL

"Being in the society gave me the feeling that I belonged. I felt that I was finally getting the real Yale experience."

In the early 60s, as national attention focused on legal discrimination in Southern school systems, Ivy League universities recognized that their admissions policies paralleled segregation.

Admissions officers started to look tentatively for black applicants from the best inner-city public schools. At the same time, the first African-American students to attend prestigious prep schools began to apply to Yale.

When Ronnie Wilmore (ES '65) entered Yale as one of four black students in his class, Yale's tiny black population shocked him. But unlike Jackson, Wilmore did have a small black peer group, and he quickly bonded with the other blacks in his class. Rather than feeling star-struck by Yale, Wilmore's black classmates wanted to change the institution. Together they lobbied to pick up the glacial pace of , Yale's integration efforts. "The mere fact that there were four of us in a class was as racist as you could get," said Wilmore. The black students brought their concerns to then President A. Whitney Griswold. "We told Griswold that it wasn't right that at a great university like Yale there were only four blacks representing only two cities in our class," he recalled.

While Wilmore and one of his roommates grew up in poor families, the other two came from middle-class backgrounds not that different from many white students at Yale. Income levels aside, the four found the bond of race to · be a powerful uniting force, and they lived together in Ezra Stiles College after their freshman year. Their decision to room together demonstrated their need for solidarity. "We felt that we had no choice," said Wilmore.

Throughout his time at Yale, Wilmore sensed that blacks seemed foreign to most Yale undergraduates. "These folks saw black people in the kitchen and cleaning up, but they did not see them as equals," he said. After growing up poor in New Haven, Wilmore found that his experience at Yale held special meaning. His dorm in Stiles stood justminutes away from the housing project where his mother lived. He went home frequently to see her and often bumped into her on the street. "Once I was on my way to Payne Whitney Gym, and I saw my mother waiting to catch the bus on Broadway. She had just gotten back from cleaning some white woman's home. I stopped, hugged, and kissed her," recalled Wilmore. "That was one of the few FEBRUARY

5·

1993

Lroi jackson (DC '50} was th~ first black captain ofth~ Yale football uam. times I had this funny feeling of how different being at Yale was for me."

Wlun Ins!~ Clark b~cam~ admissions dir~ctor in th~ fat~ 60s, brought an mtirely new philosophy to minority admissions.

Clark dramatically increas~d th~ numb~r ofblack studmts p~r class, favoring black applicants from s-egregated and urban schools who showed academic promis~ but who would not hav~ traditionally r~ceived attention. During Clark's tenur~. Yal~ also admitud uv~ral Asian-Am~ricans in ~ach class and b~cam~ mor~ div~rs~ in both racial and socio-~conomic t~. h~

After anending a predominandy Jewish high school in New York, Willie Coleman (SM '73) had experience with being in the minority. When Coleman came to Yale, he expected to find a bastion of white male elitism. "I thought I would have wealthy roommates," said Coleman. "But my roommaces were all white middle class. I think chat made me more comfortable."

Coleman's year had the largest number of blacks ever in a single class. For the fuse rime, black Yalies could form social groups in significant numbers. Coleman joined support systems for black students like the Mro-American Cultural Center and the Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY), organizations that gave him a familiar environment. "Most blacks felt outside of the cultural mainstream," said Coleman. "It was something that you felt every day. It could range from how people danced, what people talked about, how they dressed, or what they did for vacation. Other black students were just the people whom I felt most comfortable with."

After his freshman year, Coleman changed residential colleges so that he could room with a black classmate.

In the spring of 1970, Coleman's freshman year, racial issues dominated the Yale campus. Two members of the Black fEBRUAAY

5,

1993

Panthers went on trial for the murder of a police informant, and thousands of demonstrators planned to descend on New Haven for a rally on May Day. Members of black radical groups had threatened co blow up Yale buildings. Violence seemed inevitable, and most of Yale's student body didn't know how to react. "I think that most white undergraduates wanted to be sympathetic," recalled Coleman, "but they were just confused by the whole situation."

The Mro-American Cultural Center became the focal point for black students' involvement in the crisis as they organized a student strike in support of the Panthers.

Coleman remembers the tension on campus as he ate breakfast with his girlfriend on the morning of May Day. "A group of white students were sitting at a table next to us and asked us to come over and explain the situation to them. We were tired and said 'no.' The white students actually got angry at us," said Coleman. "It was as if we owed it to them to explain what was going on." May Day passed without violence, but in Coleman's view, the crisis did litde to shake up racial attitudes at Yale.

This fall th~ Association of Yale Alumni ask~d Lroi jackson to at a pan~! discussion at th~ Yale Club ofNew York. H~ arriv~d in New York th~ day bifor~ and stay~d th~ night at th~ Yale Club. Afor th~ muting, Jackson wmt to th~ airport to catch a flight hom~ only to find that it had b~m canaled b~cauu ofa storm. Whm jackson rnurn~d to th~ Yale Club, a doorman, unawau that jackson was a Yal~ alumnus, inurapud him bifor~ h~ could r~ach th~ ch~ck-in tksk. Th~ doorman tkmantkd to know what Jackson wanud. Whm jackson ask~d for a room, th~ doorman shouud that non~ w~ available. jackson left without arguing.

18) sp~ak

Erik M~m a smior in Branford Coli4g~. is on lk staffofTNJ. THÂŁ NEw JouRNAL 2.5

Against the Tide joshua Auerbach a Black Student Alliance at Yale BSAY) debate held during the C larence Thomas confirmation hearings, one law student excoriated the judge as a "traitor to his race" for his unabashedly co n servative stance on issues of civil rights and affirmative action and for his marriage to a white woman. Thomas, who has generally lived up to his advance billing as a true movement conservative, has left many in the black community with the bitter taste of betrayal in their mouths. His high visibility has focused attention on the precarious position of black intellectuals who dissent from the social and political views of the black community's established leadership.

For the minority of black students at Yale who agree in part with Thomas' approach, and even for those who simply supported his nomination so that the black community would have a voice on the Supreme Cou r ~ the confirmation hearings caused a certain amount of personal discomfort. "The Thomas hearings clarified rifts that already existed in the black community," said Richard Forde (PC '93).

