Regarding segregation levels, here are some articles and data about racial segregation:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-most-diverse-cities-are-often-the-most-segregated/
https://www.wired.com/2013/08/how-segregated-is-your-city-this-eye-opening-map-shows-you/
http://www.censusscope.org/segregation.html
Here is an article about economic segregation:
http://time.com/4744296/economic-segregation-cities-america/
Regarding college-specific issues, photo albums of sororities, fraternities, and other student organizations may give some idea of whether the students at the college tend to self-segregate by race/ethnicity (consider in context with the overall mix of students at the college). However, it may be less easy to tell whether they tend to self-segregate by family SES.
@ucbalumnus Self segregation is based on many things, immigration, language, religion. I am not a fan of the government mucking around with these neighborhoods. They destroyed communities in NYC with highway construction and just used them to make a statement in Boston. Let’s take the poor Irish kids from Southy, the Italians from the North End and blacks from Roxbury. We’ll have the entire middle school class simply get bussed to a different school. We’ll split the freshman, sophomore and junior classes in half and just bus the kids around. Who cares if friends and families are split. Then we can have a bullet point that says - our public schools are 50% black and 50% white. It will all look great on paper. We’ll call it “desegregation” . Who can possibly be against it. It doesn’t change hearts and minds if they needed change. It simply makes people feel helpless and lacking choice. And it really damaged those neighborhoods. Notice how they didn’t have the country club “desegregation” act. I’m all for people being friends with diverse groups and they shouldn’t have rioted but folks on the bottom rung sometimes get fed up.
Re: #42
In #41, I was not referring to the often-botched attempts of desegregating existing neighborhoods or neighborhood-based K-12 schools.
I was referring to how students at college tend to self-segregate or self-integrate when thrown together into a new environment (at least for more residential colleges) away from their previous neighborhoods (whether or not these were segregated). In the context of this thread, where someone may be considering the social environment of a college, that may be relevant information for the prospective student in making his/her decision. (Obviously, such potential issues are not unique to “the South”.)
Oh, please. If I was in Boston, I wouldn’t expect to see a Saints score unless I was watching ESPN. Why would you expect a Red Sox score in the South?
When I went to CT I was astounded that liquor stores closed at 8pm. Liquor laws are strange in lots of places.
Also, when I went to CT, I was surprised when I met someone whose large public high school had one African American student. So segregation is all over too.
“Oh, please. If I was in Boston, I wouldn’t expect to see a Saints score unless I was watching ESPN. Why would you expect a Red Sox score in the South?”
This made me laugh because it reminded me of something that happened many years ago. I grew up mostly in MA and attended grad school in NY. When I turned on the TV one day and saw a Celtics game, I was thrilled. Until I realized it wasn’t a “Celtics” game. It was a “Knicks” game and they just happened to be playing the Celtics.
Sorry I can’t contribute to the conversation about the culture at Clemson or UGA, but having been transplanted to the South for 18 years now, I can say that the environment varies with the location, with some areas being more “Northern” than others. Lots of transplants in the large cities.
@1or2Musicians Who are the Saints? 
The Saints are the ones who just beat the Redskins, and before that, the Bills.
@ucbalumnus The winners in life get to write history. Just look at how the hypocrite politicians won the Boston social experiment. (Just how many minorities owned Brownstones in the 70s - none?) But they get to demonize the people who have the least, the people with no political power. The people who formed communities to support each other and get by when times were tough.And you hear stories about how they did this. How if one family could afford meat, they would bring the bones to their neighbor so that they could make soup. These communities were demonized as “segregated neighborhoods” and when parents complained about the chaos caused by the hypocrite politicians, they called those “race riots.”
People are tribal sometimes. Even students on here miss “their communities.” People who understand jokes, sports, language… That doesn’t make them bad or racist. And sometimes places are not diverse. Connecticut didn’t force large numbers of black slaves to work the fields. They don’t have the racial inertia of other places. ( they had child labor for factories). That doesn’t mean they are racist and promote segregation. It would be unfair to call Maine a segregated state because schools don’t have high numbers of minorities. They would love people to move there.
The important thing IMO is to have opportunity and respect and then let people choose how they want to live. For college, you can definitely factor in how people are forming communities. Personally, I would not even worry about fitting in down South (though I would struggle with the heat). I would not worry about fitting in at an HBCU. They used to have amazing opportunities. I’d look at it as an opportunity to grow. Maybe I would not fit in, but I would certainly go in optimistic.
There is a difference between wanting to have some people of similar background around versus wanting *everyone/i around to be of similar background.
