The word diversity is indispensible in college pamphlets. Pictures of multicultural friendships permeate across each page in hopes of providing a mirrored image for prospective students. These pictures suggest a promised safe place for young adults of all backgrounds. However, in the instance of San Jose State University, one could argue their actions differ from the pictured proposal. Their main focus became avoiding liability rather than facilitating a safe environment for ethnic difference. This mentality typically reflects a view that claims acts of active racism and blatant bigotry should take the forefront of discussion while their comprising acts of passive racism are left behind. Campus conversations about race are being silenced by colorblind ideologies and a singular word in a pamphlet. Diverse student bodies in higher education are crucial for the facilitation of race dialogue and accurate societal representation. The adopted ideology of liberal colorblindness in universities such as San Jose State is a social regression because it is rooted in the secretive enforcement of dominant racial group mentality, harmful stereotype threat, inadequate societal representation, and deflected responsibility.
San Jose State was the academic and athletic home of Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The campus is adorned with a statue paying tribute to their 1968 Black Power salute at the Olympics - a bold statement on an international platform during a chaotic time in US history race relations. Yet African American students continue to make claims that challenge the university’s progressive façade. The claims mainly went unheard until a recent altercation between one African American student and his mainly White suitemates in university pr...
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...ons of the incoming president failed both parties.
Works Cited
"Distribution of All Faculty and Students by Gender and Ethnicity Fall 2013 - San Jose State Univeristy." IBM Cognos Software. San Jose State University, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.
Kaplan, Tracey. "San Jose State Students Accused of Tormenting Black Roommate Are Charged with Hate Crimes." MercuryNews.com. Mercury News, 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
Muhammad, Jamo, and Charlene Muhammad. "The Final Call." A Culture of Hate at San Jose State? The Final Call, 6 Dec. 2013. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
Murphy, Katy. "San Jose State Study: Black Students Described Campus Racism Years before Hate-crime Case." MercuryNews.com. Mercury News, 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
Tatum, Beverly Daniel. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations about Race. New York: Basic, 1997. Print.
Benedict’s book addresses race and racism from different angles. Considering that she wrote during the 40’s, amidst World War II and prior to the Civil Rights movement, her book was progressive, since she challenged the social and scientific racist paradigm. She starts by defining the concept of race and explaining the meaning of race. By focusing on the Aryan and Semitic denominations, she argues that equating linguistic families to phenotypical traits is a mistaken way to aim to classify human
that children are protected from racial profiling. Works Cited Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New, 2010. Print. Fine, Michelle, et al. "“Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies Of Surveillance In Public Places." Journal Of Social Issues 59.1 (2003): 141-158. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.