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Benefits of diversity in college
Diversity on college campuses effects
Diversity on college campuses effects
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Race relations are the ways in which individuals of different races living together in the same community behave toward one another. This topic directly relates to college campuses that possess students of different cultural and racial backgrounds. Diversity can be a huge benefit to students, as it not only exposes them to new ideas and ways of thinking, but also prepares them for the diverse world. After reviewing various academic articles on race relations in colleges, a study was conducted in which current White and Black/minority male and female students were interviewed about their opinions on Cleveland State’s race relations and diversity on campus.
Cleveland State University, located just outside the heart of the city of Cleveland. It is made up of 55 percent female students and 45 percent male students- this does not include students who identify as transgender or other non-binary genders. Of these students, approximately 27 percent are minorities, of which two-thirds are African American, and more than one-thousand are international students.
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Despite its demographic features, Cleveland State University does not have a perfect track record in regards to racial sensitivity.
The university has been accused of racial discrimination in the past. In 2006, Ken “Mouse” McFadden, former Cleveland State University basketball star turned employee, sued the University for firing him. McFadden was hired by the university’s athletic department to be a sales, merchandising and promotions coordinator in 1998 and fired in June 2003. McFadden, an African American man, alleged that his White supervisor replaced him with a White employee and gave the employee assistants, which McFadden was refused to have. The court ruled in McFadden’s favor
5-2. We will discuss the racial tensions on college campuses in comparison to previous research studies conducted on the topic. Students on the Cleveland State University campus participated in an interview for our own study on race relations. This study took account of age, race, year in school and gender, conclusions were based off this collection of data. Review of Literature Colleges in the United States are not creating hospitable environments for their minority students. For example, it has been found that Black students have a significantly lower graduation rate than White students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), a pattern that is not shared with historically Black colleges (Davis et al, 2004). While this problem is not due solely to aspects of the colleges themselves, evidence has shown that adverse environments created on campuses are negatively impacting Black students. For example, Black students often feel that they are automatically assumed to be less proficient in learning environments, forcing them to have to prove themselves before they have done anything to warrant mistrust, (Davis et al, 2004; Means, 2016). This mistrust comes from both professors and students. It can be discouraging for these students, thus creating a hostile learning environment. Another aspect of campus life that Black students have to go through is assimilation into the dominant, White culture that is entrenched in PWIs in the United States. PWIs are not going to be aware and considerate of the cultural differences that exist. They are having to work against the social order of the campus to have an equally pleasurable campus life to the White students (Cureton, 2003). While being made to assimilate is not an ideal campus experience, because of the visibility of Black students on PWIs, they are still viewed as different. Research shows that alienating experiences are common in Black student’s experiences. Attempts to assimilate can also alienate individuals from other Black students on campus, (Davis et al, 2004). Racial tensions on campuses can also be much more overt. Black students and faculty have to withstand hate speech and outright racist actions, and on some campuses, this happens on a regular basis, (Carales, 2018; Davis et al, 2004; Reynolds & Mayweather, 2017). These actions have been the central subject of activism among students. Movements such as Concerned Student 1950, which was created in response to anti-semitic vandalism and a racist verbal attack of their student body president, are created so their universities will take action, (Izadi, 2015). Movements within social media are also happening around these incidents. Campuses are embracing the Black Lives Matter movement that came about as a result of the Ferguson shooting, something not initially related to campuses. They are utilizing social media to wield power for change. This style of activism also allows students to create and spread a message that is contrary to the one being reported by mainstream media, (Reynolds & Mayweather, 2017). One way that we are seeing improvements in campus racial relations can be found in the Contact Theory, which suggests that increased contact with other groups will lower prejudices against those groups, (Martin et al, 2010). It has been found that White students that have contact with Black students through friendships, romantic relationships, campus groups, and roommate assignments have more positive opinions on affirmative action and hold a lower amount of stereotype beliefs, (Fischer, 2011). Contact affects the conceptualization of race, meaning that their ideas about race are coming from contact with Black students and faculty rather than from media and other White people, (Martin et al, 2010). Campus experiences are not universal in either White or minority students. Through our interviews, we are attempting to see whether experiences on the Cleveland State campus reflect the literature or if differences will be seen.
