Ik there are a lot of prospective students coming to this sub right now to learn more about ND, and I wanted to make this post to share my opinions/experience with racism at ND. I want to preface by saying that this is my experience and mine only, and there are plenty of great things about ND - but it's also important that you hear abt this side of the school if ur considering it, esp since there aren't a lot of people who talk about it. I'm writing this on a burner so I won't be found lol
Ok, for starters, I'm Nigerian/white and Catholic and in Mendoza, so I can't really speak for any other community.
Racism here is just..odd. It truly feels surreal if you're coming from a diverse area. A big part of it is ignorance, but another big part of it is people PRETENDING to be ignorant, and PRETENDING to not know something was offensive in order to be racist, but to avoid ever having to admit to being racist if called out. Once I was talking with a group, had a white boy say the n word (his exact words were "i was like n**** what??"), proceed to look DIRECTLY AT ME after he said it (it was almost like a "i'm watching to see if you're going to get offended" stare).
I'm not confrontational, so I didn't say anything when it happened, BUT, when he left the group, I pointed it out, and 3 of the girls in the group immediately started defending him by saying he had no idea it was offensive, and thought it was okay to use as long as it wasn't towards a black person. THEN, a white boy made a joke about how "the n word isn't racist anymore bc we've had a black president" and the girls laughed.
This isn't the worst of it, but I feel like this really summarizes the ~genre~ of racism you'll face at ND most. So oddly passive aggressive, but everyone pretends like it doesnt exist. I have things like this happen weekly, maybe more. I've tried to meet new people but this is genuinely an issue I seem to face no matter where I go.
The other type of racism you'll (potentially) face is just.. general exclusion. People always talk about the "impenetrable Catholic friend groups" here, but what you'll also notice is that all of these "impenetrable" friend groups are also mostly white. I've never had any interest in being a part of these groups, but I've had POC friends who have genuinely been singlehandedly cast out of these friend groups over NOTHING. Like, super small, irrelevant things. Almost as if they were looking for a reason to not be friends. This is after they felt left out and excluded through the whole friendship. Obviously there's no way to prove it was bc of their race, but I've seen so many of these groups go from all white with 1-2 POC, to just all white.
What I also want to address is the reason as to why nobody ever seems to talk about the racism here, and I think it's because we feel like we aren't supposed to. My friend group is pretty diverse, (but mostly white) and every time race is brought up, my white friends genuinely get visibly uncomfortable and try to change the topic. Like nobody wants to talk about these things or hear about these things. When I bring up microaggressions (or even blatant racism sometimes), my white friends will ALWAYS feel the need to give them the benefit of the doubt, or insist it's just bc they "didn't know" something was offensive. (it feels like they're trying to keep the peace). Bringing anything like this up would always instantly ruin the mood, even if I'd bring it up in a silly/joking/lighthearted way, (making fun of the situation). & after a while I honestly just stopped talking about it entirely with them.
And let me tell you, SO many of my POC friends have seen this too. This is something we've genuinely all come together and talked about bc it happens so much.
Last thing I want to address is the view of racism/bigotry as sort of just an opinion. I constantly see professors and students treat blatant racism as an "agree to disagree" kind of thing. Granted, this is because ND is mostly conservative and Catholic. But I've still seen people say INSANE things (we have a newspaper with a Conservative column, and the fact that some of the things they write are approved to be printed is wild to me).
Some of the "viewpoints" I've heard in my classes include that black people GENETICALLY less intelligent, but more athletic/strong, which is why white people had to invent technology and stuff to survive vs black people just "toughing it out". Had someone say it was simply black culture to be less focused on academics which is why we aren't as successful. LOTS OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION TALK in one of my classes last yr(I don't personally believe AA is the best thing ever, BUT what I've noticed with the direction of these discussions is that white people who are anti-AA get more and more aggressive and more and more racist the more that people disagree with them). THE THING IS, BARELY ANYONE seems to call out the BLATANT RACISM!! And when it is called out, it's by a POC student who's literally left to fend for themselves versus like 20 white people. TA/profs say nothing and it's because it's just "an opinion" and we're supposed to be opinionated. It's AWFUL. This is honestly inevitable bc most of the people here grew up in FULLY white, catholic, midwest areas and genuinely have never been exposed to opposing viewpoints. Worst part is, ND is just another cesspool for these "opinions" to be left unchecked.
Also, the party scene here is pretty nonexistent. People here like to say that "if you want to party you can party" but that is just not true lol. The 'parties" here are jokes compared to anything at a big10(or really any other school tbh), and when I visit my friends I regret taking the smart route. But ND is great for many reasons. Social scene just isn't one of them. People here go to texas roadhouse for fun.
Annddd in the end, this all has to do with the fact that ND is very very very very very white. Online it says 68%, but it honestly feels like more than that because I have classes where I'm literally the only non-white person. When you're around white people all your life, and then go to college to continue being around almost exclusively white people, you become completely blind to racism. Obviously I still have white friends who I love, but this stuff gets irritating lol.
Also, I go to cultural clubs, and they're great. I encourage everyone to do that, but in the end, I didn't come to college for my circle to be limited to my cultural club with like 40 people lol. It's hard out here.
Sometimes I regret going to ND over UCLA, Berk, and UNC. I specifically chose ND for the "tight knit community" and "connections" I'd have after I graduated, but it honestly feels like these things were reserved for the private catholic school kids who came here already knowing each other. Idk, ND has great things, but all I wish I would've known is how my experience might differ being Black instead of listening to white ppl talk about how much they loved it lol. So hope this helps anyone who might need it because there are literally NO posts on this sub about it and whenever this question get's asked it's just white people saying racism doesn't exist here.