Introduction
While discrimination always seemed to be natural in any form of a group from family to ethnicity, implications are almost always experienced in a very negative manner where minorities or the lesser groups feel helpless about their situation. The limitation provided by economic status as well adds up to the challenge experienced by many colored races and minorities in predominantly white institutions.
This paper shall strive to present racism and discrimination among Chicanos at university levels of which while higher understanding and knowledge are expected, degrading individual acts are still perceived. It will, however, argue to make this a challenge for colored and minorities to strive harder setting aside a reality that could be daunting.
Background
The U.S. Census Bureau as reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce (2000) noted the radical change of the United States in terms of its racial or ethnic demographics referred to as the “diversification of America” or even the “browning of America.” Likewise, Casas and Vasquez (1996) acknowledged the increased significance of racial or ethnic minorities as “a demographic force” in the United States. It is expected that by the year 2010, 46%of the nation’s school-age youth will be students of color (Banks & Banks, 1999). But it has been noted that ethnic minorities remain undereducated despite their growing numbers. In addition, Astin (2005) also noticed the vacillating progress in educational access by underrepresented groups in American higher education over the past 40 years.
Cokley (2000) earlier suggested that educators already started giving attention to the idea and value of self-concept through the belief that non-cognitive variables have a role in the academic success of students. This was based on previous research identifying students’ academic self-concept as an important predictor of future academic achievement for those after higher education. Already, Astin (1985) earlier proposed that minorities have experienced for a long time now the unequal distribution of education and in fact have doubts about the quality, scope, and content of their higher education.
The rising participation in college by minorities still shows small attendance rates of the national norm as Carter and Wilson (1996) noted nearly 43% of White high school graduates ages 18 to 24 attend college, compared to 36% of African Americans and 33% of Chicano(a)/Latino(a). Likewise, about 47% of all minorities in higher education attend community colleges (Carter & Wilson, 1995) but ethnic minority undergraduate representation at 4-year institutions continues to be dismal. Chicano/Latinos only represent about 8.7% of all higher education students (Wilds & Wilson, 1998).
With the premise that academic self-concept is generally regarded as how a student believes his or her academic ability and academic standing compares to his or her academic peers, Brookover et al (1962) earlier described that academic self-concept is “a person’s conception of his own ability to learn the accepted types of academic behavior… [and academic] performance in terms of school achievement” (p. 271). This is why many institutions are encouraged to develop and provide appropriate services and resources due in part to the “browning of America” and with the understanding that the development and success of all students should be of top concern for institutions of higher education.
While enrollment of students from Chicano and Mexican-American ethnic backgrounds increased at colleges and universities over the past few decades, it was noted by Nevarez (2001) that this population lacks proportional representation in higher education enrollment and graduation rates. In fact, it was also suggested by Nevarez (2001) that Chicano and Mexican-American students are the least likely to complete high school, pursue higher education, and graduate with a college degree. In addition, it was also found that Chicano or Mexican-American students are academically and emotionally under-prepared for college. This, in turn, has negative effects on their academic self-concept (Nevarez, 2001).
Nevertheless, with the growing Chicano and Mexican American college students in the American educational system, it is imperative for administrators, policy-makers, and student affairs practitioners to understand the importance of students’ academic self-concept and become more cognizant of their academic needs.
Discussion
Already, changing demographics should challenge the academy in creating a climate that is conducive and reflective of the type of student’s needs. Diversification has long been advocated among higher education institutions to meet various group needs. Noted among these needs is a growing minority population with various value systems so that there is a need for intensified awareness of their minority status and to address inclusiveness (Astone & Nunez-Wormack, 1990).
Non-cognitive measurements of academic self-concept are a better predictor of grade point average (GPA) for minority and low-socioeconomic background students than are cognitive predictors, such as standardized test scores (Gerardi, 1990). “…The empirical reality of minority and low-socioeconomic background students’ academic potential becomes unrecognizable and un-elucidated because these academic capabilities are hidden behind the traditional cognitive variables as the sole predictor of academic success,” Gerardi (1990, p. 406) concluded.
In fact, it was found that the biggest predictor of academic self-concept was GPA, while student-faculty interactions came second, and class status third (Cokley, 2000). House (1997) also suggested that Asian American college students’ academic self-concept was significantly influenced by the high school curriculum, financial goals, social goals, achievement expectations, desire for recognition, and GPA. However, academic self-concept was the strongest predictor of GPA (House, 1997).
