[eartotheground]

I went to Princeton in the ‘70s (white male, no money). It was weird to say the least. The strangest thing was the racial tension. The black students and the white students were completely hostile to each other. I was walking back to my dorm one night and I was trying to read something I was carrying, so I moved to the right to try to see it under the streetlamp. While I was doing this, two black women were walking in the other direction. I guess they thought that I was trying to avoid them. They made some remark like “sure whitey give us plenty of room” or something like that. I was literally speechless. It was such an uncomfortable, embarassing situation that I just kept walking.

I think MO was at Princeton only a few years after I was there.

[Southerngl]

I made another comment yesterday that at the age of 35, all I had been told all my life is how race is irrelevant. Now all of a sudden it means EVERYTHING. As a child born after MLK Jr., I am confused.

[wideminded]

I went to Princeton in the same period. I had come from a well known private high school where there were black students but seemingly no racial tension at all. Princeton was shockingly different. There was very little communication between blacks and whites and some degree of tension. I heard that black students were sometimes pressured to avoid socializing with whites. When I got there there was a freshman dorm area that was all black. Probably not the best way to start things off. I once attended a meeting that was intended to be a discussion between the races. After an hour or two of airing grievances, we may have learned some things but nothing was solved.

Of course Princeton did not have a very good history of race relations.