<p>I was accepted to Duke, but I'm thinking about just going to Swarthmore because I have heard that there is little race interaction at Duke? </p>
<p>Is this true?</p>
<p>that's what Princeton Review says, but according to some of the students there, it's far from the truth.
Do a seach on the topic, there's been several in depth discussion about it.</p>
<p>imho, it really depends on YOU (or each individual). There are plenty of people here who like to interact with a pretty diverse crowd and there are those who prefer to mingle mostly with people from their own race. Self-segregation can be seen here but I don't think its different from self-segregation that I found in high school, or in society in general. Personally, I like interacting with ppl. from a variety of backgrounds and most of my friends do the same.</p>
<p>I have nothing personally against Duke. Indeed, my h.s. senior son and I visited it last year, and I loved it and was disappointed when he decided it wasn't for him.</p>
<p>So, please know that what I'm going to say isn't because I am some kind of Duke basher.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to take a very close look at the stories about the allegations about some Duke lacrosse players gang raping a black North Carolina Central student who is an exotic dancer.</p>
<p>While I do NOT think that the alleged incident indicates that ALL Duke students are racist or sexist, there does seem to be a troubling pattern of racial tensions with the black people in town and racial problems that some black women Duke students have described. I also have been concerned that Duke's administration seemed to drag its feet about responding to the situation.</p>
<p>While I definitely think that the team members' guilt of rape should not be presumed in the absence of a trial, I am concerned that apparently there were longterm problems with the team ranging from documented legal charges related to alcohol and other problems to students saying the team was known for shouting out sexist and racist comments to passersby. </p>
<p>To me, it seems that the administration overlooked these longstanding problems or simply tried to "solve" them by spending lots of money to buy the houses that some of the teammembers were renting.</p>
<p>Anyway, here are some links that you might want to check out. </p>
<p>A link to a copy of the police report, which indicates the brutality of the alleged crime: <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0329061duke3.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0329061duke3.html</a></p>
<p>A link to a story in the weekly Independent, a newspaper that covers the Research Triangle area. The story describes some black female Duke students' encounters with racism at Duke:
<a href="http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A2967729%5B/url%5D">http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A2967729</a>, 2006</p>
<p>You also might want to take a look at the CC Parents Cafe discussion about the alleged rape.</p>
<p>I wish you well as you make your decision. I encourage you to also talk directly to Duke students about your concerns. So to get the most unbiased viewpoints, you probably should connect with them by going through the campus organizations for people of color, not through the admissions office.</p>
<p>My background is that I spent many years living in the South (NC/SC), and have many family members living there now (Atlanta and SC). I never attended Duke, but have several extremely close friends who did.</p>
<p>1) It's not clear to me that the rape incident is relevant here, given that (a) they are simply allegations at this point, (b) they involved only a very small number of students, and (c) there is so much sensationalism that it's tough to get the "facts" straight.</p>
<p>2) Duke is in the South. The race relations in the surrounding area (<em>particularly</em> if you stray even a little bit from Research Triangle Park) will be qualitatively different from what you'll find in other parts of the country. The Duke administration will say that "we're not a southern school because x% of students are from NY/NJ/etc," and there's some truth to that ... but it's tough to escape from certain realities.</p>
<p>Having said that, I love the South. But it's difficult to know how I'd feel if I weren't white.</p>
<p>Accionara, please don't let Northstarmom or others convince you that because a subset of the lacrosse team may hold some racist viewpoints, that our school has a problem with racism. I am white, I have had a Chinese roommate while here. Two of my girlfriends have been of different ethnicities than my own since I've been here. I have friends from many Asian countries, I have Latino friends, I have a lot of white friends, too, I have friends from work who are black. While you might not find that every Duke student has a multiethnic group of friends, and that a very small pocket of students might even harbor racist feelings, race relations on campus really are not what some people make them out to be. </p>
<p>Please listen to Duke students who are very familiar with race relations on campus, rather than a Mom who has visited this campus once and is making accusations of more widespread racism based on a very limited and simplistic portrayal of Duke in the media right now. I think it is very inappropriate of Northstarmom or anyone else to give advice to a prospective student on this issue when she has been here once and really has no idea what things are like from a student's perspective.</p>
<p>" I am white, I have had a Chinese roommate while here. Two of my girlfriends have been of different ethnicities than my own since I've been here. "</p>
<p>Frankly, I think it's rather presumptuous for a white person to think that he can speak to whether there's racism on campus. There's every evidence from the research that white people tend not to be aware of racism because they are in the majority and most of the time it doesn't touch them. </p>
<p>Just because you happen to have friends who are people of color doesn't make you an expert on racism on campus.</p>
<p>"Please listen to Duke students who are very familiar with race relations on campus, rather than a Mom who has visited this campus once and is making accusations of more widespread racism based on a very limited and simplistic portrayal of Duke in the media right now. "</p>
<p>I very clearly ended my post saying that the OP should go directly to Duke students of color to get their viewpoints instead of relying on message boards or other sources. I also suggested that the OP connect with the students through the campus organizations for people of color. To me, that would be the best way for the OP to come to their own conclusions about whether Duke is the school to go to.</p>
<p>I can't answer the question for the OP. As I mentioned, my son and my campus experiences were very pleasant. What troubles me are the reports that I now see in the media, particularly those that quoted the African American female students. If I were the OP, I would call or e-mail Duke students of color after contacting them the way that I suggested, and then I'd make up my own mind.</p>
<p>"simply tried to "solve" them by spending lots of money to buy the houses that some of the teammembers were renting."</p>
<p>This was not just for the lacrosse team, and it had nothing to do with students in these houses being racist; it had to do with students being disorderly.</p>
