{"id":1621,"date":"2015-02-20T12:44:29","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T12:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.surveycrest.com\/blog\/?p=1621"},"modified":"2023-12-21T07:21:38","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T07:21:38","slug":"racial-discrimination-in-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surveycrest.com\/blog\/racial-discrimination-in-universities\/","title":{"rendered":"Racial Discrimination \u2013 Still Alive in Universities and Law Enforcement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Human nature has more or less stayed unalterable when it comes to racial prejudice. We have more avenues of knowledge and more sources of information than ever before. But racial prejudice in USA<\/strong><\/a> absolutely refuses to go away. Even in universities that serve as bastions of learning and plurality, the overall picture isn\u2019t pretty. Even our custodians of law play a little fast and loose when it comes to black people.<\/p>\n

History is replete with examples of man\u2019s inhumanity to man, and racial discrimination is right there as the most abhorrent of human vices. Who says slavery doesn\u2019t exist in the modern age? Who says that the state protects disadvantaged communities from biased treatment from the majority, just because they were born with the \u2018wrong\u2019 physical characteristics?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sad state of affairs. It\u2019s tough to hack it out in life as a member of the minority. Doesn\u2019t even matter if it\u2019s in the USA or Somalia. Human cruelty and depravity knows no limits no matter how developed or under-developed societies become.<\/p>\n

One would\u2019ve thought that the near-universal access to knowledge and information (aka the internet) might suddenly turn a corner in the long standing fight against racial prejudice and discrimination. One would\u2019ve hoped that with Harper Lee in the news again, people might remember the powerful moral center of her award-winning novel \u2018To Kill a Mockingbird\u2019. But since there is a huge dearth of Atticus Finch-types in the 21st century, racial discrimination is here to stay. It\u2019s alive and growing at an exponential rate, despite the efforts of family lawyers<\/a><\/strong> and social justice attorneys across the globe, as these outrageous statistics will show you:<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 In UK, only 85 of 18,500 professors are black with a mere 17 of them black women.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"School<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Did you know that only 33 out of 1,100 students at UCLA\u2019s School of Law are black?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Racial<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 1 in 4 students belonging to a minority group have been personally discriminated on racial grounds in the USA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even that bastion of liberty and opportunity; that is America, can\u2019t shed its image as the land that had and continues to have a most discriminatory attitude between its minorities. It has been home to racially prejudiced attitudes for most of its history i.e. internment camps in WW2, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and so on. Even with a black President at the helm of affairs, the reality on ground continues to shock.<\/p>\n

Racism in Law Enforcement<\/h2>\n

\u201cTo serve and to protect\u201d \u2013 These are lofty words that every American law enforcement officer professes to uphold as their guiding ideals. The reality, as they say, is quite another thing altogether. Here are some cases that can shed some light on the existing ground realities.<\/p>\n

The Michael Brown case aka #Ferguson<\/h3>\n

Michael Brown was unarmed when he was shot 6 times by a law enforcement officer. The hometown of Ferguson<\/strong><\/a> soon erupted with anger, with clashes between police and Ferguson citizens becoming the order of the day for a few months. For a place where 67 percent of the total population is African-American, it is hair-raising to note that the police force at Ferguson employs only 3 black employees. That\u2019s 3 employees in the 53-man strong Ferguson police force. Pretty skewed right?<\/p>\n

The Trayvon Martin case aka #RIPTrayvonMartin<\/h3>\n

Now let\u2019s take the case of Trayvon Martin, a black unarmed male who was mercilessly gunned down on his way home. In Feb 2012, he was murdered by a white male on the technicality of being a \u2018night watch\u2019. Consider what the outcry would have been if the perpetuator of this atrocity was someone other than a white Caucasian male. If it wasn\u2019t for social media, things would\u2019ve probably ended right there. Justice would\u2019ve never been served.<\/p>\n

The court previously ruled that Zimmerman was not guilty. A wave of social media protests followed with Martin\u2019s parents creating an online petition. Many celebrities such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Diddy and Amber Rose amongst many others supported the Change.org petition<\/strong><\/a>. They expressed their disgust at the ruling that made George Zimmerman walk away free. They galvanized the fans and kept the case in the public consciousness. A few months later Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder and promptly arrested.<\/p>\n

Though these incidents are related to the abuse of the law by law enforcers, the whole affair isn\u2019t too far removed from what black students and teachers face in academic circles. They are bullied, picked on and in the case of teachers, regularly passed over for promotions. Not even Hispanics, Arabs, Asians and other minority communities are spared when it comes to discrimination.<\/p>\n

Racism in Education<\/h2>\n

Black British Academics, an advocacy group that tracks racial discrimination in UK universities, recently unveiled the results of their Race Equality Survey. The educational survey<\/strong><\/a> compiled information from higher education staff and students from black families, painting a picture of how endemic racial discrimination is in universities.<\/p>\n

About 60 percent of those surveyed felt that they had been discriminated against, in one capacity or another. 73 percent of those went on to say that their institutions didn\u2019t adhere to racial equality. Even those in on the teaching side said that they were meted out \u2018differential treatment\u2019 and being \u2018cold shouldered\u2019 behind \u2018closed doors\u2019. Apparently black academia is the last to know of promotions and other departmental developments.<\/p>\n

Black students also have to hear racist jokes and false generalizations about how they are assumed to be muggers, rioters, small-witted and other stereotypical elements. The psychological and social ramifications of such behavior tend to stay for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

The 33 Incident<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The UCLA School of Law has only 33 black students out of 1,100, a fact that became the subject behind a student-produced video titled \u201833\u2019. After the circulation of the video, some of the black students started to receive racially-motivated threats soon after.<\/p>\n

The video showed some of the students of color speaking of their experiences of being marginalized and being watched everywhere.<\/p>\n