Diving Deeper Than Dialogue: Does Washington University Need a Middle Class?
BY RAJA KRISHNA
A few weeks ago, a group of students in Bear’s Den publicly recited the lyrics to a rap song containing the n-word while standing next to a table full of African-American students. The question of racist intent remains contentious, but everyone knows what happened next: our campus exploded. Debates raged on Facebook, and student groups raced to create “safe spaces” to foster community discussion. Meanwhile, scores of individuals joined the “Dear Chancellor Wrighton” video campaign to get the administration to engage with the student body about the incident.
The most salient question raised by the incident was, “What caused this?” and the most common response to the incident was the promotion of on-campus dialogue. As it turns out, dialogue is one of the most common responses to diversity related issues at our university. (Go to the StudLife website and search for the word “dialogue”— there are over 900 results, and almost every one of them pertains to a diversity-related conflict). While I genuinely admire the efforts of groups like Connect4 and the Diversity Affairs Council, I fear that “safe spaces” and video campaigns risk becoming echo chambers for a core group of students, and do not actually end up including those students who are truly ignorant of racial issues.
Like many of my peers, I wasn’t too surprised by what happened in Bear’s Den. The idea that a culture of ignorance exists on campus is not difficult to believe. But it’s not for a lack of dialogue—instead, incidents like this speak to a lack of experience. Consider the way that our university constructs incoming classes in the first place. Our model, roughly speaking, is to admit lots of wealthy students who can afford full tuition, and then to use that money to award underprivileged students, oftentimes minorities, with very large financial aid packages. This system has an unfortunate consequence. By admitting lots of very wealthy students and a relatively smaller cohort of underprivileged students (only 5-7% of our students have Pell Grants), our admissions policies tend to squeeze out a “middle class.” As a result, our community has become socioeconomically striated.
It is important here to clarify what I mean by “middle class.” I am not arguing that Washington University does not have middle class students, or even that middle class students are outnumbered by lower class ones. Instead, I am arguing that our system of admitting wealthy students and using their tuition to subsidize scholarships for students under more financial strain tends to create a polarizing dynamic on campus that could be ameliorated by more middle class students (and thus a middle class campus culture).
Too often, wealthy students and underprivileged students mutually claim that neither “side” wants to or is capable of understanding the other. These accusations stem from a kernel of truth. After all, a wealthy student growing up in a primarily white community might come to college with the perception that we live in a post-racial society. Having never seen or experienced racial discrimination themselves, these students might come to campus with a limited or rote knowledge of the racial issues that plague their soon-to-be classmates. Similarly, many underprivileged students, who likely have seen or experienced racial tension, are too quick to make accusations of racism without first seeking to fully understand the backgrounds of their peers.*
To put it simply, the problem is a lack of empathy. It is not enough to tell students that they should be less ignorant, or to keep on repeating facts about diversity. We need to create an avenue through which the different strata of our campus community can talk to each other, not around each other. Giving students a script to recite about diversity is not the same as truly educating them about it. This is why having a middle class on campus is so important.
Students who attended middle class high schools are likely to encounter far more heterogeneity than graduates of an elite boarding school or a high school in Chicago’s south side. Dialogue can only go so far—our campus needs a social and experiential bridge between two frankly disparate socioeconomic groups. Students who come from heterogeneous backgrounds can be that bridge because they tend to be more relatable to a wide variety of individuals.
As an Ervin Scholar, brother of Beta Theta Pi, and WUSA, I feel lucky to have the chance to interact with a diverse cross-section of the campus community. But all too often, navigating between different student groups and commitments on campus feels like travelling from one bubble to the next. We need students who can negotiate multiple worlds and better understand the diverse realities that exist for their peers back home. Dialogue encourages a flow of words, but a middle class would encourage a flow of experiences. Let’s dive deeper.
*Socioeconomic status by no means the same as racial identity, but it would be a mistake not to recognize that the two are closely linked on campuses like ours