What Is It Like to Be a Minority Student at a Predominantly White Institution?

What Is It Like to Be a Minority Student at a Predominantly White Institution?

Lucila T. Rudge
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 19
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-4507-5.ch046
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Abstract

This study examines the differences in experiences and perceptions of campus climate of 38 minority students enrolled in a predominantly white institution (PWI). African American students, Native American students, gender and sexually diverse students, students with disabilities, Latinx students, and international students participated in the study. About half of the participants reported negative experiences with racism and discrimination on campus whereas the other half reported the opposite. Attribution to discrimination theory informed the theoretical framework of this study and the data analysis. Policy recommendations to improve the climate of diversity on university campus are provided.
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Theoretical Framework

Attribution theory is concerned with the ways in which individuals explain events and people’s behavior. Research on attributions to discrimination examines how people respond to social disadvantage and negative treatment and how specific examples are explained (Crocker & Major, 1989; Major & Dover, 2016; Major & Sawyer, 2009; Schmitt et al., 2014). Major, Quinton, and McCoy (2002) define attribution to discrimination as having two primary elements: a) a judgment that treatment was based on social identity or group membership; and b) a judgment that treatment was unjust or undeserved. Events are prone to be attributed to discrimination when both elements are present. In other words, “people are most likely to say that they were discriminated against when they feel they were treated unfairly because of their social identity” (Major & Dover, 2016, p. 215). According to social psychologists, perceptions and attributions to discrimination are often subjective, disputable, and dependent on a number of psychological factors. Research in this area reveals that

…two people can often see or experience the same event and explain it quite differently, depending on their cultural beliefs, expectations, location in the status-hierarchy, and personality characteristics. This is particularly true when discrimination is ambiguous. Thus, people who are chronically high in stigma consciousness or race-rejection sensitivity are more vigilant for prejudice cues and likely to interpret ambiguous events as discrimination (Major & Dover, 2016, p. 224).

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