Literature Review

The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging that it is present.

In the text Prejudice and Discrimination on the College Campus, background information is given to help define what prejudice and discrimination is, and the relationship between them (Pettigrew, Eberhardt, & Fisk 1998). In this selection, Pettigrew discusses about student recruitment and selection. Colleges must have a certain balance of students, by race and sex. And once students are admitted to colleges, there is a whole knew environment in regards to the campus life for students. The way that the school sets up the campus determines how prejudice in students may be or become. For example, a center for African-Americans informally exludes those who are not of this ethnicity, just as a center for Koreans will unintentionally exlude others also.

These kinds of organizations may bring about negative attitudes towards those of different races. This was determined by a study called College Students’ Attitudes toward Racial Discrimination, which looked at exactly what it is called (Biasco, Goodwin, & Vitale 2001). When analyzing the responses to the questionnaires released, a much higher number of minorities reported that racial discrimination is experienced by minority students, compared to the number of White students who reported the same. Even when asked whom the students discriminated, it was found that less than half said they never discrimnate, while the rest discriminate against all races, with Blacks having the highest percentage of those who discriminate against them. Interestingly enough, many students believe that racial discrimination is a learned behavior, and all groups believe that ignorance is the cause of racial discrimination.

Now although with this study there seemed to be differences in perspective of racial discrimination, there are ways to determine the presence of this discrimination. Solorzano, Ceja, and Yosso look into microaggressions, which are subtle insults directed toward people of color, in Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate: The Experiences of African American College Students (Solorzano, Ceja, & Yosso 2000). They found that it is clear there are racial microorganisms that are prominent in both academic and social spaces in college environments. This may lead to isolation and feelings of self-doubt and frustration, particularly in the African American students as they were the focal point of this study. However, this study was done in a group conversation setting. This may cause bias to occur since the participants do not want to make themselves look bad.

 

To reduce the potential bias that may occur when talking face-to-face with a participant, anonymous surveys can be distributed to people so that they will not have a face to an answer. Bonilla-Silva and Forman did so by distributing a survey to undergraduate students that asked questions regarding traditional and contemporary questions on racial attitudes (Bonilla-Silva & Forman 2000). An interview was also held, since it has been previously found that surveys on racial attitudes have underestimated the prejudice in the White population. When all the data was collected and analyzed, the researchers found that the White participants were more prejudiced int he interviews than in the survey. They also use their own terms and ways of talking to avoid appearing racist. Again, this is done so that they will prevent themselves from looking bad.

Although t there are instances of racial prejudice and discrimination, it is good to know that there definitely has been a decrease in such behavior and attitude over many years.  Hinrich conducted an Empircal Analysis of Racial Segregation in Higher Education to show that the exposure of Blacks to Whites and prejudice and segregation are inversely correlated (Hinrichs 2012). This study helps confirm that as there has been an increasing exposure of Blacks to Whites. Also, the Black-white dissimilarity has decreased dramatically since the 1960s and continues to fall. However, there are regional differences. There is still more instances of segregation in colleges in the South than those in the North. So with this, we can assume that decreasing the presence of prejudice and discrimination will occur when there is greater exposure of all races to each other. This will also cause dissimilarity to fall among all races because they will learn from one another and adapt to live together.

This is how I have came to the solution that we must push for a college campus that strives for us to be a diverse family that learns from one another. We cannot have unintentionally segregated dorms and organizations, and we must be more aware of how to prevent this from occurring. We have to be more aware of what we name certain clubs, and how we distribute students across the campus.