29
PART TWO:
ETHNICITY
30
Ethnic Groups and Boundary-Crossers:
A Study of Asian-White Relations in a College Dorm
Candy Reynolds
A student who lives in a dormitory of a university is
not simply living there but is also involved in an intri-
cate social environment. The student is probably away
from home for the first time. Her roommate and new
friends become her family, and her room becomes her
home. The situation is one of closeness and intimacy
for most residents and the social aspects of this living
experience seem to be magnified. This study focuses
upon two important aspects of dormitory life. The
first aspect is the categories students use to classify
their peers into groups according to their ancestry and
their interests. The second aspect is the problem of
conflict: what are the dynamics of interaction when
these groups become involved in a dispute?
Cummers Hall
Cummers Hall (a pseudonym for the dormitory I
studied) is a co-ed residence hall with a population of
two hundred students, 60% male and 40% female.
The hall has two co-ed floors, two all-female floors,
four all-male floors, and is located near campus. Upon
entering Cummers Hall each student is required to
pay a $10 social fee to be used for activities such as
parties, dances, barbecues and other social events.
With 200 people residing in the dormitory a total of
$2000 is collected which is then allocated for social
activities. At the beginning of each school year mem-
bers of Cummers Hall organize what is called an
"Executive Committee," or hall government, to allo-
cate this money. The officers are elected twice a year in
a general voluntary dorm election. Officers include a
President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Social
Chairperson, and Representative from each floor.
The President has no vote, and the other officers and
representatives have one vote each. The Executive
Committee meets once a week to decide on dorm pol-
icy and events, and any resident may attend these
meetings to voice his opinion.
A potential area of conflict arises when the student
pays the $10 social fee, and expects that the dorm will
organize and sponsor activities that s/he enjoys.
Likewise, the Executive Committee which has control
of allocating this money is supposed to represent his or
her preferences for activities. Unfortunately people
do not always enjoy the same things or share the same
interests.
The population of Cummers Hall includes 102 stu-
dents of Caucasian descent, 94 students of Asian des-
cent, and 5 students with Spanish surnames or of Black
descent. In the Hall a conflict of interest exists between
the two largest ethnic groups - the Whites (50.5%),
and the Asians (47%). Specifically the Asian students
generally prefer soul music and mixed drinks or non-
alcoholic beverages at their parties. The Caucasian
students favor hard rock music and "kegger," or beer,
parties. The full scope of this conflict of interests is one
of the topics presented in this paper.
During the period I studied Cummers Hall the
composition of the Executive Committee changed
from one semester to the next. At first I thought that it
was this shift in power that caused a conflict between
members of the two major groups in the Executive
Committee: the Whites and the Asians. Later I ob-
served that when disputes arose it was notjust between
students of these two groups. Both Asian and White
students have allies who share the same interests but
who belong to the opposite ethnic group. These allies
identified with either the Whites or Asians and aided
them during disputes. The residents call these people
either "Bananas" - meaning yellow on the outside and
white on the inside - or "Eggs" - meaning white on
the outside and yellow on the inside. There were also
people of both ancestries and of other ancestries who
remained neutral in the disputes.
I hasten to add that the terms used in this paper such
as "Asian,," "White," "Egg," and "Banana," are not
meant to be derogatory, whatever their usage in
everyday life. I realize that such terms involve combi-
nations of variables such as descent, ethnic affiliation,
and interests, and may even border on being
stereotypes. The justification of the use of these terms
is that the students themselves use them in the classifi-
cation of their social world.
In the sections that follow I will outline the methods
I used in this study and the criteria by which students
classify each other into various interest and ethnic
groups. Next, I will study the relationship between
these groups by examining a conflict that arose from
their interaction in the Hall government. In doing so I
hope to show the importance of boundary-crossers in
dispute management in the Cummers Hall govern-
ment.
