Shoutout to my main Ariana…girl never disappoints. This post is in response to her blog post about her research interest for this quarter- diversity and more importantly, minority representation.
That’s my best friend
She writes about wanting to know more about the evolution and shift towards minority representation by Santa Clara University. Her interest in African Americans and other people of color on campus throughout the university’s history is no easy task to research, as I’m sure there isn’t much documentation from the early years of Santa Clara. However, I do think her idea to find personal accounts of students of color from sources like yearbooks, journals, school newspaper articles and the like is a really great way to start. There is no more accurate representation of what the environment was like for students of color at the university than their own personal recollection.
As a suggestion, I came across some old photos as I was researching my own topic- the history of the sciences at SCU. When browsing the Online Archive of California, I saw photos of Asian students at SC ca. 1890 (though there were only three), the Native American Choir, and pictures of African Americans involved in non-violent silent protests, athletics, and mingling with their peers beginning in the 1960s. I think these photos can give insight to life as a student of color at SC, in addition to artifacts of written word found at the archives.
I think her topic of interest is so important, as Santa Clara really emphasizes their campus diversity to potential students as well as those already attending. However, I feel as though Santa Clara is a lot less diverse than made out to be, as the school appears to be vastly more white than I expected. But, I’ll let Ariana educate you on the opposing viewpoint…after all, she’s one of the most strongly intelligent and well opinionated women I know.
-FH