Editor,

I am writing in response to last week’s article claiming that minority mentor groups whether purposefully, or inadvertently, tend to segregate students of color from the majority of Pomona College.

Again, lively debate is the spice of life and by no means do I intend to offend, rather perhaps all of us can learn from this exchange.

Let me first add that I am not writing this on behalf of AAMP (The Asian American Mentor Program) or any other mentor program. I have my own reservations regarding such programs. I am not advocating for minority mentor group, rather I am simply addressing some factual inconsistencies and disagreements with how the article was presented.

There is no argument on my part that opinions should be expressed regardless of what they are. There is no argument that the writer remains accountable for the article. I do not object to your decision to even publish the article, however, I have a few disagreements regarding the paper’s methodology and the choice of author for the article.

Let me first say that I thought that the article was well written. The views he had seemed well reasoned out. (From his perspective of course) I am more discontented with the bias that the paper showed by representing a viewpoint on such a potentially important issue with only one side, and one writer. I add that such a controversial issue demands the respect of a more experienced student, not one who until recently has been busy with issues related to orientation, meeting new people, living away from home for the first time, etc. As an adopted Korean, I can tell you that even being an AAMP mentee did not afford me a clear view of what these programs were about until about three-fourths of the way through the first semester after attending a couple of AAMP events and simply taking in the Pomona atmosphere.

Such articles in the TSL can have broad reaching implications for the tone at atmosphere of Pomona College. These implications cannot be understated simply because the article happens to be in the Opinions Section of the paper. Even though it is only an opinions article, many students will undoubtedly receive at least a small degree of influence from it. By simply raising the issue, it forces others to at least begin to develop an opinion. How the media spins issues has a drastic effect on how a general public will approach it. I make no exaggeration when I say that the media can actually alter current reality. Again, I strongly disagree with the TSL’s decision to provide only one side of this debate. Therefore I raise the question, how would you tend to look at an issue when you are exposed to only one side of it?

I agree with you to some extent that through the article, we are able to see how a typical 1st year Caucasian student views the issue. His viewpoint is perfectly valid and it very well should have been printed. His viewpoint can perhaps assist mentor groups in their strategies to make themselves more inclusive. (For those of you that don’t know, CLSA, Ujima, and AAMP are all open organizations that hold socials, workshops, and related events that are open to anybody. Again I have issues with the fact that he was the only writer on the subject.

I also believe that his research for the article was very poor. First of all, the author stated that his only previous point of reference for writing such an article, (which he does point out in the article) was possibly the handful of minorities at his high school whom he could "count on both of his hands". Therefore the author’s opinion regarding an important piece of the social and racial dynamic here at Pomona came primarily from his research for the article and his less-than four weeks of experience as a student here. A clear example of this inexperience is shown when the author attacks the "openness" of such groups. Within the first three weeks of school I know that AAMP held an ice cream social that was well advertised through e-mails, flyers, and word of mouth. Short of personally knocking on every student’s door, there was not much else they could do. Last year I attended some lunches at the Office of Black Student Affairs. Perhaps if the author had a few more months of experience living here he would have realized that such groups do actively try to get groups of all different backgrounds to socialize, and would not have been so quick to assert that such groups form "racial cliques". The author’s claim that these groups don’t try to open themselves up to the greater Pomona community is ridiculous to say the least. Perhaps, if he meant to make a statement on behalf of the general Pomona community I would have written this letter in a different form. However, no where in the article is it apparent that he interviewed the general student population, mentors, or mentees. The only person he referred to in the article was Daren Mooko, who by the way was quoted very much out of context. In the article, Daren was portrayed as an utterly ignorant leader of the Asian American Community who didn’t realize "how much of a problem it is that Asian Americans might sit together at tables. Obviously what he meant by the quote was that minorities should not feel pressured to be ambassadors of their race. In other words, seeing many Asians, Blacks, or Chicanos at a table should not be seen as any "weirder" or "worse" than seeing many Caucasians together at a table.

When I critique the author I mean no personal offense. Frankly son, I am proud that you had the integrity to write an article on an issue that many other writers would have simply "refuse to touch it". As an ending point I would like to emphasize that AAMP is holding a workshop on Hate Crimes Wednesday October 10. Everyone is invited regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, age, ice cream preference, etc. Like all AAMP events, there will be flyers, and e-mails to advertise the event.

Sincerely,

Matthew Noerper ’04