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Where
Are You Comin' From, Where Are You Goin' To:
Informants Ten Black students from California State University, Northridge, were interviewed for the study. Five interviewees decided to remain anonymous, and chose their own pseudonyms: Steve, Emerald, Jake, Keith, and Zowditu (Zowdi for short). The remaining five interviewees are Olympia, Chris, Thanya, LaTonya, and Ms. Moore (Ms. Moore preferred to use her surname). At the time of the interviews, the ages of informants ranged from 18 to 24. Five interviewees major in Business, and the other five major in Math, Art, Psychology, Health Sciences, and Pan African Studies. Four males and six females were interviewed. All but three students were born in Los Angeles County. Of these three, one was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, one was born in Belize, Central America, and the other was born in San Francisco. Six informants said they grew up in the general area of South Central Los Angeles, two said they were raised in Inglewood, and one informant grew up in Santa Monica. Nine students said neither parent had graduated from a four-year university. The father of one informant did have a four year degree, but she was not raised with him and he had never provided financial support. Five grew up with parents or a parent who did not own the residence they lived in. One informant had grown up in a home her parents owned, and then lived with her mother in an apartment before they relocated to her mother and stepfather's owned home. Three of the ten students live in campus residence halls, and the other seven live off campus. Of the three transfer students who were interviewed, two were new transfers as of fall semester, 1995. One interviewee, Ms. Moore, is on temporary leave from C.S.U.N. but plans to return in Spring of 1997 and still works on campus. Of the nine others, three are seniors, five are juniors, and one is a sophomore. Freshman and sophomores are underrepresented in the study; in fact, no freshmen were interviewed. This factor most certainly influenced the results of the study, as will be discussed in Chapter 4. Also underrepresented are members of Black Greek fraternities
and sororities (see Chapter 4 for further comment). Although three students
are members of letter societies, only one (Keith) is a member of a Black
Greek letter fraternity (Alpha Phi Alpha). The other two, Zowdi and Chris,
are members of Da Leideez and Da Fellas, respectively. Since Keith was
a recent transfer student at the time of his interview, his experience
with the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at C.S.U.N. was limited. Next> Design
Placing and Black Students' Discursive Construction of Community Copyright (c) 1996, Corinna J. Moebius |