“College campuses are not dominated by widespread racial/ethnic segregation and the racial/ethnic clustering that does occur isn’t impeding intergroup contact.” (578, Hoeffner and Hoeffner). Throughout the essay, the writer continues to provide facts and sources on the information that diversity is not a problem on college campuses. She quotes evidence that states that college students are getting a “variety of positive educational outcomes that result from being educated in a diverse environment.” (578, Hoeffner and Hoeffner).
In 1994 Renown College Professor Nikki Giovanni published a breath taking book that contains guidance to black college students on how to academically apply their selves in College, and she teaches them how to deal with the ignorance of white people from sharp tonged comebacks to gaining a Professors respect. Along the way The Article “Campus Racism 101” states Giovanni has acquired a tenure, she has a teaching position for life at the predominately white student body Virginia Tech. (Writing on the River 11) Nikki Giovanni’s “Campus Racism 101” gives advice to black students on how to succeed in College, appeals to Giovanni’s credibility, and appeals to the emotions of racism all in order to educate how black College students need to deal with ignorance on a College campus.
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Sue both demonstrate from their research that Whites do not comprehend the impact of their unconscious biases. These biases towards students of colour in a white-based post-secondary school environment can result in stress and weak interracial relationships. This is an issue since the significance of these everyday actions is not fully recognized and acknowledged. I will elaborate on a variety of examples, specifically the influence of the peers, and faculty.
Solorzano, D., Ceja, M., & Yosso, T. (2000). Critical race theory, racial microaggressions, and campus racial climate: The experiences of African American college students. Journal of Negro Education, 69(1/2), 60-73.
Imagine, your walking down the street looking for a job. You see a sign in the window that says, “Whites encouraged to apply.” Imagine the period in time when just being white got you into a college, without any other considerations of grades or athletic ability. Those were the days of the Jim Crow laws. Now these instances have happened in the past 20 years, through new laws called Affirmative Action. The big argument is over these few years of affirmative action. Have they alleviated the pain of the Jim Crow laws? The answer to that question is no. Especially, in the case of the University of Michigan‘s use of Affirmative Action in the acceptance of students. Using race as a factor of admission is wrong and is reverse discrimination.
Those efforts improve students' learning and experiences by cultivating key behaviors and knowledge and by providing a unique educational context. Published in the American Educational Research Journal, this paper gives insight into how racial diversity stretches beyond educational engagement and social composition. The significant difference made by diversity-related efforts, such as hybridized racial interactions and policies, is fully explored. The findings of the study presented can be generalized to the argument of institutional racism, as this piece presents rationale against it. The limitations of this paper are the insufficient detail regarding educational context needed to illustrate the steps institutions can take to apply diversity.
Political correctness may be a coined term that the general population does not necessarily know the definition of, but is relevant in every single person’s life. In today’s society one must be very careful when verbalizing opinions in order to prevent offending others around, or from disturbing the Politically Correct Puritans: those who strongly support censorship of politically incorrect labels (Suedfeld et al 1994). There are many different theories as to what makes political correctness important and why college campuses seem to be so heavily surrounded by political correcting activists, but oddly enough there has not been an extensive amount of research done on the topic.
