Multiculturalism Case Study

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Yet despite the claims made by Tyson, Castellino and Darity, there are studies that support the idea that performance among black students may be impaired because of the threat of being stereotyped into various societal groups. Black students feel the pressure of performing well on exams, as those who are regarded as successful students feel greater pressure than white students, which could hinder their academic performance. Black students often feel that as a result of their success, they are losing part of their cultural identity and their connection with the black community. Because of this pressure, black students tend to take a longer time answering questions on exams and perform worse on diagnostic exams compared to their white peers …show more content…

While both interviewees stated they did not feel their institutions were ignoring different races and groups and lesson plans were designed around promotion multiculturalism, schools that primarily white often fail to be as cultural diverse as schools with a healthy racial composition. Lesson plans are often ambivalent towards understanding the struggles and hardships of certain racial groups, such as the Native Americans during the time of European exploration. In addition, students at mostly white institutions often associated success with how hard an individual works rather than any hardships or racist or sexist acts thrown upon that person. Ironically, the little multiculturalism that is introduced in prominently white schools has been ill received by parents and teachers. Both parties, especially parents, argue that the children growing up today are “color-blind” and that no explicit efforts to inject multiculturalism should occur in the classroom outside of settings considered appropriate, such as history courses (Lewis, 2003: …show more content…

In prominently white schools, students may be uncomfortable or lack the ability to understand what is considered the normal culture in America or the difficulties students of other races may face. Students who are members of prominently white schools often fail to describe white culture thoroughly, often having to pause and reconsider multiple factors that define their experiences as not only students, but also people. One student interviewed by sociologist Pamela Perry had extreme difficulty defining what white culture was, replying by saying her family had a diverse range of ancestors, but mentioned very little about how whites are perceived currently or the culture surrounding white people (2002:

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