To the Editor:
Despite an acknowledgement of the "complex dynamics of self-segregation," The Dartmouth Editorial Board ("Self-segregation at Dartmouth," Jan. 20) does not even mention the fact that many people choose to self-segregate because we want to.
This is not an institutional problem. Why does The Dartmouth have such a huge stake in the matter? Every day in Food Court, people self-segregate by affinity: sports team, race, sexuality, etc.
Dartmouth should not be in the business of an illusory "integrated multiculturalism;" there are some people with whom I just do not want to associate myself, and definitely not eat. There are places in which affinity groups -- however they are defined -- do not feel comfortable or in which they have no desire to be.
In many people's eyes, "affinity" equals race at Dartmouth; have the white people hung up on affinity houses ever thought about why they would not feel comfortable at one?
This is not a reason to penalize the active recruitment of affinity houses. It is much more a reason to think long and hard why some people are endlessly bothered that Dartmouth is not apparently integrated enough.
These people are trying to protect themselves. Otherwise, they would just go out and integrate themselves.
