Vassar Disorientation Guide 2019-2020

WHEN PEOPLE SAY POK IS SKETCH...

When people say that Poughkeepsie is “sketch”, they are saying “Poughkeepsie is a Black and Latinx working class city and I’m scared of those demographics.” Poughkeepsie is fine. There are tons of great people, crime rates are high because policing is racialized, but the threat of anything happening to you as a result of you being in Poughkeepsie is virtually zero.

You’re more likely to face harm by your peers than by folks from Poughkeepsie, you’ll find more illegal drug use on campus than anywhere else in the area, and you’ll come to understand the violence enacted by our campus towards folks in Poughkeepsie that’s legitimated through assertions of student “safety and security.”

Our “safety” comes at the expense of folks in Poughkeepsie, and our “security” justifies racist policing practices on and off campus.

“Poughkeepsie is sketch” is a racist expression and we must work to address that and unpack the history of this college.

Poughkeepsie, like a lot of working class and rural areas, used to house more industry (paper mills, breweries, cotton and wool factories + more). In the 1940s, IBM purchased tons of land in the area and transformed Poughkeepsie’s urban layout and demographics. In order to accommodate wealthier IBM families, the city would create entirely new School districts, and build shopping centers, suburbs, and additional infrastructure.

Vassar has always played a role in attempts to rezone and gentrify Poughkeepsie. The area surrounding campus that we know as “Arlington,” used to be “East Poughkeepsie.” And the construction of the arterial highway through Poughkeepsie further separated a wealthier part of Poughkeepsie from the downtown area and allowed wealthy white folks to drive around the city as opposed to through it.

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