The following experiment (with people in Chicago and Detroit (two cities known for high levels of racial segregation), not “the South”) suggests that the white people in those areas tended to want to avoid having black people around in the neighborhood (white > mixed > black preference order), while black people tended to want to have other black people around, but did not mind having white people around (mixed = black > white preference order), though neighborhood racial composition mattered less for black people:
There is a huge difference in the south or at least where I reside versus the north: Countless kids including the top stats kids go to public university in the south. The race for the Harvards or the Colgates is far less in my experience. Hence you will find alot of kids know one another before ever stepping foot on campus at a school such as UGA. The public feeder schools and districts are large with 1000 elementary students, 1500 or so middle students and 2400 student high schools which do not neccessarily align and then you have redistricting. Countless familiar faces. Certain school districts are big feeders to these SEC schools so cliques will exist because these kids have known each other for years. There is no doubt students do tend to dress differently. Some of that is due to the climate. My once dark clothes closet after many years are much lighter. Who wants to wear black on a 90 degree day? Public school dress codes are rather strict. As such girls generally wore dresses or pants to school, because finding shorts to meet dress code was not so easy. Hence, many girls are accustomed to wearing dresses. The boys wear lots of button ups.
@ucbalumnus See I knew that I’d be good at an HBCU. That is an interesting study. However, The whites of Detroit and Chicago don’t represent all whites throughout America. I think education level and economics trump race in many places actually if race matters at all to them.
@ucbalumnus I stand by my original assertion that @cafe9999 's son’s friend sounds like most of the makes that attend Clemson given the characteristics that she described . Race aside , he has enough common interests that he should be able to find like minded peers.
@veruca After reading quite a few of these responses I believe the answer to your question is you should be insulted . As someone who is a person who grew up in Baltimore City who now lives in SC I sure do . It’s ridiculous the South bashing going on on this thread .
I agree. There is a very unpleasant whiff of Northern elitism here.
So, many people on the S go to church. Many don’t dress like slobs. We have an unfortunate history when it comes to race, but have made great strides. Many women wear makeup. There may be a true variety of political views.
Northern Friends, you can handle all these daunting challenges!
My daughter feels more comfortable at her school in the south than she does in her hometown… in a suburb of a major northeast city. Not wearing makeup was not intended as an insult or to display “northern elitism.” My daughter doesn’t wear makeup other than for special occasions and was happy to find a school where that was ok. She wanted to be in the south.
My daughter is also the type to sit with a small group of friends on a Friday night and discuss anthropology or current events for 3 hours. I guess that can also be viewed by some as northern intellectual elitism… however… it doesn’t happen in our wealthy northeast town… It does happen at her school in the south… and there is a lot of wealth… but it’s not blatantly displayed.
I thought this original question was about fitting in at a school in the south? There are differences in speaking, dress, sometimes food, etc… but… These differences are also evidenced in NY… upstate versus downstate… depending on where you are… are vastly different. It’s not elitism- it’s discussing some differences.
@princet2021 . I agree with you on most points -except for the surrounded by people of you own skin tone comment.
At a social occasion maybe.
The majority of African Americans in this country live in the south. Yes there is segregation (self segregation and economic segregation). I don’t know how to fix that. But I interact with non -whites every single day.
My church somewhat diverse. I teach classes at a YMCA. One of my biggest problems is trying to communicate with my Chinese clients that come regularly to my senior fitness classes.
My daughters both (one in grad school one undergrad) go to diverse schools. One a large university and one at a women’s college.
Yes , I eat grits on occasion but not every meal not every week even. I like sweet tea -but know it isn’t good for me -so I only have it on occasion. Yes people get dressed up for football games and are super into it. Yes politically they are very conservative. But not all conservative. I would think the politics would be the biggest sticking point for someone moving here. For college however -aren’t most colleges fairly liberal?
@twoinanddones Adoption comments make no sense to me. Lots of international adoption where I am. Not lots of Lacrosse or Field Hockey or Ice Hockey.
@xyxyxx What is “more northern” ?
@prince2021 don’t they?
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/census_2000/cb01cn176.html
°Actually it looks like the majority of African Americans are still in the south. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_immigration_to_the_United_States
54.8% in 2000 down from 90% in 1910. With NYC having the largest metro population.
I would think it would be an adventure living in an area different from where you grew up. I would just adapt. I think that’s my personality. If I lived down south, I would love to attend a predominantly black church especially if it has the same energy and song that we see depicted in media. That would be awesome.
@veruca If your offering to take in our northern kids, please stock your pantry. My boys could eat you out of house and home. and they’ve never had grits. Is that a cornmeal porridge? If we have cirnmeal, we make Johnnycakes with maple syrup. Feel free to put them to work as repayment. They do work hard without complaint.
Grits are ground hominy. Hominy is processed corn. So it tastes kind of bland. But it is a good carrier for what ever flavor you like. I like butter, sharp cheddar cheese and salt and pepper. Some people do sweet grits (maple syrup or sugar) but most people I know do savory. (cheese , crumbled bacon)
I like them -but it is irritating that they come up in every conversation about the south. If someone mentions going to school in say Pennsylvania -people don’t usually bring up scrapple -but first thing out of everyones mouth if you mention GA is grits. Like we eat them morning, noon and night
I have never had Johnnycakes.