These minority students are likewise challenged in managing and coping with psychological distress as they negotiate the campus experience where ethnic distress and the challenges coupled with being of “minority status” were a reality (Saldana, 1994). Already, previous research on minorities in higher education showed the importance of ethnic organizations and the need for the arrangement of an ethnic community for minority students to lessen minority status problems. Nevertheless, the presence and relevance of ethnic-specific organizations and centers in many higher education institutions with a sizable enrollment of minority students have been noted (Rooney, 1985)
It must also be understood that campus culture is an important variable in explaining how institutional decisions and actions are accomplished as Deal and Kennedy (1982) noted the presence of a “corporate culture” perspective. This suggests that internal cultures supportive of organizational goals and strategies, specifically among minorities, lead to increased levels of effectiveness. In many cases, institutional culture is described as a socially constructed circumstance of which campus culture is seen as “less social fact and more on-going social definition” (Tierney, 1987, p. 65). It is to be the objective of educators to understand how to mold, shape, and change organizational culture to become consistent with institutional goals and strategies (Smircich, 1983).
Cultural centers have been instrumental in providing safe havens for ethnic minority student groups who have traditionally been denied full access and, or access to predominantly white institutions or PWIs. Limited institutional support has been noted but ethnic-cultural centers have continued to serve the social, political, outreach, academic, and other cultural needs of students within the campus milieu. In addition, Princes (1994) found cross-cultural centers for Chicano/Latino were able to provide facilities for academic, social, and recreational events to promote cross-cultural communication. Accordingly, the centers provided a location and facility for programming various academic, social, and political events as well as support ethnic students in pursuing their educational goals while retaining their cultural ties (Young, 1989).
Recent challenges for PWIs are the molding of a campus culture that supports the goal of improving the retention rates of an increasingly diverse student body because the culture or climate of these campuses is experienced by minorities to hinder their goal to finish education (Skinner&Richardson,1988). Sedlack (1987) suggested that African American students attending predominantly White colleges and universities are more likely than their White peers to view these campuses as alienating, isolating, hostile, and less supportive of their needs. Smedley, et al (1993) also discovered that the social climate for ethnic minority students attending PWIs provides an additional burden in their academic adjustment to college. Minority student perceptions of prejudice and discrimination on campus also negatively affect their adjustment to college and exert an indirect effect on their decisions to persist (Nora and Cabrera, 1996).
Bennett, Cole, and Thompson (1995) found that ethnic minority experience is distinctly different from that of majority students at PWIs showing that a minority status meant an additional burden of stress on ethnic minority students and would be associated with an increased risk for negative outcomes (Saldana,1994). Hurtado and Carter (1997) also suggested that ethnic minority students’ subjective sense of integration into campus life is gleaned from the extent to which stress is derived from students’ minority status, interpersonal relationships, and the student services that mediate their college experiences, and their subsequent subjective sense of integration.
In fact, it was also suggested that minority status can make a person vulnerable to being cast as an interloper or scapegoat by their American counterparts (Uba (1994, p.120). Within PWIs, minority status stress is viewed as the antithesis of White privilege within that environment so that White privilege can be embodied in many shapes and forms to the detriment of minorities. Smedley, et al (1993) enumerated stress on a variety of levels as social climate stresses; interracial stresses; racial discrimination; within-group stresses; and achievement stress.
Moreover, it was specifically noted that Chicano students interpret the culture or climate of predominantly White colleges and universities as alienating, isolating, hostile, and unsupportive (Hurtado et al 1997). Studies (Hurtado et al, 1996; Smedley et al, 1993) of Latino students’ transition to college found confirmation for that climate-related minority status stressors have a “depressing effect on Latino students’ feelings of attachment to the institution” (Smedley et al, 1993 p.151).
In fact, even high-achieving Latino students attending PWIs view the climate of these institutions as troublesome (Hurtado, 1994) and established that more than a quarter of these high-achieving Latino students felt as though they did not fit in concluding that “elements of institutional culture, perhaps associated with its historical legacy of exclusion, that continue to resist a Latino presence on campus” (p. 35).
