Essay/Term paper: On campuses, students confront a growing racial divide

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Racism and Discrimination

On Campuses, Students Confront a Growing Racial Divide


Michael Peloso
February 12, 1997
Sociology 101


In the article, "On Campuses, Srudents Confront a Growing Racial Divide,
it discusses the racial issues that occur on college campuses and nationwide
racism like the O.J. Simpson trial or the Million Man March.
For example, when the verdict for the O.J. Simpson trial came out, a
student or a group of students at USC made a flyer that read, "I need to alert
all the whites that the niggers are taking over. Take up arms and defend
yourselves, my brothers." This quote is discrimination and it should not happen.
When the verdict came out for the trial, I am sure not all African-Americans
were happy that O.J. Simplon was free. And I am sure that all white people were
not mad that he was free. What that student or group of students did was
prefudice, he assumed that all black people are against him/her and his/her "
brothers." That is not true.
On campus at Ohio State I have seen discrimination quite often. White
people walking by a group of black people and saying a racial slur or two
towards them, but not loud enough that they would hear it. Or, I have seen the
same thing vise-versa.
Institutional racism plays a big role on campus. One example is at the
Metropolitan Institution of Technology where a group of African Americans took
over three dormitory floors and named it "chocolate city." It is clear when an
ethnic group of any kind says that their group can live there and nobody else,
that is Institutional racism.
One thing that is being done about racism and more specific,
institutional racism, is the leniency of the Scholastic Aptitude Test(SAT). It
is said that the SAT is discriminative against minorities. Critics say that the
SAT assumes the knowlege of the middle class white culture.