Fr. Alan Tarlton, 80, is the Abbey’s only African American monk.
He was not always alone.

When Tarlton was ordained in 955, there were four other African Americans priests, but, eventually, the abbey sent them off to do missionary ork in the Bahamas, Kentucky and Indianapolis — leaving Tarlton to work as a prep-school English teacher and FR in Benet Hall alone, as the University’s sole African American educator for years.

Alone on campus in race, Tarlton says he tried to conform in the early years.
“For a long time I think I tried to be as white as I possibly could,” Tarlton said. “I would never say I was black.”
“When we had watermelon in the dining room I didn’t eat it. I loved watermelon, but I didn’t want to be identified with it.”
The director of the CSB/SJU Intercultural Center, BernaDette Wilson, says she believes the same issues of racial identification that existed on the campuses for Tarlton more than 50 years ago are prevalent today.
“Some (African American) students feel they represent the entire race at CSB/SJU,” Wilson said. “We need to work together in a way that supports exploration so that African Americans feel as though they are individuals, not just students of color.”
Though the number of African Americans has increased on the campuses, Wilson says racial issues divide the campuses’ populations.
“We are still feeling the effects of racial injustice,” Wilson said. “We need
to learn about our culture. We need to mingle and interact no matter how uncomfortable it may be.”
The Intercultural Center
and I-LEAD
The Intercultural Center offers students of color and, specifically, economically disadvantaged students, tools to be successful at CSB/SJU— colleges in which the chief demographic is Midwestern Caucasian.
“We work will all students first, but our programs focus on supporting students of color,” Wilson said. “We do this with the goal that the number of (African American) students who report feeling invisible on campus will decrease.”
Though the Intercultural Center does not recruit students, it does work closely with the department of Intercultural Leadership, Education and Development (I-LEAD), which recruits economically disadvantaged students chiefly from the intercity. The leadership group enrolled its first class in 2005. This year, the program successfully recruited 47 economically disadvantaged students, many of whom are African American. “(I-LEAD) students are very intelligent, very engaged.

They are bright students who are interested in learning about other cultures and especially their own,” Wilson said. “I am really blessed to be here.” Currently, there are 36 African American students on the campuses. Last year, there were 34. In the next five years, Wilson said she wants to see the number of African American students on campus grow. “The generation of college students today is a generation of bi-culturalism,” Wilson said. “CSB/SJU needs to cater to that transition in a way that caters to today’s students, and foster racial diversity.”
Isolation
Despite the current recruitment and support programs CSB/SJU offers African Americans and other students of color, CSB sophomore Fatuma Omer, a student-worker at the Intercultural Center, says she feels CSB/SJU has a long ways to go if they hope to achieve proper intercultural diversity. “It seems a lot of students here are not aware of diversity,” Omer said. “I have not even had a class that teaches about Black history
“How are we going to be culturally aware if they don’t even teach it?”

The lack of cultural co-education has given rise to another issue, Omer says: isolation. “One of the toughest things (about being an African American at CSB/SJU) is going to eat at the cafeteria,” Omer said. “When I walk through the front doors, everyone who turns to look at me is white. I don’t even know where to sit down.

“I am not happy here.”

Tarlton says the cultural attitudes Omer is noticing on the campuses today are similar to those before the civil rights movement. “Seldom do you see a minority student in the school publications,” Tarlton said. “Go on the Internet to the schools’ Web site. You will notice the picture on the homepage changes. How often do you go online and see a student of color in those pictures? African Americans are ignored even by the school(s).

“I am not sure if we are getting any better in race relations here at CSB/SJU.”

Wilson says she agrees the predominate racial attitude at CSB/SJU is that they are Caucasian schools. This causes some African American students to feel isolated, according to her. “Not every African American needs to go to a place where they can identify with people of their own race to succeed,” Wilson said. “Many want to be part of the schools and their programs and feel as though they were any other student. Unfortunately, racial labels keep them from doing this.” The notion resonates well for Omer. “I feel left-out of things,” Omer said. “I am only recognized as the Black student, not a CSB student.” When White students do engage African American students, Omer says conversation is often kept superficial. “The so-called culturally aware (Caucasian) students are the curious ones. They ask the questions,” Omer said. “But they only want to know the answers for the moment, to prove something to themselves. They don’t really care. “They call me an international student when I am an American. They ask me when I am flying home to the Bahamas.”
Call for improvement
Racial awareness at CSB/SJU would require open and honest conversations between White students and students of color, Wilson says. “Caucasian students sometimes don’t know what to say to an African American student because they do not want to ask the embarrassing questions,” Wilson said. Omer believes it begins with knowing the difference between international and interracial.

“The schools seem to reach-out to international students, not interracial students,” Omer said. “I don’t think some students know the difference.

Filed under: Variety by Kurtis Nusbaum