Here is what @CCadmin_Jon asked in the 1st post of this thread:
quote
In what ways does CC help African American students now?
How might the community do more to make a difference?
What can we, the site staff, do to support you, the members of the community?
[/quote]
Any ideas?
I don’t know if my post will be allowed to stay, but I’m going to try anyway.
My in-laws have been extremely racist. They use common words that aren’t allowed in most places of society when they describe anyone other than white. They have tried to share their views with my boys as they’ve grown up and every single time we parents shared our views with our lads afterward - pointing out exactly why the in-laws are wrong. It’s not another “theory.” They are flat out wrong.
My lads are fine. They had us as parents and they are able to reason seeing that our reasons sure beat the in-law’s reasons.
What about kids who don’t have close people helping them see the truth? (H was raised racist, but fortunately overcame it - he will give credit to me - but even he says he has to stop himself mentally some times to this day.) Should we allow this sort of “free speech” on educated platforms? I hope not.
Beliefs on all sorts of topics differ (economics, gov’t styles, even whether broccoli tastes good), but beliefs that deal with humans - real, live, heart-beating with feelings humans - that are demeaning and flat out wrong should not be given credence IMO. It’s not free speech. It’s pure meanness and it affects people in ways that can’t just be shrugged off. It’s not even like dissing a fashion/fad or similar. No one chooses their race nor ethnicity nor place of birth, etc.
One of my most searing memories was sitting in a McD’s with MIL in her earlier stages of dementia. An AA man walked by coming from behind her and scared her. Out loud she said, “Oh, there’s a _____,” in a very scared (and loud) voice. Had she not been taught that as a child, it wouldn’t have come up in dementia. To this day I wonder how that affected that man’s day. All he did was walk by a table. I wanted to crawl under it. The only good thing about it is I can use the experience to teach kids at school with not-so-intelligent upbringings how ludicrous it is to judge anyone by their color.
I feel like there are fewer and fewer students posting outside the chance me threads and the school specific forums. Is there something we can pin specifically for URM students at the top of those forums?
I also agree with @Lindagaf and @EconPop about having a whole forum for First Gen/Low SES/URM issues.
I think it may also be helpful to have some educational articles for frequent posters about how we can more respectfully respond to students with hooks, especially URM students.
With respect, it’s not clear you read my post. I offered an opinion on what kind of outreach efforts I would support, and implied that there are some types changes I’m more cautious of. Both are on topic.
Just to be clear, I do support, and will support, changes to CC for the benefit of African Americans. I’ll even support them with my wallet, just as I noted in my post. But I won’t support the installation of speech codes that are indistinguishable from the censorship of ideas that challenge progressive orthodoxy. I think I’m right to include that input.
You may disagree with my opinion without any hard feelings on my part. I mean you no disrespect. I’m only stating my opinion on the topic at hand.
All of us have a pattern to our posting when it comes to race. Your pattern is like some others here, ostensibly polite but demeaning to minorities.
Here, in this quote, you mention a problem with the general country, then disagree with this person’s take on this issue, then put down an entire opinion as “groupthink”. This combined with your other messages makes your intent clear. Your words are usually polite on the face of it, but on certain racial topics, your meaning is loud and clear.
But that’s not even the real issue. The issue is that this particular thread is about how to help the African-American experience on College Confidential. Any post that does not directly address how to help improve the African-American experience is blatantly and deliberately off topic.
As I just said, in my previous post to another agitator. This is about patterns. We are not blind and stupid. You have made you opinions on minorities very clear.
Those that run CC may not see it, but trust me when I tell you that your intended messages are getting through loud and clear to African-Americans on this site.
I like the idea of a separate forum with specific “how tos” dedicated to beginners/novices as far as college is concerned. This should have step by step basics spelled out in a sticky and questions regarding these steps can be separate threads without anyone getting annoyed about how many times a topic has been brought up.
Under this forum - or perhaps as its own(?) should be a sticky for hooked students with a definition of what these hooks are because many don’t realize they exist. Socio-economic class, rural, POC, first gen, etc. Basics included should be to look for scholarships, how to assess loans, pure facts about differences in colleges costs (not all colleges will cost the same and sticker price thoughts), travel thoughts, roommate/dorm thoughts, how to find assistance at college for everything from technology to majors, how to deal with homesickness, and similar things.
It should be pointed out at the top of each sticky that the advice is basic to give one an introduction and anyone feeling they want more info is welcome to start a thread. Someone who has time to monitor the threads (paid monitor) should be there often to delete or modify any nasty or unhelpful posts. Differences of opinions and experiences should be welcome because there is no single “right” answer for all students. Posts that degrade anyone for posting a thread, asking the “wrong” question, or being dumb for not knowing/considering X should be deleted. If, indeed, the question is out of line, that should be addressed by the monitor.
If posters felt welcome, more would stick around.
