In print | March 16, 2006

To the Editor:

Guess what: I’m African-American.ÊI’m also Puerto Rican, Cuban, Indian, German and Polish. I grew up in a poor family and in an affluent community, and largely grew up with an awareness of discrimination and racism within my community. I grew up with a strong sense of income disparity, and nobody could ever accuse me of acting ‘too much like’ my monied peers in that regard. But, you know what else? I don’t identify as black. I don’t identify as Puerto Rican, Cuban, Indian, German or Polish, either. I identify as Gregory Robinson.

I take great exception to the implication made in Revée Walters and Melissa Lovett’s column “Embrace Blackness” [March 2, 2006, pg. 20] that I, or others like me, should base the largest part of our self-identity on our racial background.Ê I am not a color; I am not a race; I’m not even a culture or a community; I am a person, and have always preferred my self-identity to reflect this. To me, the way I interact with other people, my thoughts and ideas, my strengths and challenges, my dreams and aspirations, are what I identify as. I refuse to reduce my entire being to a single line, “I am Black,” or even, “I am BlackPuertoRicanCubanIndianPolishGermanandsomeotherstuff,” and I refuse to allow anyone to shame me for seeing my racial background, while unique, as no more important than the people I grew up with, the places I’ve lived and the way I grew up. Not to mention, less important than things like my personality, the people I knew, and my interests.

These are the reasons I have not had much to do with SASS or many of the IC groups, honestly. I’ve always seen very little point to discussions of race beyond statements of fact: “I’m a minority, I’ve seen discrimination, I’m here at Swat to get a career for myself.” For me, there is no synthesis, no revelation that is gleaned from these discussions, and so I stopped participating in them after my sophomore year. And now, I’ve been told that by not participating in ‘black’ events with ‘black’ groups, I am somehow shunning ‘my race’ and thus rejecting my own identity, rejecting myself. So, in that sense, Revée and Melissa are right: I don’t spend that much time around people who appreciate and celebrate my blackness, because I’m too busy spending time around people who appreciate and celebrate me.

In fact, the fact that Revée and Melissa suggest that this is the case implies quite strongly that they do not actually “share [my] same racial experiences, whether [I] realize it or not” as they stated in their column. Which is surpising, because who wouldn’t expect them to know what the experience of a very poor, extremely multiracial man with my interests and tastes, living in an extremely affluent community would be like? We’re all black, after all … right?

Gregory Robinson ’06

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