<p>yes I know this question has been asked many times before but everyone seems to focus more on how black students tend to self segregate. As a black student at my high school I have had mostly white friends b/c I have taken mostly AP classes (and at my school about 10 black kids take AP even though we have about 25 different courses) so my question is not about how blacks mingle at UVA but how white students receive black students, do they welcome them? Is there a lot of negativity expressed toward black students? I'm aware that black students tend to segregate themselves b/c they feel that they share background, however, as an emigrant of the U.K. I have always identified more with white Americans, will this be a problem at UVA? I appreciate any responses especially from current minority students. thank you =)</p>
<p>Yes. No. No.</p>
<p>You'll be fine at UVA or any other top school.</p>
<p>You'll be fine, I know a lot of kids like that.</p>
<p>The self-segregation bit may bother you though, I thought it was exaggerated or wouldn't bother me, but it's starting to get on my nerves. I don't care what race you are, a giant crowd of any other race is intimidating. I see a giant crowd of asians, latinos, or other white people and it gets on my nerves. It also makes it a lot harder to make friends with people of other races if they are always with a crowd of that race...</p>
<p>There are some white people who will never accept you because you're pigmentation challenged ;-). Parts of Virginia, notably the southern and southwestern areas, still have a fairly high level of outright racism. Those areas are underrepresented at UVA, since schools there tend to be weaker than the national average. So, racists do exist and you will find them at UVA.</p>
<p>Having said all that, the vast majority of whites will welcome you. I suspect its the African Americans who will find you strange, but that's just a guess. Just be yourself, show a willingness to be friendly, and you'll be fine.</p>
<p>For the record, racists exist everywhere - even here in NYC. I witnessed a racial slur just yesterday in Midtown Manhattan. </p>
<p>At UVA, you can hang out with whomever you want to. UVA kids are smart and will take you at face value. So, you can choose to only hang out with your ethnic/racial group or you could mix with everyone. At Berkeley, they have the problem of Asian kids only hanging out with other Asian kids. It's easy there since over 40% of the campus is Asian. At UVA, I was very involved with the various Asian organizations, but overall, my social circle encompassed all ethnicities and political spectrums. With UVA becoming more diverse <a href="apparently%20this%20year,%20UVA's%201st%20year%20class%20is%20the%20most%20diverse">url=http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=2498</a>, I'm sure UVA is even more welcoming now.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For the record, racists exist everywhere
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, they do. But that's not relevant to whether the OP would be uncomfortable at UVA. I suppose that, in 1939, it would have been true that anti-Semites exist everywhere, but that wouldn't have meant that Jews would have felt just as comfortable in Germany as they would have in, say, China.</p>
<p>My point was in reference to your statement:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Parts of Virginia, notably the southern and southwestern areas, still have a fairly high level of outright racism.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I've lived in Alabama and Virginia, and the most vocal and hateful racism I've ever experienced was in Los Angeles. I just don't like how people have a tendency to say racism is more prevalent in a particular place (especially when referring to Virginia and the South in general) because from my personal experience, racism's ugliest head has reared itself in the most diverse and liberal of places - LA, NYC, and London.</p>
<p>I was born and raised in Southside, Virginia. I visit there often. I'm white. I think I know the place pretty well. Since then, I have lived all over the country except for New England. There's no question that some areas of the country are more racist than others. Sure, you can find racists anywhere, but that doesn't mean that the degree of racism is the same in every place. You'll have trouble grasping that concept, I know, but try.</p>
<p>Let me say this again. There were anti-Semites in the US in 1939, but that didn't make the US the equivalent of Nazi Germany or even fascist Italy. There are regional differences both the widespread nature of racism and its virulence.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You'll have trouble grasping that concept, I know, but try.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Play nice. What happened to your southern charm and gentility?</p>
<p>I know I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but my issue is that people here on CC love to characterize southerners as narrow-minded and racist. (Notice how many people say, "I wouldn't go there. It's too Southern.") I realize you're just giving your honest opinion. That's great, and we all appreciate that. The point I'm trying to get across is that you should be careful of how you characterize your fellow Virginians since people already have negative preconceived notions about you. Yes, there are narrow-minded and racist southerners, but I loathe when people generalize others. </p>
<p>Just my 1.6 cents. (The dollar isn't worth as much as it used to be.)</p>
<p>Globalist:</p>
<p>Your argument still lacks intellectual merit. I will gladly bet my entire net worth against your entire net worth that you will find more racist white people in South Africa than you will find in Sweden. This does not mean that all white South Africans are racist or that all Swedes are not. But culture (norms of behavior driven by norms of opinion) exists and it has an impact on those who live in those cultures.</p>
<p>I am very, very aware of the way white Southerners in my hometown and surrounds tend to talk when they are around other white people, and I'm very aware of how white people in other parts of the country talk when they are around other white people. There's no comparison. There is a substantial, cultural difference around the issue of race.</p>
<p>This is relevant to this conversation. Saying that "there are racists everywhere" is not relevant.</p>
