“Racism at CMU is rampant. I don’t know what’s more disgusting, the number of people at that school who are racist/prejudice or the fact that students are so oblivious to their racist and prejudice actions. White and Asian classmates treated me so poorly for so long that I am truly shocked when I meet a genuinely nice White or Asian person. There are some decent individuals, but not enough to outweigh the bad. Part of me thinks it’s really an issue of classism as well, an overwhelming number of people at CMU are very wealthy. These tend to be the worst ones in terms of the disrespect and disregard they have for the feelings of Black people.
I don’t want to get too specific because I could be easily identified but most often the racism and prejudice was experienced when I was working in groups so I will describe my general experience with group work . People literally did not listen to me. I would say things to my group mates and even though they were looking at me I could tell they were not listening. For awhile I would think long and hard about whether or not I was crazy? Maybe I was the problem and was not offering anything of value to the group? This rumination could last for a few minutes or a few days, just consuming my mental capacity.
But soon enough my group mates would reveal themselves by restating my idea and offering it as a new idea they came up with. Then other group members would quickly buy into the idea, the same idea I previously offered.
I’ve had this happen to me in as little as 20 minutes and as long as a few days. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Kids at this school have made so many comments about affirmative action, assuming I or another Black student were admitted based on this policy. This is so absurd because if CMU were letting Black kids into this institution based on affirmative action then where are the Black students?!!!!! The Mellon School of Science has around 5 Black students in each year. This is shameful! And this is why White and Asian students feel so comfortable doing and saying the things they do, numbers are on their side.
I’m so glad to be done with this institution and I’m upset it took me so long to see just how bad CMU is. I would hear other Black friends say they hate CMU and wonder why they were so angry. CMU is bad but not that bad, as long as you put your head down and ignore people, it’s fine. I was wrong and stupid. It is that bad simply because no student should feel they have to just make it through school. CMU is already hard enough without all the extra racism/prejudice.
One of my biggest regrets is telling younger Black high school students they should go to CMU. At the very least go to another school with a bigger endowment and more aid money if you’re willing to deal with the racism and prejudice.”
- Anonymous (former student)
I don’t want to get too specific because I could be easily identified but most often the racism and prejudice was experienced when I was working in groups so I will describe my general experience with group work . People literally did not listen to me. I would say things to my group mates and even though they were looking at me I could tell they were not listening. For awhile I would think long and hard about whether or not I was crazy? Maybe I was the problem and was not offering anything of value to the group? This rumination could last for a few minutes or a few days, just consuming my mental capacity.
But soon enough my group mates would reveal themselves by restating my idea and offering it as a new idea they came up with. Then other group members would quickly buy into the idea, the same idea I previously offered.
I’ve had this happen to me in as little as 20 minutes and as long as a few days. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Kids at this school have made so many comments about affirmative action, assuming I or another Black student were admitted based on this policy. This is so absurd because if CMU were letting Black kids into this institution based on affirmative action then where are the Black students?!!!!! The Mellon School of Science has around 5 Black students in each year. This is shameful! And this is why White and Asian students feel so comfortable doing and saying the things they do, numbers are on their side.
I’m so glad to be done with this institution and I’m upset it took me so long to see just how bad CMU is. I would hear other Black friends say they hate CMU and wonder why they were so angry. CMU is bad but not that bad, as long as you put your head down and ignore people, it’s fine. I was wrong and stupid. It is that bad simply because no student should feel they have to just make it through school. CMU is already hard enough without all the extra racism/prejudice.
One of my biggest regrets is telling younger Black high school students they should go to CMU. At the very least go to another school with a bigger endowment and more aid money if you’re willing to deal with the racism and prejudice.”
- Anonymous (former student)