For this next part to make sense, you need to know that I’m an Asian guy from a very “white-washed” family. I grew up in a town that was 70% white and 30% latino (as did my mom), almost all of my friends are either white or of a non-asian minority, and I wouldn’t know Kanji from Sushi.
Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the issue.
I’m a junior applying to colleges this coming season, and without getting too much into specifics, I think I have a good chance at getting into Duke, Vanderbilt, or UVA. I really love the atmosphere and programs at all three schools, and they’re basically my first, second, and fourth choices.
Problem is, I’m from California (home to over 400 current Vanderbilt students) and my mom is convinced that people at southern schools like the ones listed above will discriminate against me no matter what. Therefore, she’s trying to persuade me of that reality and pushing me to consider more geographically northern schools like Northwestern and Georgetown (which, ironically, a brief and frustrated internet search will reveal has about half the Asian student population of Duke).
So I guess my questions are a) can anyone give suggestions for ways I can try to bring my mom about and b) just confirm once and for all whether her concerns hold validity?
Lot of it would depend on your major, if you want stem, Duke would be a good fit, but I have to agree with your mom, Northwestern is probably the best school of the ones you mentioned., lol. Chicago/Evanston (diverse) is a lot different than Raleigh (white).
I’ve lived in Ohio, Alaska, Washington State, New York, and California. (And six months in Texas.) The most racially-divisive place I’ve ever lived was New York City.
The idea that the north is more embracing than the south is absolute nonsense. My daughter lives in Nashville, and it’s one of the friendliest cities I’ve ever been in.
LOL driving from south LA to north LA will take you longer then driving from UVa to Georgetown! (2 hours). Prejudices of all sorts can be found throughout the US, but bias against Asians is neither strong nor more pronounced in the SE than the NE. Duke may not be my cup of tea, but academically it’s just as strong as NU or Georgetown.
Remind your mother that almost all colleges and universities are microcosms (aka bubbles), and that for most students it is the campus culture rather than the specific neighborhood/region that dominates their experience.
I think your mom’s concerns are overblown. Duke has a diverse student body. Looking at their most recent CDS, slightly less than half their undergrads are non-Hispanic whites. Has your mom spent much time in North Carolina or Tennessee? She may be holding on to stereotypes, which ceased to be valid 30 years ago.
Yeah - showing her even the differences between Virginia/North Carolina and rural Alabama may help. The south has its problems, but some states are much worse than others. Virginia and NC are a lot better than Georgia and Alabama in my experience, for example. And as you said, the makeup of the schools themselves will likely be more important than the state in many cases, though there is probably a bit of correlation there.
Northwestern is in a suburb of Chicago, the most segregated large city in the US (see table at the bottom of the link).
Note that some other non south cities like Washington, where Georgetown is, are also highly segregated. Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, and some Midwest cities are also near the top. California cities are somewhat less segregated, though Los Angeles is more so than others.
On college campuses, fraternities and (more often) sororities can be highly segregated. If you are interested in joining one, or are interested in a school where they are a big part of campus life, you may want to investigate that more.
People have such strange stereotypes about the South.
Nashville itself is a relatively diverse city; Nashville’s Asian population is growing very rapidly, and there are lots of Asian communities within the city. Vanderbilt and Duke are also two of the most diverse elite universities in the country - Duke, in particularly, has a very large Asian student body (almost a quarter of the student body is Asian!) UVa is slightly less diverse but still pretty good for an elite university. Georgetown is actually less racially diverse than Vanderbilt and Duke, and Northwestern isn’t really that far ahead of Vanderbilt and Duke at all.
Duke’s actually in Durham, which is not “very white” - no one racial group makes up the majority, and there are roughly as many black residents (41%) as there are white residents (42%), with 14% Hispanic/Latino residents and 5% Asian residents. While Raleigh is majority white, it’s only about 58% white - actually, the demographics of Raleigh are pretty similarto the demographics of Nashville.
Evanston is actually less racially diverse than Durham, Raleigh and Nashville, although it does have a larger Asian population. Of course Chicago is very racially diverse, but Northwestern is in Evanston. They’re at least a 35 minute drive apart.
As someone who has lived in both Washington state (where I currently reside) and New York City, I find this…puzzling. When I lived in New York I had friends of all races, nationalities, and backgrounds; here in Seattle, my friends are mostly white because even the largest city in the state isn’t very racially diverse. Although I suppose there is technically a difference between “racially divisive” and “simply nonexistent.”
The best way to “bring her around” would be to visit schools together so she can see the atmosphere first-hand.
But perhaps you mom just doesn’t want you that far from home?
Racial divisiveness could increase as racial diversity increases. In a relatively homogeneous area, where only small numbers of minorities live, there is sometimes little racial divisiveness because the majority does not see the minorities as “threats” (this may not be true in all areas, of course). But sometimes increasing numbers of minorities causes the majority to somehow feel “threatened” (many white Americans are concerned about a future when white people are no longer the majority). California experienced a increase in racially divisive politics in the 1990s as the non-white population increased (eventually resulting in white people no longer being the majority around 2000), though it subsided more recently as people got used to the new normal (for California) of no racial or ethnic majority.
As noted in #7, some cities and metro areas which are diverse at that level are rather segregated at the neighborhood level.