http://blackvoices.aol.com/black_news/headlines_features/canvas_news_articles/_a/many-immigrants-among-black-students/20070430100409990001


Students from Africa who go to universities get treated better than blacks born in america. WHY?

A study released this year put numbers on the trend. Among students at 28 top U.S. universities, the representation of black students of first- and second-generation immigrant origin (27 percent) was about twice their representation in the national population of blacks their age (13 percent). Within the Ivy League, immigrant-origin students made up 41 percent of black freshmen.

Wilcher would like to know why. She asks if the cause of correcting American racial injustice has lost its way on U.S. campuses, and been replaced by a softer ideal of diversity -- as if any black student will do.

The study, published in the American Journal of Education, found no definitive answer as to why the change is happening. However, "folks I know personally who have worked in admissions have told me that they weren't surprised," said Camille Charles, a University of Pennsylvania professor who wrote the study with three Princeton University professors.

The researchers looked at data from a national survey of 1,028 freshmen at 28 top colleges and universities in 1999. The eight-year-old material was used because it was specially designed to help find reasons for underachievement by minorities at colleges and universities.

In terms of student background, it found few differences, noting only that far more black immigrant students had fathers with college or advanced degrees than did other black students.

But the authors suggested that the reason for high proportion of immigrant students may lie in how the students are perceived.

"To white observers, black immigrants seem more polite, less hostile, more solicitous, and 'easier to get along with,"' the study said. "Native blacks are perceived in precisely the opposite fashion."

That idea immediately found detractors.

"I can't speak for white people, but that's crazy," said Adoma Adjei-Brenyah, a Columbia University student with college-educated parents from Ghana.

The director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling agreed. "I reject the notion that admissions officers are somehow deliberately doing this," David Hawkins said.

One legal expert explained the bump in black immigrants by saying that now, decades since the civil rights movement's peak, college diversity is aimed less at correcting American racial injustices and more at creating a variety of perspectives on campus.

Besides, "how many colleges and universities are looking to stand up and say, 'I'm continuing not to cure the problems of the past?"' said Arthur Coleman, a lawyer who co-wrote "Admissions and Diversity After Michigan: The Next Generation of Legal and Policy Issues."

Students agreed the subject of native vs. immigrant background remains sensitive.

Last month, a Harvard Black Students Association message board asked, "When we use the term 'black community,' who is included in this description?" A lively debate ensued, with some posters complaining that African students were getting an admissions boost without having faced the historical suffering of U.S. blacks.

Jason Lee , the Harvard group's president, echoed another thought in the discussion. "There's a historical sense that black Americans are disrespected by immigrants," he said. "Parents don't want their kids to play with them, don't want bad habits rubbing off on them. There's a bit of tension there."

But Adjei-Brenyah, the president of the African Students Association at Columbia, argued that drawing an admissions distinction based on suffering under slavery is false. "If you're going to make a slavery case, people from the Caribbean were also displaced and enslaved. How do you begin to differentiate?" he said.

The issue of native vs. immigrant blacks took hold at Harvard in 2004, when professors Henry Louis Gates and Lani Guinier pointed out at a black alumni reunion that a majority of attendees were of African or Caribbean origin. Gates and Guinier cited demographic information in the "Black Guide to Life at Harvard," a survey of 70 percent of black undergraduates published by the BSA.

In part because of the issue, native black alumni have distanced themselves from Harvard, Lee said. That means fewer are conducting admissions interviews with prospective American-born black students, Lee said, so interviewers from other backgrounds, including immigrant backgrounds, step in.

"I think in that situation, perceptions could come into play," Lee said.

The Harvard admissions office declined comment.

The second edition of the "Black Guide" is being prepared now, and Lee expects another angry response - if the university releases the updated information.

So far, he said, Lee said, it has not.







talk about this

[Edited by - playa2 on 03-05-2007 13:20]

[Edited by - playa2 on 03-05-2007 13:21]

Students who work hard and get into college are there because they WORKED HARD not because they are from the Caribbean or Africa. Im tired of reading these racist statistics. Numbers can be spun in a lot of ways and this trend of spinning them towards racism has got to stop. Im black was born and raised in Brooklyn, my parents are from the Caribbean and they pushed me hard. I got two academic scholarships to a engineering university with a major in computer science. After graduating last year I landed an awesome job. Was it because im not descended from former American slaves? No I was able to accomplish these things thanks to the support of my parents and by working hard. But does that mean that I was able to accomplish this because my parents are from the Caribbean or because they supported me? Which one? Comon, any parents who push their kid, help the kid become more successful, no matter where they are from.

Ive been through the school system, there was racism, but there was not enough of it to stop you if you are determined to succeed. It depends on your parents and yourself, whether your white, black, purple, orange or gold.

Hmmm, it's an interesting article. I know a few may not like this, but from my personal experiences, in meeting many Africans, I found a lot of them to be confident and respectful in themselves. I don't know if that might mean anything, but I do notice this. For instance, let's use playa here. Playa, you been pushing the racial topics here on several occasions, I noticed. Nothing wrong with it really, but it is a little in your face and a little conflicted information. I don't get that from Africans. Now I think I understand the reasons why and the main one of course. It seems that maybe too much aggression has been built up, in pushing your way into mainstream society, here in America. I can understand that' but can you see the possibility as to why' certain things happen, when it comes to blacks in America? Maybe it's a little too aggressive to many folks in this country. But how to fight the causes and be looked upon with confidance is a tough question to answer. The African students have a homeland they call they're country. Something they can go back to. You always feel safe, when you have a true base. It's an observation, from my point of perspective and I think a fair one, that I thought I'd share with you's. Hope it doesn't offend.

I think Europeans and European decendants suffer from too much overlapping in Europe, for the last couple thousand years, maybe more. I think there was way too much waring going on for all of those years. To a point were they could no longer trace they're origins, so maybe they got lost and forgot they're original instructions. Maybe they just didn't care about treading on the world, like many of them seem to care now. The Indigenous people of what is now called Austrailia, along with African Americans and American Indians (just to name a few on our dear planet) have been sewned into that fabric of this conflict. All of you are now a part of that overlapping. And there's no way to get back to what once was. But that's the way it's always been for millions of years. I think we can call this conflict 'evolution'. So it raises another question. Why are we all fighting over this? For one, I think It's becasue instinctively, we need a place to call our own.

Another interesting note on the rich cultural knowledge that Europeans have acquired and accumillated over the hundreds of years, they got it from 'everyone'. I'm not an archeologist or anything like that, but from my knowledge through the years, they traced civillization all the way back to what is not politically called Africa. It's all interesting to know how all of this got the way it did. I don't mean to paint this so black and white. It's just everything I talk about, comes from a black and white world.

Oh, here we go, just bring it baby.

I'm going to tell why straight up! The reason this happens is because it is not about being black, it is about a culture that discourages success and refuses to do anything about and just blames everything on the man. Statements like is why the Africans hate the likes of Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson!

Every day the level of absurdity you bring raises playa. For every wrong against you in the world you find a scapegoat. How about accepting some responsibility for once. But hey, it is so much easier to blame your problems on the Jews, the African immigrants, the big bad government, etc.