I was like you once: freshly graduated — the smile lines still ripe on my face from celebrating my recent emancipation — terribly excited, and innocent enough. Along with an insufferable level of anticipation, I felt anxious. Sure, I was feeling the typical anxiety that comes with starting college in another state, but there were layers to my worry. Missouri was yet another state that had passed legislation that would make my life as a trans person harder, and I was stepping foot into a predominately white institution after growing up in a city whose population is 82.8% Black. I knew that finding Black community on campus was one of the most important things for me as an incoming Black student, so I’m here to help you with that. Here are some tips to find and maintain that community if it is important to you like it was for me.

Attend the Black Affinity Night during Bear Beginnings

Starting off simple, there is going to be an evening — or, more appropriately, one-and-a-half to two hours — where leaders of Black organizations at WashU will explain Black life on campus and available programs and organizations to incoming Black freshmen. This discussion was helpful for me to understand the support system on campus made by Black students for Black students and to familiarize myself with other Black freshmen, some of whom became part of my inner circle going into sophomore year. There will most likely be other events scheduled during the affinity night — so if you don’t attend, don’t worry. You haven’t disgraced yourself from the Black WashU community or anything. But I would try to find some time to pop into the talk since it’s a great opportunity to find some sort of footing before classes start. 

Join a Black organization on campus

There is no such thing as a Black Poker Club or Black D&D at WashU. Luckily, we haven’t needed to be that segregated — I hope. But there are other organizations that represent Black students and their identities and culture. For example, the Association of Black Students (ABS), founded in 1968, focuses on the upliftment of Black students and community, and the African Student Association (ASA) and Caribbean-American Student Association (CASA) focus on specific cultures under the umbrella of Blackness and are driven to represent students from those cultures. There are also Black organizations that appeal to specific gender identities (cough, cough, Black Men’s Coalition and Black Women and Femmes Collective, cough, cough). We’ve got Black organizations based on your school! We’ve got Black organizations for the arts! We’ve got Black organizations for STEM! There have also been attempts to start a Black LGBTQ+ organization, and there is space to start your own organization. You can learn more about these organizations at the club fair at the beginning of the fall semester, or you can go on WUGO (WashU Group Organizer). We have something for everyone, so I encourage you to simply get in where you fit in.

Take classes in the African and African-American Studies (AFAS) Program

Believe or not, there is actually an entire educational department and major program dedicated to Black history and culture. What’s this? This department offers classes about Black history and culture that are covered under your tuition? Goodness! How could this get any better? Oh? Through these classes, you can meet Black faculty, some of which you can study with or even work under? You can also meet more Black students and build community or, at least, some sort of familiarity with them? By golly, who would ever give this up?

But, seriously, AFAS classes are a wonderful way to expose yourself not only to a rich history but also a passionate department. Dr. Raven Lloyd’s course on digital Black studies, “Mediated Blackness: A Black Studies Approach,” had very little to do with my original majors. But it has ended up being my favorite class that I have taken thus far because of its interesting content and generative learning environment paired with its Black space. Of course, this is not to say that you should force yourself into classes that do not interest you or that you will automatically enjoy classes or teachers just because they are a part of the AFAS program. But AFAS courses come prepackaged with the representation that a Black student might want and the community that one might need.

Other Black students go here. Acknowledge them!

At some point, you’re going to find your people — on or off campus — and finally feel some sort of comfort. When that happens, it will be easy to never seek companionship with anyone outside of your central friend group. I experienced that stagnance myself — but remember that there are still people outside of that group. There is an entire community that requires as much individual support as possible, so we should support it by interacting with and building rapport with each other. This can come in the form of getting something to eat between classes or building study groups. You won’t and shouldn’t be friends with everyone, but — as cliche as it sounds — small gestures really do make people feel some sort of belonging, and in order to build a strong community amongst each other, we have to make sure that a sense of belonging is present.

For the love of God, go off campus

Go to a coffee shop. Go to a Saint Louis University basketball game. Go to a Cardinals’ game. Go to a probate. Go to a party. I don’t know! Just do something to get out of Clayton and into the city. If you happen to make a friend from St. Louis, ask them where to go in the city. Heck, just scroll through Instagram and find places to go with a friend or, if safely, by yourself. Not only will you see more people that look like you, but you will also start to genuinely live in St. Louis rather than simply being a WashU student. 

Stand up for yourself

Experiencing microaggressions in a predominantly white space is, sadly, inevitable. Experiencing a more harmful act of racism in that same environment is not inevitable, but still quite probable. In any situation, remember that you can fight back, that you can resist. There would not be a Black Studies program at WashU if it were not for a sit-in held by Black student activists and other student allies. ABS, like Black identity in America, was founded on resistance. Even though that isn’t the most peaceful foundation, it is a necessary part of our history that we should honor and continue. Resistance comes in many forms — like supporting mutual aid efforts of a community, documenting events or creating an archive of information, or just raising hell — so I encourage you to simply get in where you fit in.

The list of tips above is not comprehensive or mandatory for incoming Black students. Everyone’s needs are different (duh), so how we maneuver through campus and interact with the environment will, consequently, differ. But there is some truth in the tips I gave, so try them out, please, oh, please.