We asked Joe...
Is the stereotype of students at your school accurate?
Well, Middlebury is a school full of white kids, yes. You can't deny that. Our skin is white, but that's no different than going to a school in the part of the country that is predominantly black and exclaiming, "Wow, how diverse this school is!" Vermont is a state that lends itself to historically "rich white people" activities: Golf, Skiing. The school isn't the problem, the problem is the stigma surrounding these activities.
Another thing: how base is it to look at someone's skin color and make a judgement about them? How racist is that? If I have black skin what does that mean? I had a harder life? I'm poorer? I'm better at basketball? I like hip hop music? If I have white skin that means that I like classical music and live in a four story townhouse and love skiing. These are obvious exaggerations but the norms carefully surrounding the "Middlebury's a white school," stereotype that gets thrown around a lot. Without African American students, that must mean that no one knows anything about urban life, hip hop culture, parents who struggle to make ends meet, the outside world, etc etc. You know, you can ski, listen to hip hop and talk about the problems in Gaza all in the same day.
Many students may appear white skinned but are from Europe, the midwest, the deep south, Canada, Mexico, Asia. They have lived and studied abroad. Middlebury students are profoundly diverse in terms of experiences and lives, even though their skin color and clothes may look the same.
So, what I mean is, the sterotype is not accurate.