These rifts, however, do not run along a simplistic ideological divide between "conse r vatives" and "liberals."

Rather, they represent a series of extremely blurry lines that vaguely differentiate positions on several issues. While the number of black Yalies who identify themselves as "conservative" is extraordinarily small (none of the students interviewed for chis article, for example, consider themselves conservative), many who see themselves as moderate or even liberal-leaning nonetheless find themselves on the "wrong" side of one of these blurry lines. These students claim that the attitude ofYale's black community coward those whose views d iverge from the majority can often be inhospitable and occasionally exclusionary. The pressure to conform, according co some, effectively stifles a great deal of debate. "The dissenting black intellectual can expect ostracism; and the predictable effect of the ostracism is to discourage freedom of thought," Law professor Stephen Carter wrote in his book Rqkctions ofan Affirmativ~ Action

Ai

Baby.

Career argues that in recent years affirmative action has become a sort oflicmus test to determine one's loyalty to the race. "The single proposition on which dissent seems to be 26 THE NEw joURNAL

l',l'l tc.lc·l.llc·cll'

tile

l.lll.t\jllciclclh<.

,j, 'li.ti>lllt\

\1c

IIIII<'

dll,·l\,,tll.ll, Ill!<> '!lll'il<>il 1\t, . 1 "- 1 11 1 1 1 1 1

~L,,,,~

.

'k 1 I 1~ · 1 r

r~ ' , ·1

\ ... · 1 \

c>f c'.l• 11'<1\c· ' ' ,1,·111' Ill

\lllllc!111:: lc> ( !.lll<>lt.t\c

'f 1 · t'

f ', '

.lllcl

1>\.tck

J,,J:IIl<j .lfflllll.llll<

!

1 11

1 1,

~ 'r 11 : 11 11 r • : t ·. ! '\

,

'tl.

\tll<lll~:

j,j ,,

k !.d,

I I< Ill ' >f I' I \\ ILII

'')"- l.t!l\

111

'":',I ' '

"'--'1'·11,11\

1,!,11\.

II

i··'"'

lllhL l:'l.lltll.ll,.

'''I'll!~\.- tll"l''·'::rt·l-tlJ,

~,.-\j

I

I,. I '1.1'

"

lttl!l1 ,,;fh-!

li1,

')'

Jltlllll,...,~,.-,1,Jtltl

1111~~·

""-::-111• J)('.

'.11<\

; '.

I" llltlf"

!ltlllll'~>

!Hill'-

l1 i.l( 1"-i,

l~l-

l ' 1111 Ill II II II \

i•t;: l"ll<.

r " \ •• ~ 1 .. t l1 ..

;J,,

\(I.

tll.J'.

1 1

lt

td

1.'

!>,·

t!Jo..' ltlll

>..,,,Ill

j-,lll/\\<1\ t r 1 ! .. ·;-:. r·• 1 r

·ij'j'ltl!'ll.ll\

~,.

~Jtl~._-,

' I I " I d ,j

I.. ~ l .1 t 1

tq~,

It 1

i'll!ll.l

rill.

!/1.111 .I

\fltt.L·tll-.. \\ f111

Ill

I

1..

J,,,., l l l i l ' t ' ! , ·

I

11!

h l'll rile

"l l,

r.il k

h\.1c

community's organized activities do not always feel welcome when they do attend com munity events.

"There is a very suspicious attitude toward those who don't take part in community activities," Kurzweil said.

A whole vocabulary of epithets-Uncle Tom, incognegro, oreo--exisrs to refer co blacks who eith dissent politically or who socialize primarily outside the black community. "I have friends who have been hurt by that and as a result don't associate with the black community," Forde said. Forde himself remembers a time when a black friend cold him that a third student in the black community, someone that Forde did nor know, expressed surprise that he and Forde were close. ''I'm surprised Richard speaks co you," the third student said. "The word is chat he doesn't associate with the black community."

A phrase like "doesn't associate with the black community," Forde said, is often a euphemism for "Uncle Tom." BSAY co-moderator David Bradley (TO '94) acknowledged char ostracism like this occurs at Yale, but claimed chat black students have become increasingly aware of the damage that these epithets can cause. "The black community is becoming sensitive to this," he said. "We are crying co become more inclusive." Orlando Bishop (PC '94), writing in Say It Loud, the BSAY newsletter, proposed a move co a more tolerant black community. "What is solifEBRUARY

5• 1993

even people in so-called the 'down' group who supported him.

Indeed, for some in the black community, the Thomas nomination simply represented a choice between a conservative black voice on the court and an equally conservative white one with no representation of the African-American community whatsoever. When faced with chis calculus, even some of the black community's most liberal voices opted for the former.

Yet these voices were clearly in the minority, and, THÂŁ NEW jOU RNAL 27

Thanks Barbara Ames • lvo Banac Stephanie Brenowitz CT Afro-Am Hist. Society Monica Drake English 454a Anoka Faruqee Kimberly Goff-Crews John Gorham Jack Hasegawa Claudia Highbaugh • HANH Sarah Johnson • John Kim Mayor's Office Mike Morand New Haven Public Library Pierson College Matthew Pillsbury M'B Singley • Sam Slie Crystal Marie Smith Fred Strebeigh Frederick J. Streets Shana Waterman

BANGKOK GARDENS " The p rice is certainly right, and s o is t he l ocation. " - T h e New York Times, Ju ne '92

Fine Thai Cuisine 172 York S treet 789-8684 Across from the Yale R ep 2.8 THE NEW JouRNAL

has become synonymous in the black community with another powerful word"racisr." Deserved or not, the Republican Parry feels the weight of the black community's disapproval every four years at the polls, where an overwhelming majority, usually over 90 percent, vote Democratic.

For many blacks, a vote for the Republican Parry, whose ranks include the likes of Jesse Helms and David Duke, seems an unconscionable act.

However, on many issues with only an indirect relation to race-like abortion and school prayer-the African-American community stands among the most conservative segments of the U.S. population ... You've got a lot of people with that strong church background," Bradley said. n fact, the opinions held by a large proportion of the AfricanAmerican population simply resist being labeled as either "liberal" or "conservative." Malcolm X, a hero of the radical left, promoted views that might roughly approximate "family values."

