I went to a lily-white high school. We didn’t have racial cliques because you could count the number of Black students on one hand and the number of Asians and Latinos on the other. Maple Grove Senior High School’s population was 1800. The other thing I hated about high school were the cliques— the groups that fettered you to one set of friends and kept you there. I didn’t like it, I didn’t like my fellow students’ ignorance, and I left for a better place: college.

When I arrived at Pomona, I did not have to worry about breaking into a group of friends: I had my sponsor group, my OA group, more classes and activities than I care to think about, and consequently, a greater variety of friends. But Pomona has its own groups and its own problems with race. You see, our most conspicuous cliques are based not on passions or lifestyles, but upon race.

Certainly cliques form because their members feel more comfortable with each other than with other people. Sometimes those comfortable groups are based on race; sometimes they are based on geography, athletics, or religion. Some people feel more comfortable in a group that is racially homogenous. Why? This is a complicated question that needs to be addressed. Is it the behavior of Pomona students towards those who are different? Is it human nature? Or is it a desire on the part of minorities to bond with people of the same race? It is probably a combination of the three. As difficult as it is to shape human behavior, an effort can and should be made to encourage people of different races to interact. The wide variety of campus support groups and mentor programs are in ideal position to encourage students of different races to interact and should be doing so.

Cliques deny others the benefit of their experiences; however, cliques don’t exclusively harm those who are excluded. Individuals on the inside of a group hurt themselves more than they hurt those on the outside. However, people do not spend their time exclusively in cliques. Throughout any given day, students will participate in a variety of activities with a racially diverse group of students and faculty. Certainly classes and activities are valuable, but social experiences, in the halls and at meals, are among the most valuable of college. If those events happen in homogenous groups for Whites or minorities, opportunities for greater understanding and acceptance of racial difference are lost.

As racial issues do exist, Pomona and the Claremont Colleges have an extensive support network for minorities. The Asian American Resource Center (AARC), Office of Black Student Affairs, and Office of Chicano/Latino Student Affairs only scratch the surface of the plethora of organizations dedicated to supporting the minority community. These organizations provide an extremely valuable, if not essential, service in a world that has yet to reconcile the thorny issue of race. They are also extremely open organizations: according AARC director Daren Mooko, some 60% of the attendees at recent Asian-American Resource Center events were non-Asian American.

Despite this openness, division persists. Part of the problem is a refusal to address the problem. "I see groups of all Asian students eating in the dining hall, and I think nothing of it," commented Director Mooko. The reality is that those groups of all Asian students are hurting themselves, and they are certainly not helping to bridge racial divides. The minority support network needs to respond. To an extent, some groups already have. The Asian American Mentor Program encourages its members to include their sponsor groups in some activities. Great idea, but why didn’t I hear about this until I actively researched this column? Nine times out of ten, communication is the primary problem in relationships. If I don’t know the door is open, I cannot possibly walk through it. Individuals and cliques as well as mentorship programs and minority support organizations need to make the message clear that everyone who is open-minded is welcome.

Openness is needed because racism remains a problem. The problem is not overt, but insidious racism: suspicious stares at Black people in the store and parents insisting on sending their children to lily-white high schools. In this environment, it is essential that as much interaction between racial groups takes place as is possible. It is especially important in a world where individuals increasingly choose to associate and live with people of similar backgrounds. In light of this, organizations intended to help minority students should be doing as much as possible to help integrate the community. The offices of Black and Chicano Affairs and the Asian American Resource Center are not acting in their groups’ best interest if they aren’t introducing their members to the broader community. \The best way to accomplish that goal is through interaction in social settings. However, interracial interaction is very difficult when racial cliques are pervasive.

Pomona — as a community that purports to advocate constructive racial dialogue — needs to do more to address the issue of racial cliques. This starts with the minority support system, especially the first-year mentorship programs, and Sagehen Multicultural Awareness Committee encouraging their participants and members to reach out as much as possible to people of other races.

The responsibility for eliminating racial cliques does not fall exclusively on minorities. Sixty percent of Pomona is White and because of that, it is equally important that those students do what they can to interact socially with people of different races. The fact that racial cliques exist is indicative that Pomona’s White majority is not doing enough.