From the Institute for Obvious Conclusions
A new study shows that college students have a more positive racial outlook when placed in more diverse environments. From Inside Higher Ed:
One key finding was the generally positive impact on racial attitudes of living with someone of a different race. Students […] who lived with members of other ethnic groups showed statistically significant gains in comfort levels with people of different groups, having circles of friends beyond one’s own group, and a variety of other measures of tolerance toward different groups.
You don’t say!? Of course, the study also came to some other, less-positive conclusions. For example, the researchers also found that students who were members of largely homogeneous groups, such as student unions, fraternities and sororities, had decidedly un-cosmopolitan views:
The researchers examined the impact of membership in groups that are defined largely by race and ethnicity (such as black student unions) as well as membership in groups that do not have an explicit racial or ethnic mission, but have overwhelmingly white members (some fraternities and sororities). Generally, they found that a negative impact resulted from membership in these groups — white or minority — in which belonging to such a group led to an increase in feelings of victimization.
[…] [I]nvolvement with such groups also — in contrast to the more inclusive view of multiculturalism — increased students’ sense that they are victims and that all racial and ethnic groups are locked in “zero-sum competition.”
Why, who would have thought? We at the Commentator have certainly never experienced anything like that! (And I’m just cherry-picking there. The links could go on ad douchebageum.)
But getting back to the main conclusion of the study: Even if students benefit from more diverse environments, it would be a shame if universities used it as a precedent for foisting more ham-fisted diversity plans on students.
Oh, by the way, here’s the really weird/kind of funny part of the study:
The one exception to this positive impact was with Asian students as roommates: White and black students who lived with Asians tended to show increased prejudice against Asians on some measures after living with them.
P.S. Crossposted over at CAMPUS Magazine Online, where I also blog, and which has a fancy-pants new website.