Similarly, some would argue that the impulse among some black students to socialize solely within the black community represents a segregationist mentality that contradicts liberal ideology. "Liberal" and "conservative," then, at some level, hold little meaning in black America. "The words 'integrationist' and 'separatist' might be

I

more descriptive of the black community than 'conservative' and ' Liberal,'" L.J. Buckner (lAW '93) said.

Regardless of which labels apply to various viewpoints, the central dilemma for the black community lies in determining the degree to which it should accept the opinions of dissenters. The dilemma presents a choice between two alternative notions of solidarity. In one vision, the AfricanAmerican community thinks and acts from consensus, utilizing the leverage it gains from virtual unanimity to achieve long-denied gains. Dissenters, in this vision, become intolerable, because they hinder the project of empowerment. "Among any community that feels besieged, you will find people who say that that community has to close ranks and can't show something less than a united front," said history professor Melvin Ely. In the competing notion of solidarity, the community embraces persons of all political stripes, sacrificing consensus for inclusiveness, and in doing so draws strength from the entire cross-section of the black population.

According to Bradley, the black community at Yale may be moving toward the latter vision by recognizing the isolation of dissenters that sometimes takes place. "There is a sentiment among black students to cut that stuff out," he said. "We don't have a person to waste." li1J

joshua Aun-bach, a junior in Ca/hqun is on th~ staffof TN].

Co/kg~.

fEBRUARY

5• 1993

Not in Their Back Yards David Gerber ew Haven's latest attempt to geographically desegregate public housing ended last fall in a heap of ashes. On Sept. 18 and Oct. 26, arsonists destroyed two houses the Housing Authority of New Haven (HANH) had purchased in Morris Cove-an almost entirely white, well-to-do community in the New Haven's East Shore area-as part of scattered-site housing, a plan that aims to get public housing out of the inner-city and distribute it throughout the rest ofNew Haven.

Many scattered-site housing supporters have attributed the arsons to racism, which they believe has fueled opposition to the plan from the start. They charge that the residents of Morris Cove-who have fought bitterly against scattered-site housing since HANH purchased a number of homes there in October 1991-have opposed the plan because it would bring people of color to their neighborhood. Mayor John Daniels called the torchings "racially motivated acts of terror." Public-housing tenants agreed.

"People are doing in blue jeans what they used to do in white hoods. That's the only difference," said tenant Minnie Anderson.

Morris Cove residents contest the accusations, insisting that they have rejected public-housing relocation for economic reasons. They claim that the fact that minorities make up about 90 percent of New Haven's public-housing population has nothing to do with their opposition.

"Take the word 'racist' out of the debate," said Alderman Chris DePino (R-14), who points out that some middle-class blacks have joined him in attacking the project.

"Our argument is against the plan, not against the people."

At a rally for peace held in Morris Cove shortly after the last arson occurred, however, the rhetoric seemed racially heated and personally accusatory. As civil-rights activists, local politicians, and public-housing tenants condemned the arsons, Morris Cove homeowners, who had not been allotted speaking time, lashed out at them. " I pay for you!" one woman yelled at a tenant, and mutterings of "welfare princess" floated through the gathering.

"I heard a lot of 'they people, ' 'them people,' and 'you people,' " recalled

N

ff.BR UARY

Sâ&#x20AC;˘ 1993

Anderson. " 'They're dirty. They're all on welfare. Their kids don't go to school.'" Local NAACP President Haywood H ooks, Jr., who organized the event, blamed the remarks on racially-based prejudices. "Whenever people show the color of their skin and they're turned down before they have a chance to present themselves, as far as I'm concerned the judgments are based on racism," he said.

Alderman DePino, a prominent New Haven Republican who represents Morris Cove in the state legislature, defends his constituents. He asserts that the bitter comments made at the rally come from radicals on the fringe. For most Morris Cove residents, he says, race plays no part in the scattered-site issue, which he says is a purely economic one.

But historically speaking, racial intolerance has played an ugly role in Morris Cove. A community of about 1,400 families, only one of which is black, this Italian-American stronghold resists any threat to its homogeneity. As recently as the early 1980s, residents compelled a black family to leave by bombarding them with racial insults and vandalizing their home. At about the same time, a black member of a Morris Cove-based band faced a dangerous situation every time he came to the area to practice. The other band members had to call their neighbors beforehand to tell them not to destroy the man's car. DePino insists that this bigotry has ended. "It was a dark chapter in the community's history," he said, "and it's behind us." ince the 1970s, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has required that all new public-housing units be placed in non-impacted areas-that is, in areas that do not g already have high concentrations of! public housing. The decision sought to ~ provide public-housing tenants with~ adequate services-from law enforce- i;; ment to education to transportationthat they may not receive in the ghet- ~ ros.

1 Opposition has plagued this]. desegregation effort since its inception.""'

In Boston, arson fires raged both ~

S

l

..

THÂŁ New jouRNAL 29

l

before and after public-housing tenants moved into predominantly white, ~ affluent neighborhoods. And the citi~ z.ens of Yonkers thwarted attempts to l bring public housing to their city with ~ a court injunction in 1991 that ~ blocked a federally imposed housing ~ desegregation order.

E New Haven's woes began with the 11988 destruction of the Elm Haven ..( high rises, a 366-unit public-housing development that HANH deemed substandard. A 1988 law required a one-for-one replacement of the eliminated units. Section Eight, a private landlord-driven program, took care of half of the tenants, and the housing authority began the search for the remaining 183 units it needed, which had to be in non-impacted areas.

But the housing authority did not purchase a single unit for the next three years. In 1991, New Haven Legal Assistance sued the authority on behalf of a handful of disgruntled tenants and Christian Community Action-a grass-roots, tenant-interest organization-alleging that through continued foot-dragging the authority had failed to meet tenant needs.

Officials at HANH attributed their sluggish progress to difficulty in finding units that satisfied health codes and other requirements. But Legal Assistance attorney Shelly White believes the authority's reluctance to trigger vehement opposition by placing public housing in affluent, white communities led to the three-year delay.

