Group projects are the black sheep of assignments in school for a myriad of reasons. The primary one being the uncertainty of putting your grade in the hands of your classmates. An even more detrimental problem arises for minority students who attend predominantly white institutions. Jordan Wallace, a senior television arts major at Bradley University recounts her profound troubles with completing a seemingly easy task of getting into a group for her class.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou can see it socially, even when you in class, in my personal experiences I\u2019ve struggled finding group members. Even the people I would be friendly with in the class disregarded me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jordan is just like any other student sitting in her classroom. The main difference between her and everyone else is that she is a young black woman. She attributes her struggles finding group members to her genetic makeup. She is sociable, more so than a lot of her classmates. Unfortunately, throughout her college career this has proven to not be enough to break down this invisible wall that exists between her and her fellow peers. In most classes Jordan is the only black person in her classes.<\/p>\n
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Contrastingly, a young woman by the name of Natalie Landin never recalls ever having any issues finding people to group with. Natalie is a young white woman who attends Bradley with Jordan. She attributes her success to her being an enthusiastic social butterfly in all her classes.<\/p>\n
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Natalie said, \u201cI\u2019ll seek them out and be like \u2018Hey you\u2019re smart, let\u2019s do this project together.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jordan believes she\u2019s as sociable as anyone out there.<\/p>\n
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With the recent shooting of a young Black woman, Nasjay Murry, the issue of diversity at predominantly white institutions of higher learning is of vital importance to many. Such an impactful act has the power to shape the thoughts and perceptions that different men and women on Bradley University\u2019s campus have about Black people. Undoubtedly, there is a divide within the student body at Bradley.<\/p>\n
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Walking out onto the grassy plane of Olin quad reveals how separated all of the different races are. White people may dominate the campus, but a closer look would reveal the small groups of Hispanics sitting off to the side. As well as the Black men and women huddled together trying to enjoy the nice sunny day while they read and do work for upcoming classes. Jordan Wallace and Natalie Landin are two young women who would undoubtedly find themselves out on the quad on a sunny afternoon in Peoria.<\/p>\n
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Growing up in the natural wonderland that is Colorado, Natalie has been groomed since birth to have an appreciation for nature. For years Natalie was consistently surrounded by open fields that stretch for miles. She saw snowy and grassy mountains that seemed unclimbable until the day she did climb them. Where Natalie lives, hiking is the equivalent to an everyday stroll down the street. The things most worth doing in Colorado are outside activities and for good reason.<\/p>\n
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Natalie said, \u201cbeing from Colorado where everyone does activity, like athleticism. It\u2019s so engrained in our local culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
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On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, Jordan was surrounded by skyscrapers she could only climb if she worked for the companies that occupied that space. Jordan grew up on the west side of Chicago where she could see the top of the tallest skyscrapers from the twelve-story apartment building her mother rented. This difference in geological location did not prevent Jordan\u2019s love of nature from thriving. Growing up Jordan would live outside. When it was nice enough she would climb the trees around her home. When the weather got frigid, Jordan never hesitated to start snowball fights any and everywhere. Sleep was the only driving force compelling Jordan indoors.<\/p>\n
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Jordan said,\u201d When I\u2019m out in nature, it\u2019s nothing. There\u2019s nothing I need to do but enjoy that moment. I feel connected to something bigger than me. I feel grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When it came time for Jordan to attend high school, Westinghouse College Prep resembled all of the rest of her schools up to that point in the respect that the student body was predominantly black. Being a young black woman in one of the most segregated cities in America, Jordan stuck to what she knew and has known all her life, her people. In high school all of Jordan\u2019s friends looked like her, but the entire student body was black as she was, so that could go without saying.<\/p>\n
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The demographic of Natalie\u2019s hometown, Gypsum, Colorado, is not as diverse as the major city of Chicago. According to Natalie, primarily white people and Mexican Americans dominate the population of Gypsum. Being a white girl living with a middle-class family in this setting put her ahead a lot of other individuals in life. This divide was prevalent at Natalie\u2019s high school, Eagle Valley High School where the Mexican students actually put the white students in the minority by one percentage point. However, she recalls just how intensely segregated the school was.<\/p>\n
