Communication freshman Caprice Wimberley, right, talks with premedical freshman Kiara Quick, left, and telecommunication, information studies and media and criminal justice senior Quenton Ross on Sunday afternoon in the Snyder-Phillips Hall cafeteria.
There are no seating charts in campus cafeterias, but high school habits have managed to infiltrate residence halls, sociology graduate student Jessica Mills said.
“(Self-segregation) definitely happens here at MSU,” Mills said. “People gravitate toward folks who are similar to them. They look at people and assume whether or not they’re similar based on (their appearance).”
Mills, who decided to study the issue for her dissertation, has come up with data she said proves self-segregation exists on MSU’s campus.
Jeanne Gazel, founder of Multi-Racial Unity Living Experience, or MRULE, said Mills’ findings are reaffirmed by a book she and Mills have both read, Beverly Daniel Tatum’s “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”
“The whole cafeteria thing has been around since segregation,” Gazel said.
Gazel said the stereotype didn’t become evident until there was enough diversity in a particular environment to notice it.
Carolyn Roy, dining service manager for Shaw Hall, said busy cafeterias at lunch time, or between 11:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., don’t have room for self-segregation.
“It’s not a matter of sitting with kids you want to sit with, it’s whether or not you find a seat, period,” Roy said. “Kids end up sitting with people they don’t even know.”
Bruce Haskell, associate director of University Housing, said the Department of Residence Life makes an effort to ensure self-segregation doesn’t take place in campus cafeterias.
“(They continue) encouraging mentors to have floor dinners and eat together,” Haskell said. “People gather to eat food because it’s a common denominator for folks.”
However, Haskell said students will inevitably choose to eat with people they feel comfortable with.
“I’m not going to say (self-segregation) doesn’t exist, but it’s not a problem,” he said.
MRULE student leader Raven Lewis said segregation in campus cafeterias is a reflection on communities in Michigan.
“Michigan is a very segregated state and we all come from segregated areas,” said Lewis, a biochemistry and molecular biology sophomore. “We are used to self-segregation. When we come to MSU, we’re not used to interacting with people from other backgrounds and we fall into the same trap.”
Mills said the study proves certain students are less likely to sit outside their comfort zone.
“White students are the least likely to eat with students of a different background,” Mills said. “On a predominately white campus, white students don’t have to make friends, or eat, or do anything with students who don’t look like them unless they want to. For them, having interracial relationships is completely voluntary.”
MRULE’s main goal is to encourage students to make friends from different racial backgrounds, Lewis said.
Mills said MRULE, residence hall floor dinners and other student organizations with similar goals will continue to work toward eliminating self-segregation in campus cafeterias.
While those efforts are on the right track, forcing ideas on people will not generate results, she said.
“If it’s organic, people are more receptive,” Mills said.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