Methods
Participant observation is a useful method of inves-
tigation. It allows the anthropologist to see the be-
havior of the people s/he is studying, and thus gain
insights which might never be obtained through the
use of formal interviews and questionnaires. In my
study I learned about the terms Banana and Egg sim-
ply by being around and by listening to conversations
of the students in the dorm. Only then did I become
aware that the people were divided and placed into
these categories. Without participant observation I
might have totally overlooked this important insight
into the dormitory population - an insight crucial to
understanding dispute management within the dor-
mitory government.
I began collecting data by observing six weekly
Executive Committee meetings which lasted approxi-
mately one-and-a-half hours each. I also attended
three floor meetings which are held whenever a floor
representative feels that it is necessary. Each of these
meetings ranged from 30 to 45 minutes. I also at-
tended two barbeques, two White parties, an Asian
party, and a party intended for both. During these
events I took careful notes on seating arrangements,
what was said, and who talked to whom. These obser-
vations were used as the background for my study.
Another method I used was the interview. My first
interviews were with students of Asian descent who
had just gained office in the previously exclusively
White Executive Committee. These people became
key informants and helped me a great deal in defining
and characterizing the different identity groups, and
by suggesting to me the people who could be defined
as belonging to each group.
While interviewing I began to get some feedback
from Executive Committee members who wanted to
tell me their ideas about identity group definitions and
the conflicts between such groups. They also gave me
examples of people who fit the different categories.
Next I went to people selected by my informants as
belonging to particular groups. I asked them also
about their definitions of the categories I had been
given, and what they considered themselves. I ques-
tioned 41 people, and again, after doing so, more
people volunteered information.
The only real difficulty I had in carrying out this
study was the disbelief of the students in the Executive
Committee that I was doing it as a serious project.
Once they realized this, my study became much more
difficult and led to some hostility toward me. But the
more I persisted, the more my unwilling informants
realized, I suppose, that I was going to stay with it.
Many informants became very helpful - some even
became key informants - while others still resented my
intrusion. I spent approximately 10 hours a week for 8
weeks on this project, observing and interviewing, plus
a few hours more on the weeks that parties were held.
Group Classification.
In Primitive Classification Durkheim and Mauss state
that classifications are developed in the context of
social life. They further state that the object of classifi-
cation is to help people understand their social and
natural environment. For example, classification of
people brings about a better understanding of one's
place and the place of others in the social system. As I
started my study I discovered that the categories in
which an individual student placed himself and others
has a great deal to do with social relationships in dorm
life.
In order to understand relationships among indi-
viduals or groups, one must first understand the
categories in which people place themselves and each
other. In this study, then, one must understand what is
meant by the terms Asian, White, Banana, Egg, and
Neutral. In trying to understand what these terms
mean from the students' point of view I asked the same
questions that Durkheim and Mauss asked about the
people they studied: "How do they perceive them-
selves?" "How do they perceive the world around
them?" The answers that I received in Cummers Hall
clearly indicated how these categories are defined and
used by the students in the dorm. Each category will be
described below, in relation to seven characteristics: 1)
ancestry; 2) the strength or weakness of family ties; 3)
types of friends; 4) musical preferences; 5) party pre-
ferences; 6) study habits; and 7) type of high school.
In answering these questions, I had to rely on inter-
views. My two most valuable informants helped me
map out a set of characteristics from each identity
group which agreed closely with the characteristics
cited by the 40 other people I interviewed. The group
descriptions below are essentially composite lists of
characteristics given by my informants in the inter-
views.
Asians
Asians are students of Asian descent. One outstand-
ing characteristic of Asians is that they generally come
from a close-knit family that is still important to them
during college. One informant explained to me that
this closeness in the family is a carry-over from the
close family relationships generally found in Asian
peasant societies. The twenty students that I talked to
who identified with the Asian group came from San
Francisco and went home almost every weekend.
Another important characteristic of the twenty Asians
that I interviewed was that eighteen are either first
generation (having been born in another country), or
second generation (their parents being born in an-
other country) Americans.
