<p>So my cousin just got a partial scholarship to Ole Miss and thinks she might want to go, a decision most of are dubious about. We're a South Asian family in the South (Nashville), but my cousin didn't have really good grades so it's not like Vanderbilt was going to accept her. She's excited that a school as big as Ole Miss did accept her and since she's the sorority-type of personality, she thinks Greek life would be right for her.</p>
<p>But my worry is that Ole Miss doesn't seem to have a lot of diversity (and I think that's why she got a scholarship tbh). I know that nobody is racist at Ole Miss anymore, but there's a difference between racist and racially ignorant. And I worry that Ole Miss students might be racially ignorant. I've heard the Greek life is pretty white and apparently some frats started increasing their minority membership only because the school told them to, for example.</p>
<p>What I'm trying to say is that Ole Miss culture sounds very insular - all about white people tailgating in cocktail dresses and suits, partying with each other and viewing minorities as stereotypes to be treated as equal but different.</p>
<p>Do people generally socialize BETWEEN races at Ole Miss? Like hang out with each other, date each other? Is there an awareness of South Asian culture on campus? Or is it all, "aren't you people Arab terrorists/do you have arranged marriages to your cousins/how many arms does your favorite god have?" kind of thing?</p>
<p>I'm not necessarily trying to dissuade my cousin from going to Ole Miss - I'm just curious.</p>
<p>How much do you think this happens anywhere? I don’t have any Black friends or Hispanic friends (or generally socialize with either). Most people will keep their friend base mostly the same as their own race wherever you go.</p>
<p>I don’t go to Ole Miss so I can’t speak specifically about it, but the “racially ignorant” you describe exist everywhere.</p>
<p>Vladenschlutte: where did you go to school? I think it’s highly unusual for someone to go to college in the 21st century and not have a diverse mix of friends. I went to college in Atlanta and I didn’t exclusively hang out with Indians. Sure, you would find cliques here and there that were ethnically homogeneous, but by and large that just didn’t happen at Emory. People dated interracially all the time and BFF-ed interracially. (totally just invented BFF as a verb).</p>
<p>So yeah, racially ignorant absolutely doesn’t exist everywhere, not even in the South. Maybe you’re from a smaller town/community and that’s why you feel that being racially ignorant is the normal standard? Not trying to be rude or offensive or anything by the way, but that’s the only explanation I can think of for your opinion there.</p>
<p>Ole Miss just had its first African American student body president. It’s a huge deal to them; a little controversial too I might add. At one hand, it’s a big step towards acceptance. On the other hand, the fact that this is such a big deal shows just how slow some of these southern states have been in racial acceptance. But that’s all about whites and blacks, who have quite a history with each other. I don’t know about yellow, but I would imagine that Asians would feel at least a little self conscious about the color of their skin over there. No doubt, there’s a lot of red necks there. I mean look at their name. But at least they’re trying to move forward.</p>
<p>Self segregation happens everywhere. It’s not racism per say, just how people naturally assimilate. Outside of my fraternity which has a couple asians and one black guy I don’t really have many people that I regularly socialize with outside of my race. I also go to Michigan and Ann Arbor is an extremely progressive town. Our student government pres is indian which wasn’t a big deal at all but it’s just the way people arrange themselves anywhere.</p>
<p>Interesting replies. Yeah, I experienced self segregation growing up Nashville (which is a fine town, btw), but at college I had the new experience of having close friends who weren’t of my race. And it happened naturally. I’m definitely surprised to hear that U Michigan isn’t like that! Not surprised about Ole Miss though. But thanks for the honest replies</p>
<p>Self segregation will take place pretty much anywhere. People gravitate to those similar to themselves. I go to the University of Miami, which was rated #1 for “race-class interaction” by some survey or whatever (so take it for what it’s worth, but yeah), and I can affirm that despite the fact that my friend group is incredibly diverse, you still see the black kids hanging with other black kids and the Asians hanging with other Asians. It’s just the way it is.</p>
<p>I will say, though, that I’m Indian myself and have good friends who are white, black, and Hispanic. And I think you’d be able to find the same thing at many colleges.</p>
<p>Updating this thread just to add that my cousin has decided to attend Ole Miss. Apparently she loved it after going on a campus visit with her parents. Ah well, hopefully she’ll have fun.</p>
<p>Just to add my experience to this conversation about self-segregation at college. I’m a gay Indian male whose closest friends at college included:
Egyptian-American male
2 Chinese-American males
2 Korean-American makes
1 black girl
3 Indian-Americans, 1 male and 2 female
various assorted white kids, 6-7
international male student from Lebanon
international female student from Argentina
international female student from South Africa</p>
<p>Yeah, I was social and had a lot of close friends. But this kind of integration was considered normal for many of us.</p>
<p>Also, it is worth noting that we were all raised in multicultural environments and came from the same socioeconomic background, so that helped draw us together.</p>
<p>I’m sad to hear about so much self segregation at UofM and other colleges. College is actually the first time since kindergarten that my two closest friends are of my own race, in no part due to a lack of diversity in my hometown. Older relatives, who had mostly gone to legally segregated schools, commented appreciatively that my sister’s graduation pictures with her friend group looked like the UN.</p>
<p>If your cousin does want to join a sorority, I would definitely do more research on greek life at Ole Miss (maybe go to greekchat), since it seems like most sororities are pretty much 100% white, and recruitment is pretty competitive anyways.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize it but from this topic I think the “progressive” ideal is that everyone should be friends with whoever they prefer to be friends with, and the “conservative” ideal is that you should have a racially diverse group of friends because it looks “good” to people and that we should look down on people who have only friends of their own race. That or the opposite and Ann Arbor is unintuitively one of the least progressive towns in America. </p>