Life in DC: Cross Cultural Reflections

This was a fluke year for attendance in WCSC (the Washington Community Scholars Center). Normally there are at least 10 students in the program, but this year Cliff Chrisman and I are the only 2. Our leaders say the move to the new house distracted their attention away from recruitment and that numbers have already bounced back for the spring. But since the WCSC house opened its doors to 4 additional renters for the semester, we have a nice group size. Everyone has some connection to EMU.

Brianna Rodriguez attended EMU until her sophomore year, when she transferred to University of Iowa. This semester she's an intern on Capitol Hill for the Iowa senator Harkin. Aerlande Wontamo and Telile Bayissa graduated from EMU, and they're helping low-income tenants learn their legal rights. Erich Miller (pronounced how it looks) is a Goshen grad who did WCSC 12 years ago and is still looking for an internship. I'm working at La Clinica del Pueblo, a free clinic that serves mostly Spanish-speaking people in DC and provides interpreters for nearby hospitals. I've just started interpreting.

Attending Howard University is uncomfortable, undoubtedly, but I enjoy it a lot. I'm one of only a handful of white students, so it's impossible for me to blend in. Part of the challenge is that I'm a transfer student, and sometimes it's easy for me to forget that and to think my "outsider" feelings are all about my skin color. But I'm getting good at finding ways to initiate conversation.

During my first week at Howard, I was pretty self-conscious, and one morning before I left, I asked Brianna if I was dressed "too white." Her sarcastic response made me laugh and came back to me many times since then. She looked at me and said, "Maybe you'll trick them, Emily." Whiteness is something I understand in a different way here. I started out realizing I admired certain qualities of different ethnic groups, but I couldn't think of anything about being white that was all that admirable and felt a little bad about that. Now, through reading and conversations, I'm inclined to think that whiteness, as a concept born out of slavery, is not something I desire to align myself with. It's important that I acknowledge the current relationships among ethnic groups in the U.S. and where my ancestors fit into that, but I don't have to seek out my "white" history as a source of pride. It seems to be especially important for groups that have been oppressed to develop a strong sense of group identity, as a way of validating shared experiences and having a support base. But those who don't feel they are oppressed might take greater pride in other parts of their identity—religious background, family legacy, etc. My identity as a woman is becoming increasingly important to me, as I'm confronted with some new issues here in the city.

Besides giving you a lot to think about, encountering hundreds of strangers every day can be a lot of fun. Today on the way home from work I decided to wear a pair of glasses with a rubber nose, moustache, and furry eyebrows that I found in the free bin last year. Everywhere I went, people did double-takes and then started laughing. I felt like I was leaving a trail of glee wherever I walked! The most amazing thing to me was that some people didn't laugh, and I wondered what they were thinking. It was the first time that any school kids talked to me, and almost every one I met had something to say. I'll enjoy performing some more social experiments in the future. It's funny how I used to think you should avoid eye contact with strangers in the city because you'd either offend someone or get mugged. I used to think anonymous, momentary relationships were less important than long-term ones, but if you think about it, I spend 2 hours a day among strangers. The person that I am on the Metro and the sidewalk and in the store is every bit as important as the person I am at work or at home. In fact, you probably have more opportunity to influence strangers in a day than to influence the people you already know. Besides the fact that you encounter more strangers, you are also more likely to have different information to share with each other.

To me, the city feels like an extrovert's heaven, although I imagine introverts would appreciate the time on the Metro and the sidewalk to be quiet and enjoy the city in that way. All I know is that the charge I get from walking places and watching people in DC has not worn off yet, and there's a good chance I'll be back someday, which I never would have guessed before I came.