The possible relationship between recent immigra-
tion to the United States and strong family ties was
expressed to me by another informant. He said:
Having come from Hong Kong and not speaking En-
glish, I obviously stayed closer to my family and to my
culture. I think that most first and second generation
Asians feel close to their families and their culture.
Asians as a whole prefer soul music. They do not
care too much for serious drinking parties and prefer
mixed drinks rather than beer. Their friends are
32
mostly Asian. The Asian group is thought of as being
studious. The majority of them are majoring or plan-
ning to major in the sciences. In fact, many people
named this as an additional characteristic of an Asian.
An Asian informant added that most Asians decide to
go into the sciences and engineering field because it is
known to be more open to minorities than business or
education. Not having to be fluent in English was
another reason that he cited for the number of Asians
in the science field.
Whites
Whites are students of Caucasian descent. They can
be characterized as having generally weaker family ties
Dthan the Asians. My key White informant commented
that the Whites are more representative of the Ameri-
can cultural norm of independence. An "American"
child (usually White) is expected to become indepen-
dent of his parents at an earlier age than in most
cultures. "The American Dream is to become a success
by yourself, not with your family's help," she added.
Whites' musical preference is rock music, and they
have predominantly White friends. They are also
characterized as being more interested in parties,
rather than studying. All of the fifteen students that I
interviewed who identified with the White group had
smoked or smoke marijuana. Whites, as a group, also
enjoy drinking parties, especially "kegger" beer par-
ties. My key informant from this group claims that
beer is an old American tradition. As an example she
cited the stereotype of the working class father sitting
in front of the T.V. watching a football game with a
beer in his hand. She told me:
The White kids are more likely to see beer drinking in
their homes than mixed drinks, and many aquire a
taste for it at an early age. I think the Asians don't see
that as much in their homes.
Bananas and Eggs
Bananas and Eggs are more complicated categories
to define. People who identified with the White group
pointed out Eggs to me, and the Asians could point out
Bananas (they used the term in a derogatory manner).
These two categories include those people who belong
to one group by descent and ancestry, but have crossed
boundaries in many of their preferences and attitudes.
When I talked to fifteen of the people who had been
identified as Bananas or Eggs I discovered that
while none of them considered themselves members
of groups just because of ancestry - fourteen of them
said that they considered themselves neutral. It was
very interesting to me that the students in the dorm
agreed that these fifteen informants were either
Bananas or Eggs, even though the informants did not
think of themselves in this way. It was also interesting
that these fifteen informants were able to suggest
other residents to me that they thought were Bananas
or Eggs.
In describing the characteristics of these supposed
types, Bananas are students who are of Asian descent
but who identify with the interests of the White group.
Bananas are characterized as coming from homes with
weaker family ties than most of their Asian peers.
Many informants attributed this either to family prob-
lems or to the fact of their being three or more genera-
tions in this country. Unlike the other Asians, Bananas
are characterized as the partying type. They have pre-
dominantly White friends, enjoy rock music, and use
both drugs and alcoholic beverages. In addition, all of
the people classified as Bananas had attended the
same high school in San Francisco.
Eggs are people of Caucasian descent who have
interests similar to the Asian students. These students
appeared to have the weakest family ties of all the
students interviewed. Like the White category, these
people have been raised to be independent, but unlike
them, they all have had family problems. Of the eight
Eggs interviewed, four are from broken homes, two
had left home before the legal adult age of eighteen,
and the other two had what they considered to be
serious family problems. Eggs generally preferred
soul music and, even more than the Asians, they were
against the use of dope and having drinking parties.
Their friends were mostly Asians and, in addition, the
Eggs tended to be characterized as studious.
An important finding was that the Eggs had all
attended what they considered to be a predominantly
Asian high school in San Francisco - the same high
school mentioned above, which all the Bananas had
attended. Oddly enough, people of Asian descent con-
sider it to be a White high school, while students of
Caucasian descent consider it to be an Asian high
school. In actuality, enrollment figures for the school
show that the population is 48% Caucasian, 42%
Asian, and 10% other. In other words, the two groups
are almost equal, though both are in the minority. The
only way that I can explain this phenomonon is that in
a large high school such as the once considered here,
groups tend to segregate themselves and then view
things only from their own point of view.
