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Social Research Proposal: Racism on College Campuses Introduction The Racism in America is a like a rush: the more it gets scratched the more it itches. According to watchdogs of political correctness, it is found everywhere. No social institution is spared from it The paranoia over this issue in America gains more and more momentum. It seems like the more efforts are being put into eliminating racism, the more this issue is becoming acute.
We can draw parallels between American society being obsessed with fighting racism and Inquisitions witch-hunt. Back then, there were many eyewitness accounts of evil witches flying overhead and causing all kinds of disturbances with their magic powers. The same way Americans begin to see concealed racism even in advertising, when there is no colored person (or child) included. The nation-wide paranoia over the racism can especially be visible in such social institutions as universities and colleges. Nowadays, any teacher can be accused of being racially biased, and as practice shows, the tendency among colored students in accusing their teachers of racial prejudice, continually grows.
At the same time American educational standards are taking a steep dive Thomas Jackson in his article What is Racism? says: Since we are required to believe that the only explanation for non-White failure is White racism, every time a non-White is poor, commits a crime, goes on welfare, or takes drugs, White society stands accused of yet another act of racism. All failure or misbehavior by non-Whites is standing proof that White society is riddled with hatred and bigotry. (Jackson). According to author, we deal with no-win situation, when ethical norms now strive for nothing less than defying the laws of biology What is racism? Is this the fact that many students in college campuses are faced with it on daily basis? In order for us to give an answer to this question, we will have to analyze different peoples opinions on the subject Part 1.
It is a fact that our society is becoming increasingly multicultural. People from all over the world come to America and they also bring their ethical customs with them. Right up to 1960 American immigration policy's main principle was preventing non-White immigration. According to American Immigration act of 1916, there were entry quotas for every ethical group, which were being based on the results of social census of 1899. The idea of multiculturalism was introduced to Americans at the time when a new approach towards immigration was being accepted by American government. This caused a great number of people from Third World countries to start to arrive in U.
S. in big numbers. Many viewed this as very natural but there were also people who considered such social dynamics as representing threat to the principles, upon which American society was being built. It goes without saying that university is a micro-model of society and faces the same problems as society at large.
In America, people of ethical minorities tend to stick together. They often live in the same residential areas, send their kids to the same schools and prefer to do their shoping in stores owned by their compatriots. This social phenomenon is refered to as clustering. Byron Fisher and Don Hartman in their article The impact of race on the social experience of college students at a predominantly White university suggest that the same social dynamics are found on student campuses.
From their article it appears that such clustering occurs on the part non-White students even when there is absolutely nothing to cause this kind of behaviour. Authors assume that this can be explained by the fact that there isnt enough communication between students of different cultural backgrounds, yet this is as far as they go. They dont give a clear answer why there is no enough interaction between such students. There is a new term subtle racism appeared recently, which is meant to be applied to those White students who simply keep their opinions to themselves and are not as happy about diversity as they shouldve been. Basically, every student now can be accused of being a subtle racist if he simply avoids hanging out with colored classmates too much.
This, of course, cannot be thought as any kind of resist attitude. The explanation lies in the fact that students with higher IQ simply dont like to socialise with those whore not quite up to their level. In 1994 Richard Herrstein and Charles Murray had published book called Bell Curve. In it, they had proven that peoples IQ level directly depends on their racial background: In fact IQ is substantially heritable... the genetic component of IQ is unlikely to be smaller than 40 percent or higher than 80 percent... For purposes of this discussion, we will adopt a middling estimate of 60 percent heritability, which, by extension, means that IQ is about 40 percent a matter of environment.
The balance of the evidence suggests that 60 percent may err on the low side. (Bell Curve, p. 105). It is a common fact that non-White students generally score much lower on IQ tests. Even though, avoiding colored students might appear as being part of racial prejudice, it actually has nothing to do with racism. The authors of Bell Curve further suggest that: Race differences show whites aren't at fault for blacks being down, and making whites pay for something they " re not responsible for is a terrible injustice. Eliminating affirmative action is the first step. (Bell Curve, p. 168) The affirmative action, when there is a certain quota reserved exclusively for non-White students, might help to make it appear, as if students of all ethnicities were equally inclined towards studying. Nevertheless, it can never win White students respect towards those whose presence in university is purely accidental.
According to Fisher and Hartmann: Forty-one percent of the prejudiced incidents reported by Black students involved spoken slurs; 34 % involved whispers and nasty looks (Fisher and Hartmann). It appears that in future White students might be required even not to look at Blacks, because it might be interpreted wrongly What is so striking about this is that those who promote enforced diversity dont seem to realize that their actions result in increasing of racial intolerance, rather than reducing it. Peter Altbach in his book The Racial Dilemma in American Higher Education states that: White students remain liberal in their attitudes about race relations, although there seems to be an undercurrent of resentment against affirmative action and other special programs for minorities" (Altbach, p. 4). There is no doubt that there is going to be discontent about affirmative action among white students, as they rightly consider it as form of reverse-racism. Students ask question - why ethnic minorities are given right to celebrate their uniqueness, while mere mentioning Whites wanting to do the same, is going to be labeled as racism? The ill-famed Jewish Anti-Defamation League is the vanguard of racial tolerance in universities.
The concept of affirmative action was being designed by this group, which enjoys having an immense lobbyist power. Yet, at the same time it asks Jews for nothing less but maintaining their racial purity! Students in American universities are getting tired of double standards being applied to them by the same people who promote diversity. Thomas Jackson gives another example of this concept at work: All across the country, black, Hispanic, and Asian clubs and caucuses are thought to be fine expressions of ethnic solidarity, but any club or association expressly for Whites is by definition racist.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) campaigns openly for black advantage but is a respected "civil rights" organization. The National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP) campaigns merely for equal treatment of all races, but is said to be viciously racist. (Jackson). James Fagin is a member Southern Poverty Law Center, which is the group closely associated with JAL. In his article The continuing significance of racism he argues that there are too many Whites within universities administrators and staff. In his opinion, this situation is intolerable and hes being very frank, suggesting that they will need to be layed off, in order to free room for Blacks. In respect of this authors ideas, one can only wonder about how come this person has never been charged with Black racism (what he really is) and instead being praised to the sky for his effort for bringing more color in American universities.
It appears like there is a certain force behind people of different cultural backgrounds being alienated from each other. The most dangerous about it is the fact that this force disguises itself as something opposite to what it really is. On the surface, political correctness strives for more tolerance, yet the practical effects of this concept are far from what they are expected to be. The main result of this is American society getting more and more seculirazied into numerous ethnic groups that pursue their own interests, without caring about country where they live.
There are African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanics the emphasis is being put on the racial characteristics of every particular group by very same people that never get tired repeating that race is not important! Many Black people travel to Africa in search of their roots, as theyre being told to be proud of their ancestry. But usually neither of them wants to visit Africa again after coming back from the trip Their attitude also changes, they refuse to be called Afro-Americans and want to be simply Americans. Students are especially sensitive towards lies and half-truths.
They come to university to obtain knowledge but it becomes ever harder, as they have to waste valuable time to think about how to make this world a better place. There is no official censorship on freedom of expression but there is one, de facto. Students have to be very careful what they say and how they say it. This, of course, applies to all students, regardless of their race. In its turn, this leads to situation when students have to be suppressing their thoughts. Their frustration with this fact finds the way to vent out sooner or later, but usually it happens in not the most politically correct form, causing the self-appointed watchers of public morality to come up with further accusations of racism.
In 1990 Peter Altbach conducted sociological studies at the University of West...
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