Social climate stresses are highlighted where there is a lack of multiculturalism incorporated in the curriculum, minimal ethnic faculty representation, and misunderstanding of diversity. Volumes of research have been published to enhance the ethnic minority experience in the academy (Bennett, 1995) but Turner (1994) was still able to point out that students of color still strongly feel like “guests in someone else’s house” (p.356). Alienated students in PWIs claimed, “a cold and lonely place” (Turner, 1994, p. 355) describing their campus experience as non-welcoming and a place of racism. The impact of the chilly institutional climates is negative and reaffirms that students of color must be provided with social support and be valued and respected (Caplan, 1974). McGrath, et al (2000) also highlighted students’ self-reported assessment of social support and feelings of loneliness that students of color felt less support from friends than did their White counterparts.
In another study, two levels of minority status stress were identified:
- interracial stresses and
- racism and discrimination (Allen, 1991).
Inter-racial stress is about the interaction of ethnic minority students and the dominant culture, and racism and discrimination involve the experience of bad treatment or disrespect due to one’s race. It is also widely reported that students of color often experience lower levels of integration and higher levels of alienation and discrimination at PWIs (Allen, 1991).
To address this, cultural centers serve as starting points in institutional efforts and are often described as “a home away from home, a place to deal with personal and academic problems” (Turner, 1994 p.362). Hawkins (1992) also suggested that the presence of the Minority Affairs Office is very important in supporting ethnic minority students at PWIs.
However, as mentioned earlier, ethnic or racial groups are within-group stresses described as pressures from people of one’s same race, pressures to show loyalty to one’s community, as well as expectations on how to act or behave. Hawkins (1992) suggested an environment that understands, is knowledgeable, and proactive in establishing diversity where students can express their differences constructively. This may be expected to be a greater and more long-lasting support to student retention and graduation rates.
Conclusion
It is easily established that discrimination permeates even in knowledgeable as well as highly regarded institutions such as college and university campuses. As this may be disappointing due to its negative impact among minorities, students or even educators still continue to hold prejudices against ethnic minority cultures.
It is to be noted that the lack of Chicano representations within the social, physical, and epistemological worlds of the campus environment is also another deprivation as this would make them feel like intruders, or better-disguised as “guests.”
While the United States signifies and symbolizes equality and freedom among individuals, it is ironic to find that American higher education, race, and racism are embedded in the structures, practices, and discourses that guide the daily practices of universities as already established by Taylor (1999). This view is of utmost importance as race and racism are central constructs that intersect with other components of one’s identity, such as language, generation status, gender, sexuality, and class (Crenshaw, 1993), and even persistence to attain one’s goals.
While subordination is culturally practiced by all societies, the embodiment of freedom and equality must be of priority within predominantly white institutions in order to progress the cause of the individual, and the society in general. The need for all students to have the opportunity to be assisted in the development of their academic learning, in the enhancement of their self-esteem, and in the improvement of their academic skills to be successful in the classroom must be encouraged in such civil society institutions to push for greater and more sublime understanding of freedom and equality.
Likewise, within minorities, support groups must also establish the need to push, persevere, and accept the presence of all forms of racism, discrimination, and other forms of subordination among peoples of all ages, kids, and colors. It must be ingrained in all striving students of color that they, too, have the right to dream and pursue a dream as long as other individuals and their freedoms are respected and upheld in the process.
It has been criticized that higher education’s meritocratic illusion as objective and colorblind that asserts neutrality and serves to maintain existing race, class, sexual, and gender privileges were seen to devalue and marginalize Chicano college students, this should serve as a challenge.
Racism and discrimination will exist and persist until institutions highlight the importance of material possession and influence of positions and status of peoples. This must be accepted, the earlier, the better. Then, support groups and even educators have to inculcate to the students the importance of self-respect, identity, as well as persistence to become what they envision of themselves, always in a positive process.
Higher education representatives must fulfill the responsibility to make available campus-wide involvement opportunities to educate the university constituents about diverse student populations.
It is crucial that all entities in the university acknowledge that negative and culturally insensitive attitudes and behaviors affect all incumbents in the university and affect the students’ academic performance, satisfaction, and retention. Specifically, faculty members should assess their interactions in the classroom and monitor their delivery and cultural sensitivity while not minimizing the role of presenting curriculum and a learning experience.
Students of color should not work independently in their efforts toward retention. Instead, opportunities for students, faculty, and university administrators to discuss a common effort should be provided.
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