With Legal Assistance's litigation pending, the authority began to purchase private single-family houses in non-impacted areas like Morris Cove and Wesrville. At the same time, it initiated a rigorous screening and education process to find suitable families for the dwellings. Almost immediately public hearings on the acquisitions became battlefields, with screaming matches and threats of physical violence between groups of Morris Cove ~

homeowners and public-housing tenants. Sensing a political nightmare, most aldermen avoided the increasingly touchy issue, as did Connecticut's senators and representatives. Mayor Daniels tried unsuccessfully to straddle the fence on the matter, alienating both sides by agreeing with the concept of scattered-site housing but not supponing the plan's current form.

Like the mayor, New Haven's housing authority has become a target i~ the struggle. Discontented tenants

the city's tax roll, thereby increasing the fiscal burden on remaining homeowners, though no one in Morris Cove ever expressed this concern before HANH planned to place public housing in their neighborhood. With a recent 50 percent property tax hike eating into their pocketbooks, many homeowners already question their ability to remain in New Haven if the stifling rates continue to rise. "It's purely an economic issue," said Bill Grego, a Morris Cove resident for 17 years.

DePino says his objections to scattered-site liousing represent the best interests of public-housing residents.

He prefers a home-ownership plan, which he believes would provide a better deal for them. "These are fa lse opportunities. The real opportunity is to get out of public housing, and that's owning your own home," he said. and New Haven homeowners alike DePino also points out that a homeconsider the authority a corrupt, irreownership program would keep houses , sponsible agency. "The housing on the tax roll.

But these "economic" concerns authority is very inept, totally inept, cannot camouflage the underlying feelnot even marginally inept," said ings of many Morris Cove residents.

DePino, likening money in its possesThey consider the plan¡ -which places sion to car keys in the hands of a drunk. Indeed, the authority's short- . public-housing tenants in decent, sizable dwellings-unfair. "My wife and I comings have not remained a secret. A have almost five jobs between the two recent HUD audit found $800,000 in of us. This is how we manage to live in misused funds, and the federal bureau a single-family home, and it's becomhas placed New Haven in the number ing harder and harder to do it," said two spot on its nationallistâ&#x20AC;˘of troubled housing authorities. homeowner Grego. "It's difficult to imagine that I'm striving to do this omeowners in Morris Cove while the city of New Haven wants to buy single-family homes and completeargue that such a wasteful and ly hand over possession of them to incompetent housing authority cannot possibly run a scattered-site non-working people. I feel that anyone who wants to enjoy the lifestyle I do plan successfully. Single-family homes should go about it the same way." require more upkeep than conventionGrego also notes that to him and al public-housing complexes, they say, and the authority does not even do a most of his neighbors, public-housing residents mean an influx of inner-city satisfactory job with its current units. problems such as drugs and crime. "We They fear a drop in surrounding property values may come about because of want to get away &om downtown," he said. "People imagine that what exists negligent maintenance of the scatin the city will somehow exist in tered-site units. Opponents also cite Morris Cove." the fact that every home the housing authority buys for public use comes off

c'People are doing in blue jeans what they used to do in white hoods."

H

fEBRUARY

5â&#x20AC;˘ 1993

â&#x20AC;˘ caÂŁe m:ne Grego's conminority people cerns typify run the place," he homeowners' said. "The housattitudes, which ing authority is infuriates pubrun by minorities. lic-housing tenAnd they haven't ant Anderson. done a good job.

"The communi.

They can't see the ty is so ignorant. I try not to get angry, forest through the trees." but I can't help it," she said. One of the "nonworking people" who applied for he Morris Cove arsons, no mata scattered-site unit, the 44-year-old ter how they are explained Anderson has been a criminal investiaway, have sent scattered-site gator for Legal Assistance for several housing applicants a clear message: years. Together with her daughter, who Stay out. As a result, applicants like works at the U.S. Surgical factory in Anderson question whether the move North Haven, and her grandson, she is worth it. "People believed that public lives in a townhouse in the Waverly housing was just a temporary stop until housing development, a privilege that they were able to do better and move costs her $718 a month in rent. out on their own," Anderson Stories like Anderson's come as a explained. "Then they hear about surprise to most middle-class hometorched houses and think, 'Maybe owners, who assume that public hous- we're supposed to live here forever.' ing comes free to a largely lazy, unem- They stop looking for other places ployed tenant population. Middle-class ~ because this is the safest."

Scattered-site opponents have also homeowners also believe public housfelt the heat. "The arsons were absoing inevitably falls into disrepair.

Anderson believes that racial stereo- lutely reprehensible," said DePino, and types inspire misconceptions. "You can most Morris Cove residents agree. fix up every housing development in J"DePino regrets the unproven assumpNew Haven and make it look like a tion that someone from Morris Cove mansion, and as long as you have committed the crime, as it has branded minorities you're still going to have the his community as racist. "It gave the same perception of the people," she proponents of the plan a great propaganda tool," he remarked. said.

As local, state, and federal officials Alderman DePino, who regularly distributes anti-scattered-site housing continue to investigate the fires, the pamphlets throughout Morris Cove, housing authority promises to push on denies that the color of public-housing with the scattered-site plan. Program tenants matters to him or his con- supporters accept that the violence may stituents. He continually reasserts that continue, but they refuse to let it derail their quarrel is with the housing their plans. "This is what tenants want," said Legal Assistance's White. "I authority, not the people it serves.

"The housing authority is making it an don't think the answer is to give up and 'us' versus 'them' issue so they can not place the houses there. We would deflect the focus from taxes, their never have had a civil rights movement incompetence, and all the other had we stopped at the th.reat of physical violence." li1J issues," he said. However, DePino's case against the authority brings the issue of race into the fore. "I think the real way to solve the problem in the David Gn-bn; a sophomQTr in TrumbuLl Co/kg~. is on thntajfojTNJ. housing authority is to let more non-

T

fl!BRUAR.Y

5, 1993

quality sandwiches daily specials orders to go

11 :30-4 mon-fri

cocktails beers wines espresso cappucino "musician's living room" LIVE MUSIC FREE ADMISSION

Musical Sho~cas~

Every Tues. & We . nig t

The Convertibles 50s & 60s R&B every Thurs. every Sat. afternoon 3-7

Jazz Jam w/ Bobby Buster Trio The Mockingbirds last Sat. of every month

unplugged blues jam every Sun.

