Page 140 - YB1972

CCIthink one of the biggest lacks of my purposes on this campus is that it is so white. For a long time, I've never worked in a non-black setting. When I drive into the city for a meeting I wonder what I'm doing in this crazy white world. It's one of the critical issues to be solved in the world that we live in _ that people are racially different from us. " "At this college, you take young people at a stage when they are Learning and changing, and have them in a white atmosphere. It's a bad lime to be racially segregated. I'm also aware of some of the stresses. More trauma would be good for all of us. If there were more black students, there would be more activism and more confrontation. I think it's a healthier atmosphere." "W/t.en I was in social work, I always considered myself a middle-of-the- roader. Here I find myself rodicol: I feel more radical here than I've ever felt in my life." "During my lifetime, two people ha.ve exerted much influence. First, Esther Smith, who began to leach me how to get in touch with my own feelings. She was beyond a teacher. Then, there was Maud Williams, a black supervisor, who really freed me to be honest about my own feelings, and share them with other people; never be afraid of the way I felt. She was a neat lady. These people had a tremendous impact because they were so free with giving themselves. They helped you to find yourself." "In social work, you are trained to try to understand people, and reasons they react the way they do and not to be critical of this, but to try and be helpful. How good you are depends on the person .. I have certain strengths and weaknesses. As a whole, social work is a damn hard profession. "