When I came to Wash. U. for the first time, I was ecstatic to see that there were other black people. I understood that I was going to a predominantly white school and that I would have to adjust, but to find other people who were entrenched in the same culture as I, people who wouldn’t ask if I had called Child Services when my mother whooped me as a child, was a treat. To be clear, I came with no intentions to not make friends of other races, nor did I come here with the intention to make friends with every black person I came into contact with. Both of these ideas are unrealistic and infeasible. But over the nearly three years that I have been a student in the black community at this school, I have become familiar with terms like “blavity” (the tendency for black people to congregate together at random, i.e., as if pulled by gravity) and the “black table” (any table that a majority of black people congregate at). These were funny to me and I thought little of them.

That is, until the Student Life article about unintentional self-segregation. The article caused me to think twice about these terms, as well as how these terms and the actions that they correlate to are viewed by other people. The “certain groups” that were spoken about were clear, at least to me. It was primarily about the black and Asian communities (when I brought up that Native Americans were mentioned in a class of mine, a Native American senior was confused, since she’s the only Native American who goes here she’s aware of. I guess she’s been hanging out by herself too long…). Why this was hard to say explicitly is beyond me. Don’t get me wrong, the article was good—it brought up things that need to be talked about. Unfortunately, it is based on three key misconceptions, at least when it comes to the self-segregation of the black community.

1) The black community is exclusive. This is completely false. True, if there is a black freshman who is not known, attempts will probably be made to integrate them into the group if they want to be integrated. Besides that, few attempts are made to bring various people into the group. This does not mean that people of other races are not allowed to sit with us at the “black table” or to join a group of us talking. There are plenty of people of other races who are friends with multiple people within the black community, people who will sit with a group of us and talk normally. This is due to a little thing called friendship.

2) Black people congregate merely because we are all black. Also false. If I see a group of black people whom I am not friends with, I will not stop to join them. Many of my friends are indeed black, but I am just as inclined to sit with a group of my friends who are of other races as with a group of my friends who are black.

3) (Black) people who self-segregate do not have friends of other races or only congregate with people of the same race. The snapshot you get of black people together is not representative of how they are all the time. Many of us have a diverse group of friends. We do not have a checklist to make sure that we have one of every race, or an equal number of each, but few of us only have black friends. We branch out. To be together during mealtimes or for an hour or two of downtime does not mean that we are strictly self-segregated. We have friends, roommates, floormates, study partners, etc., who are of other races, and we do not see that as a bad thing.

Personally? I see nothing wrong with self-segregation. As a person who spent her formative years in a school with no white or Asian students, I sometimes find it a comfort to be with others who, quite frankly, look like me. Other people whom I know of who came from the opposite—schools where they were one of a few, or perhaps the only black student—have also told me that their previous experiences lead them to do the same, to seek out this new, larger black community. The only issue I have with the overall concept as expressed in the former Student Life article is it seems to apply only to the black and Asian communities. I have never heard anyone bring up the idea of self-segregation upon noticing a table of white students eating together or seeing a group of them together in Whispers. But I don’t believe that situations like that are wrong, either. For me, it’s not about blocking anyone out—it’s just about feeling like I’m home.

Naia is a junior in Arts & Sciences. She can be reached via e-mail at naiaferguson@wustl.edu.

Seniors Regis Murayi (left) and Jordan Roberts (right)wear the same pair of jeans. Murayi was told he could not enter a Chicago bar because he violated its ban on baggy jeans. He then switched jeans with Roberts, and Roberts was admitted into the bar. Murayi says the bar discriminated against him because he is black. (Courtesy of Fernando Cutz)

Complaints about alleged race discrimination by a Chicago bar against six black Washington University students have prompted state and federal investigations and a likely lawsuit to be filed by the students against the bar.

The developments came in the week after the incident, which occurred during a senior class trip night out at the Original Mothers bar in a popular nightspot downtown. Senior Class Council had made prior arrangements with the bar for some 200 seniors to go there.

The investigations, which include an FBI inquiry, are a result of complaints filed by Regis Murayi, one of the students denied entry into the bar on Oct. 17. Murayi, treasurer of Senior Class Council, filed complaints with the Chicago Commission on Human Rights, the Illinois attorney general’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice.

In the complaints, Murayi alleged that the bar’s refusal to admit the students constituted discrimination under the Chicago Municipal Code, which prohibits places of public accommodations from discriminating against clientele based on race. Race discrimination is also a federal offense under Title II of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Murayi said the manager of Mothers told him and the other students that they could not enter the bar because they were violating the bar’s ban on baggy jeans. But Murayi said the manager admitted white students wearing baggy jeans. To prove this, Murayi changed jeans with senior Jordan Roberts, a white student, and Roberts was then admitted into the bar wearing the jeans.

