The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: The Elusive Search for Racial Equity in Higher Education

In 1965, when affirmative action officially became part of the national consensus to achieve racial social justice, it was based on the compelling justification of establishing equality and remedying the effects of past discrimination. Since then, there has been a slow but steady shift from "equity" to "diversity" as its rationale. The shift has had a negative effect on achieving the original goal of racial equality. The diversity rationale has permitted parallel procedures to evolve that provided majority students with an even larger differential advantage than that conferred on minority students by affirmative action. In addition, we continue to have massive segregation. Minorities are concentrated in second level schools in urban areas, while whites are concentrated in higher quality institutions in the educational suburbs. It is without factual or legal foundation that whites can argue that they (relative to minorities) are the victims of discrimination through unfair and unequal educational policies and practices that determine access to higher education.     

团体社会工作方法的实际应用探索——以大学班级管理为例

团体社会工作作为社会工作的主要方法之一,在现实生活中有很强的应用价值。大学班级是大学生四年学习、成长生涯的主要情境载体。班级结构、活动、人际互动、文化直接影响学生的成长发展。运用团体社会工作方法介入大学班级管理、建设,从而使学生获得良好的育人环境。     

The Continuing Consequences of Segregation: Family Stress and College Academic Performance*

Objectives. We seek to determine whether the high levels of African‐American residential segregation experienced have continuing academic consequences. Because segregation works to concentrate poverty and the social problems associated with it, the friends and relatives of African‐American students face an elevated risk of stressful life events, which undermine grade performance. Methods. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen to measure the frequency with which members of students' social networks experienced stressful events during their freshman and sophomore years of college, comparing whites, Asians, Latinos, and African Americans from integrated neighborhoods with those coming from segregated neighborhoods. Results. African‐American students from segregated neighborhoods experience higher levels of family stress than others. This stress is largely a function of violence and disorder in segregated neighborhoods. Students respond by devoting more time to family issues and their health and grades suffer as a result. Conclusions. Racial segregation is a structural feature of U.S. society that has continuing power to undermine the academic achievement of students long after they have seemingly left segregated living behind.     

Currents in a Stream: College Student Identities and Ethnic Identities and Their Relationship with Self‐Esteem,Efficacy, and Grade Point Average in an Urban University*

Objectives. We investigate how college student identities and ethnic identities vary among black, white, and Asian students and among immigrant, second‐, and third‐generation students at a large public urban university (in counterpoint to recent studies at highly selective schools). In addition, we explore how those identities are related to college students' sense of self‐esteem and efficacy and their academic performance. Methods. We use survey data from a sample (N=652) of students attending a large diverse public urban university to create new indexes for several dimensions of college identity and ethnic identity and use existing self‐esteem and efficacy indexes to compare black, white, and Asian students, as well as immigrant, second‐generation, and third‐generation students. Results. Among several significant identity differences, we find: (1) whites are lower than blacks on college identity indexes, and immigrant students are higher than subsequent‐generation students on college student identity measures; (2) whites are lower than blacks and Asians on ethnic identity measures; only the ethnic activities index declines linearly from immigrant to second‐ to third‐generation students; (3) blacks have higher self‐esteem and efficacy than whites or Asians; whites have higher GPAs than blacks or Asians, while immigrant students have higher GPAs than third‐generation students; and (4) at least one college student identity dimension and one ethnic identity dimension is related to self‐esteem, efficacy, and GPA. Conclusions. How young adults conceive of themselves as college students and the way they formulate their own racial‐ethnic identities is related to their self‐esteem, efficacy, and academic performance. Moreover, the pattern that these relationships take is somewhat different at a large diverse public urban university than at highly selective universities.     

District Segregation,Race Legislation,and Black Enrollment in Charter Schools*

Objective. This article examines how segregation at the school level within districts and charter school legislation predict black enrollment levels at local charter schools. Methods. This study uses the Schools and Staffing Survey Charter School Data 1999–2000, Common Core of Data, and a unique data set of district test scores to estimate OLS regression models of black enrollment in charter schools on district racial segregation and race provisions in charter school legislation. Results. Findings suggest that segregated school districts, those districts where whites and blacks are more unevenly distributed among schools, have a larger percentage of blacks enrolled in local charter schools than districts where schools are integrated. In addition, charter schools in states that do not have a racial clause have a smaller percent of blacks in their charter schools. Conclusion. Findings suggest that black enrollment in charter schools is a function of district segregation and state policy.     

Unexpected patterns of continuance in psychotherapy 1

Social work students and professionals need to develop the ability to gauge potential links between race and resource deprivation and limited access to social services. Using data from a university-wide student survey, we tested two hypotheses: (a) that social work students exhibit greater racial tolerance than students not studying social work and (b) that entering and graduating MSW students alike exhibit greater racial tolerance than BSW students. Our results clearly suggest social work students were more tolerant than other students. However, with a few exceptions, progress through social work study was not significantly associated with increase in tolerance.     

