Recently, the Black Men's Group has brought what they perceive as cases of racial profiling to the attention of the College. It has been argued that ID checks at the gym have been infrequent and biased towards African-Americans and that students have even been asked to show ID when simply walking across campus at night. Behind these random ID checks there has been an implied suspicion that students being checked do not belong on our campus.
The purpose in checking IDs is not to bar all non-Amherst people from sharing our facilities simply for the purpose of exclusion, but to ensure that the resources are always available to Amherst students.
Whether this suspicion stems from racism or from a different type of bias is indeterminable, but it is nonetheless inappropriate and must not be tolerated. Authority figures on campus, especially the gym staff and Campus Police, should be wary of perpetuating the idea that there is a particular "type" of student who belongs at Amherst. This job is a difficult one, to say the least, when students complain about non-Amherst students using the facilities, compelling Campus Police to take action. We must remember that this generalized idea of the stereotypical Amherst student would not exist had we ourselves not have created and maintained it.
Although these issues will inevitably arise, the entire community needs to ensure that they refrain from succumbing to the ease of stereotyping. Those who really do belong here are not of any particular race. At a school that prides itself on its diverse body of students, it would be an injustice to all of us to create one general image of "the Amherst student."