I found, in the course of my interviews, that there
are more people classified as Bananas than Eggs in this
dorm. I estimated that there were some thirty
Bananas, while I am relatively sure that the eight
people classified as Eggs were the only such people in
the dorm. I think that this can be explained by the fact
that people from ethnic minorities are more likely to
assimilate to the dominant group (which in America is
the White), than for the opposite to occur.
Neutrals
The last category is the Neutrals. As a whole the
classification of this group is vague since it doesn't have
many unifying characteristics. In fact, all one can say
about the Neutrals is that they don't fit into any of the
other categories perfectly. Some may have Asian
33
oriented interests, while others, more White. Those
identified as Neutral considered themselves Neutral
when I talked to them. The Neutrals, as a whole, are
characterized as having weaker family ties. Their circle
of friends is varied, but they tend to have close friends
among all students. They have no particular music
preferences, and, similarly, their high school
background is not relevant. The small number of
Black descent or those with Spanish surnames belong
to this group.
Analysis
The relationship between these categories in the
minds of my informants and their manifestation in
behavior are very interesting to examine. There is a
definite line drawn between the Asian-Egg categories
on one hand, and the White-Banana categories on the
other. In watching the interaction between persons
assigned to these categories, any observer would notice
the invisible boundaries drawn by the groups in action.
One good example of this is the seating arrangements
at mealtime. The persons classified as belonging to
different categories are always segregated. In fact,
within the dorm as a whole there is little communica-
tion between the two main groups. Whites and Asians
do not interact in social situations and there are always
conflicts on the floors of the dorm where both reside.
Those classified as Neutrals, however, seem more in-
tegrated into the social life of the dorm. They can
often be seen moving from table (group) to table
(group) during mealtimes.
The major conclusion that I would like to draw at
this point is the difference between the cultural system
and the social system of the dorm. In the cultural
system of the students I have shown that classification
of the social world is broken down into five categories:
White, Asian, Egg, Banana, and Neutral. On the level
of the social system there are actually only two groups -
the Whites and the Asians - which are opposed to
each other, and to which the other categories of people
attach themselves.
Now that I have presented a basic description of the
different identity groups in the dormitory, including
the criteria for their classification and the characteris-
tics of the students included in each group, I would
like to focus on the behavior of these groups. I will
begin by presenting a chart showing the composition
of the Hall Government during the period under con-
sideration.
As can be seen from the chart, the first semester
officers are all White. All officers had opponents from
the other factions except for the President and the
Secretary. This could be attributed to the fact that the
voluntary voting happened to take place on a Friday
when most of the Asian students were at home. The
floor representatives were also predominantly White.
The second floor had an Asian representative because
it is populated mainly by Asians. The third floor was
represented by a Neutral. The fourth and fifth floors
were each represented by a Banana - these floors
being made up of White students for the most part.
The Eighth floor switched from a White to an Asian
representative when the White representative quit.
When I asked the people on this floor about this
change, they explained to me that the Asian was the
only one who wanted the job.
The chart also shows that, during the second semes-
ter, things began to change. More people were run-
ning for office, and, for the first time, some Asian
students won offices. An Egg was also added to the
floor representatives. Perhaps this was because the
elections during the second semester were held on a
Wednesday and more Asian students had a chance to
vote. It is also possible that the Asians felt that there
was a greater need for the representation of their
interests. For example, one of the Asian Vice Presi-
dents who was elected during the second semester said
that she was tired of paying for something and not
getting anything.
We knew that Asians really wanted someone to speak
up on the spending of their money too. I guess we were
right because we won.
An Asian woman, who became the new secretary, also
felt that the Asians needed better representation in the
Executive Committee. She had attended many of the
meetings during the first semester and was laughed at
when she suggested an all soul-music dance.
