Food service worker Tenal Alston has been employed at Duke since 1993, practically a decade now. A typical day for Alston includes a 13-hour work shift-Alpine Bagels, and then, in the evening, the Perk.
Isn't it tiring?
"Yeah, sometimes," she admits. But Alston prides herself on maintaining an "enormous amount of energy" to get through each day, a trait that comes in handy when rush hour whizzes by, bringing hungry students en masse to Alpine.
Alston works with a staff that consists mostly of black employees, a trend visible throughout campus--including housekeeping and transportation services. Standing in stark contrast to a predominantly white undergraduate student body, and perhaps to a lesser degree when compared with their employers and supervisors, general observation has led both students and employees to occasionally refer--either jokingly or seriously--to Duke as a "plantation."
This term seems to specifically refer to occupations that are primarily blue-collar jobs--or which, at least, most visibly stand out as the blue-collar positions at the University.
"I heard [the "plantation" reference] a long time ago," Alston remarked. But, she adds, not so frequently now.
On the other end of the West Union Building, in The Great Hall, Rosa Mims goes over to each table with a wet rag in her hand, quickly wiping away the crumbs and stains with determined swipes of her hand. It's three o' clock in the afternoon, and Mims is set to go home in half an hour.
Mims is another employee who has heard "a lot of people" call Duke a "plantation," but doesn't care to think much about it. She has worked at Duke for 22 years, a confession made with a serious nod of the head and a tight-lipped smile.
The "plantation" reference to Duke is a label that a heavy majority of these employees do not believe is accurate. Most of the time, employees will joke about the "plantation" identity, usually refusing to cross the threshold into gravity.
"Many employees here joke about that," Charles Mitchell said. Mitchell gingerly sits down on a lone bench for a couple of minutes--he has just finished mopping the second floor of the Bryan Center. He works in housekeeping services at Duke, responsible for cleaning the Bryan Center and being called to any emergency situations on West Campus.
"Just as a joke," Mitchell reiterated.
Alston calls the label inaccurate, primarily because she herself--and other employees-chose to work at a paid position. Ultimately, they believe, their job is the outcome of an exercise of free will.
"We knew what we were getting into, and we chose to work here," Alston reasoned. "[Duke] is not like a plantation."
Jeroy Royster likened his situation to that of the average Duke student: They are at Duke to work at a current job or eventually attain one.
"Truthfully, everybody has to earn a living," Royster pointed out. Royster holds a part-time job at McDonald's in addition to working full-time installing car stereos. "The students here, they're just like everybody else--they're paying to go here so they could get a job. I go here to work and get paid."
Employees say that relations with students are generally positive and peaceful, and few incidents wind up as exceptions. Carefully thinking back, Alpine Bagels Training Assistant Jackie Sanford can remember one Saturday when she and a fellow staff worker were disrupted by a young woman who called them 'Crazy bastards!' after she was informed that the eatery closed at 5 p.m. every Saturday afternoon.
But other than that one incident, Sanford says she likes the students and enjoys meeting them. "They're pretty cool, neat. I wish I was young again," she confessed, laughing.
"I'm constantly involved with them, you know, communicating with them. Some of them, we know each other on a first name basis," Alston said, echoing Sanford's sentiment. Her eyes are wide and earnest as she motions with her hands. "[Talking with the students] makes my day go by faster." Occasionally she will arrive at Duke not to work but to party with some of the students over the weekend.
Most students, on the contrary, acknowledged a general divide and lack of interaction between students and employees, primarily owing to socioeconomic differences rather than racial ones.
"I would say [the employee-student relationship] is nonexistent," said sophomore Peter Blair, slightly adamant, though he did admit that some students did make an effort to reach out to employees--for example, a group of students in his dorm put together a display of Valentine's Day messages for housekeeping personnel. "If you show them some respect, they will show some respect to you."
Jeremy Poe, a senior, also agreed that there is a lack of general interaction between students and employees. "I think that students don't have much interest in interacting [with employees]," he added, his eyes occasionally flickering over to the television screen, where NBA players pranced around with a basketball.
Sophomore Amanda Paredes said racial divisions worsen the socioeconomic chasm between students and workers.
"The socioeconomic divisions are [going to] get amplified by that fact that Duke [students are] predominantly white, and we live in an area that is predominantly black, so we're going to get a lot of workers who are black," she said.
Alston finds that she has more problems dealing with some of the black students as opposed to the white majority of the student body.
"They will look at you and be like, 'I'm black, you're black'-they feel like they're better than us," Alston said. "The way they order, some of them just give you their card and don't look at you." She emphasizes that, of course, not all black students carry this attitude.
From senior Phoebe Brathwaite's perspective, Alston's comment is true--to a certain extent. Brathwaite believes the tension between black employees and black students may also spring from employees holding preconceived notions about Duke students.
"Because you're a student at Duke, [the employees] think that you come from money," she said. "That's not the case."
Brathwaite added that she never personally had a problem with an employee, but she had heard some workers refer to both black and white students as "stuck up."
Alston acknowledged that, overall, "as far as [employee-student] relations go, it could be better," citing conversation as one of the better ways to establish a friendly repertoire between Duke employees and students.
An employee at Chic-fil-A who wished to remain anonymous has a daughter "18 [years old] going on 19," who at that stage of life is trying to figure out whether to go onto college or not. But if her daughter were to decide 'yes,' she imagines that her daughter would be in the same position as the students who come by to purchase a grilled chicken sandwich.
"I treat others the way I would want my child to be treated," she said, shrugging her shoulders in a gesture of 'yeah... it's that simple.'"
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