[Editor's note: When I read the recent NYT article on interracial college roomates, I knew it was an issue that Anti-Racist Parent should tackle. Like many who have commented on the piece, I found it facile, simplistic. As someone who attended a majority white Midwestern college as a student of color, I found that my presence in the dorm often shocked and surprised fellow students, as I did not fulfill their preconceived notions of blackness. I also found that meeting me did not neccessarily greatly change my floormates' views on black people or people of color. I was viewed as an exception that proved the racially biased rule. What long-term effects my presence had on my white roommates, I do not know. For me, my college experience proved both enjoyable and draining. I found myself too often the racial teacher, the voice of black America, the black girl to bring home for show-and-tell.
Below, columnist Margie Persheid and contributor Jennifer weigh in.]
The Ebony and Ivory Approach to Race Relations
written by Anti-Racist Parent contributor Jennifer; originally published at Mixed Race America
On Monday the New York Times had an article headline that declared “Interracial Roomma
tes Can Reduce Prejudice.” There are, apparently, studies that show that if interracial roommates (and although the language in the article refers to “roommates of different races” there is an assumption that “interracial” refers to a white and black roommate) can tough it out beyond the 10 week mark, then what the study discovers is that the white roommate undergoes a type of transformation in which s/he has less bigoted beliefs towards black people.
So, of course, I have a couple of thoughts:
*I wish the article was more explicit and detailed and careful in their use of language. Although, as noted above, they refer to roommates of different races, the article only references specific white-black interracial roommate pairings. Which is fine. But then, the article should not conflate “interracial” with white-black or even majority-minority pairings. For instance, are Latino-Asian roommates reducing their levels of prejudice against each other? Against other non-white races? Or even against whites? What about white-American Indian roommates–in other words, does the improved view of race relations hold for other majority-minority pairings other than black-white?
*Actually, there is an oddly worded paragraph that suggests that the studies in question, by Ohio and Indiana, are specifically showing positive effects for black-white pairings and NOT other types because:
Several studies have shown that living with a roommate of a different race changes students’ attitudes. One, from the University of California at Los Angeles, generally found decreased prejudice among students with different-race roommates — but those who roomed with Asian-Americans, the group that scored the highest on measures of prejudice, became more prejudiced themselves.
WTF??? OK, so my first quibble is wording (because I taught grammar and composition for years while in grad school). The parenthetical phrase embedded in the last sentence, “the group that scored the highest on measures of prejudice”–does that mean that Asian Americans ARE the most prejudiced of racial groups–that Asian Americans exhibit more bigotry and racist values than others? And are Asian Americans haters towards all other groups or specific races/ethnicities?
[Aside: This reminds me of the strangest interview question I've ever been asked. It was years ago, at a small liberal arts college somewhere...in the nation. An octogenerian white male professor asked me: "It's clear that you can teach Japanese students, but how do you feel about teaching Filipino and Korean students?" Generally baffled, I asked him to rephrase the question, assuming I misheard or misunderstood. The interviewer repeated the question, and I answered perfunctorily (I think my generic response was something like, "I will teach any student who walks through the door of my classroom") but what I REALLY wanted to say, assuming I was going to throw that job away, was "Well, Filipino students, sure I can teach them but don't get me near a Korean student because I will just EXPLODE." Guess this guy assumed Asian Americans were a pretty prejudiced group--against one another!]
*My other beef with that above quotation is the idea that living with an Asian American means you will develop into a more bigoted individual. Really? Asian Americans are such a viral group that we will infect others with our prejudice, passing it along like the swine flu?
And furthermore, it’s unclear who the target of the prejudice is. If a white guy has a Chinese American roommate, will the white guy become MORE racist towards all races or specifically towards Asian Americans?
*My other big thought about this study is the burden placed on the roommate of color; in the terms of the article, it’s specifically the burden placed on black college students paired with white students I want to address. Because the person they interview for the article, Sam Boakye, said that he worked HARDER as a freshman in his classes in order to prevent his white roommate from thinking bad things about black people:
“If you’re surrounded by whites, you have something to prove,” said Mr. Boakye, now a rising senior who was born in Ghana. “You’re pushed to do better, to challenge the stereotype that black people are not that smart.”
