Salute: Marines share experiences

This is a follow-up story about two female, African-American CMU students who are Marines. The first story appeared in the March 25, 1998 issue of CM LIFE.
Time - summer of 1997; place - Parris Island, S.C., home to a U.S. Marines boot camp; event - basic training for life.
Rosa Robinson, Flint senior, said she remembers the drill instructor who didn't take kindly to her smiling. Robinson's friend, Flint senior Araba Abruquah, recalls a staff sergeant with big muscles who seemed mean and ruthless.
That was then.
Now, Marine drill instructors and officers are among the many people the two students consider positive role models who gave them the confidence and strength for life's battle grounds.
Robinson and Abruquah are now preparing to take another step in life.
Both women have three years left in the Marines, but said they do not plan on careers in the military.
Robinson, a sociology major, graduates in May and is thinking of attending graduate school at CMU.
"I like teaching. I think I'd do good as a sociology professor, sociologist or social worker," Robinson said, who gained teaching experience when she taught a chemistry lab last year after a graduate assistant quit.
Abruquah, who signed a major in hospitality services administration last year, graduates next May. She is interning with a Hyatt Regency Resort in Hilton Head, S.C., this summer and said, "I hope to own a resort some day."
Last year, Abruquah became a multicultural adviser in Trout Hall. She said she took the position because she loves people. Abruquah said she's learned patience and tries to understand others from different backgrounds.
Robinson joined the Diversity Representatives Program three years ago, and said she likes the close-knit feel of the program. One of her favorite events is the Unified Holiday Celebration which takes place annually in the Bovee University Center.
Their dreams and goals call them and push them on at the same time.
Flash forward. Time and date - 7 a.m., Monday, Jan. 16, 2000; place - Robinson Hall; event - discovery of racial slurs.
Robinson Hall staff found two racial slurs and a drawing in the dorm's first-floor west hallway. Written in marker on the stairwell and on material covering a pipe was a picture of a watermelon and a monkey, or ape-like figure, along with the messages:" "All niggers should die" and "I hate niggers."
The message hurts. The messenger isn't found. For Abruquah and Robinson, the response was inadequate.
"There should have been pressure put on the president, on the residence hall director and the multicultural adviser to find out who did it," Abruquah said. "There was an article about it on Friday, but everyone went home for the weekend."
"No one wanted to confront the RHD or the president," Robinson said. "No one wanted to deal with it. They should have let the residents in the hall know about it and had programs about it."
Racism at CMU isn't restricted to a dorm stairwell. It is spread throughout the community, the women said.
"This town is very far behind in accommodating minorities, especially blacks," Robinson said. "You see Asian and Mexican restaurants, but not soul-food restaurants."
The two women said examples of soul food include fried chicken, greens, banana pudding and cornbread.
"For hair products and make-up, you have to drive to Saginaw or Flint or Detroit," Abruquah said. "If you do find any hair products here, they are so expensive."
Robinson said she knows of some Mount Pleasant people who live as far away as possible from the CMU campus because students of color live there.
"A lot of people are conservative," she said. "They wish the town didn't expand with the casino and the campus. I've heard people say that they wished it would of stayed small."
In area stores "they look at you like you're trying to steal something because you're a minority. It shouldn't be that way," Abruquah said.
Lighter-skinned people are accepted more in a white-dominated society and don't face racism to the extent that darker-skinned African Americans do, Robinson said.
"For blacker people, it's harder. The racism on Asian Americans and Hispanics - it's diminished. If you have lighter skin and straight hair, you don't face the racism that blacks do," she said.
Abruquah said, "I might not get a job because of my skin color and my African name, or because of where I'm from. People get discriminated against just because they're from cities like Detroit or Flint."
Robinson and Abruquah said they disagree with attempts to abolish affirmative action.
"Most people who use it are white women," Abruquah said. "I worked for everything I got. Stereotypes because of race and color really upset me. It shouldn't be like that.
"That's why I took the position as a multicultural adviser, to educate people."
Robinson has worked as a campus ambassador for diversity for the past two years and said she doesn't sugar-coat the community for minority applicants.
"I'm truthful. I tell 'em the real deal," she said. "I don't talk down on the university, but I do tell the truth."
Diversity has increased at CMU since she's been here, Robinson said, but, "it still has a long way to go. There has been some strides."
She said she would like to see CMU catch up with other universities by offering more diverse programs and more resources for minorities.
Education is the best way to increase campus diversity, Abruquah said.
"We need more diversity programs. They're a great way to meet other people and they get you out of your comfort zone," she said. "Maya Angelou inspired so many people at one time when she came here. We need more people like her to come here."
Both women said their Marine training has helped them deal with racism at CMU and in Mount Pleasant by teaching discipline, patience and fairness.
"The Marine Corps is very open-minded. They look at you equal," Abruquah said. "You can be yourself around other people. I think it prepared me for college."
Robinson fondly recalled Staff Sgt. Charles from boot camp as a strong woman who didn't play favorites with anyone.
"I think I get some of my character from her. She had a lot of trials, and she overcame them," she said.
"Staff Sgt. Charles believed in God so much," Abruquah said. "At first I thought she was mean and ruthless, and she had big muscles. But then I got to know her and grew very close to her."
Time - the future; place - unknown; event - life.
Both women said God has been an even greater influence than the Marines in guiding their lives thus far. In fact, Robinson and Abruquah said God is the only one who ranks higher than their mothers, Bealuh Robinson and Cora Abruquah, when it comes to positive guides.
The two friends are a part of Young Ambassadors for Christ at CMU, a group that meets in Moore Hall.
"The Marines have helped me grow mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically," Abruquah said. "But if I didn't have God ... whew! I don't think I'd make it."
"I look to Him and He's come through for me throughout my life," Robinson said.
The women today hold the titles of lance corporals with the Marines and work as service record book clerks at the Saginaw Reserve. They serve there once a month during the school year and two weeks during the summer.
Last summer, the two trained at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, Calif., and spent time aboard the MSS Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean.
Abruquah owns a blue Marine dress outfit matching the color of the soldier's uniform in a well-known Marine television commercial. In the commercial, the male Marine raises a sword next to his crisp uniform while the slogan "The few, the proud, the Marines" is heard.
"Don't think you get a sword automatically once you become a Marine," laughed Robinson.
The red stripe on the uniform and the sword are obtained once a Marine becomes a non-commissioned officer, she said.
Although three years remain on their Marine contracts, Abruquah and Robinson look to further their educations by going to graduate school and then pursuing non-military careers.
The two friends attended junior high together, then went to different high schools in Flint. Now, after going through what many call the toughest branch of the military together, and closing in on graduation from college, different graduate schools could pull the two apart.
But these friends seem to have a will to push on, a direction to follow and a bond they'll continue to nurture.
"You got things you gotta do. We both know we're doing things to accomplish a greater good," Robinson said.
"God lets things happen like that," Abruquah said of the looming departures. "If it's a true friendship, it'll continue growing."
Abruquah and Robinson offered some words of encouragement for new CMU students.
"Sometimes situations are so hard. You have to turn to God first," Abruquah said.
"If times seem hard, keep the faith and stay motivated, and you can do anything. Stay around positive people and positive forces"