<p>Oh Tarhunt, racism exists everywhere both subtle and explicitly. There are tons of racist people in Long Island, upstate NY, Los Angeles, and Pennsylvania just like there are racist people in the South. Remember that movie "Crash" about racism in LA? It totally speaks truth to what many people think in Los Angeles. I've lived there. I've experience that racism first-hand, and California is much more diverse than Virginia. There is surprisingly a lot of hatred/prejudice between ethnic groups in California. Hear about the black vs. brown LA gang violence? Hear about their black vs. Korean prejudice? </p>
<p>Even in diverse NYC, Columbia University (an Ivy League bastion of liberalism) has had to deal with racism - like last year's anti-semitic</a> graffiti on campus. And just this past Tuesday a noose</a> was found in front of a black Columbia professor's office. Check out these blue-colored links. The Tuesday incident was even reported in the NY Times.</p>
<p>Race War's on everybody! It's going down! ***** is going down!</p>
<p>Haha, you're crazy Jags!</p>
<p>Globalist:</p>
<p>Why do you keep arguing points I've conceded? Of course there are racists everywhere. How many times do I have to say it? That's a prima facie argument. I know all about the Columbia noose. My wife was on the phone most of last evening calming a dear friend who works on that floor and is highly upset. </p>
<p>Let me try to get this through your head one more time: There were anti-Semites in the US before and during WWII (the Ku Klux Klan, among other organizations, was very active). But this did NOT make it just as bad to be a Jew in the US as it did to be a Jew in Germany, did it? Did it? Answer the question.</p>
<p>IF you feel it was as awful to be a Jew in the US as Germmany prior to and during WWII, we have nothing further to discuss. If you feel it just might have been worse for a Jew to be in a country that was rounding up Jews and murdering them by the millions than it was to be in a country where Jews could and did hold positions of responsibility and power, then we might have something to discuss.</p>
<p>What we would have to discuss is the issue of moral equivalence. Those who believe in moral equivalence would say, "Since there were anti-Semites in the US before and during WWII, anti-Semitism in the US was morally equivalent to anti-Semitism in Germany. Those people might also say, "Since there were racists in the North during the American Civil War, racism in the North was morally equivalent to racism in the Confederate States and other slave states. They would make the same argument about lynching, since 6% of lynched blacks were lynched outside the old slave states, making 6% equivalent to 94%, or 206 deaths, spread out over 35 states, morally equivalent to 3,240 deaths spread out over 15 states.</p>
<p>In fact, those who believe in moral equivalency (at least when it suits their purposes), made this sort of argument all during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement. I know. I was there. Segregation, denial of voting rights, denial of equal protection under the law, cross burnings (I saw several), denial of decent jobs, the sharecropping system, murders and whippings, the beating of black marchers, and the like all existed where I grew up. Southerners argued, and still argue, that this was morally equivalent to what was going on in the rest of the country.</p>
<p>You seem to agree.</p>
<p>You also seem to agree that the copycat noose hanging at Columbia is equivalent to, say, the noose hanging in Jena, Louisiana. This would mean that the complete, public, and highly vocal revulsion of the Columbia community, and the strongly worded statement by the police that they will be investigating this as a hate crime, is morally equivalent to what happened in Jena, where the hanging of two nooses led to a statement from the school board that it was "just a prank" and where the local DA stated he couldn't find anywhere that hanging nooses is against the law.</p>
<p>IF your position is that racism is exactly equal and morally equivalent everywhere, then state that. But let's not keep stating an obvious point that I conceded long ago on this thread. That doesn't speak well for your high school and/or college education.</p>
<p>Jags and globalist:</p>
<p>Here are some photos both of you should enjoy, immensely. Pretty funny stuff. </p>
<p><a href="http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html%5B/url%5D">http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html</a></p>
<p>UVA was ranked #9 in the country by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education for "attracting, enrolling, and graduating African-American students as well as [its] progress in bringing black professors to [its] campus." Notably, four other southern schools were in the top 10 (Duke, Emory, UNC Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt).</p>
<p>The most recent graduation rate of black students at UVA is 87%, compared to UVA's overall graduation rate of 90-92%. Obviously black students are happy and comfortable enough to stay and graduate.</p>
<p>Yes, warblers, UVA should be very proud of its record of graduating African Americans. It's done very well. That's not the point. The point was the level of "comfort" for a black person there. Last year, UVA was ranked near the top in princetonreview.com's list of "little race/class interaction." It's not ranked this year, which isn't surprising given how that survey works, but 6 of the top 10 are Southern schools.</p>
<p>If you attended UVA (as I did) and are still somewhat active there (as I am), you would know that whites and blacks tend to keep to themselves. As I have already said on this thread, that is not the way it has to be. There is no reason an African American can't fit in with white groups if he so chooses.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It's not ranked this year, which isn't surprising given how that survey works
[/quote]
I don't find it surprising at all- nor do I find the recent shift in Duke's spot in that ranking surprising. :eek:</p>
<p>
[quote]
There is no reason an African American can't fit in with white groups if he so chooses.
[/quote]
Then the OP should have nothing to worry about. :)</p>
<p>Pretty much no problem. My point was, and still is, that there are students at UVA from parts of Virginia that are still pretty racist. I know. I talk to those people. Some of them are my family.</p>
<p>I went on to say that it shouldn't be much of a problem. And it isn't.</p>
<p>I don't see why you're so persistent about this, Tarhunt. There's no more "racism" at UVA than there is at any top university, so I don't think it's even worth discussing.</p>