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.”
Pancakes today were blueberry...thought the bunny was strictly a plain pancake...LOL!!
Thanks.
This is the problem with European style collectivism. We are each individuals firstly. Forget about what “group” you are from or the black “culture.” You’re an American citizen, period. Let it go.
It also seems like the problem lies within black families, rather than at the predominantly white universities. The only way that’s going to change is if more black youth are motivated to do well in school, instead of succumbing to the norm of black youth which is to do poorly, because education doesn’t matter, so they think.
“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 bad, how? Oh, yeah, drug use and poverty ARE part of the culture he is loathe to give up because success and not using drugs are part of white culture?
Maybe if the college just renamed their cheeleader squad to “The Whos and Bitches” then this young man might feel more “at home”?
When black people point out that there are cultural differences that lead to tension, the statement is accepted and it's suggested that white people must change or be more accomodating. When white people point out that cultural differences lead to tension it's racist, and once again it's white people who must change.
Sounds like the PROPAGANDA Factory schooled him well....lucky we GERMANS didn’t feel the same way, or America would likely be speaking German....sheesh....
And, FURTHERMORE, my German Great Grandmother required we STAND UP in front of the TV whenever the National Anthem played....and did not speak German to us (although I wish she had...)
Oh, we know that.
We just saw Reagan on Johnny Carson, having a thoughtful conversation. TCM is running tapes of these interviews this month.
The kids were amazed at his articulateness and especially the contrast of his conversational speech compared with BO.
It’s where the question arose.
I have found that when speaking to upper management, warehouse talk is a no-no. Talking with the guys on the dock is one thing, but being able to make the switch in communication is a position buster.
There is no limit to the number of and outlandishness of excuses that blacks can muster to explain away their own problems. These ungrateful bastards don’t stop to think that white European Americans gave a half million lives so that the government would not have to pay to free the slaves like they did in England and elsewhere, nor that their ancestors in West Africa are still killing each other right and left.
They should stop their whining, get out the books, get a job and STFUp.
That is a great analogy! I suppose it’s the conflict of “everything you were taught growing up was wrong.” It’s a shame that blacks have been allowed to believe that their culture is supposed to be illiterate and unsuccesful.
What culture?
Why a polite one of course.
One other thing I forgot to mention is that for conservative students, the left-wing atmosphere of most campuses can be a real shock, every bit as much as coming from the Hood, and that conservatives can feel pressured to keep their mouths shut about their real beliefs when they are subjected to indoctrination by left-wing professors.
You mean like white Southerners have had to do since the Civil War?
My heart bleeds.
Yeah, who knows what speaking English, having manners, and respect for authority might lead to..... a job! Heaven forbid.
Imagine how a white person at a black college must feel.
What predominantly “white” campuses, heck nowadays most campuses are full of foreign students and teachers.
That's the entire idea of going to college, to learn from a higher class of people.
Unless we are going be PC and say that thug culture is just as good as any other culture.
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