When Graduate Schools Have No Black People as Alumni or Current Students

Remember how I posted a few hours ago that I was happy, well I take this all back and now I am in a rough place.

Let me explain.

I decided to do a bit of research on one of graduate programs I am interested in. Looked at the admission requirements and deadliness. Signed up for an information panel. I was confident, till things went wrong went when I started looking at the alumni, and it got even worse when I saw the current students.

The first thing I noticed was that none of the current currents or alumni were black.

The second is that 80% of those students were East Asian. There are a few white people and south-east asian was scattered here and there.

MaybeI might have missed it, but I swear they were no black people in that program, at that school.

As a person of color, who wants to go to grad school at one of the top universities in Canada, it is sad and discouraging. Seeing that makes me feel like the color of my skin is going to be held against me and that it is not a place for me. We talk about diversity in everything else. Where is the diversity in academia?

I never felt self-conscious about my skin or doubted myself till I looked at that school. Should I give up?