Problems of Minorities at Majority Institutions: A Student’s Perspective

Abstract

The hardest burden that a minority student at a majority institution has to bear is the alienation felt when one realizes that few share one’s point of view. It is not the academic competition that one faces, since one also competes with the brightest students in the country when enrolled at Howard or Meharry; rather it is that of being different and misunderstood It is that self-esteem and self-respect are repeatedly challenged on a racial basis, as well as on a personal basis. There is repeated challenge in all conceivable situations from the first day of med school, when your white lab partner wonders aloud whether one has to keep the same partner throughout the year, until graduation when one sees fewer black classmates than were there on the first day. The challenge is internal as well as external. One is forced into a long “Are you who you think you are?” period and there is little help around to see you through. Many times in the process you want to give up and say that you tried, but more often, fortunately, you try harder and keep going.