Now, it’s an interesting twist on the Claude Steel study about stereotype threat
But the truth is, it’s always there–that pressure to “represent” and hence help change racial attitudes. And while I’m heartened to know that there are some studies that suggest that things do improve under the “Ebony & Ivory” approach to race relations in college dorms, I also want more. I want a more progressive and sustained effort on behalf of white Americans, especially WHITE ALLIES and by other people of color, cross racially and ethnically so that we’re not placing the burden, always, on the person who has to “represent” his/her race/gender/sexuality/religion/fill-in-the-blank identity marker.
Case Studies in Confusion
written by Anti-Racist Parent columnist Margie Perscheid
Have you read Tamar Lewin’s recent New York Times article Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice? If not, head over there, read the article, and come back to share your reactions.
I’m anxious to see what ARP’s readers think of it, and of the topics it raises. I’m frankly struggling with how to write about it, because my thoughts are all over the map. And from the online reactions I’ve been able to find to the piece, it appears I’m not alone.
The title gave me the impression that the article would be a generalization of a complicated topic, and it delivered in that regard. It references several academic studies on the effect of interracial roommate arrangements on a variety of behaviors and attitudes, but shares little of their specific content. As I’m no sociologist and was not aware that these studies existed, I appreciate hearing about them. But Lewin’s review hasn’t helped me understand them as I’d like to.
Most of them are only available for a fee, and as much as I’d like to study them all, my budget probably won’t allow it, at least not all at once. I did find the UCLA study, The effect of university roommate contact on ethnic attitudes and behavior, online, and I’m reading through it now. Lewin notes that this study “generally found decreased prejudice among students with different-race roommates — but those who roomed with Asian-Americans, the group that scored the highest on measures of prejudice, became more prejudiced themselves.” I haven’t fully digested the study yet, so I can’t say one way or another if this observation makes sense in the context of the research. But right off the bat something piqued my interest: the study’s setting. I wonder how UCLA’s student demographics (the white and Asian populations there are each over 30%, the Hispanic population is just under 13%, and the African American population is 3.5%) might have factored into this conclusion, but can find nothing in the study that talks to this. I’d like to know if this is the case. Actually, I’d also like to know I’m even on base suggesting that such a variable might factor into the outcomes.
Which raises a more general concern. Even if I can get my hands on them, do I, as someone without a background in the researchers’ disciplines, have the ability to understand how to use the data appropriately? I suspect not. Interpreting scholarly data for application in the real world can be dangerous, but Lewin’s article makes it seem a breeze. You could take any number of conclusions away from the article to serve your particular purpose. You might, for example, conclude that interracial roommate arrangements are largely successful for furthering understanding across races. You could also conclude that they are less successful than same-race rooming attangements because they tend to fail more frequently. Or, you might conclude that black students are more likely to succeed academically with the help of whites. And you might be wrong on all counts.
Given that I will have two kids in college this fall, both Asian and, coincidentally, one at UCLA, I’d really like to understand these studies better. Lewin’s article has only helped me by providing some sources of information. Whether or not I can get to that information, understand it, and learn how to interpret it is another matter. I’d like to see some articles that help me do that.
I’d also like to hear what you have to say about the article and the studies.
Margie Perscheid is the adoptive mother of two Korean teens. She is a co-founder of Korean Focus, an organization for families with children from Korea with chapters across the country. Margie is on the Board of Directors of the Korean American Coalition DC Chapter, a former board member of KAAN, the Korean YMCA of Greater Washington (now KAYA), and ASIA (Adoption Service Information Agency). Margie writes about her intercountry adoption experiences at Third Mom. She, her husband Ralf, and their two children live in Alexandria, Virginia.
“What long-term affects my presence had” should be “effects”
The problem in general with the reporting of scientific articles in the lay press is that it is like listening to a summary of one side of a snippet of a much longer, multi-sided conversation. A single, small study is rarely meaningful in a scientific sense, and the larger “context” is unknown to the general public, and usually to the individual summarizing it to us. Which is a real disservice.
