Apartheid. USA 1988

March 9, 1987:

While no one keeps statistics on worsening racial tensions around the country, officials at colleges and universities and experts in race relations say they seem part of a growing

[p. 44]

pattern of bigotry and animosity toward minority students at American campuses. In a recent survey of black students at 16 predominantly white colleges, 4 out of 5 blacks reported experiencing some form of racial discrimination. The experiences range from unkind words to assaults. Minority students and faculty members across the country say the incidents are evidence of longstanding racial unease. In part, they blame cultural insensitivity for the conflicts, along with resentment over affirmative action programs and a decline in black student enrollment over the past decade that sets black students apart at predominantly white schools.

Some students say that because of their small numbers, many black students unintentionally widen the gulf between racial groups when they socialize with other blacks and observe voluntary color lines in cafeterias and fraternities. Others point to a highly competitive atmosphere that pits students against each other.

‘It is an aura,’ said Jason Dotson, a black senior economics major at Ann Arbor. ‘You can feel the intensity in the classroom. You see it in the teachers' eyes. You see it in the students' faces. You are always under scrutiny. These are people who basically hold your future in their hands, but they don't want you here. It is hard enough to make it in this school, without that added pressure.’ At Michigan, black students are not the only ones singled out for attacks. Two years ago, swastikas were scrawled on the house of a predominantly Jewish sorority and the library stall of a Chinese-American graduate student was defaced with death threats and racial slurs.^65.

65. The New York Times, from a report by Isabel Wilkerson