From Upendo Lounge to cafeteria tables, why do Black college students in a group scare you?
Insecurity, paranoia and racism may lead non-Black people to fear Black people congregating
Whenever I needed a break from college classroom work (or my current remote work), there was a 99% chance that I’d take a walk. It didn’t have to be a long walk, but I’d clear a few blocks just to breathe and get my eyes off of a computer. Every blue moon, I’d keep walking to the bus stop, hop on and go see some random movie for $6. If I was broke, I’d stay on campus. My go-to used to be an on-campus cafeteria/convenience store next door to my dorm.
More often than not, I’d see a couple of students who were training for the Olympic boxing team when I was in there. Maybe I’d observe some of these guys (mainly Black with a couple of Mexicans and Dominican) jogging on campus or sparring with the air, but it was fairly common to see a group of these men sitting at a table near the cafeteria store-area entrance. Majority of the time, I’d stop to chitchat before continuing on with buying a snack and circling back to my dorm. Other times I’d throw up the deuce their way, smile and keep walking. Occasionally, one of them would call or email me to stop by and I’d purposely come hang out at that table. It was always the same table by the entrance; I never had to look around to find them.
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But one day I walked into that cafeteria and the table and chairs were removed altogether. I was confused at first but assumed someone was vacuuming or cleaning the carpet. Then, the next day, that table was still missing. And it looked peculiar to not have a table in this area. I finally asked one of the boxers why the table was removed, and I got one of those “you know why” looks.
Ah ha! Too many Black folks congregating in one spot. It wasn’t an official spot like the Upendo Lounge at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill nor were there any discussions of anti-DEI with the administration to get us to stop hanging out at this table. However, no other table in this entire cafeteria was moved, including those of other sports teams like hockey and football. (There were a few Black football players, but I’d rarely see them in this particular eatery.)
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I had a similar experience when I transferred from a predominantly white institution to a historically black college. I was sitting at a table with three people while playing a game of Spades. One of the guys was arguing with his partner, who happened to have a crush on me, about “helping” me and my buddy win. (He wasn’t helping me do a damn thing. My grandfather taught me how to play Blackjack, Poker and Spades when I was in elementary school.) The latter guy was, however, insisting that I should like him more. According to him, he was attractive, in “the best fraternity,” well-educated, owned a car and had a job. Therefore, he was a “commodity.”
Every single time he reminded me he was a “commodity,” I cracked up laughing at his ego. (Fun fact: He was telling the truth about everything he said. I was just giving him a hard time to entertain myself.) But while we were sitting in the crowded lounge of our HBCU library campus, I looked up to see a petite, older white woman walk into the entrance. She looked like she was holding her breath and clearly intimidated while walking through at least 30 Black college students spread out at these tables.
I smiled and shouted, “Hey, Marshmallow!”
She jumped and looked in my direction, a timid smile slowly spreading after she saw my familiar face. I waved my arm in an exaggerated manner and she waved back. Still scurrying to the library entrance, I could see her shoulders loosen up.
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My friend asked me why I called her “Marshmallow” and I repeated a joke that that professor had said in class about having a reputation for being “soft” with students. They didn’t look particularly interested in elaboration so we went back to playing Spades.
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The irony of my professor self-describing as “soft” in class but looking terrified outside of a classroom was wild to me. If she was at a PWI, it might’ve made more sense (although still disappointing). But at an HBCU, shouldn’t seeing a crowd of Black people be the norm?