So what would your preferred living arrangement be? Black kids assigned only to black roommates, perhaps in a mixed ethnicity dorm? The college I went to had a black cultural center, a Native American Cultural Center, an Internationl Students Cultural Center, etc., where students could hang out with others like them. I’d assume most colleges these days have similar arrangements. The college I cover now still has a Native American cultural club that seems to do a pretty good job of supporting Indian students and keeping them in school.
I had a Chinese (an international student from China) roommate one year and don’t remember saying much to her or her to me. I was out of the room so much and vice versa that we never did much more than exchange pleasantaries. We didn’t actively dislike each other. I probably asked her a little about China, though not too much because I didn’t want to get her in trouble with the Communist government. Whether that was a stereotype, I don’t know. She probably thought I was pretty clueless.
I don’t know that I came away from college significantly changed in attitudes regarding race. I stuck my foot in my mouth a few times, unintentionally, and learned to better guard my tongue. I remember saying something rather inane, as in “Isn’t it nice that you have two cultures?” to a bi-racial girl who’d been adopted by a white family. She shot me down. If anything, she made me decide not to say much of anything on the topic of race for fear of saying something wrong. I started college as a moderate Democrat from a small Midwestern town and I think I held pretty much the same views and live among pretty much the same group of people as when I left.
Thank you for doing a more critical analysis on that article. It’s gone viral (meaning, lots of people are reading it) and is going un-checked. I have colleagues coming to me saying, “See! This is why we shouldn’t pair students of color together.” Unfortunately, people are only reading the generalized information and not thinking critically about the way it’s presented — so THANK YOU for doing it here!
In an interview, the researchers do state that their longitudinal findings are based on a multicultural campus. So, as an administrators who works on a predominantly white campus (92% white), the findings don’t translate as literally when you only have a handful of students of color on the campus. When there are only a handful, even if they do room together, it’s impossible to think they could go through 4 years of college being exclusively friends with other kids of color.
As an Asian woman, I was deeply disturbed by the over simplification that prejudice and racist beliefs are strengthened when rooming with an Asian roommate (which, again, in the study, I’m assuming they mean an Asian roommate with a White roommate). However, on a more multicultural campus, I wonder how this plays out vs on a predominantly white campus.
In any case, I’m afraid that a number of college administrators/parents of college kids are going to take these results and generalize them to all of their campuses without really seeing how it plays out in their own environment. I’ve already started to hear buzz about it at some of the predominantly white schools.
Just another aspect that disturbed me is the finding (and I’m now simplifying here) that ethnic/identity student groups make for less racial understanding. Again, that might play out differently at a college where there is a critical mass of students of color. These types of groups are important at a predominantly white campus because they provide a brief relief of sanctuary and doesn’t encourage segregation.
@deb – Agreed. American education is so bad that people can’t understand science any more. Even Jen misinterpreted it in her article, at one point confusing correlation with causation.
FWIW, I went to Cornell in the late ’80s and had a black roommate my sophomore year (I’m not white – I’m wan). I do remember the manager of the dorm mentioning that as one of the few sophomores she’d consciously placed us together.
I think the only time his being black ever came up was when I asked him about the anti-bump shaving powder they sold in the student union.
In general, I think monocultural dorms are a bad idea (Cornell had one for blacks, for Jews, and for Native Americans when I was there, and I think they were adding more). Except for cases where it makes logistics a lot easier (e.g., a kosher kitchen) it seems to me that it just delays inevitable issues (unless you’re going to go live in a kibbutz or a reservation after graduation). Non-residential centers are a good thing, of course.
Andrea, I don’t advocate for one-race living arrangements. I have long thought that personal relationships between races are key to lessening racism. That said, I do think it helps to view such interactions realistically. Part of truthful evaluation is understanding the emotional toll being integrated into majority white environments can take on a student of color. If given the option, I would not change my college experience or trade the friends of all races that I made for anything. That said, I found the experience much easier in my later college years once I found safe spaces that were not neccessarily integrated for an emotional respite.
