White trick-or-treaters in blackface: C/D?

I left immediately -- not only because it was offensive, but also EMBARRASSING that the kids did not realize how offensive it was. Also, because there were no blunts.

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/27.html

xpost

And Gabbnebb, of course personality's an issue. There's nothing at all about the U of C that tries to entice students in normal ways. It's rigorous and it's weird, and that's obvious. It's hard to leave the neighborhood, and the undergrads act like grad students, and they "value neurosis." They have t-shirts that say "where fun comes to die." It self-selects for a particular kind of person, you know, and that needn't make a huge difference with white people or Asians -- the pool of qualified applicants is large enough that you can select and select your way as much as you want. But when you're fighting over the not-yet-proportionate pool of qualified black students, you don't have room to select that fiercely. To be honest I'm surprised they're even close to competitive with some of the other schools listed here.

City Percentage of Total Population
Gary, IN 85.3%
Detroit, MI 82.8%
Birmingham, AL 74.0%
Jackson, MS 71.1%
New Orleans, LA 67.9%
Baltimore, MD 65.2%
Atlanta, GA 62.1%
Memphis, TN 61.9%
Washington, D.C. 61.3%
Richmond, VA 58.1%

does Gary count as Chicago? among the top 10 absolute largest cities, Chicago is 3rd after Detroit and Philly

(2000 numbers)

My understanding is that the Chicago area contains the largest settlement of african-americans north of the mason-dixon. Thats not percentage but pure numbers. Not that I'm taking sides in the SEARCH FOR THE CAPITAL OF BLACK AMERICA

“We all assume that more progress has been made than has really been made,” says Beverly Tatum, president of Spelman College. A psychologist and the author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria and Other Conversations About Race, Tatum says: “While colleges and universities are more diverse today than they were 20 or 30 years ago, that isn’t true for public schools, many of which are more segregated. So you have a lot of young people growing up in racially segregated schools and their only exposure to other groups comes from stereotypes in the media.”

Popular culture gives these students — many of whom are clueless about those who are different from themselves — a false sense of race relations, says Charles A. Gallagher, an associate professor of sociology at Georgia State University who studies white attitudes about race.

“People who are 18 to 20 have been raised in a cultural environment with ‘Cosby Show’ re-runs, hip hop, identifying with black characters, they have gone through the multicultural training — for whatever it’s worth — in school,” he says. “They have the perception that they are not only not racist, but they share a kind of social space with non-whites through the media, so they think race doesn’t matter anymore, which just isn’t the case.”

“These pranks reflect the students’ idea that we are in a post-race society and we can make fun of everyone, and make fun of everything,” Gallagher says. “So they don’t see the difference between a ‘ghetto’ party and a toga party.”

Not only are students unaware of the feelings of minority students, many have so little sense of history that they don’t know instinctively that images like lynching aren’t going to be looked at casually by black people. And for all the talk about how colleges these days focus on multiculturalism, experts points out that most white students never study minority history in a sophisticated way or have any sustained focus on race relations.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/27/race

well, school diversity statistics often include International stats, but I would imagine that most schools want to count Caribbean students, say, in both categories

As a white man, I feel threatened by lots of things: 1) people that watch TV; 2) terrorists; and gangs, to name a few. However, every time I claim that I feel “threatened” by people they tell me that because I am “white” I can take care of myself. (In fact, a black administrator once mocked me because of my fear of TV-watchers!)

(...)

There is an irony that Kuh’s comments are included in an article addressing how stereotypes continue to cause students pain, but yet he stereotypes fraternity members and their actions.

(...)

I don’t think that there is too much “institutional racism.” Instead, there may be clashes of cultures. In my culture it is considered dishonorable to blame others for one’s problems or watch TV and talk about basketball. In other cultures, watching sports, blaming people, or talking about basketball is acceptable. Is it wrong to notice that our cultures differ in so many profound ways ?

PS: I like rap music.

and West of the Hudson

And that's a pretty great book...not that I needed to read it. I got placed into the all-black dorm frosh year (not by choice) and it was always the source of all sorts of uproar from the rest of the student body. One (white) kid actually argued at a forum that he came to the school for diversity and it wasn't fair for kids to be in a dorm where he couldn't see them. As if it was in Siberia and not like across campus. And as if the only reason we came to college was the bring some color into his life.

xpost Seriously. "I need to know how they wrap up their hair at night! Dammit...you're taking away my cross-cultural experience"

Is this actually true? I got my stat from Upski Wimsatt so it could be wrong, but I'm interested.

In a total offhand observational stereotyping gesture, I'd say yes: poor minority students do indeed tend to look toward pre-professional tracks more so than liberal arts. It's my experience that poor people of any sort are likely to make that decision, for obvious and healthy reasons: they're going to college to make something of themselves, and are pretty up-front about moderate wealth and social status being involved.

this is actually the only basis on which the supreme court has found affirmative action in higher education to be valid; thankyew rehnquist/scalia

very possibly right, but what if they had different ideas about what would enrich your experience?

in absolute 2000 numbers, NYC has twice the black population of Chicago. maybe there's something different if you start looking at different metro definitions, but i doubt it.

The main rebuttal of "why are all the black kids sitting together" is "well, why are all the white kids sitting together?" Just because there are less of us doesn't mean we're not just sitting with our friends like everyone else. Just because we all look the same (though we really don't) doesn't mean we are. My all-black table actually had a token, my white friend Aaron from HS, and it used to baffle the shit out of everyone. For whatever reason.

Heavens, no.

Air America (used to?) air a commercial insinuating that not allowing a white kid into a black frat would be wrong because any form of discrimination is bad, yet another case of blacks huddling into separatist comfort zones.

Because they always break the canes during step routines?