Murayi said he thinks the six were discriminated against not because of their jeans but because they were a large group of black men.

“The bar racially discriminated against us and automatically assumed that we were dangerous,” Murayi said.

Representatives from Mothers declined to be interviewed this weekend by Student Life but said in a news release that the bar “does not discriminate against guests or patrons on the basis of race, and would never tolerate discriminatory conduct.” Mothers said it is conducting an investigation into the case and will take disciplinary action if necessary.

Mothers representatives also told the Chicago Tribune Friday that the students were rejected because of security concerns, not racism. Mothers’ human resource manager, Dan Benson, said a security photograph showed that two of the students had been wearing backward baseball caps, which are associated with gangs. Benson said gang violence is common in the area near the bar.

Murayi disputed that his clothing suggested he was in a gang. Murayi said he was well dressed, wearing a peacoat, loafers and a button-down shirt. He offered to show his Washington University IDs as proof of enrollment.

Benson also noted in the Tribune that other black patrons had been admitted into the bar. Murayi said this does not change his opinion that the bar discriminated against the students on the basis of their race.

“In and of itself that’s racial in that they automatically assumed that we were a gang,” Murayi said.

Now, Murayi and the other five black students are preparing to take legal action against the bar. Murayi said a number of lawyers have offered to take up their case for free, and the students are currently working to select a candidate.

Murayi and the others are seeking to be compensated for out-of-pocket, emotional distress and punitive damages, as well as the suspension of licensing to Mothers.

“We want to hurt them financially moving forward,” Murayi said.

University officials and students are also taking action against the bar.

Chancellor Mark Wrighton wrote a letter to Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday in which he expressed his “most intense disappointment” about the incident.

“I can only imagine the humiliation and discouragement these six young students felt last weekend when they were turned away from this establishment because of their race,” Wrighton wrote.

Wrighton called the incident a “setback for the City” of Chicago and requested that Daley respond.

Student Union also issued a resolution last Wednesday condemning Mother’s actions and urging further on-campus discussion. The Association of Black Students, Connect 4 and the Senior Class Council organized a town hall forum that will feature professors, students and others at 8 p.m. Monday in Lab Sciences 300.

With additional reporting by Michelle Stein and Johann Qua Hiansen

Some would say President Obama is black. He married a black woman, his father was from Africa; clearly he’s a black man. This statement, though, harkens back to a time when the one-drop scheme ruled supreme. Not to mention it denies Obama the part of his heritage passed on to him by his light-skinned mother and grandparents.

Obama’s victory in the presidential election is without doubt groundbreaking; it’s wonderful that the lily-white line of 43 presidents before him has been interrupted. His presidency, though, is a symbol of hope for all people, especially people whose families have been oppressed throughout American and world history, regardless of what color they appear to be.

What does it mean to be black, white, brown, yellow or red? We’re all mixed; we’re all a blend of genes dating back thousands of generations to our African mitochondrial Eve. In today’s population, there is genetically more difference within people of the same area of origin, like Western Europe, than between the people of that group and the people of another group from a different area, like eastern Asia. So there we have it: Genetically different races don’t exist. Culture, however, does.

Culture is one of the categories we constantly find ourselves using to try to distinguish people. Maybe this is an effort to be politically correct; maybe it is easier to cite “black culture” or “white culture” to skim over personal differences than to uncover and discuss the differences themselves or maybe people actually think that cultures cannot be at least partly bridged. I once had a professor who made references to “talking black,” and he used phrases that are considered part of Ebonics. He felt the need to explain the terms to the mostly light-skinned class as though we were encountering an entirely new language. Excuse me, professor, but I grew up hearing and using quite a few Ebonics phrases myself, probably many more of them than you even know of.

Culture, unlike physical coloring, is about where we are as individuals, not where we originate as groups or lineages. Each of us has an individual past of which we must be both ashamed and proud. Each of us is pressured and guided by our environments and each of us has different opportunities and sources of motivation. Barack Obama has acknowledged that he identifies with the love and strength of his light-skinned grandparents and mother as well as the love and strength of his dark-skinned father and his father’s family. Let’s honor him as a black person, a white person, a person.

As you reflect on some of the remarkable dark-skinned people in the world this month, remember to celebrate their connections with, influences on and oneness with their amazing dark-, light- and medium-skinned brothers and sisters from every nation and way of life.