Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Daily effects of indoctrination, part eight 

This is part eight of a continuing series, background here. Previous drawings can be found via yesterday's item here and a billboard for the other six here. This appears in the classroom and office building stairwell nearest my office, and has been left up for months.

I am not interested, for those who have asked, in having this display taken down. It's not my job to decide what the university wants to present to students, staff and visitors (read: parents and incoming freshmen visiting campus for orientation). I would rather have this material out there for people to see, as it is my opinion that this is what the campus views as part of its function.

The yellow-faced person to the left is lecturing a group of stick figures drawn in brown sitting in chairs, as if the person to the left is leading a classroom. The balloon voices for the leader or lecturer, "In today's meeting everyone will listen to me! Because I am the boss!" 83% of SCSU faculty are white, as is about 80% of the student body. (Data from here.) Less than 3% are black, and 7% domestic-born students of color overall. More than 6% are international students. I'm not sure the university this picture describes; had the student-artist drawn one student of color in a classroom with otherwise all-white students (and a white faculty member), I would get the point. One might then discuss the white valedictorian at Morehouse.

Along that line, your discussion question for today: Last year two researchers at the Virginia Tech claimed that students who attended historically black colleges and universities earned higher income than those (black) students did in more diverse universities. Here's a link to VaTech's press release; I do not see a copy of the paper itself, but its abstract is available. Assuming these findings are valid, how would you explain them?

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