For the average DePauw student, the act of walking across campus is a simple act, but black students sometimes wonder if they are being viewed merely through a lens of race or nationality.
Ronda Henry Anthony '90, an associate professor of English and Africana studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indinapolis, told a packed room of DePauw students, faculty and friends Friday evening at the Inn at DePauw that she knows how it feels to be alienated by race in the DePauw community.
"When I first arrived on DePauw's campus in 1986, I think there were about 23 black students," Anthony said. "There were about four or five black men. They would join the fraternity system, and they would sort of integrate into that. They didn't want to date black women."
Anthony's story is perhaps more unique than most speakers. She attended DePauw as an undergraduate and later came back to teach as an assistant professor of English.
"Many stereotypes associated with African Americans, specifically the notion of black masculinity, lingers in the minds of black men and women, affecting how they view themselves and how they manifest that view," Anthony said.
Her new book, "Searching for the New Black Man: Black Masculinity and Women's Bodies," highlights these social circumstances of black men as chronicled by black male writers.
"One of the ways to describe these ideas of masculinity is through a term known as hypermasculinity, or the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior," Anthony said. "While these expressions of hypermasculinity are a powerful force within an American context in which black masculinity is subordinate, they also play to the residue of the 'White Fear of the Black Beast.'"
She points to scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and the term of double consciousness, or having to embody two views of awareness at all times. Anthony said that rap artist Curtis Jackson, "50 Cent," plays on many of the negative associations attached to black masculinity to gain power.
"Yet someone like President Barack Obama has had to actively block or disallow their easy application to his own body in order to make America comfortable with him as president," Anthony said. "Both examples show how the realization of hypermasclinity is major determinant of behavior for the men."
Anthony does not limit the existence of this phenomenon to black men alone, saying that women, Asians Americans, Latin Americans and any other group can have this double consciousness.
"This project came out of this gut need to understand black men better," Anthony said as she talked about her somewhat troubled relationships that she has had with black men from her father to peers.
She said that although he was always there for her in many ways, her father lacked that emotional aspect of being able to open up. This is something common among black men, and she questioned, "What is going on in traditional black male society, according to these traditions? What real black men look like, and how they are carrying out the terms of traditional male society versus who they really are?"
Her book also highlights many of the struggles that blacks face and compares how black masculinity has formed in relation to women's bodies and the dominant white society.
"The intelligence that she displayed was miraculous," senior James Ennis said, who attended the event. "This is something that a lot of black men really need to hear, and I wish more black men came out."
Along with Ennis, Anthony was able to inspire other students who attended.
"I really enjoyed it," senior Thay Brown said. "I look forward to reading her book."
In addition, sophomore Ariel Cheatham epitomized what many students seemed to take away from this event.
"It's nice to see a black women who was once in our shoes and is as successful as she is," Cheatman said. "It just gives me hope to know that, even though I'm here and there are troubles and tribulations I'm going through, one day, I can be where she is."