Rbt. Crotty Blues Band 250 State St.(@ Crown) 789-8281

new haven

TheNewJournal thanks the following individuals for their generous gifts to our 25th Anniversary Capital Campaign: PaulS. Bennett Brooks M. Kelly Jonathan E. Marks Kenneth I. Reich W. Hampton Sides To make a tax-deductible contribution, please contact Rosita Choy at (203) 436-1750, or write to The New Journal, P.O. Box 3432 Yale Station, New Haven, CT 06520 TH E NEW jOURNAL 31

Saving the City's Soul jose Manuel Tesoro

T

he first things one notius are the hats. A velvet beret, with a gold cockade, bobs in the pew ahead, while a vermillion, wide-brimmed ajfoir trailing black netting sways near a smart, white cap with a discrttt tuft a ftw aisles over. Betwun the hats and the womm beneath them stand broad patches oftvery sh/Uk ofgrry. black, and brown cwth, on the shouldus ofmm ofevery height, shape, and siu. A thick, dark-suited gmtkman with silvtr hair takes his seat undn the soaring ceiling and stained-glass windows. A ttmagtr in a shiny grey coat squuzes in next to an olda woman, as she sings robustly awng with a lively gospel song while the st'rVice begins.

Despite the varied shatks oftheir Sunday best, the people here at Immanuel Baptist Church in N~ Havm gathtr to celebrate a shared heritag~for they are A.frican-Americans, and this is a black church.

The black church continues to folfill its myriad missions: to direct the community and to inspire the individual, to activate the many and to motivate the one.

The black church, apart from the family, is the single most important institution of the African-American community. In the days of slavery, when slaveowners separated husbands from wives and mothers from children, the black church became the foundation of cohesion for Africans trapped in an alien land. In the struggle for emancipation, the black church served as a source of spiritual sustenance and moral courage. And when large numbers of blacks 32

THE

New joURNAL

moved from the South to the North, the black church became a safe haven from the trials of the city.

Amidst the increasing difficulties of life in New Haven, the black church continues to fulfill its myriad missions: to direct the community and to inspire the individual; to activate the many and to motivate the one. From the old, established congregations that worship in spacious churches to the new, snuggling groups that pray in rickety storefronts, the black churches of New Haven have become one of the most powerful political and social institutions of this city-with the mandate to speak for the black community and the means to effect change in both city government and citizens' lives.

The room is small and the congregation cwse at the First Pmtecostal Church of Christ, Inc. Illuminated only by the glow .from a single fluorescent light, the six members of this store.front church knul against the pews, voices blending with each other in chanted praise. Oh Lord I just want to thank you! one says. Oh God! My soul loves you! says another.

Halelujah, Halelujah ... Haalelujah, Halelujah ... HAAAlelujah. First Pentecostal-a church no larger than a living room-resonates with the rhythm of the tiny congregation's testimonials. The people here, too, are Aftican-Americans. And this, too, is a black church.

Every African-American church in this city is or once was a storefront. Even the largest and one of the oldest black congregations, Immanuel Baptist Church, began in an anonymous house probably as faded and rundown as the storefront church First Pentecostal occupies today.

As a community of free blacks grew in New Haven in the 1800s, the congregation worshipped in various buildings, the church always teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Immanuel Baptist kept just ahead of the mongage payments, as it moved from Carlyle Street to Webster Street, and finally from Webster to the corner of Day Street and Chapel Street in 1882.

FEBRUAJlY

s. 1993

I,

!=hapel Street in 1882.

Fuau .u.y s. •993

TH£ NEW JOURNAL

33

In the 1950s, donations from the congregation built the modern, stone-and-concrete structure chat Immanuel Baptist occupies today. It boasts a huge meeting room where the church's ten choirs practice, where the Youth Ministry meets, and where the P3ftor, Rev. Curtis M. Cofield, hosts a lunch for churchgoers after every Sunday service. At present, Immanuel Baptist counts nearly 900 people in its fold.

Fi rst Pentecostal Church of C hrist, Inc., on the ocher hand , co unts only six regular adult members in its congregation. Founded in 1990, First Pentecostal is a onefamily congregation.

Elder Charles G. Ashe, his wife and children, and a family friend, Sister Sandy, pray in a low, rectangular wooden building flecked with peeling aqua paint on Newhall Street in Newhallville. Elder Ashe sits on a broken barber's chair in a dilapidated barber shop beside First Pentecostal to read the Bible before his Sunday service.

No matrer what the size of the congregation, many members take incense pride in their church. Their personal investment-in fundraising, social activities, religious education, and community service-may explain the remarkable tenacity with which black churches have survived and grown through the centuries. "The black church," said Rev. Sam Slie, founder of the Black Church at Yale, "is a place where black people can be lead34 THe New JouRNAL

ers in their own institution-govern it, invest in it their own resources, and feel themselves in a community that trusts and supports them."

Many of New Haven's established churches began as both Immanuel Baptist and First Pentecostal did- under the guidance of a few dedicated devout, in tiny rooms in houses and meeting places across the city, and in extreme poverty. The pastors of these churches range from the college-educated ~nd

a land that has not fully understood or accepted us or our contribution.

H~ cajoks th~ churchgoers to punctuat~ his ~vay phrase with a murmur~d ';.tmen!" We came together to form a body of believers, constituted by Africans only for Africans, for selfdirection, self-perpetuation, self-help, and self-discovery! His voiu rro~rb~r­ aus in th~ hug~ church, magnifying th~ pow~r ofits rh~toric by th~ strength ofits volum~. Praise God! says R~v~r~nd Cofi~/d. Praise God. The day we ate of that apple, we lost fellowship with God. Eld~r

Ash~

sp~aks

slowly at first to th~ gather~d at First P~ntecostal.

the seminary-trained to those who are simply inspired by the spirit to preach, to pray, and to praise.