The Roles of Race,Class, and Residential Preferences in the Neighborhood Racial Composition of Middle‐Class Blacks and Whites*

Objective. This analysis extends the residential attainment literature by examining the neighborhood racial composition of middle‐class blacks and whites while controlling for residential preferences. Methods. Using the Multi‐City Study of Urban Inequality and 1990 Census data, the spatial assimilation and place stratification theories of locational attainment are tested. Results. As in previous research, support is shown for both theories; for blacks, stronger human capital characteristics translate into neighborhoods that are less racially segregated. However, even when middle‐class blacks prefer to live in integrated neighborhoods, on average, they live in neighborhoods that are about 60 percent black and 30 percent white, while middle‐class whites who prefer to live in integrated neighborhoods reside in neighborhoods that, on average, are 10 percent black and 85 percent white. Conclusions. Although incorporating residential preferences into models that predict neighborhood racial composition proves important, the relative inability of middle‐class blacks to implement their preferences indicates powerful social forces that maintain “American apartheid.”     

Density zoning and class segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas

Objectives:Socioeconomic segregation rose substantially in U.S. cities during the final decades of the 20th century, and we argue that zoning regulations are an important cause of this increase.Methods. We measure neighborhood economic segregation using the Gini coefficient for neighborhood income inequality and the poor-affluent exposure index. These outcomes are regressed on an index of density zoning developed from the work of Pendall for 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, while controlling for other metropolitan characteristics likely to affect urban housing markets and class segregation.Results. For both 2000 and changes from 1990 to 2000, OLS estimates reveal a strong relationship between density zoning and income segregation, and replication using 2SLS suggests that the relationship is causal. We also show that zoning is associated with higher interjurisdictional inequality.Conclusions. Metropolitan areas with suburbs that restrict the density of residential construction are more segregated on the basis of income than those with more permissive density zoning regimes. This arrangement perpetuates and exacerbates racial and class inequality in the United States.     

Context and Age Differences in Same‐ and Other‐gender Peer Preferences

Age and gender differences in preferences for same‐ and other‐gender peers as partners for working on a school project and casual interactions at home were investigated. Participants were 82 students (19 sixth‐grade preadolescents; 29 eighth‐grade adolescents; 34 tenth‐ and eleventh‐grade older adolescents). Same‐gender preferences were assessed via peer nominations and ratings of expected enjoyment of interacting with same‐ and other‐gender peers. Preferences varied by context: individuals expected to enjoy same‐gender peers more than other‐gender peers when working on a project at school but not when interacting casually at home. Greater expected enjoyment of same‐gender peers over other‐gender peers was most pronounced for preadolescent boys and girls, and least pronounced for older adolescent males. Nominations of same‐gender peers for home and school activities decreased with age. Results are interpreted in light of a social‐contextual approach to gender segregation.     

大学生团体意识缺失的原因与对策思考

本文是对广东部分高校大学生团体意识状况调研的结果。在市场经济大潮中,大学生思想品德表现出一些值得重视的问题,团体意识的缺失是其中重要原因之一。社会发展需要团体合作,团体意识、团队精神越来越受重视。本文从社会工作角度探讨大学生的团体意识缺失的原因并提出对策。     

Combating Racial Discrimination: The Effectiveness of an International Legal Regime

Correspondence to Dr Kwong-leung Tang, Social Work Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, Canada V2N 4Z9. E-mail: tangk{at}unbc.ca Summary The use of an international legal regime as an avenue of redressfor racial discrimination has a long history. The introductionof an International Convention on the Elimination of All Formsof Racial Discrimination in 1965 signalled the world's commitmentto end racial discrimination. This article reviews the individualcommunications procedure under the Convention and analyses afew successful cases of complaint against racial discrimination.It argues that this mechanism provides a potent avenue of redressfor racial discrimination. Social workers have much to offerin helping their clients to bring their cases to the internationalarena. In concert with NGOs and legal professionals, they couldwork to ensure that racial discrimination is tackled on boththe domestic and international stages. Linking the global andlocal levels of intervention against racial discrimination shouldbecome the practice of every social worker, whatever their countryor field of expertise.     

学校社会工作在高校学生工作中的介入探析

随着社会的进步和高校改革的进一步深入,大学生群体出现了许多新情况新问题,传统的学生工作系统不能及时对此做出回应,很难满足大学生的个别化的需要。社会工作在我国已经有了20余年的发展,已经积累了相关的研究和实践,在高校学生工作中引入学校社会工作的时机日渐成熟。     

Segregation and African-American imprisonment rates for drug offenses

Scholars argue that the dramatic increase in the African-American incarceration rate that occurred after the civil rights era was in part a reflection of the declining utility of residential segregation as a modern form of social control. Existing research has not thoroughly investigated the association between racial segregation and prison admission rates. Using 2002 data for 198 metropolitan counties, this research examines the relationship between two dimensions of racial residential segregation and African-American prison admission rates for drug offenses. The results from a multivariate regression analysis reveal that the prison admission rates of African-Americans for drug offenses are lower in counties where White residents are more residentially isolated from African-Americans. The admission rates are unaffected by the dissimilarity index. Consistent with recent research on the level of coercive control, the findings suggest that the effect of the percentage of African-Americans residing in an area is nonlinear.     

