HOMOGENEITY

GUEST WRITER, SHAUNELL HENDERSON

The Hendrix Statement of Purpose

Through engagement that links the classroom with the world, and a commitment to diversity, inclusion, justice, and sustainable living, the Hendrix community inspires students to lead lives of accomplishment, integrity, service, and joy.

Hendrix is marketed as an inclusive place, but for who?

Nestled in a small Arkansas town, it’s spoken of like an oasis among mostly well-meaning, liberal students and faculty. However, the experience of countless BIPOC students on campus tells a different story. While Hendrix claims a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and justice, the student body has failed to put these ideals to practice. Further, Hendrix takes on many of the characteristics of its surroundings–a stark lack of accountability felt amongst the general student population, as well as Hendrix elites and the upper hierarchy of faculty. Hendrix is a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) with around 70% of the student body identifying as white. The black population sits at 7%, which is substantially less than the black population of the surrounding city of Conway. This is reinforced through many social, economic, and environmental means, but this piece will focus on the social pressures, as they have a clear, simple solution, of the changing of attitudes and behaviors.

The Hendrix Social Committee (SoCo), a subcommittee of Student Senate, coordinates most social events on campus. Much like the rest of the campus, SoCo has been majority white for years. All exec positions are stipended with over a thousand dollars a semester at stake for each member, flowing to an all-white few. What happens to keep this going? Friends bring in friends who will bring in friends, then the team is all-white due to a cascade of decisions fueled not by malice, but social inaction and complacency prevalent within predominantly white institutions in general. In stratified, outrageous social hierarchies, it is easy to wonder who deserves to be in what spaces. Historically, students have criticized the lack of diversity and hoarding of power rampant within SOCO, and those in exec positions , including the previous Student Activities Coordinator, did not respond in any meaningful way. In general, when students who wield legitimate social control and are confronted with the issue of a lack of racial diversity, it is often met with disbelief and general annoyance.

Another club with significant room for improvement is the ECC, or, Environmental Concerns Committee. The executive committee here, yet again, is allwhite. They have not addressed the Jackson nor Flint water crisis–as one would expect from the commitment to “environmental education” and “engagement with the larger community” they make in their constitution–which are two among many ongoing, active environmental threats that predominantly impact black communities . Instead, they focus mainly on quieter, aesthetic issues that impact predominately white people. They haven’t addressed factors of environmental racism. Not even a land acknowledgement. It’s necessary to educate college students, so that when they go into their fields, they have an intersectional knowledge base to draw from. Hendrix students need to utilize the inherent privileges that come with a college degree–and to simultaneously understand how environmental crises affect people based on demographics, and use that information to make differences in our future careers.

“The Problem with Senate”

We are a diverse body of students focused on improving the Hendrix community and on representing YOU.

~ From the “About Senate” section of the page https://www.hendrix.edu/senate/.

Who is included in this definition of you? How does the student senate make an effort to hear diverse voices and take steps to amplify them?

Diversity cannot be mistaken for equitable inclusion; a seat at the table is not the same as being listened to, heard, and valued by the room. Student senate is a place where unintentional (or sometimes intentional) exclusion occurs by those who claim to want justice and equity. Student Senate takes place in a room with a giant square of tables for the senators and chairs to sit, while others are scattered on the outskirts, easily forgotten–the very shape of the room informs students of who belongs where and which of those people hold the power. Senate is similar to SOCO. They are friend groups who hold structural and social power, and they make that dynamic clear to everyone on the opposite side of that spectrum. Consider your own experience. When you go to parties, who do you usually see there? Do crowds tend to look similar? Have you considered why Hendrix students feel the need to racially segregate themselves?

What is happening is clear. Have you noticed a general pattern of censorship, of particularly Black women and their stories? It’s prevalent everywhere, anywhere in America, but what makes Hendrix different is that we possess the capability to change it. Students of color deserve to live and speak freely. Black students, Latinx students, AAPI students, and everyone who exists outside of concepts of whiteness should be able to exist in spaces without the threat of verbal harm, having their culture appropriated, or being forced to become the spokesperson for racial and cultural issues. Black students are not your sounding board for all racial and justice issues. Black students are more than what they offer to discussions of race or to academic spaces. Students of color are people and deserve to be treated as such.

While the race problem at Hendrix deeply worries me, I am not the sole voice of students of color or social outcasts. My words speak to my own experience as an outspoken, assertive Black student on campus. In my lived experience, I’ve learned that this College was not made to accommodate students of color and it often challenges or stands in opposition against anything that does not speak to the experiences of most. To deny my and others’ experiences is to deny truth itself and be complacent in the problems of Hendrix. The denial of truth goes beyond the individual effect; when students who hold power in groups challenge in mass, destruction lies in its wake. So, what happens when this type of power goes unchecked?