We have a heritage to protect, to promulgate, and to propagate to every generation present. R~v~r~nd Cofi~/d. starts his samon at /mman~l Baptist Church. We were snatched &om our homeland, and brought to

Only the blood of Jesus is pure enough to atone for our sins. H~ dou not hav~ to ask his congr~gation to r~spond­ thry raise thd r and hands shak~ th~ir bodiu and shout that ]~sus is th~ only way to th~ir salvation.

Th~ir enthusiasm se~ms to goad Ash~ on; th~ words ofthe sn-mon tumbk from his lips fasur and fost~r, louckr and louder. You have to BELIEVE that He IS ... You have to BELIEVE that He IS. PRAISE God, says Elder Ash~. Praise God. The survival and prosperity of any black church depends on the character of its pastor. As priests, pastors care for the spiritual life of their flock. As fEBRUARY

S• 1993

prophets, they challenge the injustices many black-owned businesses. The of the society in which their congregaday care center that was once the tions live. And as politicians, each paschurch's pride and joy shut down last tor's personal relationship with city September after a change in fire codes. powerbrokers often determines the fate Angered by what he sees as some black of his church. ministers' coddling of the Daniels No two figures better illustrate administration, Edmonds accuses the shifting fortunes of black pastors other ministers of "selling their soul than Dr. Edwin S. Edmonds of cheaply" to gain political influence Dixwell United Church of Christ and favors. He bemoans the "confiscated leadership" of the black community.

(U.C.C.) and Rev. J. Stanley Justice of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.). Dr. Edmonds could be "~ called an aristocrat of the black community. As president of the NAACP in Greensboro, North Carolina, during the turbulent integration battles of the 50s, he survived repeated harassment and a shooting that shattered the windows of his house. In 1959, he ~ took the pulpit of Dixwell U.C.C., New Haven's oldest black church, after his wife told him she could no )) longer live in Greensboro. Under his care, Dixwell U.C.C. founded a day ,. care center, sponsored low-income Edmonds disdains as flashy the housing units, created a minority empowerment corporation, lobbied ..multitude of choirs and colorful sermons his colleagues offer their congrefor the creation of a community center, and supplied after-school pro- J.~'gations. Dixwell U.C.C. has only one choir, in contrast to Bethel's six and grams.

Immanuel's ten. In the 23 years he has Edmonds' activism and popularibeen pastor, Edmond's congregation ty earned him a seat on the school has shrunk from 350 to 280 people. board and the ear of the mayor. But At the same time, the neighborhood lately, Edmonds' political fortunes around his church has slid deeper into have waned. When his deacon, John the chaos of drugs and violence. "Hard Daniels, ran for ·mayor .in 1989, times have done us in," he says. "We Edmonds remarked, "It will be whitey did some good, but it didn't last." who will decide this election." The A few blocks away from Dixwell subsequent uproar over his statement U.C.C. stands Bethel A.M.E. Its pascaused Daniels to repudiate Edmonds. tor, Rev. J. Stanley Justice, is young "It was a racist remark, so I had to disand ambitious. A graduate of the Yale tance myself," said Daniels, who is still Divinity School and a native of the a member of Dixwell U.C.C. North, Justice taught in elementary "Edmonds knew better." schools and pastored in Bermuda Not only has Edmonds lost his before coming to Bethel in 1983. In place in the city's power elite, but the the nine years since he took the pulpit, funds and the support for his proBethel A.M.E.'s rolls have swelled grams have started to dry up. Dixwell's from 300 to 500. Under his care, minority empowerment corporation Bethel bought a parsonage and added failed because the capital it had gatha new wing to the church building. In ered was too miniscule to support

have hundreds of people whom we can turn to any individual who runs for elected office. not only speak for ourselves but for our . congregatzons.

FEBRUARY

5•

1993

addition, the church has "adopted" the Helene Grant School, which lies just a block away, and Justice has become a primary advocate for the elementary school in its dealings with the city administration and the school board.

A staunch supporter of Daniels, Justice defends the involvement of the church in every aspect of the community, including the political.

Justice currently serves as one of the city's housing commisioners. " If a pastor's doing his job," h e says, "he will always keep in mind the needs of his people."

New Haven's pastors have banded together to fight for the needs of their congregations. The Association of New Haven Clergy, made up of about 40 black ministers from across the city, often functions as an advocacy group to focus city government on the needs of African-Americans. At present, the Association plans to push Science Park executives to hire more Mrican-American subcontractors and workers in the construction of a new Science Park facility. From supporting a controversial move to open a large discount mart in the heart of downtown to defending school budgets, the Association has flexed its political muscle on more than one occasion.

During Daniels' 1991 bid for the mayor's seat, the Association set a number of conditions before endorsing him for reelection. The ministers called on Daniels to consider Edmonds for another seat on the school board, follow the scattered-site low-income housing plan (see story page 29), avert city layoffs, and meet Connecticut's minimum spending requirement for public schools. After Daniel's victory, some in the Association became enraged when he failed to live up to many of his promises. Their concern with Daniels approaches the paternal. "Too often we have bitten our tongue and turned TH£ NEW jOURNAL

35

the other way like parents who cannot believe what an offspring is doing, and doing right before their very eyes," Rev. Bosie Kimber of First Cavalry Baptist told the New Haven Register.

"We cannot in good conscience remain silent any longer."

Kimber, chairman of the Associ~tion's political action arm, the Outreach Committee, believes that black churches ought to have a special place in the city's political community.

"We ought to have special p rivileges to speak to the mayor whenever we desire to speak to him, for the simple reason that we have hundreds of people whom we can turn to any individual who runs for any elected office," he said. "We not only speak for ourselves but for our con gregations."

Daniels acknowledges that clergy will occupy a pivotal position in the n ext mayoral election. He argues, however, that support for his administration among black clergy and their congregations remains strong, despite the views of Kimber arid Edmonds.

"Two or three ministers do not make the Association," Daniels said.

"Edmonds and Kimber have their own special agendas. But the rest of the clergymen are very supportive of me. " Although some preachers prefer to change city government from the outside, many black ministers do not hesitate to take positions of responsibility within city government as well.

Since 1982, black ministers have sat on both the school and public housing boards of New Haven. These boards play key roles in d ealing with two issues close to the heart of the pastors: affordable and adequate housing for the disadvantaged of their congregations, and, most especially, the future of black youth.