Critical race theory (CRT) is a framework that may be useful for examining how racial climate impacts the undergraduate experiences of African-American students on college campuses (Murphy, Gaughan, Hume, & Moore, 2010). CRT draws from a broad base of literature in sociology, history, ethnic studies, women’s study, and law (Murphy, Gaughan, Hume, & Moore, 2010). CRT consists of five elements: 1) the centrality of race and racism, and their intersectionality with other forms of subordination, 2) the challenge to dominant ideology, 3) the commitment to social justice, 4) the centrality of experiential knowledge, and 5) the transdisciplinary perspective (Murphy, Gaughan, Hume, & Moore, 2010). Applying CRT to education is different than other CRT applications as it challenges traditional paradigms, methods, texts, and separate discourse of race, gender, and class by showing how social constructs intersect to impact on communities of color (Murphy, Gaughan, Hume, & Moore,
“…Everybody jumped on him, and beat him senseless… Everybody was hitting him or kicking him. One guy was kicking at his spine. Another guy was hitting him on the side of his face… he was unconscious. He was bleeding. Everybody had blood on their forearms. We ran back up the hill laughing… He should have died… He lost so much blood he turned white. He got what he deserved…” (Ridgeway 167). The skinheads who were beating this man up had no reason to do so except for the fact that he was Mexican. Racism in this day and age is still as big of a problem as it was in the past, and as long as hate groups are still around to promote violence, society is never going to grow to love one another.
Dating back to the beginning of times people have always been looked at different depending on the color of their skin or what your religion, race, or beliefs may be. It is in our human nature to not like people for certain things that they are. Many will argue that in this day in age we are no longer at a race war but how can you be so sure when you actually open your eyes and see reality. Rapper Kanye West once said “racism is still alive, they just be concealing it” and these words are everything but false. You must ask yourself the real question about racism and it is how could you ever cure such a thing in people’s minds? People are free to think and believe what ever they would like and old habits such as racism will never change in people.
The practice of ethnic separation and segregation is common on every college and university campus. Since this practice has happened through history, it is remarkable that this has only been recognized recently as a true problem (Jacobs, 2). Segregation has hampered America as long as it has existed. Ethnicity and segregation was nearly the cause of this country splitting apart during the Civil War. Since then reformation and hard work has attempted to bring unity to this country. Though today, college students have regressed, university pupils are "standing by" their own and are not branching out to those who are unlike them in ethnicity. People in general, but more specifically college students are segregated in their lives ( Kramer, 12). From the way they act, what they do or do not do, the type of people they socialize with, to where people sit - students are split. College students group together as a result of ethnicity at events and establishments or locations on university campuses.
The University of Miami, a private institution in wealthy Coral Gables, is famously known to be a demanding academic school that is predominantly Caucasian. Though Miami is a very diverse city, a majority of the general public think of the wealthy and affluent white culture residing in Miami Beach, Coral Gables, and Dade County. These counties overshadowed the poverty stricken, gang affiliated area of Liberty City. Liberty City was known for several large race riots and most importantly, nurturing five star-caliber African American athletes. Miami football was at the center of a cultural and racial change spreading across the country. These players, descendants from hood culture, were on a mission to bring swagger to the Miami football program
Hate Crimes are a very touchy subject but as far back as we can think they have been happening. Whether it be a bombing, a beating or maybe even just a verbal assault on someone because they are Jewish (anti-Semitic) or racial assaults because they are African-American or of colored decent. Even because of sexual preference these things happen. As studies show they have been happening steadily and in one place where it has happened extremely steady are campuses across Florida. Now this is most certainly a problem, and this problem has to be dealt with not only teachers, administrations and law enforcement but by us as students as well.
Racial tension is one of the major issues in the U.S. today. Since many centuries ago, this has been an internal problem in this country and this has caused racial strife and disunity among people. There are many who believe that racism is a thing of the past. However, racial tensions are still rampant in this nation and many others. These kinds of problems affect all of us, especially the minorities. If the problems of racial discrimination and tension are not being solved, minorities are likely to feel that they are treated differently. The crucial thing is not to overlook the different races and cultures that are in the community, but to embrace our differences and have mutual respect among races in order to live in harmony. As developers of the youth, institutions should encourage mutual understanding and tolerance among races by holding a Racial Harmony Week event that brings together people of different ethnicity and cultural backgrounds to participate in activities that promote mutual understanding and respect among students of all races and cultures.
Diversity and Inclusion are important to the University of Toledo’s campus because they don’t just serve to one ethnicity, they serve to many. Many different kinds of cultures come to UT to give themselves an education and to better themselves. Here at the University, they want everyone to get along with each other, since it’ll make coming to school more exciting