[437] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: women@mit
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Zhelinrentice L Scott)
Tue May 1 16:59:07 2001
Message-Id: <200105012057.QAA18510@biohazard-cafe.mit.edu>
To: Susan M Buchman <susan1@MIT.EDU>, mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 01 May 2001 16:20:45 EDT."
<200105012020.QAA19974@m2-032-12.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 16:57:01 -0400
From: Zhelinrentice L Scott <zlscott@MIT.EDU>
As a Senior at MIT who has seen many things happen I was
disappointed that the choice of the representative from
the African american woman community wasn't someone who
had been around longer. As a freshman I did NOT have the
clear cut view of MIT that I have now.
I mistakenly thought in my senior year of high school that MIT was this
utopic place where everyone got along. However I heard that
some members of the round table discussion were upset
after wards because of the assertion that there is no
racism at MIT. Hmmm...
Maybe a member of the TECH ed. board can clairify as to why
the majority of the quotes were positive and did not
criticize MIT at all for its treatment of women. I am doubly surprised
that the ring premiere incident wasn't brought up. Anyhow is it
possible for the TECH to do an adequate coverage of women's
issues considering that the leadership of the TECH is predominately
white males? Ladies what do you think? THe tech what do you think?
I also find it telling that those women who were
quoted have such short memories as well.
Wasn't it on May 4th that the sophomore class (Pres. Kevin Nazemi)
had their ring premiere? AND wasn't it that class that
made a big production about emphasizing that "tradition dictates
that there shall be no woman on the brass rat".
I think it's fine if people want to keep 2 men on the brass rat,
however DON'T DEMEAN, or PUT DOWN WOMEN in the process.
So, to sum it up I was irritated that the tech didn't ask more
senior women like Tiffany Bostick, Aisha Stroman, Carla Merrit,
or Jovonne Bickerstaff about what it is like to be
an african american woman at MIT. These women have perspective
and their voice should be listened to honored and repected by
this community on these issues.
Next questions: Is it acceptable to stick to a tradition that was
made a tradition when MIT was all male now that is 40+% female?
An interesting fact is that women outnumber men in course X.
Another question I have is: What is it like being a woman at MIT
now? Especially in light of the fact that Jaime and Allison
are the first female team to win an UA election. That is pretty
amazing. Especially when the odds were against them....
let's discuss the questions at hand,
Zhe
