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International Students On Campus;Observations of Dominican students race relations in an American University
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In a country dedicated to promoting the concept of free and eternal equality among the cultures from within and around the world. A country that sets forth policies and supports organizations dedicated to protecting people of every race and securing a future where race is no longer an issue, concern has been made about the issue that race relations are currently being put on hold in the United States. As equality is said to be implemented in the legal system here in the United States, the reality seems to underlie the fact that instead of race relations improving, once again, minorities are forced to accept their position that most of the majority race continue to ignore. White collar workers feel superior to a blue collar worker regardless of race, so in a sense, instead of racial inequality there seems to be an even more economical inequality. Yet the social context of race is quite different from the financial context. In America, graduating from high school and then attending college is now open to any race or culture. In the past this opportunity was only available to white males. Yet now many college recruiters in the admissions office look far more into diversifying the campus than ever before. People of every race also seek out colleges with more diversity. Still, despite the increasing number of diversified campuses, there are not reports on the inter-racial relationships that exist on campus. As our world moves towards globalization, the prevailing fact is that race relations have been improving. According to Alison Brysk in her book “Globalization and Human Rights”, globalization is the growing penetration of states, markets, communications, and ideas across borders in our contemporary world. Globalization also brought about the creation of sweatshops and poor labor standards since cost of labor in many countries can be purchased much cheaper in second and third world countries. An opportunity for education in America has become available to not only different races of Americans but also has become open to international students as well. Since the U.S. labor standards are extremely high compared to many countries many seek education and labor in the America. However, while there are increasing numbers of minorities that are graduating from colleges these minorities are still being placed at second hand when applying for jobs. Intellectuals from other countries come to the U.S., multilingual, have experienced many different cultures, and are even open to adapting to the American culture to succeed in college and in the labor force. Yet the overriding factor still remains in America that the more unique you are from that of what we are accustomed to, the less you will be trusted. The prevailing factor will not be that you are not a good person, but instead employers will somehow see fault in your character only because of your race. Ever since the attack on America on September 11th, it seems as if we have regressed socially. Employment and discrimination against minorities in the work place has become increasingly more apparent. After photographs of the suspected terrorists were shown the immediate reaction for Americans was to associate all persons from, or descendants from Afghan or Iraqi and other related cultures, with terrorism. A basic generalization and fear instilled that is based only upon appearance. It is sad to know that even if you are born and raised in the American culture, and you are in fact an American, that you can be separated from this culture and scrutinized for being from a different origin. Many colleges in America are flourishing with a diversified student body. However, what goes on between students on and off campus is not reported by the college or universities statistics. Interracial relations on campus are not reported despite the promotion of a diversified campus. Many students who seem to be interested in other cultures or races will attend such colleges but still subconsciously keep their distance both physically and emotionally. I will be observing six men and women from the Dominican Republic who are attending the University of Rhode Island. These six men and women lived on campus for their first two years of attending college and have moved off campus for the third year. I have been living amongst them for about 6 months now and will use observations from the past as well recent observations. In the past I have noticed that these students tend to limit their relationships with American students and keep those relationships only pertaining to school work. The difficulty I experienced while observing this culture was being able to distinguish between cultural and racial differences between economical differences. The students I am observing are from families who are considered upper-class financially. This seems to be a barrier to me because there are distinct differences between people’s relations when there are economical differences.
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