Kamarin Bradley is in the minority at Longwood. She’s a self-described morning person who doesn’t mind 8 a.m. classes and isn’t one for sleeping in on the weekends.
She’s also a minority as one of the nine percent of African-American students at Longwood, which is a PWI, or a predominantly white institution. During her freshman year, Bradley said she questioned whether she belonged at Longwood for that very reason.
Her freshman year started in a way that may be familiar to other minorities on a PWI. She was paired with a white roommate who wasn’t accepting of her as an African-American.
“At first I wanted to leave and then I decided that that wasn’t the way to go,” Bradley said. “That incident, as well as (a similar) incident with a professor pushed me to actually want to make a change.”
Today, Bradley flourishes at Longwood. She is a junior graphic design major, a resident assistant and a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. But her own achievements weren’t enough. She wanted to make sure other minority students had the same opportunity for success that she had.
Bradley is now the president of Longwood’s branch of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Helping make the type of difference that could have helped her as a new student is what motivated her to first join the organization.
“I never had that as a freshman, having someone be like ‘I understand what you're going through.’ I had to go through it by myself,” she said.
NAACP is a social action-based organization. Longwood’s branch does what Bradley called “background work,” which worked to make sure minorities on campus feel comfortable.
Part of this work includes planning events that welcome everyone, regardless of ethnicity or skin color. One of NAACP’s most recent events was a multiplicity mixer that was not only attended by people of all colors, but also LGBT students, another large minority on campus.
One of NAACP’s main goals Bradley also emphasized, is education.
“A lot of the underground work is about getting people together and getting them to understand where we’re coming from,” Bradley explained.
The organization also provides its members with a platform to talk about acts of discrimination that they may have experienced, or events happening around the world that affect them.
“We have an open discussion at the end (of meetings) where we talk about how minorities are transitioning into a PWI,” said Bradley.
Bradley added, “A lot of us do have stories to tell,” concerning personal experiences of discrimination. Having that ability for discussion, education, and understanding is what Bradley believes will make the difference for minority students, between Longwood feeling like home or a place where they just don’t fit in.
For students who are interested in Longwood’s chapter of NAACP, meetings are every other Monday at 5:15 in Hiner 102.