When Are Net Effects Gross Products? Communication

The rush to judgment about the social effects of the new communications media has branded them as positive and negative in equal measure. Alienation from "real world" relationships coupled with a lack of social regulation within the medium is balanced by liberation from the influences, inequalities, and identities to which people are subjected in face-to-face interaction. We argue that such general conclusions may in fact be turned upside down and propose that these media may actually strengthen social bonds but also reinforce power inequalities. Reviewing evidence of our research with university students, employing the social identity model of deindividuation effects, we show how these technologies can often be more "social," and socially regulated, than face-to-face interaction.     

Negotiating Violence Prevention

Evaluation research typically treats standards of violence prevention programs, like other curricula, as unquestioned values of a good society, while identifying youth as the problem to be solved. This article explains how the evaluative gaze can, in contrast, be critically fixed on the interpretations of various stake holders in the violence prevention enterprise, including curriculum authors, teachers, and youth, whose social values are often under-represented. In the context of a year-long literacy-based violence prevention curriculum focusing on racial and ethnic discrimination in 3^rd and 5^th grade urban classrooms, 5 teachers, their classes, and 36 individual students from these classes expressed contradictory and conforming values, suggesting to us the need to invite negotiation of social values as part of democratic education.     

The Positive Effect of Black Density on White Crossover Voting: Reconsidering Social Interaction Theory

Objective . Social interaction theory has received considerable attention. One limitation of previous studies has been that they did not examine how the positive effect of racial interaction on white racial tolerance may be enhanced or reduced by other factors. This article tests five hypotheses derived from the basic assumption of social interaction theory. Methods . Employing EI procedure, a newly developed ecological inference method, this study uses the precinct-level data from New Orleans' 29 biracial elections to estimate white crossover voting at the neighborhood level. The hypotheses are tested by both ordinary least squares and weighted least squares models. Results . White crossover voting is positively related to black density. The positive effect of black density, however, is relatively weak. Other factors such as the racial composition of candidate field and election type are more important. Conclusions . Caution needs to be exercised in accepting social interaction theory. The level of racial competition in biracial elections may reverse white support for black candidates.     

When Race Becomes Even More Complex: Toward Understanding the Landscape of Multiracial Identity and Experiences

The explosion in the number of people coming from a multiracial heritage has generated an increased need for understanding the experiences and consequences associated with coming from a multiracial background. In addition, the emergence of a multiracial identity challenges current thinking about race, forcing scholars to generate new ideas about intergroup relations, racial stigmatization, social identity, social perception, discrimination, and the intersectionality of race with other social categories such as social class. The present issue brings together research and theory in psychology, sociology, education, culture studies, and public policy surrounding multiracial identity and introduces new advances in thinking about race, intergroup relations, and racial identity. In exploring multiracial identity, the issue will reexamine conceptualization of race and racial identification by examining the social experiences of multiracial individuals.     

We're All in This Together: Context, Contacts, and Social Trust in Canada

How do conditions of diversity and inequality affect the sense of solidarity with each other that is manifested as social trust? This article brings together the literatures on racial heterogeneity, inter-group contact and relative deprivation to test and enrich the existing theoretical understanding of trust. It explores the effects of city and neighborhood contexts, individual experiences of inter-group relations, and their moderating effects on social trust. Findings suggest that the influence of a city's level of ethnic/racial diversity and income inequality is conditioned by inter-group social ties and experiences of discrimination. By considering the characteristics of neighborhoods, racial diversity of cities no longer has any significant association with trust in others. However, income inequality at the city level interacts with experiences of discrimination to undermine trust. Public policies aimed at improving social cohesion would benefit from considering the joint impact of economic and social policies that regulate resource distribution and hence shape inter-group relations.     

大学生思想政治教育中的科学精神培育研究——以广西为例

科学精神是大学生思想政治教育应有之义。广西大学生思想政治教育逐渐显露出科学精神培育功能,但大学生的科学精神仍存在不足。要提高广西大学生的科学精神,增强思想政治教育的实效,必须提高广西高校思想政治课教师的科学精神,促进师生之间平等对话,尊重学生的个体差异、因材施教。     

Racial Differences in Networks: Do Neighborhood Conditions Matter?*

Objectives. This study examines which of five neighborhood conditions help account for racial differences in social networks. Methods. The data set is the Urban Poverty and Family Life Survey, a survey of blacks, whites, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans clustered in Chicago Census tracts, matched to 1990 Census data. I estimate HGLM models predicting five indicators of social isolation and five indicators of number of social ties as a function of race, controls, and the following neighborhood conditions: neighborhood poverty, proportion black, residential stability, ethnic heterogeneity, and population density. Results. Although initial estimates confirm the existence of racial differences in network size, most of these differences are not robust to controls for neighborhood conditions. Among the neighborhood variables, only neighborhood poverty is consistently associated with size of social networks. Conclusions. Findings suggest that while residential segregation has created conditions in which some races are more likely to live in high‐poverty neighborhoods, it is the poverty, not the racial composition, of the neighborhoods that is significantly associated with weaker social ties.