Damn, my sister thank you for sharing your story. I’m on Northwestern’s campus, I take classes two nights a week. I shall never forget your story, it was both touching and enlightening. I’m glad you were able to find solace amongst a group of sisters.

Peace and blessings

Rochelle

Thank you for sharing your experience, many may agree Our experience. Well written and graciously received.

This is the most beautiful and disheartening piece I’ve ever seen written about the Northwestern Student experience. Beautiful because of its richness, its honesty and the bravery of its author. Disheartening because I graduated from NU almost 25 yrs ago and could have written this piece myself. Replace Morty with Arnie, replace Darren Wilson with the cops who beat Rodney King — line by line, year by year — the similarities are frighteningly uncanny. It pains me deeply to see how much the numbers have dwindled and how little out little the experience has changed.

This is a remarkable piece. You have voiced the struggles, concerns, and opinions of not just Northwestern students, but countless students who find themselves in liberal, white institutions like Northwestern without adequate support or understanding of their plight. I attended Bowling Green State University for undergrad in the 90’s. My story is perhaps a mere image of yours and in 2007, I attended Northwestern as a 30 something graduate student. Unfortunately, in my class of 50 “would be” future teachers, only about 5-7 of us were black. At least two dropped out of the program before the end and more than half of the rest of us are no longer in education, but I digress.

Fortunately and unfortunately for me, I endured the worse of racism at Bowling Green where passersby also yelled “nigger” from their car windows as I walked down the street. Bowling Green was also a small town where the Klu Klux Klan often demonstrated at the Towns Square just a few minutes from my campus and where many of my classmates had never seen a black person other than on television. This was my life.

I say all of this to assure you, that some of us are chosen to be the ones to pave the way, to tell the stories, and to be the ones who endure, so that we can assure those after us, that in the end it will all be worth it. At 42 years old, I am wiser, more resilient, less interested in proving my point and therefore, I allow ignorant people to stay where they are. This gives me peace, but also tolerance for the differences of others. You have come through the “good fight”, but you might not see it right now. For this, you will do great things in the world, change lives, and view the world a little differently than your African-American counterparts. Why? Because you have to. After going through all of this, as a journalist you must now put it to great use and rise above all that you experienced in those 4 years at Northwestern.

Thank you for reminding me of the torch I once carried and the struggles I twice endured going to predominately white institutions. What didn’t break me only made me stronger and it will do the same for you.

Thank you. Thank you and thank you again for sharing this my young sister.

Dr. Terre Holmes Arnold – Chief Visionary Officer at EnvisionU

Dear Sister Natalie:
I was a grad student in the History Dept from 1966-1969. I was a part of that generation that knocked open some doors that we thought would make Northwestern a space where Black folk at least for a few years could learn , study, and grow in relative peace and quiet from the racist practices so pervasive in Chicago and the nation at large. It is more than a bit disheartening to hear that many of the gains of my generation have been rolled back or eliminated entirely. When it comes to the struggle against racial oppression a valuable lesson is that there are gains and losses, and that new generations might have to fight old battles. I wish you, and your sisters and brothers ,strength in the struggles that await you if you choose to engage in them.
You didn’t mention much interaction with faculty in the History and African American Studies departments. In 2008 there was a conference to reflect upon and commemorate the
40th anniversary of the 1968 takeover of the bursar’s office. The entire proceedings were recorded and should be available if you want to compare issues,strategies,etc. Professor Martha Biondi would be the person who can guide you to these materials. They might be helpful to you and your generation in processing your Northwestern experiences.
Stay strong,stay well. A Luta Continua.
Peace,

John Bracey

As you will discover, your NU experiences are valuable and will serve you.

This was incredibly powerful and insightful.
I’m a product of both HBCUs and PWI’s and I am now employed full time at a private, PWI. You have affirmed that while being in this white space is isolating for a faculty member, I must remain vigilant in my support and nurturing of Black and brown children. They must see faces with whom they can identify. Offices where they must be nurtured. Affirmed. Loved! I cannot thank you enough for your countenance and story. You will go far–and do well. Keep your voice out there. You are the one!

So crazy, my stomach hurt when I read the student athletes scared to make eye contact and join you in your demands. Northwestern was undoubtedly a tough experience but one I hope you and the rest of us are able to grow from and do great things.

Read my new book on campus racism, Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses, and you’ll see that your experience on PWI’s is not alone. http://www.amazon.com/Blackballed-Black-Politics-Americas-Campuses/dp/125007911X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434859582&sr=1-3&keywords=Blackballed

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing this. This line in particular resonated with me: Admittedly, my spirit of activism and hope had been squelched. I took Northwestern for what is was and always will be – a colonial settler institution. It really encapsulated the reasons why NU will never be a place I can consider ‘home’ or an environment that encourages truth, activism, or the progressive redistribution we so desperately need. I always felt deeply that institutionalized racism and sexism were prominent at NU; I’ve been proud in the past few years of those students, like you, there now who are standing against this. I hope the next fours years bring you to a more joyful, rejuvenating place where your work is encouraged, accepted, and critiqued. As a white woman at NU, I did not live through the pains you describe of overt or institutional racism. But the pain in your experience rings true for me – classism and sexism at NU penetrated steadily and deeply – and left a long sting I’m still recovering from 10 years later. Reading this encourages me to keep trying to show up in solidarity – a challenging space for me personally that I’m continuing to grow in to – having been socialized that quiet is polite, opinions are best discussed at home only, and bystanders aren’t guilty.

Keeping putting your art and soul out there. It’s beautiful and big. Peace.

God bless you Sister in the Struggle. I had a similar struggle at Illinois. You persevered, and still you rise. We won’t forget…

Awesome Testimony! You survived!

When you graduate in a couple of months take some advice from a Michael Jackson song: don’t spend your life being a color.

Reminds me of my own experience at a PWI

I felt the exact same way attending DePaul University ( Lincoln Park campus) fifty years ago. I remember being refereed to as”your kind” with absolutely no support from the dean. I was told it was “turbulent times” I remember being the only “colored” in all my classes. I remember not being able to get adequate academic counseling…..unlike others, I just could not take it…seventeen years old and not really able to negotiate my unfair treatment with the appropriate staff, I transferred after two years. ( after being told “perhaps I wasn’t really “capable of being a DePaul student) ” Thanks to the wonderful faculty and counselors at Roosevelt University, I was able to re_enter the world of academia, graduate and obtain a MSW from the University of Illinois. ……

Woman. Strong. Broken. Brilliant. Hurt. Black. Woman. Soul–

I applaud your courage. For that is rare in this world. I ate your words like a plum, for they were that well-written. And I say prayers over your head, holding your hand, black hand entwined in black hand because every day something or someone is literally trying to kill us. You are not alone in this fight. In this world.

I’m a fighter too. And you contact me if you ever. Need. Any. Thing. You hear me?

–tmstringfellow,
WCAS ’07, MFA 7 Candidate ’17

This is crazy because this was my number one school. I can tell you one thing, my list has changed.