<p>Stargazerlilies, your culture argument makes a little bit of sense, but what about in the situations with middle-class and wealthy African Americans? They also do worse than Asians and whites on these tests, and yet upper-middle-class and wealthy African Americans are likely to live in predominanly white areas where they’re not subject to teasing by their peers about acting white.</p>
<p>Besides, I think these overgeneralizations about African American culture are a little bit much, especially based on hearsay from a couple of friends. I grew up in a lower-middle-class black community. There wasn’t much teasing about “acting white”, and smart kids were admired and asked for help. All of us aspired to go to college and become professionals. A lot of my friends from high school – most of whom were first-generation college students – are now in top medical schools, top law schools, and top Ph.D programs. And my school was 98% black.</p>
<p>In any event, I don’t think this thing is necessarily bad. They are not requiring students to attend nor turning away curious minority students at the door; it seems to be a workshop to make Mount Holyoke students aware of the way that racism operates in everyone’s lives on both personal and institutional levels. I am a psychology graduate student that has interests in stereotyping and prejudice, and most of the work on race relations has shown that stereotyping and prejudicing are automatic processes that people have to consciously work to counteract. Mount Holyoke is only attempting to give these students the tools to do that. In addition, I just got finished reading a couple articles that show that white students are less comfortable confronting racial issues (at least initially) when students of color are in the room.</p>
<p>Juillet, like I said, this is a huge generalization. But let me ask you this - if culture is not the factor, then what is it? what else could explain why upper-middle class blacks will do worse than lower-class asian students? And why African immigrants do much better than African-Americans on average? </p>
<p>The culture thing is not only about Blacks, but other cultures. Many African-American students care a lot about education and are encouraged to excel, but I don’t think overall their culture places as much value on education as say, Asian cultures. My dad came from a lower-class immigrant Asian family and they were pretty poor, but he excelled in school and went to an Ivy league college, and a lot of it is cultural reasons and the need to excel as an immigrant. It’s just 1 possible explanation for the gap in test scores, it could explain the achievement gap between African immigrants vs African Americans as well. I honestly can’t think of another one off my head. I agree with your last paragraph btw and don’t think this seminar is a bad idea.</p>
<p>This is ridiculous. A black student getting in to what college? where? with a 3.29 and a 25ACT? Get your facts straight before you just start spitting numbers, although highly selective colleges tend to slightly lower their standards for accepted URM’s I hate when white people blame minorities for their not getting in. At the end of the day at these institutions there is usually a less than 10% minoritiy representation anyway. If you didn’t get in don’t blame the minority because 90%+ of the time it’s not thier fault. People always look at their SAT’s and think I should have gotten in because my scores are higher and their is just so much more to it than that. </p>
<p>Schools like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton get tons of kids with top scores so they look for unique kids who have more to offer than just high stats. They want to see great EC’s, community participation, and well written, thoughtfull essays. There have been countless lawsuits against these universities over affirmative action policies and the like and each time these universities say “ya his scores where great, but his ec’s were average”. Did you ever stop to consider maybe that’s why you didn’t get in?</p>
<p>Wow someone in this forum said everything not oriented toward colored people is “white club”</p>
<p>Are you aware that there are actually large pockets of the US where white people are the minority? I’ll be going to UT Austin next year and it’s considered extremely diverse for how respected it is, but in comparison to where I’ll be coming from, it’s like “white club” to me.</p>
<p>Coming from a background where I’ve been exposed to more people of black and hispanic decent than whites for years, I can say that diversity is a completely useless concept. You can not combat racism by being racist.</p>
<p>Also, affirmative action is a terrible program that often only helps colored people who are more privileged than most whites. It’s really up to the individual if they are going to succeed academically or not, and while the parents may play a large role in a child’s life, problems go beyond race.</p>
<p>This orientation program is just a symptom of the many problems dealing with racism and diversity at MHC. As a first-year student, when I was offered to participate in the minority only orientation program, the idea of segregating out different ethnic groups always seemed wrong to me. Inside the college, there is strong segregation between the different ethnic groups on campus. Many of the sheltered white students make racist comments, the minority students self-segregate, and the administration is badly equipped to handle the situation. The minority groups on campus are separated out into different orgs, and it is hard to communicate across different races. It is certainly getting better, but a large percent of the minority population here are the international students, and in my opinion there are not enough American minority students attending the college.</p>
<p>I really wish people would stop using the word “race”. I’m not saying that to say hey, let’s forget colors and hold hands and sing “We are the world.” I’m just saying it’s not the correct term to use.</p>
<p>Strictly speaking, whites are a plurality, but do not form the majority at Mt. Holyoke, so we’re not talking about 90% of the school attending this orientation with the three black kids being excluded as would happen at my school among others.</p>
<p>That doesn’t really prove anything, nor was it a response to any specific post, but I just felt like making the information public.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t really get minority programs either. But I go to all of them, because they’re free and they usually mean moving in early. That said, I’m a little opportunistic. Why not just have… orientation? There’s enough self-segregation going around. We don’t need university-sponsored (optional) segregation.</p>
<p>OMG LOL. This is the funniest thing I have seen this week, other than the Cleveland Show (maybe I would benefit from such a program).</p>
<p>I find that this topic is too broad to be able to be covered in an orientation, if only because “white” is a more encompassing (geographically, and arguably culturally) race than others in some ways. Also, this may be due to a stereotype about the uniformity of other races, while a comparable stereotype does not exist for whites.</p>
<p>Lol… The article speaks of “white racial identity.” I wonder what that means? Maybe it’s time to get back to my roots? XP</p>
<p>
Hey, let’s forget colors and hold hands and sing “We are the world.” But really, I would appreciate it if we overcome the word “race” with “skin color,” and have it only show up on dating service forms. Also, we should include intermediate shades. I’m attracted to a range of colors, not just white :).</p>
<p>Women’s colleges understand that in a co-ed environment, males and females are supposedly equal, but sometimes men are MORE equal. They provide a place where women can find their confidence and voice. So, why wouldn’t the same be true for ethnicity or socio-economic status? The folks at MHC thought that white women would speak more easily about how awkward they feel around people who are different- when they are with other white women. But this comes off totally wrong. Conversations about race are necessary and difficult. Sounds like MHC hasn’t found the right way to open that dialogue. </p>
<p>Maybe they should have a Diversity Orientation event for everybody. They can break out into smaller groups to discuss or do “awareness exercises” or whatever and people self select their breakout seminars. Do you want to go to one on “white privilege”? “the inner- city experience”? Everybody chooses.</p>
<p>I agree. I would love to see a Diversity Orientation for EVERYONE, targeted to discussions about all groups and people, and all types of diversity - especially socioeconomic but also racial and other types.</p>
I think a bigger issue is that it’s un-PC to be white.
~~Well, that’s based on my time growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area and being the only Caucasian at my high school~~
I think cultural clubs/meetings shouldn’t be taken seriously, given that you could not look the ethnicity, still celebrate the culture and not be included. Throughout the article, nowhere did it say non-whites weren’t allowed to join the discussion, either