Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
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If black students were in the vanguard<br />
of the Civil Rights Revolution,<br />
why did it take so long for the<br />
black students on integrated campuses<br />
to awaken? Possibly the<br />
answer to this question is the nature<br />
of the integrated university<br />
itself .<br />
Many integrated colleges and<br />
universities have long sought <strong>Negro</strong><br />
and other minority-group students<br />
and some have given a<br />
disproportionate amount of their<br />
scholarship money to minoritygroup<br />
students . These colleges and<br />
universities have insisted for the<br />
most part that the minority-group<br />
students meet the same standards,<br />
with minor revisions, as the white<br />
students. On the surface this looks<br />
good and seems fair, but it overlooks<br />
the educational disadvantages<br />
that most black students face<br />
in ghetto schools . Thus, the type of<br />
black student selected in the past<br />
has been a black counterpart of his<br />
middle-class white fellow student .<br />
Because he was in a definite minority<br />
(sometimes 2 per cent or 3<br />
percent of the entering class) and<br />
because he was more like the middle-class<br />
white student in background,<br />
the black student had little<br />
compulsion or desire to challenge<br />
even the most unfair aspects of his<br />
college life .<br />
One such indignity that black<br />
students at integrated colleges have<br />
had to put up with for years is a<br />
kind of unspoken prohibition on in-<br />
terracial dating .<br />
Another has been<br />
the toleration of unknowing racial<br />
bias on the part of fellow students<br />
3 0<br />
and professors concerning such<br />
things as racially tinted humor and<br />
the alleged rhythm that all <strong>Negro</strong>es<br />
are supposed to have . More painfully,<br />
they had to accept the inconsistencies<br />
about equality on campus<br />
and the existence of racially segregated<br />
fraternities and sororities .<br />
Fortunately, many integrated<br />
colleges have now recognized that<br />
they have been servicing only a<br />
fraction of the talent among black<br />
high school graduates and have<br />
reached out to attract more black<br />
students from a wider variety of<br />
backgrounds. As more black students<br />
come to the nation's campuses<br />
and have an opportunity to<br />
experience both the positive and<br />
the negative aspects of a university<br />
experience, the black students have<br />
begun to organize and discuss what<br />
they can do themselves to improve<br />
the situation. Most black students<br />
view their proposed improvements<br />
as of ultimate benefit to the white<br />
students as well . In more than one<br />
demonstration for more black<br />
courses, students and professors,<br />
white students who have tried to<br />
participate as members of the black<br />
student groups have been told to go<br />
back to the white student body and<br />
begin to eradicate the racism that<br />
exists there .<br />
Mention of the word "racism"<br />
in this context requires a brief<br />
clarification about what the black<br />
students mean when they use it .<br />
Racism is used to refer to an attitude,<br />
often not conscious, which<br />
causes an individual to respond to<br />
Morcb 1969 NEGRO DIGEST