Racial Tension on College Campuses? It’s a Wonder Why.
Prognosticators continue to forecast a U.S. population that will ultimately reach majority-minority levels within a generation. In spite of recent nationalist movements—both abroad and here at home—the path of our social evolution still points towards pluralism. Demography is still our destiny. Our civic identities must evolve accordingly. The most important thing our primary and secondary schools can do is prepare our children.
In conceiving themselves as microcosms for what society can be, schools should function as social interaction points, as “training grounds” for young people who are about to enter the complex social reality of modern life. If the quality of our shared lives together is determined by the quality of our relationships, then we must maximize opportunities for learning about one another and connecting as a result. Schools represent such opportunities—and at the most formative stages of a young person’s development.
In many ways though, it seems society has given up on schools serving as social interaction points—has given up on integration entirely, and to dire effect. Latest research shows that many of our nation’s school districts have returned to pre-Civil Rights Era segregation levels. According to UCLA’s Civil Right Project, intensely segregated nonwhite schools with 0%-10% white enrollment have more than tripled in the last twenty-five years.
The level of racial isolation in schools has important implications on educational opportunities and life outcomes, particularly for students of color—from academic test scores to earnings later on as adults; from overall health levels to the likelihood of future incarceration. It’s evident that segregated schools perpetuate larger societal patterns of inequality, while integrated schools dismantle them. Furthermore, integrated schools are likely to reduce stereotypes among students, better preparing all groups “to live and work successfully” in society—a society that, once again, will have no racial majority a generation from now.
Having sent forth a wave of college matriculants who hail from intensely segregated high school environments might explain much of the racial tensions that have played out in recent years on many of our college campuses—from Yale and Princeton to the University of Missouri and UCLA.
So long as our primary and secondary schools remain segregated, society does our children a disservice by under preparing them—woefully so—for the civic reality that awaits them in their college years and beyond.
