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<p>There was a bit of that…though a bit ironic when directed at students like myself who were FA/scholarship students. Read from a regional paper at the time the local county was one of the two poorest in the state. </p>
<p>There was also resentments due to comparative greater racial diversity and serious gaps in political and social outlooks. </p>
<p>Granted, this had to be considered by the fact that when I entered Oberlin, it was around 74% White according to that year’s Fiske’s Guide to Colleges. You can probably figure out the diversity of the town/surrounding area from that. </p>
<p>As for the latter, students tended to be radically-left politically when I attended. Greens and certainly Democrats would have been considered “too right wing” by the classmates during my undergrad years. They were also much more accepting of open GBLTQ relationships*. That…and students were so politically active that campus-wide protests were commonplace enough that it was our equivalent of Div I sports…albeit with much more seriousness and dedication…sometimes to the point of overextension of some students. There was also a bit of a neo-hippie revival culture among many classmates as well. Most students also tended to hail from the coastal urban/suburban areas and Chicago. </p>
<p>The town/surrounding area residents were more conventional right-leaning conservatives. Even the ones who I struck up casual friendships with would sometimes let slip that they thought students at my college were “Commie pinko” malcontents…present company excepted. You can imagine the tension arising from such a social and political gap in the period I was there (mid-late '90s). </p>
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<li>Oberlin was named one of the most GBLTQ friendly colleges in the nation at the time I attended.</li>
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