Davidson, North Carolina -- When they accept admission to Davidson College, black students assume that if they study hard, they’ll be able to handle the academic workload. For the most part, they do. What many find they’re unprepared for, though, is how unprepared their white classmates are for them.
Recruited as part of Davidson’s affirmative-action program, many of the black students come from racially integrated high schools with strong college-preparatory programs. There they learned how to socialize with people from various racial and ethnic groups. On the other hand, they say, their white classmates at this selective, predominantly white college seem unaccustomed to diversity. The black students’ unheralded role in affirmative action, it seems, is to take on some of the burden of educating their classmates.
“A lot of people came to Davidson and didn’t know how to deal with anyone who was different,” says Nikki Liverman, a black senior majoring in psychology. Davidson recruits black students, offers them opportunities, and, she says, “in return they’re asking you to provide others with an education. It’s a tradeoff. The question is, Did I trade too much?”
The racial climate has improved since Ms. Liverman enrolled four years ago, she says. When she was a freshman, she “ran into a lot of [black] upperclassmen who were bitter.” But they graduated, and a different group of students took over the Black Student Coalition here.
The new coalition leaders still plan parties and take freshmen under their wing. But they also are reaching out to the whole campus community. The old coalition, for example, did not want white students at its parties. Now they are welcome. The new coalition has about 70 members, of whom about 20 per cent are white.
Still, some black students would rather not play the dual roles of student and teacher. “I shouldn’t have to explain anything,” says Jamal Jones, a senior majoring in biology. “But a lot of people don’t know, and you’ve got to teach them.”
One of his roommates was a white, 6-foot-2 member of the Davidson basketball team. Yet if they went somewhere together, says Mr. Jones, who is 6-foot-4, “I’m the one who was asked whether I played basketball.”
Mr. Jones, who wants to become a hospital administrator, shrugs off such encounters. “My own confidence level is such that I feel that I’m as good as anyone here,” he says.
Black students have mixed feelings toward Davidson. None question the quality of their academic experience or of the counseling they receive. They appreciate opportunities to travel to African and Latin American countries through the college’s extensive internship programs.
And some, like Tene Moore, a senior who is majoring in psychology, say Davidson’s financial-aid packages are why they’ll be graduating from a private college rather than a lower-cost public institution. The proportion of black students who graduate within six years -- 72 per cent -- is more than twice the average for black students at the 300 other Division I institutions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to the N.C.A.A.
At times, however, the feeling of isolation is overwhelming, some black students say. Among the 1,605 students at this college, about 20 miles from Charlotte -- the nearest urban center -- 52 are black. This year’s freshman class of 449 includes 16 black students. “There were five African-American women in my freshman class,” says Ms. Liverman, holding up one hand. “That’s just a mind blower.”
Black students here say they think most of their white classmates support affirmative action, but they aren’t sure how strong that support is. They say affirmative action is rarely discussed openly.
“If I were to say it is the responsibility of Davidson to cater to blacks, I wonder if anyone would say anything,” says Brandon Williams, who is a junior majoring in sociology. “Davidson is a community more willing to accept than to debate.”
Even so, black students at this liberal-arts college know that some white students are afraid that they will have fewer opportunities at Davidson, and in the job market, because of affirmative action.
Hints of their fears come through in seemingly innocuous comments that black students find bitingly hurtful, says Ms. Moore. “They say things like, ‘When you get out, it’s going to be so much easier for you.’ I ask them why, and they don’t answer directly. The point is, there are only so many slots. Somebody is not going to get the job or internship. Why point the finger at me?”
According to Ms. Moore, she and other black students are under more pressure than their white classmates to perform both at Davidson and after graduation: “I have to do doubly well. If you do poorly, they expect it. It’s hard, because people assume I’m here because I’m black. Sometimes I start to believe it.”
Mr. Williams, on the other hand, has no such fears. He went from Collinston, La., a predominantly black town of 400, to the Phillips Exeter Academy, where he was a successful student and captain of the basketball team. “I’m a basketball player, and I’m probably going to play pro,” he says. His future depends on the strength of the contacts he has made playing basketball, rather than on affirmative action, he says.
Even so, affirmative action is necessary, he says. “Throughout history people have been given a chance as a way of correcting some wrong.” And merely declaring that discrimination is wrong isn’t enough, he says. “That little bit of help isn’t going to change things on a large scale.”
At the same time, Mr. Williams says, “Nobody in higher authority should give somebody a chance solely on the color of their skin. There are lots of us [black students] here who are very qualified. There are others who are not.”
Latosha Jenkins, a junior who is majoring in political science, keeps that in mind when she tries to recruit black students for Davidson. She herself earned so many college credits through Advanced Placement courses that if she had enrolled at a public university in her home state of South Carolina, she says, she would have been able to graduate in 2* years. Ms. Jenkins chose Davidson because someone she knew had a good experience here -- and she believes she was admitted based on her academic ability, not her color. But she supports affirmative action.
The national debate over affirmative action was discussed in one of her classes this year, she says. “Some students were saying that everybody already has equality in access. But people want equality in results.”
