There are several things I need to learn--patience is one of them. I have a strong endurance, and when I was a child I think I was somewhat patient--but I am at my string's end. This system has got to end... Alas, I haven't blogged and I want to, need to, about Adrian. Adrian is a beautiful girl-- light-skinned, real down home Black girl-from Detroit. When she walked into the library and we bonded, it was a beautiful thing. Her story of her experiences as a graduate student here at this school is one that reminisces with not only me, but every other Black graduate student that I know at this university. The psychic stress of being of color in a predominantly white AND Racist environment (which, I won't hesitate to say is inherently tied to its conservativism)is something that is harrowing and can kill you if you let it. And one needs to talk about it and share stories and experiences. bell hooks talks talks more explicitly about it than any other Black academic/intellectual that I have encountered thus far--and she speaks to the many, many men and women of color who have given up or altogether avoided institutions of higher education because of their racism.... THIS MUST STOP! I dont care what it takes and I dont care what it entails, but this white male power structure has got to go! Not one more generation of "Othered" peoples should have to experience this.... and they ask why people of color don't go into higher education at the same rates as others? and I am sure the same is for Latinos and asians. I look at my own family-- most of my aunts and uncles have advanced degrees--my grandmother worked on her masters, but had a nervous breakdown the year before my mother was born. I refuse to let it happen to me.....