Five Georgetown students discuss race on campus in USA Today podcast

Five black students at Georgetown have attracted national attention by talking about their experiences as students of color in a recent USA Today podcast, hosted by Georgetown student Samantha Rhodes.

“Your race just colors perceptions of you immediately,” said Ceejay Hayes, a junior at Georgetown University.

Nona Johnson, another junior at Georgetown, labels this comment as the feeling of being invisible. She said: “Being up here on this campus and just like people not wanting to know who I am. Not noticing me when I pass them on the street.”

Hearing these statements may come as a shock to many Hoyas around campus, and that is the whole point these students are trying to stress. This shouldn’t be a surprise, just a sad reality.

All five people interviewed on this USA Today podcast said they have experienced racism often at Georgetown.

A junior, Danasia Greaves, has experienced the generalization between race and university on multiple occasions. She speaks about the countless times she is out in the DC area and not being asked what university she goes to but rather, if she goes to Howard, specifically.

Danasia referred to one specific event, when she was walking home from Chipotle and a group of people would not move for her on the sidewalk. She curiously turned around to see how the crowd would react to the white man in the suit walking behind her – they all quickly made room for him to pass through.

When asked how they felt about the Washington Post article which detailed the private messaging app Georgetown retailers were using to keep the area “safe,” it was disheartening to see the racial profiling that took up the majority of these conversations.

Walter Kelly, also a junior at Georgetown, discussed being greeted differently walking into shops. He said the “What’s going on brotha?” greeting he receives is a stark contrast to the way white customers are met in entering stores.

The interviewed students also discussed that as minorities on campus, people at Georgetown oftentimes look at them to speak on behalf of the entire black community, an unrealistic and impossible role to fulfill.

Students also seem to have no shame in asking blatantly rude questions in a sad attempt to generalize an entire race.

Denasia said: “Some people genuinely think it’s okay to go, ‘Do you feel oppressed all the time when you’re surrounded by white people? Can you feel the oppression dripping off of you? Is my superiority in society hindering you in any way?’” She is stunned at the normalcy students carry in their voices while asking this, while trying to “get to know” the “general” black person.

Coming to Georgetown opened Calvin’s eyes to this reality.

“Things aren’t all well with the world,” Calvin said. It is not only sad but concerning to him when Calvin hears people say things are fine in America, as he experienced a peer say in one of his classes. There is an urgent need to create a larger awareness.

As Danasia said, “Don’t put a whole race on one person.”