I thought that if I ran and won an office, at least I'd
have a vote and they certainly couldn't laugh at that.
An unsuccessful Asian candiate for President added
that he agreed that the Asians' and the Eggs' interests
should be served as well as those of the Whites and the
Bananas. He said:
There are just as many of us as there are of them and
the others (i.e., the Neutrals) don't care.
The Chart also shows that the Floor Representatives
during the second semester were again mostly White.
The only exceptions to this were a Banana on the fifth
floor, a Neutral on the third floor, and an Egg on the
first floor. This change was not of much importance in
that Floor Representatives do not have much effect
upon the decisions of the Executive Committee. In the
next section I will describe a particular dispute that
came up before the Executive Committee during the
second semester. I will show the pivotal role that
boundary-crossers played in this dispute in the Cum-
mers Hall government, and argue that it was the in-
volvement of boundary-crossers that brought about
change.
A potential conflict of interest was already present
before the second semester Executive Committee was
elected. For example, there were always problems
caused by the playing of loud music that one or the
34
35
INVOLVEMENT IN GOVERNMENT
U   U.~~~~~~-   I- -
OPPONENTS
IN ELECTION
2 ND
SEMESTER
OPPONENTS
IN ELECTION
PRESIDENT
VICE-PRES.
SECRETARY  lYilili|A
TREASURER  _  A        i      ||
SOCIAL     A A A8|
FLOOR REPS.l                                      _
FlOR REPS.8          NOT KNOWN             NOT KNOWN
|COED W  |7                       (W*
COED  W  5          _                    _________
A3iiII       III       '3                   II | (
IA       _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _..
I~~~ A  1I                       +     I.
A- Male
O-Female
A - Asian
W-White
B- Banana
E - Egg
N- Neutral
/- Dropped out
- No opponent
other group did not like. Beer parties on the floors
were always too noisy and they interfered with the
study time of the Asian students.
When members of the second semester Executive
Committee were elected, the conflict began to emerge
into the open. The dorm's main lounge, where meet-
ings are held, became a battlefield for the differences
between the Asian-Egg group and the White-Banana
group. The meeting I am about to describe and
analyze is in no way representative of all the dorm
meetings, but it does effectively illustrate the dynamics
of the conflict between these two groups.
One incident occurred when the annual boat dance
was being planned. The Executive Committee was
supposed to choose a band at this particular meeting.
Early in the day an announcement was posted on the
bulletin board that persons interested in voicing their
opinions about a band should come to the meeting that
night. Knowing that every band selected before had
been a rock band, the Asian Executive Officers
along with a Neutral Vice-President, a Neutral Floor
Representative, and an Egg Floor Representative-
gathered up a number of Asian, Egg, and Neutral
students who would attend the meeting to speak up in
favor of a soul band. Getting word of this the White
officers - along with all the rest of the Floor Rep-
resentatives - gathered up a number of Whites and
Bananas to speak up in favor of a rock band. It was
almost a race to see who could get the most people on
each side.
At the meeting, surprisingly enough, the different
interest groups did not segregate themselves by seat-
ing arrangement in the hall. The three Co-Presidents
arrived late and were greeted by a crowd of perhaps
seventy-five people. The Co-President who usually
heads the meeting called the session to order and
asked the Social Chairpeople about a list of band
names that had been drawn up for the Executive
Committee to choose from. One of the Chairpeople
read the list of bands (all of which played rock music),
and then the President called for a vote. One of the
Vice-Presidents asked if other types of bands could be
suggested, specifically soul bands. The President said,
"Sure but the Social Committee has already drawn up
the list, and I think we should choose the band from
that because they have already been auditioned." This
FIG. 1
1 ST
SEMESTER
statement caused quite an uproar, and the fight began.
The Asians, Eggs, and the Neutrals started shouting
that the Whites had had rock bands at every previous
boat dance, not to mention practically every dance for
which a band was hired. The Asians and their allies
demanded that this time the boat dance have a soul
band. The Whites and the Bananas, after a long verbal
battle, conceded that a committee should be named to
propose a soul band for the dance.
