A Few Words

By Sara Upton Chief of Staff

man approached me this morning and asked me what my ethnic background was. I told him I was Philippino-American. He then asked me how I felt about race relations on Trinity campus and frankly, I didn't have an answer for him. He elaborated by asking how he felt people of color were treated here and I was still unable to come up with anything. Its not that I don't realize that racial tension does exist here, I simply don't regard myself as a person who can be affiliated with a racial group because of the color of my skin.

I can't speak for people who do feel strong ties to a racial or religeous group, but I do find it strange that in this hodge-podge nation, I ( as a "person of color") am still expected to feel such ties. I don't like a person more or less if their skin is white, yellow, black, or brown. When I find someone with whom I share some common ground, with whom I feel comfortable, and with whom I am willing to share my time and energy, it is then that I decide whether or not we will get along. I would hope that individual qualities, and not group appearances or practices, are increasingly becoming the indicators for relationships between people.

I must admit I was very taken aback by this morning's question. I was even more taken aback when I realized that he had only directed that question at me because I am not caucasian. There was an immediate assumption that I felt I was a type of outcast, someone on the periphery of this predominantly white collegiate world. It's true, there are many situations (paricularly social ones) at Trinity that I find baffling. But my reactions don't stem from being half Philippino, they come from the actual experiences I've had or haven't had over the course of my life. Take, for example, a friend of mine from Hawaii. Many things about Trinity and New England in general confuse him. It's not his skin color that causes the confusion, it's that he's spent his life on a island state where there is a distinctly different lifestyle.

It's my hope that someday, it will be by differences in personal histories and not skin color that we will be marked, and that it will be up to each individual to decide when and with whom he/she will be willing to reconcile those differences.

As always, thanks for listening.