These are not anecdotes. Each result represents curated data.
They tell the story that our culture is rife with inequality and institutionalized, systemic racism, and that if we want it one day to not be that way, we have to take steps to combat it, for instance, by making traditionally-excluded minorities feel comfortable, welcome, and supported in our halls of higher learning.
Those enrollment statistics are disappointing and was the experience reported by the queer black female student. Are the students vocally speaking out and asking the administration why the percentages of African American students aren’t higher? Are they demanding changes in police enforcement on campus? Are they suggesting concrete changes in the syllabi of classes to include more texts that speak to the experiences of minorities? I guess what puzzles me is why is there so much focus on triggers and safe spaces when it seems like there are much more systemic problems to address?
Is the point that some of you (and some of the students) are trying to make is that students are more focused on these bigger issues and don’t really have a problem with the school’s stated policy on safe spaces and triggers and their anger over the letter is because they think it’s intended to mollify donors at their expense? That concern would make sense to me.
The issue with your approach is that it assumes racism etc. without looking at other dynamics.
My classmate from undergrad (a top 2 school) was Chairman of the Board for 7 years. One thing he lamented about was the absolute limited pool of qualified black students across the elite college spectrum. All top schools were vying for the same small pool. In contrast, they had more asians and other minorities than they knew what to do with.
In the end, it turns out that name, prestige, and money matters, a lot - and for UChicago, I would bet many of the black students it accepts end up going to places like HPYSM, Cornell and Penn. The Ivy name is heck of a draw, and they often give more money as well. Therefore, the answer is “yes” many of the accepted black students go elsewhere, but not because of racism.
“I don’t think you can blame the colleges for the demographics of their applicants.”
You can blame the disparity in educational opportunities and public school quality in this country, which affects African-Americans disproportionately. But it sure would be silly to think that just because ~12% of the population is black, that 12% of the applicant pool to U of Chicago is black. Not because they wouldn’t be qualified, but simply because many in that community don’t have the advising that a school like Chicago exists and offers significant FA. This, of course, is true for every elite college in this country. In a better world, the demographics of applicants would mirror the demographics of the US a lot more.
I guess watching all of the special events and freebies given to these kids has made me question why some of them are complaining so much. My kid got no special attention and felt lucky to just be accepted at some of his college choices.
If some of you have not been on campuses for a while, you might not know sbout the extensive outreach programs that the colleges are hosting.
And we fall back to the same old stereotypes many have about Black students/families.
Makes me wonder if there are other reasons why those Black students being outreached may not have wanted to attend your graduate institution.
Especially if grad student/faculty attitudes such as yours are commonplace enough to be bandied about like you have here.
Incidentally, my older college classmate who was subjected to racial profiling by LEOs from adolescence onward despite coming from an upper/upper-middle class Black family and being a topflight student turned down admission offers to some grad schools because the prevailing departmental/institutional and/or grad student culture wasn’t very friendly to URMs…and he confirmed it with a few URM grad students who recommended he not come for those reasons at the time.
He ended up doing his STEM PhD at Harvard and should be completing it soon (Took several years off to work/PhD apps/playing classical/jazz gigs).
They are doing all of those things. The “focus on triggers and safe spaces” is largely led by the media and other commentators seeking to ridicule and undermine these students’ autonomy and free speech.
You guys are confused about the data you are looking at.
First, I suspect most of you want to focus on the undergraduate college, not the post-graduate schools.
Second, there are two reporting types that are commonly used.
The Federal government has very rigid reporting requirements. They’re kind of funny. Some people call it the “Hispanic trumps rule” (sorry for the bad pun, but it predates this election cycle). What that means is that if someone checks Hispanic / Latino for their ethnicity (not race), then they fall into that category regardless of what race they are. A fair fraction of Hispanic / Latino students are black, but they don’t count at all as black for this purpose. The other thing the Federal government does is that biracial or multiracial students fall into their own category. So someone like Obama wouldn’t count as black. This is the data that @NickFlynn and @collegedad13 found.