Most kids at my school who visit cc tell me it’s not the place for them. It doesn’t fit them. They don’t even have to be minorities.
So…this is an important topic and thread. So how can CC help. Well, maybe more MOC on this site. Mods Of Color. Not sure what the make up is now but that might help?
Also maybe a guest speaker type of thing every week or every 2 weeks from different colleges around the US. It seems like every college pushes diversity. Just look at their marketing material…lol ?. Let them step up then. I am sure many college presidents etc would love to participate.
This could be a draw to many segments. Like any marketing endeavor. Think about what would draw people to the site.
Trends and orthodoxies that I have noticed on these forums:
But then some of these probably match up with a commonly unstated preference that @Hanna once mentioned, in that in her college advising business, white students did not want to consider colleges that were not majority white.
I think this is a wonderful idea! One-stop shopping to get help for this student demographic.
Others have mentioned scholarships from CC that people would contribute towards. That would go against TOS. There have been other times when people wanted to take up collections or donate to a cause in memory of a CC’r who died, and it was not allowed.
Users will not " (vii) solicit other users to join or contribute money to any online service or other organization, advocate or attempt to get users to join in legal or illegal schemes;"
https://www.collegeconfidential.com/policies/terms-of-service
I am not AA but we are low-income and rural, so face some of the same challenges, though not all.
As far as what CC does well, I think some of the posters do an excellent job guiding those who come here lost and looking for help. I learned so much and was able to help my son find a path to college, not every suggestion worked out but some did and that is what matters. I realize that we had some advantages that others do not. I do have a degree and the ability to read and understand things fairly well, even though I was a first-generation college student and not in the best place financially.
I think CC does great at helping those high-achieving students who might not have the knowledge or the support systems that some here have. Where I think more could be done is for the more average students, especially those with no one else to help and guide them. The problem is that many of them don’t even know about this place, or they discover it too late. I was a little late finding it, but still had time to work through some options. I’m not sure how it can be accomplished, but if students and parents could be connected with this site much earlier in the process there would be a much greater chance of success for them.
This is why I suggested contacting high schools and changing /upgrading the SEO on the website to help attract these students. Kinda hard to help if they can’t find the site.
This is one of the best idea I’ve read on this thread yet. This mentorship kind of service that CC members provide, doesn’t reach AA students who need it most or at least not timely enough. If students and families know of a source where no question is stupid and where several people including counselors can discuss their matter and crowdsource a good solution, they’ll feel more engaged and confident about the process.
If CC can connect AA middle schoolers with local AA college students, experienced parents, teachers or college consultants, who are familiar with common hurdles faced and know solutions for those problems, it can be more helpful. Often problems are school based and locals can give better guidance then someone who doesn’t understand it as well. For example, in my district, understanding the course choices and GPA weighting game is a big issue for most students.
This is similar to what I tried to suggest before my motives were questioned. Let me repeat part of it again so that others can improve upon it:
Posters that have joined after 2018 might be unaware of this website’s long-term traffic decline. CC used to be far more active than it is now. A primary goal of my proposal was to increase the long-term health of CC by attracting more students who find the site to be informative and to engage parents into the site’s primary goal of helping college students.
One of my longterm goals is to help CC have a focus that goes beyond elite schools. In a way, it’s understandable; the people most motivated to come to a site about school admission are people who have their sights set on top schools. But that focus doesn’t serve the majority of students who (by definition) will not get into the most selective schools. [Changes to admission requirements](University of California Board of Regents unanimously approved changes to standardized testing requirement for undergraduates | University of California) might help in that regard.
The other point you brought out about pushing for more information is also something I’ve seen. On the one hand, it’s easy to see how getting more information can make advice better. On the other, a lot of the information considered by admission offices could be considered too personal to share. I wonder if indirect questions would help? So instead of “What are extracurriculars?” say, “Would you mind sharing your extracurriculars?” (I’m not sure that will help. Just thinking out loud.)
Thanks for the feedback! Hearing about potentially negative experiences is useful. It’s good to hear about the positive experiences too!
I do like this idea. It will require some careful consideration to make sure it’s a space students can be comfortable in. For instance, the vocabulary can be a bit of a hurdle. Not just admission-specific term either. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what people on CC mean by “D23” and “ds20/ds22”.
(For what it’s worth, CC isn’t owned by Hobsons anymore. Long story.)
That’s a good idea too. We do have contacts in that sphere, so I’ll reach out to them. Even better, we’d like to encourage that sort of expert to participate on the site directly.
Oh. That’s hard to hear. We really do want to celebrate successes and I found her story inspiring. To be transparent: I wanted to post her AMA on my personal social media accounts, but I didn’t care for the tone of some of the comments either. It’s useful (if a bit discouraging) to learn I wasn’t alone in thinking that.
I’m going to check with her to see how she felt about the experience too.
We’re working on a lot of the problems you brought up. (I’ll share more as we make progress!) Yes fixing the experience in general will help African American students too.