Hello, my name is Andre Singleton. I am a senior here at Lane. I graduate in 103 days,
actually. I have focused on the arts and that's arts in context, culture, media, and dance.
Hello, I'm Stephen Fowler. I'm a junior here at the new school. I attend the jazz department
of the new school. I'm a trumpet player. Being a black jazz student is like, we represent
the tradition, the heart and soul of what jazz is. It's like, we bring the swing and
the flavor and the chitlins to the music. We play the music. It's all about feel to
us. That's how we're perceived, but there's nothing wrong with that because that's what
the music is about. There aren't many black students at the new school, so it gives me
this feeling of aloneness.
One thing that I wish that there were more of is a diversity in the faculty. The employment
of more faculty of color, period, across the diaspora, because some folks may not even
identify as black. That's a whole other complicated issue. But just by employing people who have
had these experiences and can identify with how the students may feel with having such
a low percentage of African American students, black students, everyone wants to break it
down. Students that don't come from white backgrounds or what one would see as privileged
or whatever the case may be.
I think it's our job as black students at the new school to make a better effort in
trying to come together and being more communal and more social within our own social group
because there aren't that many of us. I mean there are strength in numbers that's been
said since the beginning of time.
So when we do have the problems of being black and the problems of dealing with certain professors
and certain classmates and feeling that we're being undermined because we're black, we can
go to our black students and talk to each other about it. So more often, I know it does
happen but we should work harder at making it a more frequent occurrence so we can relate
and get through it together. That's my opinion on being black at the new school.