The ImmanueL Baptist Church Young Adult Choir presents a gospel song with a pop, up-to-date beat. Boys and girls, dressed in suits and Sunday dresses, 36

THE

New joU RNAL

follow obediently as their parents sing with the congregation and pray with the preacher. One little girl in pigtails sings "Down on My Knees" enthusiastically along with the choir. She is the foture of the black church.

At First Pentecostal, C.]., Deacon Ashe's teenage son and Reverend Ashe's grandson, plays the drums to accompany every song. In the tiny space ofthe storefront, the sound ofhis drums and the shouted verses are almost tleaftning. The children squirm impatiently as their parerzts stand, shout, and sing, caught up in the collective electricity of the service.

One little boy with a buzz-cut draws crayon pictures, ignoring the commotion around him. He, too, is the foture ofthe black church.

While the c ity of Greenwich spends an annual average of $9,200 for every chi ld in its schools, New Haven spends about $6,800 per child.

"The kid in Greenwich is being programmed to go to Yale," said Kimber, "while the kid in New Haven is being programmed to go to jail."

Black churches try to offer educational and developmental support that the city cannot provide to New Haven youth. Kimber's church conducts a summer enrichment program for city youth, while Immanuel Baptist and Dixwell U.C.C. have tried establishing day care facilities or after-school activities. Rev. Justice works directly with the children and young adults of his congregation. A week after Malcolm X opened, he brought a group of teenagers to see the movie and led a discussion with them afterwards. In his church, he stresses Afrocentrism by putting up posters with the words "Kwanzaa Greetings" on the doors of the church and encouraging Africaninspired dress and clothing among the young adults of Bethel.

Justice's efforts to bring young people back into the church reflect the black church's concern for its own survival. The black preachers of New

Haven have begun to reach out to the "unchurched" generation, hoping to secure the continued existence of a congregation, inculcate values and discipline, and protect teens from the dangers of the city. Justice hopes that by advocating Afrocentrism, he can enhance black children's self-esteem.

He runs a three-month education program for young adults and fo r anyone else who wants to join the church. "It is not my intention to get all the folk in Bethel," says Justice, "as long as they go to a church."

The breakdown of traditional family structures and the high mobility rate of many black families has led to a decline in the number of consistent churchgoers. As more and more middle-class blacks move to the suburb~, and as government funds for programs for the poor dwindle, the black churches in the city scramble to fi nance alternative programs. "You live with the pain of poverty," says Edmonds. As the case of Dixwell U .C.C. shows, trying to be all things to all people can sap the energy of ministers. "But that doesn't stop our need to try," says Edmonds, "because that's the tradition of the black church." Dixwell U.C.C. could have moved to the suburbs, but he and previous pastors decided to remain in the inner city, to do what they can for the urban poor.

Small storefront churches also minister, in their own way, to the needy. Before the Sunday service, Elder Ashe stops passersby in the depressed neighborhood outside, inviting them in to worship with the Lord. H e believes saving their¡ souls will also save them from the streets.

Rev. Cofield envisions a church open 24 hours a day, where services go on without a break, because people need "salvation around the clock. " In this time of need, Cofield believes even more in the necessity of bringing the church to the people, not the people to the church. f EBRUARY

5, 19 93

Chu rches that emphasize personal salvation without addressing the social and po litical needs of their congregations come under attack from highly-involved pastors like Cofield, Edmonds, and Justice.

"You can't board in Heaven and live on Earth," said Justice.

But differences over how one gets to Heaven may be the biggest obstacle to the effectiveness of the b lack church as a political force.

T he black ch urch is divided among many denominations-the three major African Methodist congregations, the two major Baptist ones, the Pentecostals, the Episcopalians, the Catholics, and so on. "We have a racial loyalty," argues one pastor, "that transcends denomination."

Bu t the divergent personal agendas of individual pastors often hinders u nited action on broad social issues.

"If they all acted in concert, th ey could turn things around," argued Slie. Nevertheless, he added, "T he problem is bigger than the church." Surrounded by immense social problems, b lack churches strive to offer spiritual as well as practical solutions for their congregations. Whether or not they succeed entirely, by trying, they remain places of refuge and hope.

Th~

last song is sung, the last prayer prayed. The churchgoers g~t up from th~ir p~ws-the men put on th~ir hats, th~ wom~n th~ir coats. As thq l~av~. th~y shake hands, hug, and smil~. asking each how th~ oth" is doing. The smu of warmth, of community, spills out onto th~ strut as the faithful disperu, amidst the strains ofa gospel hymn. ..:J

Jose Manuel Tesoro, a junior in Jonathan Edwards Co//~g~. is associat~ ~ditor ofTNJ. FEBRUARY 5· 1993

S ince 1934, gifts f or th e discern ing America's Largest and Foremost Tobacconists •Music Boxes, Russian Lacquer Boxes •Expert Pipe Repairing .Chess, Backgammon •Tobaccos Blended To Individual Taste • Figurines, Wood Carvings •Writing Instruments, Bookends, -crystal, Cutlery, Art Glass Paperweights

624-3 2 50 • 2 68 College Street, New H aven, CT 065 10

LeNouveauJotrrnal LaN uevaRevista MajalahBaru

TheNewJ ournal

Expand your Horizons.

Join Yale's best news and features magazine.

Meet us on Monday, February 15, at 7:45PM. Berkeley Seminar Room.

Questions? Call Joel at 787-3823.

We do to serve You & ymli·:(t·~·-.-]~-~~er our prices!

Consider us for your next publishing project.

We print catalogs, newsletters, flyers, newspapers and magazines.

When your business needs lead you to publishing, let us lead you to a competitive advantage.

Turley Publications 24 WateT StTeet PalmeT, MA 01069

Oivisk>n o( Pioneer En<erprioes, Inc.