Probably the most significant aspect of this conflict
was the use of Bananas by Whites, and the use of Eggs
and Neutrals by the Asians, in trying to persuade the
other group to recognize their interests. Here is an
example from the debate at the meeting that night:
White to Banana: "Would you please tell them that we
already have bands chosen? They don't seem to un-
derstand that."
Neutral (of Caucasian descent) to the same Banana: "We all
know that, but do you really think that it's fair to
choose bands without the dorm having a say in it? All
of us paid the social fee, you know, and we all do have a
right to have what we want. I think you guys have had
enough honky music for the dorm to get a little soul
music, too."
The usage of these boundary-crossers in the above
example suggested to me that even though the
Bananas share the same interests as the Whites, the
Whites thought that they could best get to the Asians
through a person that has the same ethnic identity as
their opponents. The same strategy applies to Asians
using the Neutrals and the Eggs to fight for their
cause. The two groups of the opposite persuasion
the Whites and the Asians, separated by both ethnicity
and interests - could not confront each other head
on. In fact, not once during the meeting did they
attempt to do so. Instead, they went through
mediators to get their point across. Still another exam-
ple of this is that not even one of the Presidents could
speak directly to the Asian group. Instead the Presi-
dent sent through a Banana Social Chairperson, tel-
ling her on one occasion, "Suzie, calm them down."
Note also that he was fighting for, but rather spoke of
the "dorm" as a whole.
It should also be pointed out that, before the second
semester, the predominantly White Executive Com-
mittee always had the power to promote White in-
terests. One should ask why the Executive Committee
had backed down even though they still could mobilize
the power to impose their own interests. I believe that
one of the basic reasons that the White Exeuctive
Committee gave in to Asian demands for soul music
was the large number of Neutrals in support of this
type of music. The majority of these Neutrals were of
Caucasian descent, and, as I see it, it was the over-
whelming number of White faces screaming for soul
music that caused the Executive Committee to back
of the Asians. Reasons were varied: 20% liked soul
music and wanted a soul band at the boat dance; 30%
had Asian friends who had convinced them to attend
the meeting. A total of 50% of the Neutrals who sup-
ported the side of the Asians and the Eggs did so
because they became aware through the election of
Asian officers to the Executive Committee that the
Executive Committee had been unfair in meeting the
needs and interests of the Asians. They felt that they
should help the Asians on moral grounds.
In the past, dances sponsored by either group were
not attended by the opposite interest group, while the
Neutrals generally participated in both. Suprisingly
enough, when the boat dance did take place, it was
attended by both groups and went very smoothly.
Conclusion
Any classification of individuals causes divisions as
well as alliances. On the level of the cultural system, the
students in the dormitory are divided into five
categories: White, Asian, Egg, Banana, and Neutral.
These classifications are very important because once
a student accepts them s/he tends to view the world
through a fixed framework of perceptions. This in
turn has an effect upon social relationships in the
dormitory. On the level of the social system I found
that there were only two groups: the Whites and the
Asians, each of which had allies who belonged to other
categories. The significant point here is that there are
both categories of students and groups of students,
and that these two levels must be distinguished. Sec-
ond I discovered that the categories into which stu-
dents are divided are not by any means natural
categories: in this case they are not genetic, racial
categories, but rather socially constructed ones.
In the dispute in the Cummers Hall government
which I described above it was notjust the involvement
of the Asian students in the Executive Committee that
brought about change, even though they may have
been responsible for raising the issues. In fact, the
students classified as Asian or White felt themselves to
be so different that they were often not able to work
things out with each other. In this situation the
boundary-crossers were needed to establish com-
munication between these two groups. In the final
analysis it was also the boundary-crossers who were
necessary in bringing about compromise and change
in the policy of the Executive Committee of Cummers
Hall.
down.
After the meeting I had a series of interviews with
the Neutrals to discover why they had joined the side
36