Blackballed The Black and White Politics of Race on America's Campuses By Lawrence C. Ross
3 stars
This is a deep dive into the types racism found on the campuses of predominantly white universities. It is generally against black students, but not exclusively. Cases span the entirety of higher education in America, though there is a focus on the last 60 or so years since personal stories are featured. The chapters cover a particular subject (fraternities, affirmative action, monuments...) so the stories are especially effective when the same situation is reported in the 1950s, 1980s and 2000s.
The personal focus left a lack of statistics though. Some numbers were unavailable, and Ross mentions that, but some were unreported leaving only a footnote to the reference that would contain them. Ross' bio lists him as an author and lecturer (among other fields) so perhaps this is just the difference between a writer and a social (data) scientist.
Ross is clearly an expert on fraternities and sororities so most of the stories and data come from that subset of college and the universities where they are prevalent, even in the chapters not explicitly about "greek life." I missed the data most around these cases because I assume they are a particularly traditional subset of college students, in school and family, so wonder how representative the situations are.
The colleges and universities are more representative, though excluding the most common community and commuter colleges in favor of on-campus living situations. The schools were large and public, small and private, some exclusive Ivy League, some athletics focused. They are from the Northeast, South, Midwest and West coast.
I would have recommend this for prospective college students and their parents, and might still, but it was published in 2016 and some of his concerns are already being addressed, hopefully more will as well.
The Black and White Politics of Race on America's Campuses
By Lawrence C. Ross
3 stars
This is a deep dive into the types racism found on the campuses of predominantly white universities. It is generally against black students, but not exclusively. Cases span the entirety of higher education in America, though there is a focus on the last 60 or so years since personal stories are featured. The chapters cover a particular subject (fraternities, affirmative action, monuments...) so the stories are especially effective when the same situation is reported in the 1950s, 1980s and 2000s.
The personal focus left a lack of statistics though. Some numbers were unavailable, and Ross mentions that, but some were unreported leaving only a footnote to the reference that would contain them. Ross' bio lists him as an author and lecturer (among other fields) so perhaps this is just the difference between a writer and a social (data) scientist.
Ross is clearly an expert on fraternities and sororities so most of the stories and data come from that subset of college and the universities where they are prevalent, even in the chapters not explicitly about "greek life." I missed the data most around these cases because I assume they are a particularly traditional subset of college students, in school and family, so wonder how representative the situations are.
The colleges and universities are more representative, though excluding the most common community and commuter colleges in favor of on-campus living situations. The schools were large and public, small and private, some exclusive Ivy League, some athletics focused. They are from the Northeast, South, Midwest and West coast.
I would have recommend this for prospective college students and their parents, and might still, but it was published in 2016 and some of his concerns are already being addressed, hopefully more will as well.