1 ..8o0..8 2INKIT t ..s oo ..sz4..654B THE NEw JouRNAL 37

AFTERTHOUGHT------------------------

Talking to Ourselves Kimberly Goff-Crews and Claudia Highbaugh

Y

ale provides an interesting microcosm of the world context of political control and/or economic power. With today, particularly with respect to issues of race and unified and persistent efforts, we can create a m ore balethnicity. Living and working at Yale, we can easily anced socio-economic and political arena in which to parbe overwhelmed by the variety of people that make up the . ticipate. We therefore must not define ourselves in university. There are women and people of color in classdiminutive terms. lnde~d, we might take a few good clues rooms at twice the numbers of only 20 years ago. There are from the emerging identities of the biracial students in our faculty, administrators, and staff m embers from a number midst who refuse to accept one heritage over the other. In a show of unity, biracial students claim all of their ethnicities. of economic and ethnic backgrounds who provide services to the Yale community each day. There are students from The marriage of their backgrounds is the expression of a every nation on the globe. And there are opportunities for new unity rather than a fractionalization. all students at Yale to travel and gain exposure to myriad In addition, people of color who work toward a comcultures and political climates. Indeed, we can see and . mon goal are not separatists. Tables in Commons peopled experience the history and art of civilizations from ancient

by African-Americans, for example, are no different than Egypt to Mexico. We can also hear a variety of music, from tables peopled by Exeter alums, Ezra Stiles freshpeople, or the Slavic Chorus to the Gospel Choir. singing group recruits. Our commonalities and the way we Yet as we celebrate the life of the Reverend Dr. Martin celebrate community enhance unity and allow us to build Luther King, Jr., we must examine the status of our comlifelong relationships. We affirm and embrace each other munities of color, and in particular the community of as we look back to our troubled histories, constructing solutions and responses that will create an empowered future African descent, as we set our sights on future goals. We must ask ourselves: How far have we come? Are we focused for our particular ethnic group and for the country as a on the tasks of succeeding in education, business and culwhole.

Second, we people of color need to talk amongst ourtural expression? Are there more opportunities for us in the arenas of politics and corporate business? Are we gerting all selves and get down to the business of establishing our own that we can out of our Yale experience? And finally, are we, agenda. Our agenda must include more than a good eduas people of color, gerring better at dealing wirh issues of cation and other opportunities which build a great resume.

We must learn (in and out of th e classroom) the stories of race and ethnicity in the larger academic community and in communities of color? our heritages and the text ¡of our various cultural backT he answers to these questions, which lie ar the root of grounds. In so doing, we must also embrace those within any necessary improvements on issues of race and ethnicity the context of our own culture whom we have often set at Yale, depend on combined changes within rhe university aside. Paying closer attention to women's issues in gen eral, as well as to those of lesbians and gays, and learning to be at large and within communities of color.

First, collectively, we need to reexamine and reclaim open to their struggles-whether we agree or not-will furour images. We can start by looking at how we are defined. ther our efforts to bolster ourselves for renewal and accepFor example, people of color are not "minorities." There tance in our widely diverse ethnic communities. Moreover, we must also learn from every other race and ethnicity at are more persons of Asian and Mrican descent on earth Yale in an effort to hear one another in the context of than anyone else. Our minority status only emerges in the fEBRUARY

5, 1993

people who struggle for recognition and advancement in a variety of leaky life rafts swimming upstream.

Finally, we must gather together the tools that facilitate change on our terms. It is time for people of color to develop our own resources. It is time to envision ideas and models that may or may not rely on large doses ofgovernment funding and corporate donations. We must think of ourselves as "ethnic" legacies who are prepared to change our worlds by working in the larger society and sharing time, energy and affirmations with those in need both inside and outside of the university system. As direct beneficiaries of human struggle, we can look forward to sharing our ideas and solutions with our country as it faces an era requiring great sacrifice and calling for incredible ingenuity and strength of will.

Many answers exist to the questions of division amidst people because of different racial and ethnic traditions. We as people of color must recogni:u and create some of those answers for ourselves. There is no rime left for us to allow the privilege of opportunity to remove us from the obligation of resourcefulness. The solutions will not come down from the mainstream. They are not the authority. They are not the majority. We have researched the solution, and we are it.

In prayerful anticipation, we would like to take this opportunity to anticipate change, in the climate of new leadership, both as we await the appointment of a new president fEBRUARY

5â&#x20AC;˘ 1993

here at Yale and in the wake of the inauguration of a new generation of leadership in the White House. In the words of our sister Maya Angelou, born and raised twenty-five miles from Hope, Arkansas, we find instruction and the inspiration as we prepare to talk to ourselves:

... Here, on the pulse of this new day You may have the grace to look up and our And into your sister's eyes and into Your brother's face, your country And say simply Very simply With hope Good morning.

11m

JGmb~rly Gojf-Cr~ws {Yale 83, lAW '86) is Assistant D~an Yale Co/leg~, and Dir~ctor ofth~ Afro-Ammcan Cultural

of

Cmur at Yale.

Claudia Highbaugh is th~ Associau Chaplain oftiN Uniwrsity.

THE NEW jOURNAL

39

C. A. White, Inc. New Raven's longest established Real Estate firm, providing long and short term housing needs

ilpart~ents--------------------------~­

The "!'raymore

84 Howe Street Mayfair.. Court

120 Dwight Street

84 Howe Street

825-835 Elm Street

Studio's, one, two, and three bedroom apartments in a beautifully maintained building close to Yale and hospitals. Many Yale Graduate students.

AFFORDABLE! Reasonable prices on spacious one bedroom apartments including ALL UTILITIES. On-site super & security. Close to Yale & hospitals.

English Tudor style building. Large one and two bedroom apartments.

Gorgeous hardwood floors.

Airy over-sized rooms.

Heat & hot water included.

Minutes from Yale.

call 777-6891

1211 Chapel Street New Haven, Connecticut 06511

for more information

Hotels Quality Inn Hotel & Conference Center

Host Ways Motor Inn

Howard Johnson

100 Pond Lily Avenue New Haven • 387-6651 Exit 59 off Merritt/ Wilbur Cross Parkway Health Club, indoor pool, & adjoining restaurant

30 Frontage Road, East Haven • 469-5321

2260 Whitney Avenue Hamden • 288-3831

Exit 52 offi-95 Minutes from New Haven

Exit 61 off Merritt/Wilbur Cross Parkway

.'

Make Reservations for Graduation and Reunions Today!