Dersk,
I would imagine that many of my roommates/dormmates would say that race was never an issue, too. Do you know if your black roommate would say the same? If you are a member of the “default” race, race is rarely an issue, but things are often different when you are of a minority race faced with adapting and navigating the majority.
@Tami – to be honest, I have no idea what…Mike! that was his name…would think of it. He was an architecture student, so pretty much lived at the studios (it’s one of the hardest majors at Cornell).
To be honest, our biggest gap was more social – I’d say about half the student body was from the New York metro area, and I grew up in a county with one elevator (not counting the grain elevators)…
Maybe it’s because I spent most of the 80s in a really integrated envrionment (predominantly black high school, very diverse student body at Cornell), but it seems to me that there were a lot fewer issues back then – that things have somehow gotten a lot more hostile in the past fifteen years or so.
dersk,
I’d have to disagree with you about things getting more hostile; what seems different, in my opinion, is that things are more transparent. While race may not have seemed to come up between you and your roommate or seemed to be an issue for you and your friends doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an issue privately for a roommate whose name you can barely remember years later — which I suppose implies that you never really kept up with one another, which is pretty common, but it also means you can’t really know what or how he felt as an African American man at a predominantly white university.
Finally, just a question for you, when you referred to “Jen” in your earlier comment, were you referring to me or someone else? Because only close friends call me Jen, and we are not friends, but perhaps you are referring to a researcher with the last name Jen?
My comments keep getting moderated into oblivion =( This time there is NOTHING in my post that goes against the terms of use or whatever you want to call them… So if this gets deleted it’s simply because someone doesn’t want my opinion being voiced on this blog… which is kind of sad to me.
Bringing this up as a “racial issue” and demanding it be addressed only serves to make the problem worse.
If you want to end racism it starts with YOU and YOUR CHILDREN. Don’t look for racism everywhere you can, because you WILL find it (on BOTH sides of the coin).
Instead, teach your kids (and yourself if necessary) to respect other people regardless of what they look like (Until that is, they give them a reason to not respect them) and VOILA, you’ve made the world a better place for you, me and your children.
Americans these days are cry babies! Suck it up is what I say. Life is harsh, humans have the capacity for great evil. There is nothing YOU or ANYONE in this world can do to change that (No matter how much we “wish”, wishing doesn’t change reality). They are the cold hard facts of life.
Instead, focus on what you CAN change. Which is your attitude, and the attitudes of your children and to some extent, the attitudes of those you choose to surround yourself with. You can’t stop racism, but you CAN live your life in an honest and noble way that doesn’t promote it. (Which I personally don’t think you’re doing currently)
The college I attend usually pairs roommates of the same race together. I can only recall a handful of friends who had roommates of the opposite race. My freshman year I was paired with a roommate of the same race as me (African American) due to housing probably thinking that we would get along being the same race they couldn’t have been more wrong. My roommate came from the inner city and went to a predominately black high school while I went to a predominately white high school in the suburbs. We had little to nothing in common and clashed so badly and she turned out to be a thief and ended up stealing some of my electronic items. My experience with having a roommate was a nightmare and since then I won’t ever have a roommate again and if I ever do I want to go the mixed race route because I want to break the notion that just because two people are of the same race that they will automatically click and be friends. I am disappointed with how my school does housing and I hope to see roommate assignments mixed up in terms of race in the near future.
Zach,
Our goal at Anti-Racist Parent is to provide resources and discussion for parents who:
Accept that racial bias is prevalent in our society
Wish to reduce the negative impact of racism and white supremacy on their children’s lives
Want to raise children with respect for racial and cultural diversity and equality
Want to learn how to best nurture children of color
Are parents of color
Our blog is for all parents, regardless of color, who are nurturing all children, regardless of color. Some parts of our mission put specific emphasis on parents and children of color, but it is not our intention to exclude white parents of children of color, or white parents of white children. Anti-racist childrearing is emphatically NOT just a POC issue.
Now, it seems from many of your posts that you do not share these goals and beliefs, and are not interested in dialogue surrounding these issues, but are instead focused on contradicting the fundamental beliefs of ARP and its readers. That is trolling and it is not tolerated on this blog.
