(DP)

Editor’s Note: This post may look familiar. Camille’s piece was first posted on March 13 — it has since disappeared (probably the fault of yours truly). Anyway, here it is again. Enjoy!



The smell of excitement overtook the remnants of the sunscreen aroma — the first Monday back was abuzz with long-lost hugs and repeated utterances of “How was your break?” Cancun, Miami, the Dominican. No time for details in the quick chat and run,, but I’m sure most of my classmates’ breaks included some moments fit for MTV’s Spring Break. And, I’m willing to bet, most of these moments included some kind of unnaturally colored cocktail, umbrella optional.

But the unquestioned tradition of binging is not universal at Penn. The Vision, Penn’s black-interest newsletter, published a provocative column by Jaryn Fields last fall entitled “I Thought Drinking Was Their Problem” discussing the differences between the drinking culture among black students from that of white students. The statistics he cites are provocative — 23% of black students reported binge drinking in a two week period compared to 44% of white college students in a study performed by the Department of Health and Human Services . These national statistics hold true at Penn as well. According to Dr. Stephanie Ives, Penn Director of
Alcohol Policy Initiatives , black Penn students tend to “fall somewhere between the lower and moderate risk groups”. Across all measures of binge drinking, black students in particular tend to be making a habit out of healthy drinking.

More categorical answers for this phenomenon surface : The bar and keg scenes aren’t culturally popular among black students, the gender imbalance leans towards women who drink less overall, or the deep religiosity of black culture. Generalizations, sure. But potentially accurate reasons for the behavioral differences that distinguish a good chunk of the black student population from the general American collegiate population? Sure again.

Black students tend to have more responsible drinking habits largely because of cultural factors, but there is a larger story here. All over campus, students are choosing to space out their drinks, watch themselves, and
look out for their friends across all ethnicities. Really, there’s a gamut of ways to live out the quintessential college experience. Who knows, maybe in the future our expectations when we ask that friend about break will change as well!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.