Poison in the ivy : race relations and the reproduction of inequality on elite college campuses /
W. Carson Byrd studied 28 of the most selective colleges and universities in the United States to see whether elite students actually have cross-racial interactions that might influence their racial beliefs in a positive way, since many of these graduates will be in leadership positions later in the...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New Brunswick, New Jersey :
Rutgers University Press,
[2017]
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| Series: | American campus.
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| Summary: | W. Carson Byrd studied 28 of the most selective colleges and universities in the United States to see whether elite students actually have cross-racial interactions that might influence their racial beliefs in a positive way, since many of these graduates will be in leadership positions later in their careers. He found that students at these universities had a skewed idea of race, in which the context of the 'best and brightest' applied at their school led them to believe that differences in race and inequality were built around issues of merit and individual choice. Racial inequality was rationalized as a result of people who grew up in previous unjust eras, were unlucky, or who have different priorities in life that led them to not achieve as much as elite students. Their cross-racial interactions on campus were thus divorced from race and inequality in the broader social world of America. By looking at cross-racial interactions in friendships, dating, roommates and in student organizations, Byrd shows how the student's experiences rarely informed these elite college students' racial prejudice, and why these interactions fail to influence their attitudes and beliefs about one another. Poison in the Ivy challenges popular and scholarly beliefs about the importance of cross-racial interactions as an antidote to racism in the increasingly diverse United States. He shows that it is the context and framing of such interactions that suggest that racial attitudes and beliefs are rarely thought of as part and parcel of everyday life for the future political and professional leaders of the nation. Poison in the Ivy is an eye-opening look at race on elite college campuses, and offers lessons for anyone involved in modern American higher education. |
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| Physical Description: | xv, 244 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780813589374 0813589371 9780813589367 0813589363 |