Do We NEED to be Around Each Other?

So it finally happened. I had been teaching at this southern rural college for 3 and a half years. I was the only black tenure track professor. There were only dozens of black students out of the population of 1000. But there they were last Friday at my door ready to change things...
We had a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on campus and that provided the spark. The spark wasn't unusual. MLK day celebrations definitely will (and should) do that. But this time it seems like it's going to turn into a wildfire.

"I really think we need a group as men of color on campus," one of them said. I was stunned. Of course they would ask me to be the adviser for this newly formed group. But this wasn't about me. I continued to listen and ask questions:

"What do you want his group to be?"

"What are you hoping to accomplish?"

"Why do you feel you NEED a group?"

The last question is the the real issue. I have struggled (and continue to struggle) with it for most of my life as most men of color should. Why do we feel we NEED to be around people who look like us? It may seem natural. Indeed, when I asked them to explain exactly why they needed the group, they stumbled over their words in trying to explain. It's not an easy question. Being trained as a mathematician, I clearly have been influenced by and surrounded by peers who were not black. Moreover, I have never had the need to be around people of my own race. I have always enjoyed it, but never NEEDED it. That may have to do with my background; being a graduate of Howard University and a native of DC may have something to do with that. Maybe I am just used to it.
Intuition however, would argue in the opposing direction. Why don't I feel a need to be around my own people when my past has me being around them all of the time? Why am I not struggling having the problems that people thought I would have in adjusting down here in a rural area? Why don't I have a problem with it? If I don't have a problem then why am I thinking about it? Is there something that I am missing?
I pose the questions to you; Explain your need to be around people like you. Would you go crazy if you couldn't hang around black people? Why? I haven't heard an eloquent explanation, but I am looking for one. We'll be talking about this issue on the show this Tuesday. Feel free to call in to show and express how you deal with this situation. We should be talking about this topic around 9:30pm. You can get info about the show at dcsouth.com under the radio show tab. Look forward to hearing from you.

Peace and Love,

Winger