<p>Anyone seen the new TV show called "Black and White" where they switch people's skin color? It's VERY intriguing. </p>
<p>In response to previous posts. I do not attend Duke, nor am I black. However, I did visit the campus, and I saw a great deal of diversity. Also, throughout my life I have become aware that some people walk around expecting to find discrimination based on skin color. IF you seek it out, you shall find it. It's called self-fulfilling prophecy in psychological terms. I know and understand that there ARE certain individuals who ARE racist and who DO hate and discriminate against certain groups of people. However, there are ALSO a lot of minorities who believe that whenever something does not go their way, it is due to their skin color.</p>
<p>"Just because you happen to have friends who are people of color doesn't make you an expert on racism on campus."</p>
<p>Being a person of color does not make you an expert on racism on campus, especially when you only visit one time, either.</p>
<p>"What troubles me are the reports that I now see in the media, particularly those that quoted the African American female students. "</p>
<p>What African Americans? I believe they were black, not African. </p>
<p>If they were born in any African country, (or if they've even BEEN to Africa), then I will admit that they are African-American. </p>
<p>Otherwise, I'm European-American.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, why dontyou do duke and the current duke students a favor and stop fanning the flames of this lacrosse "scandal" and wait until the police has completeted its investigation. you say you are not biased against duke but yet you seem to go out of your way to publicly hang our school and the lax team. </p>
<p>making judgements and influencing the opinion of future duke students about the school based on events that still remain blurry is terribly irresponsible of you.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, if you read the original post, he does not say "I've heard there is a lot of racism at Duke." He says, "I've heard there is little race interaction at Duke." Those are completely different questions, and you don't have to be a minority to respond to what he asked. Are minorities the only ones who can speak to race interation?</p>
<p>I gave a response based on my own experience with race interaction at Duke. You, on the other hand, have absolutely no experience with race interaction at Duke.</p>
<p>Whoa, easy there guys... getting all defensive only makes you lose credibility and wrecks your ethos with the OP... i have no idea on the race interaction at Duke, but you guys shoudl relax on here.</p>
<p>Sorry Reeze, i think most everyone around here is just getting a little tired of the lax scandal making its way into every single conversation we have had this week. I wish we could have a thread about race interaction at Duke without outsiders bringing up the lax thing.</p>
<p>I can tell you that based on what I have read in this thread, especially the defensive posts by some who appear to be associated with Duke, and the other threads on the lacrosse team, I will strongly encourage my daughter not to apply to Duke.</p>
<p>Ok. Your loss. What was the point of telling us, unless you're baiting for more "defensive posts from people associated with Duke?" :confused:</p>
<p>GOOD- one less person we have to compete with for admissions. If you're going to let something that you have no idea about influence your decision, oops i mean HER decision.....</p>
<p>then we wish you all the best. :)</p>
<p>I believe the OP asked about racial interaction, not racism. Considering these are two entirely different things, I will veer the thread back on topic. </p>
<p>It all depends on what you define as "racial interaction." If you mean the whites have "their" group and the Asians have "their" side, then no, that's certainly not the case at Duke. If you mean people of many backgrounds work, learn, and socialize together, then yes, I'd say that's a pretty good description. Although not as diverse as my high school (30% black, 30% white, 20% hispanic, 20% other), Duke is quite diverse for a university, and it recognizes this. Some of my closest friends at Duke include a set of black (African-American, if you prefer) triplets I've known since middle school (who, incidentally, received FULL scholarships to Duke and love the school to death). On my hall alone there's people from India, Poland, Zaire, Italy, and a variety of places around the country. So yes, I'd say there's quite a bit of racial interaction. The school is entirely too large and diverse to segregate based on race. Not only is it detrimental to our education, it's just pointless. I really don't think you'll find a much better mix of people. Sure, there's room for improvement. Where isn't there? However, the community realizes that and is working for change. That's better than doing nothing, IMHO.</p>
<p>"I believe the OP asked about racial interaction, not racism. Considering these are two entirely different things, I will veer the thread back on topic. "</p>
<p>If you bothered to read the link that I posted to the story in the Independent, this is the kind of racial interaction that the African-American females described. It does indicate that sometimes racial interaction can be racist.</p>
<p>"As the television news crews were winding down their interviews [in front of the lacrosse house], four African-American students approached the house holding candles. They looked angry and weary. Asked if they were surprised by what's been going on, they all laughed. "I'm outraged," said Audrey Christopher, a recent graduate of Duke, "but I'm not terribly surprised."</p>
<p>What followed was an honest conversation about race and the experiences of African-American students on the campus of an elite private university. Some 20 more people, most of them white, gathered around to listen and pose questions to Williams, Christopher and their friends, Danielle Terrazas Williams, a first-year student in Duke's Ph.D. program in history, and Christian Peele, a first-year graduate student in divinity. The conversation is all too familiar, they say. It's just that their white classmates don't usually listen. Their dialogue was edited for length.</p>
<p>Danielle Terrazas Williams: This is not a different experience for us here at Duke University. We go to class with racist classmates, we go to gym with people who are racists. That's not special for us....</p>
<p>Audrey Christopher: White frat parties, and inappropriate language.</p>
<p>S. Williams: They always have inappropriate parties. I mean, there was the Viva Mexico party, with Green Card passes to get in....</p>
<p>Christopher: Even as far as invading people's personal space at parties, as a minority female, it happens. Frequently. We've had to leave parties. When you go to a white frat party, I've had so many friends and stories of my own where they got grabbed and had to leave.</p>
<p>Personally, I remember once meeting someone at one of the quad parties, it was me and another black female friend, and these white guys immediately told us how they liked hanging out with black girls because white girls are sheltered and we're more free, and how they wanted to see us dance and immediately assumed that because we were black girls no one sheltered us and we weren't na</p>
<p>Northstarmom, . . . . yeah, it's not even worth it anymore.</p>