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The issue of racism in the United States has been a major and persistent problem in American society. Racism, according to sociologists, is defined as the unfair treatment if a person or group on the basis of race (Hoyt, 2012). Racism can either be overt or covert, and it can be expressed on different levels including from an individual’s level, and this can be evidenced when a person makes conscious or unconscious discriminatory practices against another person. However, racism is also evidenced at an institutional level where the rules and policies, as well as the practices in the organizations, tend to discriminate against individuals as well as groups (Gee, 2008). Institutions such as universities and colleges are among the leading organizations that have persisted in cases of racism both at the students’ level as well as from the instructional rules, policies, and practices.
Racists tend to perceive their race as being superior compared to that of others, and according to many, there does not exist such a thing as racial equality (DiAngelo, 2018). Racial supremacists tend to believe that their culture, color, mental, and physical abilities are superior to other races and therefore possess prejudiced believes that lead them to discriminate against other racial and ethnic groups. The racist perceptions are used to justify their discriminatory practices, and these racists tend to be insecure and afraid of certain uncertainties that tend to get over them. As a result, racism from both individuals and groups stems from ignorance rather than genuine hatred of the victims. Since the founding of the American nations, racism has been the fact of life of the American society as it is learned and passed to generations through socialization at an early age and continues to be reinforced by the individuals and institutions such as universities (Juang et al. 2018).
Covert racisms are one of the most common types of racism that are experienced in the United States, especially to the students of color (Thornhill, 2016). Over time, there have been numerous instances to which covert racism has been accorded to the students of color mostly by the institutions dominated by whites. For example, the white academic advisors may discourage black students from enrolling in challenging courses or even allow them to overload with more classes than they are able to handle. Another instance on which racism has been detected in the institutions is through the white student’s avoidance of the black students in areas of interactions such as classrooms, study groups, and even in the lecture halls.
Also, students of color are often left out of most student’s networks that include the course syllabus, sharing of notes, and old exams (Alemán & Gaytán, 2017). Other instances regard the professors in fear of a racist label may tend to hesitate or even lack to advice the students of color in matters regarding courses, for example, they may fail to offer proper advice regarding what subjects to take or drop when they are faced with problems which may result to their failure. When this happens, the students are left stranded since even seeking advice may prove unsuccessful as the professors may fail to guide them and thus left to survive on what they perceive as best; this results in them making the wrong choices and decisions leading to failure in their selected majors.
Institutional racism is also common, especially to the students of color, and this is mostly witnessed on white college universities (Harwood et al. 2018), and some of the prejudices the standardized tests on which colored students tend to score lowly compared to the white students. The prejudices tend to be weighed heavily during the process of admission, a decline in the amount of student aid, rising costs of the college tuition along with other financial cutbacks. Unfortunately, most of the black students tend to rely on financial assistance, and therefore, during the reduction of the financial aid to the students under the Reagan administration, a large proportion of the black students who were in dire need of financial assistance were neglected (Williams, 2019). The financial aid covered more than 60% of their college costs, and thus, a reduction meant that most of the black students could not sustain their lives in college.
Studies have been conducted to examine the racial attitudes on the white campuses, and results indicated that most of the white students do believe that they are living in a racially equal society and thus tend to resent that the black students, along with other minorities, are offered special treatment (Lo et al. 2017). As a result, they tend to dislike the minority groups being singled out for special programs and activities. There are white students who feel that in the process of correcting past discrimination, whites are being victimized by the efforts. As a result, minorities do enjoy unfair advantages. More than 80% of minority students do attend white-dominated institutions, and in these institutions, racism is more prevalent and tends to prohibit minority students from developing a sense of belonging. The minority students do experience culture shock and less socialization with white students, making them spend a lot of time isolated from the mainstream activities in the institution (McCoy, 2018).
Overall, the perception of racism in the United States, especially in the institutions of higher learning, has soared great heights as the students are aware of the existence of racism in schools. For example, there has been minimum support and assistance for the minority students in learning institutions such as lack of enough minority role models as well as lack of support services, making it difficult for the colored students to survive in white-dominated institutions.
References
Alemán, S. M., & Gaytán, S. (2017). ‘It doesn’t speak to me’: understanding student of color resistance to critical race pedagogy. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(2), 128-146.
DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon Press.
Gee, G. C. (2008). A multilevel analysis of the relationship between institutional and individual racial discrimination and health status. American journal of public health, 98(Supplement_1), S48-S56.
Harwood, S. A., Mendenhall, R., Lee, S. S., Riopelle, C., & Huntt, M. B. (2018). Everyday racism in integrated spaces: Mapping the experiences of students of color at a diversifying predominantly white institution. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(5), 1245-1259.
Hoyt Jr, C. (2012). The pedagogy of the meaning of racism: Reconciling a discordant discourse. Social work, 57(3), 225-234.
Juang, L. P., Park, I., Kim, S. Y., Lee, R. M., Qin, D., Okazaki, S., … & Lau, A. (2018). Reactive and proactive ethnic–racial socialization practices of second-generation Asian American parents. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 9(1), 4.
Lo, C. C., McCallum, D. M., Hughes, M., Smith, G. P., & McKnight, U. (2017). Racial differences in college students’ assessments of campus race relations. Journal of College Student Development, 58(2), 247-263.
McCoy, S. Z. (2018). The intellectual war zone: An autoethnography of intellectual identity development despite oppressive institutional socialization. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 11(3), 325.
Thornhill, T. E. (2016). Resistance and assent: How racial socialization shapes Black students’ experience learning African American history in high school. Urban education, 51(9), 1126-1151.
Williams, S. L. (2019). In Defense of the “Forgotten Man”: The Sustained Legacy of the Southern Strategy on the Post-Reagan Era Presidency.
