Questioning Homogeneity Among Black Students At White University

Sandra S. Smith of the University of Michigan and Mignon R. Moore of Columbia University designed a study to examine interracial diversity among blacks. Smith and Moore performed their study with the black population at "Big City University". They reported their findings in their article, "Interracial Diversity and Relations among African-Americans: Closeness among Black Students at a Predominantly White University," which was published in the American Journal of Sociology. Smith and Moore (2000) question our culture’s belief of homogeneity among blacks. This is evident in the increase in black middle and upper-class, an increase in black population with interracial experience prior to adulthood, and increase in foreign-born blacks and biracial/multiracial people with African ancestry. "While there may have been less cause to question assumptions of closeness and homogeneity before the Civil Rights movement, when fewer cultural and socioeconomic distinctions could be made (Wilson 1978; Jaynes and Williams 1989; Farley 1996), one can question the extent to which these assumptions hold today given shifts in the demography of black America" (p. 2). This article reaf

I agree with the findings of this study. This study has not changed my view of the black population because I realize that simply because I am white, I do not consider myself friends with every white person I meet. I also realize that whites who are raised in predominantly black neighborhoods often stay friends with black people, which is no different than blacks raised in white neighborhoods staying friends with white people. On the other hand, those who are surrounded by difference often look to whom they are alike to find comfort. So it does not surprise me that students who have had mostly black friends through out life look to fellow black students as familiar and comforting faces. Just because of your race, does not mean you will act a certain way, and be friends with certain people.

The authors recognize that their research was done on a relatively similar economic sample of the black community, realizing the Big City University has a high tuition price. If I were the principal investigator I would have done another study at a lower priced school as well, perhaps a junior college where the white population exceeds the black population. This would then show if these results are similar for students of lower socioeconomic standing.

firms the literature cited by Smith and Moore, and provides a more recent example, that homogeneity among blacks cannot be assumed.

They then categorized these students further into three groups in relation to their black peers: socially distant, socially close, and socially very close. They examined student’s relationships with black students, the

Some topics in this essay:
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