I would like to preface this article with the following: I am writing this article on behalf of the Black population at the University of Connecticut, but I am not a monolith nor the lone voice of the Black population at UConn or in general.
This past weekend was a very interesting one for race relations on the UConn campus. If you have scrolled through the college-based, pseudo-anonymous social media app Yik Yak, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you don’t know: After the UConn men’s basketball team won the national championship, there were parties all over the greater Storrs-Mansfield area spanning all through the week. With finals creeping up and all the championship celebrations, this weekend was at its peak.
On Saturday, various Yik Yak users painted a darty (or “day party,” if you are above the age of 38) that would be held later that day as “Black only” and “Black exclusive.” This caused mass hysteria on the app, sparking a widely polarizing discourse based purely on rumors. As someone who was there first-hand, I can tell you that it just wasn’t exclusive at all, but rather just a majority Black party. Simply put. There was no exclusivity, no reverse brown paper bag test at the door and no bouncer. Nothing besides peoples’ own personal biases that kept them from going.
It was fun, not just because Black culture was being celebrated through music, dance and other actions, but because of the ability to look around and see my community enjoying those things in a judgment-free space. I think a lot of those who were online that thought the idea of a “Black darty” was reprehensible fail to exercise enough empathy to see that. Unless you have been shutting your eyes, covering your ears and screaming at the top of your lungs for your entire time at UConn, it’s pretty obvious that there is an issue with diversity here.
I can’t speak much for other minority groups on campus, but Black UConn is a very tight-knit community, partly due to the circumstances at Storrs. Almost everybody knows — or knows of — everybody; if not, then you will eventually. It’s a blessing and a curse as a Black person at UConn. You know that you have a support system with people behind you, but you are left as a group, rather than an individual, to be ridiculed due to association of your culture by random, anonymous people online just because you wanted to have fun and listen to the music you like at a party with your friends for once.
I love a good “white girl classic” darty, but it just gets so repetitive. Just look around. See who’s there and what they look like. I don’t want you to feel bad for being white or non-Black — exactly the opposite. I just want to explain the reason that there even was a majority Black party in the first place, exclusive or not. We don’t get to have the experience of looking around a room and seeing people who look like us every single day. That’s why cultural centers are so important on campus and are essentially the backbone of the minority experience at UConn.
Cultural center directors and staff put so much time and energy into planning events, being there just to talk, running the centers and so much more just to try and give you that experience of looking around and seeing yourself. Even attempting to give that to students of color is more than enough.
But what really got to me was the fact that just one party celebrating Black music and culture had caused all of this uproar.
The mere thought of Black people having their own space for a day had absolutely ruined a number of people’s nights. A scary amount of people lack the self-awareness to realize that we go to a predominantly white institution. If you get upset at the idea of a Black space, go outside and look around on campus. Coming in as a freshman last year, I was told that “campus is actually made up of 49% minorities!” by my tour guide as if that was a genuine selling point. Black people don’t even make up 10% of this campus. They had lumped all the minorities together just to make the number sound impressive. Since I’ve been here I’ve felt like nothing but a quota to UConn. Since last weekend, I’ve never felt it more.
Everyone loves what we bring to the table, but not everyone loves us. Everyone wants to wear our hairstyles, but nobody wants to look like us. Everyone wants to be like us, but will never, ever want to be us. This ignorance has gotten so old so fast and I’d like to see some sort of change sooner rather than later.
UConn has 9% black students and there are 10% black people in CT. I don’t think the number of black people is the problem. When these groups throw parties, they invite people from similar groups, just like you do with your cultural center events. There’s nothing inherently racist or making it, as you said, a “white girl darty” when the theme is just celebrating the national championship. My issue with the other party is that the party was going to be race exclusive, if it was just a congregation of groups of people that’s one thing but to really tie it down to race it is crossing a line. I think focusing on actionable ways that allies like myself can promote diversity is important, and to me, this article feels like a reach.
This article is absolutely asinine and has made me loose the small amount of brain cells I gained from my time at UConn. Quit focusing on race 24/7, maybe the reason nobody wants to be you is because all you guys do is complain and victimize yourself for no reason.