<p>In my high school, the whites hang with the whites, blacks with the blacks, Asians with the Asians, Hispanics with the Hispanics, etc. I hate that. That's not diversity.</p>
<p>So how's the racial scene in college? How much racism is directed towards minorities (especially in white-dominated colleges)? And is there racism in frats/sororities?</p>
<p>In my experience it is more mixed than it was in high school, but people do tend to stick together. I’ve never quite understood why that was. However this is going to vary GREATLY by school. My boyfriend’s school claims to be 16% black but we estimate it’s closer to 30 or 40%, and it is fairly socially segregated. Different races will intermingle, as is necessary in such a (relatively) balanced circumstance, however there is a fair amount of racial tension, too. I haven’t seen anything like that dynamic at the other schools I’ve visited. I do think college has a tendency to force people out of their shells-- for example if you are the only african american on your floor you aren’t going to be able to stay in your regular comfort zone without being a loner. College sort of forces you to branch out.</p>
<p>There is a lot of tension.
The blacks glare at the whites and refuse to let them borrow their pencil sharpeners, which is particularly horrible for the whites since their pencils are always going soft.
The Asians smirk at the whites because they were smart enough to use pens. And the Hispanics throw rocks at the Asians because the word “Asian” contains the same letters in “Hispanic” and that really ****es them off. Those are their letters and they don’t like to share.</p>
<p>Oh, and the Middle Easterners are the most brutal. They relentlessly poke anyone who is white or black. The pokings…they’re horrible.
I remember once, they got so bad they made the 6 o’clock news.</p>
<p>Don’t get me started on the separate water fountains and the single race bathrooms.</p>
<p>Nice^^^ </p>
<p>I was just about to describe the pokings, but you already got to them.</p>
<p>As for the waterfountains and bathrooms; although it is illeagl to discriminate, there are signs that say “whites encouraged” and “blacks encouraged”, but everyone knows if they use the other one they better be ready for a fight. I once saw this native american trying to decide which bathroom to use since there was not “Native Americans encouraged” sign. He ended up wetting his pants rather than risking the hospital bills that were sure to come if he went into a bathroom where he didn’t belong.</p>
<p>It is an all out race war in college.</p>
<p>My school is pretty segregated. There are mostly white people, and the minorities tend to stick together. I often am the only black person somewhere, but really, it’s not a problem…like there’s not really tension or anything, just not a whole lot of mixing either. My high school was much more diverse, and also more mixed…but I’m from a major college town, so lots of people, especially when we were younger had parents there as grad students.</p>
<p>ha ha ha ha</p>
<p>@maxellis
This may sound dumb. But are you serious about the bathroom thing?</p>
<p>^ You have no idea, man.</p>
<p>@Ohboi</p>
<p>This may sound dumb. But are you serious about the question thing?</p>
<p>My personal theory about how it works is if a race is a significant minority (say 20+%) they are more likely to stay among themselves. </p>
<p>I’m going to college in a large school in Washington State that has something like: 10% Black, 5% Hispanic, 25% Asian and rest white. Hispanics and blacks integrate pretty seamlessly with the entire student body and you very rarely see groups of just black people or just Hispanic people.</p>
<p>Asians, on the other hand, are completely different. They stick together much more than any other race at my school and much more so than in high school. Although that might have a lot to do with the fact that most the Asians in rich white suburbs are third generation and about half the Asians in an urban school are international students.</p>
<p>My high school was completely racially integrated and at college, this is not completely true. Although it is worth noting that, in high school, people were pretty segregated by social class. You had the people who lived in the Apartments a block away and the people who had waterfront houses.</p>
<p>My U, a very large state U(30K+) was completely segregated.</p>
<p>this truly sounds worse than i thought it would be. </p>
<p>is the problem that the minorities are not interested in mingling with others, or that they don’t understand the white american culture, or that the whites dont accept them?</p>
<p>At my boyfriend’s school the two main races are black and white, as I think I mentioned, and I think the reasons really must vary by people. I talk to black students when I am on campus just like I would anyone else and sometimes it’s totally normal and sometimes they are really not receptive to me at all. The memory that stands out to me was in line at the bank and I made some comment about the crazy weather we were having, just trying to make polite small talk, and the girl I was speaking to said, “who do you think you’re talking to, white girl?” I kind of wonder if it would be just the same with a rude white person who didn’t feel like talking to me and she was just particularly b*tchy and defaulted to race, I don’t know. I was just really taken aback. But I am sure there are black students on campus who have had unsatisfactory encounters with white students as well, there must be. On the other hand, almost all of my (white) boyfriend’s friends are black, and I see them with a lot of white friends. So I think it’s really probably difficult to assess either way, everybody is different and behaves the way they do for different reasons. It probably depends on the individual. If you want to have friends in several different groups, just like with any other social group, it’s probably not going to be a big deal unless you are in an area with very high racial tension.</p>
<p>@east89
Your unnecessary sarcasm is greatly appreciated. Thanks for that.</p>
<p>@Ohboi</p>
<p>I was just messing with you, dude. But anytime you need some unnecessary facetiousness, you know who to call ;)</p>
<p>I sure do.</p>
<p>So, those of you that have seen this racial issues at college, where do you do? Or at least in what state if you don’t want to give the school?</p>
<p>On the serious side…</p>
<p>“Racial scene” is less a real issue in college life than it is a “self-selection problem”: kids are wrongfuly encouraged to value their “ehtnic heritage”, then start looking around for people who look like them.</p>
<p>Ignore “race” and you will be probably fine, as most people do. Don’t join “race”/gender associations, downplay differences, stop thinking people in terms of their fenothypes and life will be easier.</p>
<p>This said, I had once a dispute within a small course where I was the only non-Chinese within a professor-assigned workgroup where I was kind of left alone because they prefferred to skpeak mandarim, so they told me “if you don’t mind, just do the data collection and we will do everything else because it’s easier if we can speak our own language and you can rest” (data collection was a minor part of the assignment). Their tone was more a demand than a suggestion.</p>
<p>I waited two or three days before the data collection deadline, spoke with professor, was granted permission to do the assignment alone and got the highest grade in class (out of 22 students).</p>
<p>Ohboi: I go to Michigan, but I am referring mostly to my boyfriend’s school, which is Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti-- like 10 minutes from Ann Arbor. Speaking strictly from my own experience, Michigan (the state) has a very strange racial dynamic. I think on the whole as a state we are not very racist (relatively speaking, of course), but I do think how heavily segregated the inner cities are contributes to some misunderstandings among people who grew up here-- especially the older generations.</p>