To my fellow low-income students (Columbia Spectator - 11/11/14) Columbia University in the City of New York, #Harlem, #HarlemEd EXCERPT: A note to my fellow low-income Columbia students: Washed in liberal guilt, many Columbia students love to discuss privilege but fail to address a key aspect of that conversation: income. Its awkward for most students. People often understand if someone can’t spend money on an expensive dinner. But people wont talk about it. I didn’t realize this bothered me until I read the blog post “Coming out as a scholarship student at Columbia: Invisible labor and class lines” by Koko Jaeger, BC ’13. Jaeger, a low-income student, expressed her difficulty accepting the Barnard tradition of throwing paper out of windows at the end of finals. She was uncomfortable with the extra work it created for groundskeepers, and how few students seemed to care. I never thought about “coming out” as a low-income student until the post reminded me of my first year, when avoiding awkward conversations was a huge part of my experience. Before college, at home, my friends came over to my small house in my poor neighborhood. I didnt need to come out to anyone. People just knew. When I started college, my parents lost our home to foreclosure. They had to move into the living room of my grandmother’s small apartment in a senior housing development. After learning this, I cried to one of my best friends at Columbia. He was able to comfort me but, understandably, didn’t know what to say. Throughout the year, I slowly told my other friends and each time felt like I was coming out. I remember my terror the first time I brought them to my home, because at the time “home” still meant my grandmother’s living room. Half of them still didn’t know about my circumstances. My mother used a third of our food stamps that day to prepare an incredible meal. It felt like we had fooled them into thinking we were a normal middle-class family. [CLICK BELOW TO CONTINUE READING.]
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 21:23:24 +0000
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