Ethnic Housing Essay Ethnic housing at colleges may create underlying problems. It is unnecessary to separate different ethnicities when students are going to have to face the problems for the rest of their lives. If the students prolong the process of getting used to a racially mixed world, then it will be harder for them when in an older age and time. The world is constantly trying to fuse all the different races together socially so that it makes for a better environment for future generations. By separating the different ethnicities, even though it may make most people more comfortable, the problems embedded in the world will never be resolved. This will create an even more diverse environment, which brings us back to the early 1900s when blacks and whites had different drinking fountains let alone different accommodations. Even a discussion of a possibility of ethnic housing makes everything difficult. Students may want ethnic housing but over all it is a mistake. A man mentioned in Lydia Lum’s article did not,”want to risk being the only black student in a hall or an entire floor elsewhere on campus” (Lum 2008). If students avoid the risk of being the only black student and live in a black only dorm, then they may never become accustomed to a racially mixed environment. This would create a problem for when they are older and in the work place with other races. Since Rebecca Lee Parker was already,” attending a majority-white high school, [her] decision wasn’t difficult” (Parker 1997). She was introduced to a racially mixed surrounding earlier in life. So when the time came to choose between mixed or not mixed housing, it was no different from what she was already used to. Also, most of the time,” not all and not even the majority of Latinos at Stanford live in ethnic theme housing” (Sydney 2008). Now-a-days not very many races feel it necessary to segregate themselves from people of other ethnicities. It takes too much energy in the long run to avoid a majority of the college one may attend. Students tend to give in and some of them eventually begin to like other races, and learn a lot from them as well. All in all bending over backwards just to remain with a group of the same ethnicity does not seem important anymore. Sure, keeping to one’s roots and culture is indubitably important, however sharing that same culture with people of a different background is important too. Learning from other people is how humans connect and broad their horizons. Works Cited Diverse Online Web Site. (2008). L.Lurn. Retrieved January 4, 2009, from http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_12054.shtml Special Housing for Ethnic Students Web Site. (1997). R. Parker. Retrieved January 4, 2009, from https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/hschein/www/readings/diversity/ethnic-housing.html Cross – Cultural Blog Web Site. (2008). Retrieved January 1, 2009, from |