If you are interested in nuanced communication about racism and priviledge, then you have come to the right place. If you want to shout “whiner” and “you’re racist yourself” through a haze of priviledge, then this is not the right community for you.
@Jennifer: Not sure why I abbreviated it (most of the Jennifers I know go by Jen, so I guess it was just automatic – my apologies), but yes I was referring to you. There was a paragraph where you interpret the report of a correlation as ‘so living with an Asian American makes you racist?’ (not really a clear cut case of the causation fallacy, but good enough for the example).
True enough that I didn’t keep in touch with him – in fact that post was probably the first time I thought about him in a decade. But then, I’m in close contact with zero people from high school and university (living overseas for 15 years has something to do with that, I think).
Zach,
As someone who moderates comments on my own blog, I just want to back up what Tami has to say–and as a person who contributed a piece to which you are responding, let me first say
1) Bringing up issues of race do not make things worse. There are whole studies done about this subject–I’d advise you to read some books about race and racism and anti-racism if you want to educate yourself about race (Paula Rothenberg’s WHITE PRIVILEGE is a great starting place, esp. Peggy McIntosh’s essay “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege.” Or read through this blog or other blogs dedicated to race. We bring up these issues because we see them as part and parcel of a history of white privilege/white supremacy/racism and the complicated relationships that have evolved out of these institutional systems that go back to the founding of this nation.
2) I’m sorry that you have had a very painful time in your life. I’m sorry that you have discovered life to be harsh and that when others’ express their pain that you react with the charge that others’ are “crybabies” and that the solution is to “suck-it-up.” As someone who has practiced Buddhist meditation, I invite you to explore loving kindness and compassion — because if you approach the world with loving kindness and compassion, you open your heart and mind to the pain and suffering of others, which inevitably allows you to see that those of us concerned with issues of privilege and oppression and those of us actively practicing anti-racism are not whiners and are not silly dreamers who want to wish racism away. We are educators and activists and parents who want to make a difference in the world, in whatever large and small way we can.
3) You are reading this blog for a reason. It is either an exercise in frustration for you because you feel that those of us who address issues of racism are fighting a useless battle OR there is a part of you who is here because you are an ally–you are someone who believes in an anti-racist world–who wants an anti-racist world. Tami really said it best–you are either here to be part of an honest dialogue and discussion or you are here to be a gadfly, or in the blogging world, a troll. On my own blog I’m very clear about groundrules and etiquette–and quite frankly I found the *tone* of your comment to be hard to swallow…and I felt sorry for you because you seem to have so much anger in your heart and the part of me that feels compassion wants to extend compassion to you and to tell you that you CAN heal the anger–and if it’s racism you are angry about, this is the perfect place for you to be in dialogue.
I don’t think we all agree with one another–I think if you read through the comment section, you will see that we don’t. But I do think we try to be respectful of one another, even when we don’t agree. And I invite you to come to my blog, mixedraceamerica.blogspot.com if you want to have a conversation about race and racism and to join in a discussion/dialogue and not just a rant.
One of the students profiled in the NYT article – an African American student – said that having a White roommate made him perform better academically, i.e. feeling he – the African American student – had to “prove” himself as worthy of his spot at the college in question, he worked harder. This may be an experience some students of color share. However, the only person to whom I had to prove anything was me.
Additionally, a student’s attitudes about people of other races and ethnicities is formed well in advance of attending college or university. Which is to say, if a person – White or of color – has been raised in an environment which is open and accepting of others, then that student is going to have a more enriching interracial roommate experience throughout his/her college/university career. That is not to say that attitudes cannot change, but, for the most part, they don’t in college, because they do. But, for the most part students – of color and White -tend to self-select on the basis of what makes them the most comfortable.
For me, given my upbringing, I requested a roommate not on the basis of race, but on the basis of lifestyle. However, the powers-that-be at my college in 1983 believed that the Black freshman should be roomed together – despite the fact that I had not requested a Black roommate. Given my interest in languages, I preferred an international roommate.