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Natalie said, \u201cIn high school… I mean there was a relative racial divide like a lot of the Latino girls and Latino guys would like spend time with themselves and the white kids would do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Even with the demographic of the school looking the way it did, Natalie\u2019s friend group still consisted of only white people.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt never felt tense by any means… that was kinda just how the cards fell because we all still kind of naturally separated ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Natalie and Jordan both respectively earned top spots in their graduating classes due to their stellar grade point average. This hard work both ladies showed over the course of their high school careers created the opportunity for them to attend one of more highly regarded universities in Illinois, Bradley University.<\/p>\n
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It was here these two began their new journey and also saw the increase in tension between black people and law enforcement. The Mike Brown shooting and the court ruling that was produced from the case that followed was essentially the tipping point in the rise of awareness for this prevalent issue of the police killings of unarmed Black men and women. Jordan being a young black woman connects deeply to this issue as it impacts her people, her friends and her family.<\/p>\n
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The court\u2019s ruling disappointed but did not surprise Jordan. When the protests of the court ruling hit the campus of Bradley University Jordan was one of the first people in attendance with her sign that read, \u201cBlack Lives Matter.\u201d The pain Jordan felt in her heart was heavy and seemingly everlasting.<\/p>\n
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Natalie was in her sorority house during the protests doing any number of ordinary tasks she carried out on a day to day basis.<\/p>\n
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Tyesha Smith, one of Jordan\u2019s closest friends said, \u201cJordan and all of us really show our true selves when we are around one another, we are free to be black, it\u2019s one of our only opportunities to feel unboundly black.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There is something to be said about not only Jordan but a great deal of black people on Bradley\u2019s campus only feeling comfortable with themselves in certain settings.<\/p>\n
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Lauren Teepe, Natalie\u2019s closest friend at Bradley said, \u201cShe\u2019s always talking about something, like she\u2019s been in deep thought all day and I\u2019m the first person she\u2019s talked to.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Natalie seems to always be so free with her words, unconcerned with how the world around her might feel about what she has to say. This kind of freedom is not an experience everybody is able to obtain for themselves, regardless of race. Jordan has never felt more uncomfortable than the times she has spent on Bradley\u2019s campus.<\/p>\n
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Coming to Bradley University is a unique experience for both of these women. Natalie had only ever had white friends before she came to college and only attended school with white and Mexican students up to this point.<\/p>\n
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Natalie said, \u201cWhen I first came to school I thought it was incredibly diverse.\u201d<\/p>\n
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While Bradley has forever been a predominantly white institution, sizable numbers of minority students, including Jordan, have obtained the opportunity to attend this place of higher learning.<\/p>\n
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Natalie said, \u201cMoving to the Midwest was the first time that I saw large groups of black people.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As an advocate for equality Natalie is always looking for steps to bridge the gap between people. She admits that she sometimes struggles with the appropriate direction to take when it comes to this problem she sees on this campus.<\/p>\n
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Natalie said, \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to be like, how do I fix this? Or how do I continue to like advocate for this? When it\u2019s also like, black people don\u2019t want me to advocate or stand up for them… it\u2019s hard to find that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
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By coming to Bradley, Jordan exposed herself to a new learning environment where all the students don\u2019t look like her. She is given a visual representation of what it is to literally be a minority. What also comes with this new experience is the presence of different minorities. For the first time Jordan is able to see groups of Mexican, Asian, Indian people all in the same space working towards a common goal.<\/p>\n
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Jordan said, \u201cThe segregation on this campus isn\u2019t even something you can question that\u2019s a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n
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To Jordan\u2019s disappointment the intermingling between all these people was in essentially nonexistent. This is something Jordan was more familiar with growing up in Chicago, where it is a diverse place, but it is harshly segregated. She was not surprised by the same type of reclusiveness between races on this smaller scale.<\/p>\n
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Both Jordan and Natalie are graduating seniors set to walk across the stage in less than a week. Neither Jordan nor Natalie ventured out of their racial demographic socially throughout the four-year college careers. The resolution to this disconnect is unknown. The people who seem to want to make the connections aren\u2019t finding one another. One of the benefits people claim exist within these types of institutions is the opportunity to interact with people from all different walks of life. Based on the experiences shared between these two girls, that \u201cbenefit\u201d is not being taken advantage of by the individuals it is meant for.<\/p>\n
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