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| Sirius Bonner ’05 |
“Reed is a tough place for students of color,” says Sirius Bonner ’05, an African American woman from Los Angeles and one of the student leaders of the Multicultural Resource Center. “There are so few of us and our specific problems or issues are often not recognized, respected, and dealt with,” she says. Bonner, an art history major, grew up attending predominantly white schools and was, at first, unconcerned about the scarcity of African Americans at Reed. But she soon discovered that unlike at home, she could not rely on family members for support and on L.A.’s sizable African American population to find people who look like her.
Bonner says Reed’s culture can be resistant to change; its claims of intellectual diversity, she says, are often used to defend the status quo. But the recent two-point jump in minority enrollment and her candid conversations with President Diver make her somewhat optimistic. She’d be more encouraged if the MRC had a full-time director, if there was more student involvement in diversity, and if a diversity committee was re-formed.
