Posted on 07/21/2013 7:03:16 AM PDT by T-Bird45
NORMAN — When George Lee first came to the University of Oklahoma in 2009, he felt out of place.
Lee, who is black, grew up in a low-income, predominantly black neighborhood in Bryan, Texas, near College Station. But when he arrived at OU, he said, he felt pressure to change how he spoke and acted to integrate himself into the dominant culture.
He felt like he couldn't be the same person he'd been in his old neighborhood, he said. He felt like he was being asked to trade part of his “blackness” for the values and characteristics of the dominant white culture on campus.
“There had to be some type of a trade-off,” Lee said.
The idea of double consciousness — when a person's identity is divided between two cultures — isn't new. Sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois explored the idea in his 1903 book “The Souls of Black Folk.” But a new study suggests the conflict remains for many black college students today.
According to records from the National Center for Education Statistics, 64 percent of OU's undergraduates in the fall 2011 semester were white. Just 5 percent of undergraduates in 2011 were black.
At Oklahoma State University, 73 percent of undergraduates in 2011 were white, while only 5 percent were black.
According to a recent study published in the National Communication Association's journal, Communication Education, black students at predominantly white universities still often struggle to assimilate themselves into a culture they see as different from their own.
The study consisted of six focus groups spread out over three universities — a major Midwestern university in a small, rural community; a major Midwestern private university in a larger city; and a major Southwestern public university in a small metropolitan area. At each of the three schools, black students made up 8 percent or less of the overall student population.
According to the study, many of the students reported feeling an internal tension between remaining proud of their own culture and altering their own language or culture to adapt to the perceived “whiteness” of their universities.
That inner conflict continues when those students return home, according to the report. Of the 67 students involved in the focus groups, 52 were first-generation college students. Those students reported their families didn't have an understanding of the students' college experiences and the desire for a college degree.
One student reported feeling out of place during a summer family reunion, according to the report.
“I want to make it, have a job ... and they keep asking why I'm not married,” the student said. “I don't even bother explaining the idea that I am preparing myself for law school.”
Lee, an African American Studies major at OU, said he notices that difference when he returns to Texas and talks to family and neighbors in the neighborhood where he grew up. Family and friends treat him with greater privilege, he said. He's also more aware of the poverty and drug use in the neighborhood than he was while he was growing up, he said.
One of the study's authors said colleges and universities need to do a better job of engaging black college students and their communities.
Jake Simmons, a professor at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, said schools could help alleviate that tension by implementing programs that reach out not only to students, but also to their families and home communities to let them know what's happening on campus.
Simmons said universities could also develop multicultural programs that do a better job of representing the entirety of students' home cultures, rather than simply holding a stereotypical celebration for major holidays.
Spencer Davis, an OU student from Tulsa, said he's felt the conflict between his own heritage and the surrounding culture since before he came to OU. Davis, who is black, attended Jenks High School, which is predominantly white.
Davis, 19, is a second-generation college student — his father graduated from OU and his mother has a degree from the University of Tulsa.
When Davis was in high school, it was obvious that he was in the minority, he said. He felt the internal conflict between his heritage and his surroundings then, he said, but he adopted the speech patterns and culture of the people around him.
After a while, Davis realized he wasn't totally comfortable speaking with other black people, he said. When he came to OU, his social network broadened to include friends from several races. But he still feels like he belongs to multiple groups, leaving him to figure out where he fits.
“It hasn't really impeded me,” he said. “I've definitely managed to navigate it now.”
I took a philosophy class once, only once. The instructor got to talking about religion and referred to Jesus Christ as some sort of normal human prophet. I dropped the class.
There are either two options if you discuss this in philosophy. The man claiming to be the Son of God was either a fullblown nutcase or he actually was/is the Son of God. There is no in between, no middle ground. What that had to teach me was useless.
Maybe they should try American culture on for size and drop their separatist attitudes.
any college student from a family without college grads goes through the same thing. There are many similar stories from Appalachia, people that go back and never mention that they are just back from China or India, so these poor boo hoo black people that are realizing their culture is keeping them down better figure out how to deal. Many people speak one language at home and a different language at work, it is not that uncommon
You do .. all the "producers" do. Our tax dollars fund the loan subsidies and grants that Fedzilla doles out to those it deems worthy. Folks like George Lee in the article ... who is setting himself up for a future of asking would you like fries with that by being a "African Studies major" on our dime.
Next question ..
What, they feel themselves "turning white" by simply getting an education and participating in the economy?
Geeeeeez...
The problem is a black culture which disdains education. So when black people get educated, the blacks no longer fully accept them, and neither do the whites in a meaningful way.
Makes for a lonely life.
In fact, this principle is true for poor people of any race.
yep, that happened with me, and I am a better person and my family is better off because of it. It doesn’t mean I don’t love farming and country life. Hopefully, it does mean that I won’t ever have my picture show up in “the people of Wal*Mart” or a Honey boo boo type reality show.
Likewise, white college students at predominantly Black campuses probably feel internal cultural tension too.
How is this news? This article might as well have been written in 1965.
People have different heights, weights, hair colors, eye colors, voices, nose sizes, etc. Get over it !
Drop their separatist attitudes and pull up their pants.
Unfortunately, that view turns a lot of the educated blacks into angry, bitter and more racist/bigoted people. Fortunately, there are some that stand up for what is right. People like Allen West.
Well said. OU did not become "integrated" until 1948 with the admission of a black woman to the law school. It was still some years before a black undergrad would be admitted. Oklahoma still has a HBCU, Langston University.
No ebonics,no standing around with the bros sounding like somebody auctioning off a MF’er,must be tough....
Where is that tiny violin?
Don't bother (with starting...not the pancakes)
I'll summarize it in 2 words.... 'he felt'.
People with this worldview suffer from their own, low self-esteem, and trying to make everyone else responsible because they 'feel' a certain way is just how they deflect the blame.
There are a lot of old jokes about people worrying what others think of the way they are dressed when in fact hardly anyone is concerned with what others look like - they are all actually concentrating on their own appearance.
Advice to blacks -
Most whites today don’t care what color you are - race is way down on their list of what is important. Blacks are more race conscious than whites.
Serious people, white or black, concentrate on their own studies and getting the most they can from their own college years.
Just forget about race, concentrate on your studies and advancing your own life and you won’t end up a whining racist crybaby or a racist witch who blames all of their failures on whites - like Barack and Michelle Obama.
Lee, an African American Studies major at OU, said he notices that difference when he returns to Texas and talks to family and neighbors in the neighborhood where he grew up. Family and friends treat him with greater privilege, he said. He's also more aware of the poverty and drug use in the neighborhood than he was while he was growing up, he said.
And this is negative? Sounds like exactly what Rev. MLK was striving to achieve. Black students who step away from the racial stereotypes and are successful in their studies and careers are threats to the liberal status quo that maintains that blacks are unable to be successful because of racism.
I experienced the same sort of conflict when I went to college, where my fellow students made regular use of profanity, smoked marijuana, drank booze, listened to contemporary rock music and protested the Vietnam War.
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