<p>I wanted to start a thread so that people could discuss any experiences they've had, good or bad, regarding race in college. How does race play into your everyday life, if at all? This thread really has no main question. It's just to share anything that you would like to share with the rest of CC. For example, do you see many mixed groups in your classes or around campus? Is interracial dating something you see often, or would you consider it yourself? Anything, as long as it doesn't turn into a bashing session.</p>
<p>Let's try to refrain from making any sweeping generalizations or feeding into any stereotypes while we're at it, ok?!</p>
<p>It probably depends on the college and region. My area is pretty good in this way. There are plenty of mixed groups, etc. I’m dating inter-racially, and people generally treat it normally. I’ve seen interracial couples of various combinations also.</p>
<p>I live in a very racially diverse city, and race relations are strained. I wore a McCain shirt to vote and was called racist, after two local girls gave told me how George Bush was really behind 9/11. All but 2 crimes that have been reported to my school the past three years were committed by minorities, which strains race relations.</p>
<p>In terms of the school: they throw money at underqualified minorities while more qualified whites don’t get any merit aid. The minority students tend to struggle, and are only friends with people in their race (except for the athletes). You can’t discuss any type of race based issue without being accused of being racist. Race groups are extremely sensitive, and the school goes out of its way to seem edgy and diverse like the ivies. The new right thing that the ivies are starting is racial diversity in schools, and my school jumps on board because they dream about being mentioned in the same breath as MIT. </p>
<p>Students get along with eachother for the most part, I have a racially diverse friends, but the city and school policies hurt race relations. It’s the fallout to schools focusing so much on racial diversity instead of intellectual diversity, and a lot of students are bitter about it but too afraid to raise their concerns. Raising concerns about diversity initiatives makes you intolerant and close minded, so basically there’s all this resent floating around.</p>
<p>a lot of minorities form groups with each other. for example, there are a lot of asian only groups, indian only groups, etc. There’s also a group in my classes that I call the “dark skin crew” since it consists only of indian, arab, latino, and black people.</p>
<p>but a lot of non-white people are fully integrated and hang with white people and vice versa. I don’t see much interracial dating though, despite being in a very multicultural city/school.</p>
<p>According to the professors, of the recent cheating within the engineering dept., all but one or two of them have been by a Saudi. Thus, one cannot help that it makes the professors more vigilant overall, one has even gone so far as to make 5 versions of the same test, which is hardly fair for him. Otherwise, race is a non-issue because almost everyone within the dept. is white.</p>
<p>This really depends on the school. At my alma mater, Georgia Tech, there was some self-segregation, but that wasn’t the only dynamic. Yes, in the dining halls, you would see Asians (all kinds) together and blacks together. But one time when the dining hall was particularly crowded, the only open seat was by an all-black group, and when I sat there, I did not feel as if I were treated like an “other.” They didn’t suddenly stop talking just because I sat there; matter of fact, when I joked with them, they joked back.</p>
<p>One of the larger Christian organizations is mostly Asian, but I know many white students who attend their sessions, and as far as I could tell, it was pretty mixed in that regard.</p>
<p>Lastly, in my capstone course, there were enough black and Asian students to have two all-black and two all-Asian teams. But when we were asked to voluntarily form our own groups, there was only one all-Asian team, and that was because they were all exchange students from the same country. The rest of us formed teams based on who we thought we would work best with, not on who shared our skin color the best.</p>
<p>So really, it depends on the school. I don’t expect all schools to be like that, for better or worse.</p>
<p>This is good stuff. Please continue to share if you have anything else. I guess I will go as well. I am a black male, and I see many of the same things you all see. My group of friends are pretty diverse, and we don’t really make race an issue. I occasionally see interracial dating at my school, but it is still, as it is in most places I would think, a rare occurence. I see students who, in my opinion, should not be in college, both minority students and white students. I also see students who make the rest of us look like slackers, which is a good sight.</p>
<p>I rarely see black males in my class if you don’t count lecture halls for general ed classes, but even then I try to scan the room to see if I can find any. I know they are here at my school! But just not in my classes. Black females are common in my class. There are instances where I am one of two in class, but I don’t feel awkward because I usually find a Hispanic or Indian or any other ethnic background there in class with me.</p>
<p>Maybe it has to do with majors. I’d rarely see a black male in an English literature class, but I’m most likely to see them in a sociology or a business class.</p>
<p>The Asians at my school tend to stick with one another. There is a large population here. I think it may have to do with the fact that many of them are internationals and feel comfortable being amongst those with similar background and spoken language. But I won’t target just them. The same goes with any other background. My RA freshman year joked how one of the dining halls on campus are separated by color, not intentionally though. One section you’ll see a majority of blacks. Another you’ll see a group of Asians. And so on.</p>
<p>Interracial dating? Hmm. Once in a while I spot a couple and I don’t know I get kind of happy inside! I know that sounds lame. It’s not extremely common at my school, but it isn’t rare. I’ve seen Caucasian/Black, Caucasian/Asian, Hispanic/Asian, etc.</p>
<p>I went to a high school with no clear majority. (About a third black, a third hispanic and a third white) With a Hispanic mother and a white father, but being from the “white” part of town, I probably had more white friends than anything, but since I didn’t really identify as anything myself, race was never an issue for me.</p>
<p>At my school, in Maryland, Aisians if anyone tend to self segregate. But they mostly also came from the same high schools and areas, so it’s not strictly a race thing for some people.
But there are tons of mixed groups. My closest friends include white kids, Indian kids, Asians and Hispanics. The lack of black kids is mostly because there aren’t a ton of black kids on campus.
Some white or Asian kids talk about how underqualified black or Hispanic kids got their money, but they are all honors kids and they are all from the same area of Maryland where a holier than thou attitude seems to exist.</p>
<p>It’s pretty rare that I ever see someone who isn’t White, Asian, Indian, or Jewish. My school has a pretty significant URM population according to their statistics, they’re just not seen too much. There’s obviously some integration, and some segregation. I think Jews and Whites have more integration than any other groups, and it might have to do with the fact that sometimes it’s hard to tell if someone is White or Jewish. Beyond that, there aren’t many Indians, so they seem to integrate well with others as well. </p>
<p>Regardless, I always say people are more likely to divide along class than along race.</p>
<p>I’m a minority…I’m black and somali…so outside of certain cities (like MPLS, hahahaha)…i only see a some here and there. I really would love to go to Emory because i’ve heard it’s one of the most diverse schools out there in the country.</p>
<p>Typically, for some reason i only get along with certain groups of people that are usually middle eastern, brown, african & muslim…so pretty much i don’t have white friends :(</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a big deal to weigh in race as a big factor because you never know who you might end up becoming friends with …regardless of their background :)</p>