<p>I asked my good friend, a black senior at Tufts to answer how she feels the climate is for black students at Tufts (as per Mizo’s question). This is what she wrote back in an e-mail:</p>
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I feel that the climate for black students at Tufts is similar to the climate for black students at any prestigious university where blacks are a minority. What I’ve observed at Tufts I have either observed or been told about by other black friends who study at Harvard, Penn, Cornell, Amherst, Middlebury, etc. The only place where the climate could be considerably better is at a school like Spelman, Howard – the historically black colleges. I feel safe here. The black community at Tufts is close-knit but not so much that we fulfill that sociology cliché “Why do all the black kids sit together in the cafeteria?” I have friends of all ethnicities, races, and socio-economic backgrounds. That being said, I am active in the Africana Center and in other black cultural groups. But I, like most of my black friends, are also active in student organizations that are not geared towards black culture specifically. The Primary Source failed to make good satire, and I can see why some of my black friends read it as racist. I hope that black prospective students aren’t thrown by this – Tufts is a great place. Tufts is a very open, welcoming environment; I have been taken out of my comfort zone in very positive ways, as do most people who come here. College is a learning experience for most of us who’ve grown up in environments that are not socio-economically/racially diverse. I have had an excellent academic and social experience here. I don’t regret coming here at all and my black friends who may have some reservations about Tufts are not due to their being a racial minority. My only friend whodoesn’t like Tufts that much says it’s because there’s no big athletic scene, which she misses from her upbringing in the South.
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