The other issue is that international students are never counted in the racial / ethnic categories (there might be a nuance here). So you have to use the US citizens / residents enrollment as the denominator, not the total enrollment since by this definition it is impossible for international students to have a race … Nigerians for example do not count as black. I also think it is impossible for international students to have an ethnicity (not 100% sure of this).
On the other hand, when many colleges such as Chicago put together their class profiles, they count any student who checked “black” as Black / African-American (even if they’re multiracial or Hispanic). This is the data that @pickpocket is looking at.
No dramatic changes occurred in the racial/ethnic breakdowns of UChicago's college that I am aware of. It just depends on how you count.
So -
9.5% of the College’s US students self identified as fully or partially Black / African American.
6.0% of the College’s US students self-identified as 100% Black / African American.
8.46% of the College’s total students self identified as fully or partially Black / African American.
5.3% of the College’s total students self-identified as 100% Black / African American.
When you compare to other universities you need to make sure you are looking apples to apples.
Well, if it is stereotype, then I advise someone tell the black students who told me not to believe those things. I am relating what black students said to me directly; I am not guessing, as to what they were thinking or doing.
They were afraid to walk in their neighborhoods dressed the way they were. We even made provisions for them to change at the company when we understood the situation. Maybe someone needs to tell them that is stereotype and they should not have been scared to walk in their own neighborhoods with jacket and ties. They learned that fear from somewhere and it surely was not from someone stereotyping them.
We could not even give them rides home because they did not want to be seen the company lincoln town cars, so they voluntarily took the bus or parents picked them up. Again, they learned that fear from somewhere, and it surely was not from someone stereotyping them.
Again with the anecdata.
Forget the anecdata about cultural values for the moment; one certainly cannot argue that there is no quality difference in the public schools/college advising in predominantly AA areas compared to predominantly white areas. Unless we want to pretend that the public schools on Chicago’s South Side are just like those in Winnetka and Kenilworth on the affluent North Shore. This is no reflection of innate ability, but a reflection of lack of equal opportunity.
Which company drives students home in Lincoln Town Cars? I want to apply for a job there…unless the company is a limousine service company. Then…no interest. 
Thank you @al2simon . I suspected something like this was the root of the data disparity.
One can count the marbles as one like. However, it still does not change the fact that a limited pool is a limited pool and to assume racism based on only numbers is a conclusion looking for cause.
In fact, looking only at numbers and drawing racism conclusions is an insult to black students because going just by numbers says that black students are not dynamic enough to make choices that certain white people do not approve of, so they (the black students) must have been forced into that action instead of thinking for themselves or following their own cultural dynamics.
Personally, I am in the camp that the black students think very well for themselves, just like anyone else. it is just that some white people, who think they know better, do not like the black students choices.
No problem @pickpocket . Helping people understand the data is probably a waste of time though since I think most everyone in this thread is completely impervious to facts. I should probably go away myself now too.
P.S. The “appeal to rich donors” theory is just silly.
A company that actually was trying outreach and understood the time and difficulty required to travel to an internship and had no problem providing rides to the students.
You would be surprised how many companies quietly do such things. We still provide rides to kids at in high-end charter schools who find it very difficult to travel that distance, as the public school bus system does not service all charter schools. We have no problem supporting kids and families who put the effort in.
I guess I would be surprised. That’s a nice service these companies are providing.
Here is another “anecdote” that may become a national program and illustrates how important small things, such as clothes and look, influence what poor and black students do.
Can you imagine certain white people looking at the attendance rates and crying racism, when racism has nothing to do with it? I can.
I got a chuckle out of this. I have a colleague who is black, and he normally dresses professionally. Once, we were meeting on the south side of Chicago in a high crime neighborhood that is 98 percent black, and he shows up in the cheapest, loudest, most ill-fitting sports coat you can imagine. When I asked him why, he responds that wearing such a coat is a uniform; it tells the gang bangers that you are not one of them, and they leave you alone.