Most schools, just like the infamous Bob Jones University never used to admit certain races just to discourage interracial dating in their institutions. Today, they do. But do diverse schools mean more interracial relationships?
Most of us would like to believe that racial diversity in schools leads to more interracial dating. Apparently, not necessarily. More often than not, it’s the opposite.
James Moody of Duke University and an expert on how adolescents form and maintain social networks asked 90,000 teenagers at 112 different schools from every region of the country to name their best friends – five male and five female. During his analysis of the data collected, Moody matched the race of the student with the race of every named friend and compared the number of each student’s interracial friendships with the school’s overall diversity.
The unfortunate twist of his findings was that the more diverse the school was, the more the students segregated themselves by race and ethnicity hence decreasing the likelihood of interracial friendships in the school. “…increased opportunities to interact are also, effectively, increased opportunities to reject each other.”
Much as many students in junior-high and high-school in diverse schools have a friend of another race (which is inspiring), far more kids just like to hang with ‘their own’. And this dynamic becomes more visible as overall school diversity goes up.
Why is this so?
The reasoning behind this is: as students get by a totally racially diverse school, they tend to encounter more groups that disqualify them based on their race and more things that are taboo to cross. Even with friends from other races, these things can’t be missed.
…the odds of a white high-schooler in America having a best friend of another race is only 8 percent. Those odds barely improve for the second-best friend, or the third-best, or the fifth. For blacks, the odds aren’t much better: 85 percent of black kids’ best friends are also black. Cross-race friends also tend to share a single activity, rather than multiple activities; as a result, these friendships are more likely to be lost over time, as children transition from middle school to high school.
With a generation so diverse you would expect children would grow up knowing how to get along with people of every race but according to numerous studies, they don’t. And as they become adults you would expect more interracial dating and marriages to come out of this diversity.
Are our expectations more of a fantasy than a fact?
Tags: black women white men, asian women dating, black women black men
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Comment by Spirit773 on 19 October 2009:
WHURR: I knew it wouldn’t last! Hope that your inner ‘jackass’ will allow you to post another normal response this year . This one was interesting reading.I will check out the link that you included.
On another note does anybody else who doesn’t live in the U.S find much currency in the research used for many of these blog posts ? I live in the UK and whilst i would never ever argue that we live in some kind of racially diverse nirvana we do seem to be more comfortable with diversity than people are in the U.S.
Just looking at my kids and the young ones in my extended family i can honestly say that if you looked at their friends, from white to ebony everybody is represented. When i check out Whurrs link it will be interesting to see whether any mention is made of the type of friendship the students parents had. Surely if your parents don’t mix what example can your children model their behaviour on ?
Added to that we know some communities mix easier than others. For some young women from a community that frowns upon’mixing’, engaging in a relationship outside of that community is a death sentence… honour killing is real.How did the study accomodate the fear that goes with something like that ?
Comment by Stallion78 on 19 October 2009:
I agree w u word for word!
Comment by rarestgold on 20 October 2009:
When my children were younger they had lots of friends who were of other races but, as they got older, just as it was stated in the article, their choice of friends changed. Not because they were biased in any way but, simply because people tend to gravitate to those they “think” will understand them; Teenagers bow to peer pressure and it isn’t always “cool” to have a “best or really good” friend who is of a different ethnicity. When they were young they never thought about those kinds of things. But, what I have also discovered is that regardless of the cliques and the pressure, they aren’t afraid to love someone of a different race. Proving again that love conquers all.
Comment by blue1 on 27 October 2009:
People do tend to go with others similar to thierselves. however it is also acceptable to have friends of a different race. When I was young that just didn’t happen. You had to do things out of sight. I watch the kids at my school and I see a lot of mixed couples. Of course I live in California and it is different here. We are not in the “promised” land yet but it is better.
Comment by homesteader on 2 November 2009:
I never attended University / Have traveled United States biggest part of my life and met many people , of many nationalities .
Met my Wife at AfroRomance / Lost some fairweather friends . Gained the Respect of many others in the years we have been together 24/7 as we are both Retired .
Southeast Texas has many small cities and Houston within an hours drive . We frequently visit all these different places and meet Friendly people of all walks of life in the market places , eaterys and while we walk on the streets together .
Strangers who we have just met for the first time , seem more than willing to engage us in Friendly conversation . I see more Discrimination on Blog topics than we see in everyday life .
Of course / I see men who act as Boys with their open Disrespect for a Ladie in a Public Forum .
I also have experienced one who asked if I valued my teeth . I physically loaded and unloaded trucks and trailers most of my life / when I was in my twenties operated a hot tar kettle on a roofing crew , placing 100 # and 150 # cold tar into kettles all day long .
At 40 years of age I weighed 142 # and could lift 260 # withease . Life is changing everyday in Our part of the world for the betterment of society .
If someone Desired my teeth , they are welcome as I was taught to break bones in feet or knees to defend myself / Needless to say most of my troubles in life were with people of my own heritage .
President Woodrow Wilson said ” Walk Softly and carry a Big stick ” and he was the only president with 3 terms in office . Shows he may have been smarter than others . I could not tell as it was before my time to vote .
At our older age people have became more Intelligent and We are just a couple in what they see . We Smile and Enjoy the things that are free to all that want to Live openly together .
AfroRomance is the site for Inter-racial Dating / May all those that do knot Desire to be Happy and Enjoy life / Just leave and bother people elsewhere .