When looking at the diversity of a school composed of all upper class white kids, its a wonder why there aren't more people of color at the college. Is it the majorities fault? I find it hard to believe that the people at the school would actively try to keep out minorities, so its fair to say its not their fault their college isn't diverse? What about minorities? If I were them, I would prefer to go to a place where there was a lot of diversity, so I wouldn't be so out of the ordinary, so its clearly not their fault either. Which brings up the possibility that history plays a large role: the college has been homogeneous for so long, it would be really hard to change that because of the stereotypes and judgments that have been associated with it. And we can look at our society as a whole in the same context. Is it fair to say that it's no ones fault that our society isn't equal, because of the long history of inequality that have been present? Or is it someone's fault that our society is the way it is?
Diversity is a big deal on campuses around the United States because of how our society is structured. If you travel to any other nation, not one person could tell you what percent of their student body is a minority. Our values and folkways are very different as Americans, more so than any other country. I attend Purdue University and although we are a public school, the amount of diversity you see here is different than you would expect. Rather than having the "traditional," diversity through race, we have diversity through morals. In my specific college, the type of people range from small town farmers to big city slickers. I personally am from a big city where I am used to being surrounded by members of other races, and I am not affected by it. On the other hand, many of the people in my college have been so sheltered to their own community, that they are not accustomed to seeing racial diversity. This is why interracial diversity is the most intriguing to me rather than racial diversity. I find it more interesting to observe the way others interact with each other within the same race rather than witness vast stereotypes placed upon whole cultures. It is interesting to watch two small town kids talk down upon someone else because of how they act or what they do for a living. I never thought I would be more culturally bias to my own race than when I came to college.
ReplyDeleteI experienced the same thing as you just last night. I was reading about Penn State in the handy dandy Fiske guide to colleges, and it said that 97 percent of the student body was from Pennsylvania, 3 percent were Asian-American, and 8 percent were Hispanic AND African American. Those percentages were so low and I was shocked to see that two ethniticies were grouped into one percentage. Personally, I don't want to go to a college where everyone is the same. I like diversity, it created opportnities to meet all different kinds of people. But to answer your question, I think history is to blame for the lack of diversity in many schools. Blacks and whites have been separated for such a long time, that I just don't think it's possible for many people in our society to suddenly change that (relatively speaking). So basically I think the course our history has taken is to blame for the most part.
ReplyDeleteI completely with Zoe in that I think history is the cause of lack of diversity on college campuses. We can't change the past, and it clearly influences the present, but I wonder what WE can do to change the future. If the past can have such sway on the way we live today, then we should be able to have the same effect. I think diversity is important and also provides us with an opportunity to interact with many different types of people who we may never have met before. However, I think your point about how people in other countries don't know about the diversity of their school is extremely interesting. I think this goes to show, once again, that the roles of different racial groups are so deeply engrained in ways of our society that we can't break out of the molds the past has created.
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