A Different World, Literally.
I remember watching A Different World every morning before school when I was in middle school. The sitcom was a spin-off of The Cosby Show depicting Denise Huxtable’s experience coming from a wealthy upbringing to student life at an HBCU.
When I was in high school, I mostly applied to schools in California because I didn’t think I was ready to live in that different of a world just yet. Between USC and Stanford, my family and friends convinced me to choose Stanford because of its prestige and proximity to my hometown of East Oakland, CA. Today I am in my third year of undergrad at Stanford and I never realized until now that even when the only thing separating school from home is a bridge and a body of water, Stanford is a very different world than where I come from.
I just completed a design seminar this fall called DESINST 225: Designing Towards an Antiracist Stanford where I got to be part of a group working to dismantle systemic racism in university admissions processes. The more I thought about my own journey at Stanford the more I realized that there weren’t very many people here like me and I thought that was interesting considering I live just over the Dumbarton Bridge. Most of the “Bay Area” students here are from wealthier counties that are closer in proximity to Stanford.
Where are all the Black students? Where are the students from Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond?
These are the types of questions that I asked myself throughout the course. I really enjoyed the second focus group because my group was joined by someone who was also from East Oakland (has a mutual connection through the course instructor). We actually knew of each other through mutual friends that I went to middle and high school with. Though he does not go to Stanford, he was just as passionate about what my group was doing and had just as much to echo and share especially after hearing my personal testimony. I can’t put words to it, but these are the types of shared experiences that I have been looking for in my three years here. All I want is to be able to find some level of comfortability and familiarity with those around me, especially in worlds where I am traditionally unwelcomed.
The past ten weeks have made me realize that I do have the ability and resources to make change in the worlds around me. I personally feel as though I am finding my calling in the intersection of racial equity and education, and I am interested in taking the steps to bring my group’s project (or a similar one) into fruition. Who knows? Maybe one day the one kid from Oakland won’t feel isolated only having one or two peers with shared experiences. Maybe one day there will be larger communities of Black and Brown students from Oakland and other places in the East Bay. Maybe the day will come when Black and Brown students here don’t feel like they’re in a different world.
