On being black in a white world"...My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my "Blackness" than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them I will always be Black first and a student second. These experiences have made it apparent to me that the path I have chosen to follow by attending Princton will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant....."

---Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama} from her thesis "Princeton-Education Blacks and the Black Community," 1985

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