NY Times: Interracial Roommates Can Reduce Prejudice

[elbales]

The New York Times has a great article on race relations on college campuses.

As a freshman at Ohio State University, and the only black student on his floor, Sam Boakye was determined to get good grades — in part to make sure his white roommate had no basis for negative racial views.

“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.”

Several recent studies, at Ohio State and elsewhere, have found that having a roommate of a different race can reduce prejudice, diversify friendships and even boost black students’ academic performance. But, the research found, such relationships are more stressful and more likely to break up than same-race pairings.

It's quite interesting and heartening to read.

(In other news, my tooth still hurts.)
 

Comments

[charlie1.livejournal.com]

that is interesting. A friend of mine went to college in New York and had a helluva time in the dorms. She felt more comfortable in the non-black dorm and she is of mixed race (half black half white/Jewish). The folks in the black dorm were pissed and called her an Oreo and she hated it, but in Hawaii where we grew up there were VERY few African-American families, so all her friends were other ethnicities Asian, White, Portuguese etc and she didn't feel at home in the black dorms. Skin color is so weird. We make so many false assumptions based on it. Ridiculous.

[elbales]

We do. It's bewildering to me sometimes.

[cr0wgrrl.livejournal.com]

Here's some different perspectives and reactions (http://community.livejournal.com/debunkingwhite/826210.html) to it.

[elbales]

I can see where they're coming from. Thank you for the link.