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COLLEGE
STUDENTS INCREASINGLY TOLERANT OF OTHER RACIAL AND ETHNIC GROUPS,
ACCORDING TO NEW NATIONAL SURVEY
- Post-
September 11 study by William Paterson University sociology professor
is first in 25 years to examine individuals’ social acceptance
of other groups
- Respondents
in East generally less tolerant than those in other parts of the
country
College students
in the United States more fully accept members of other racial and
ethnic groups than ever before, despite their country’s greater
diversity and the aftermath of September 11, according to a new national
study on race and ethnic attitudes.
The new study, conducted by Vincent Parrillo, a professor of sociology
at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., replicated national
studies conducted in 1926, 1946, 1956, 1966, and 1977 to measure social
distance, people’s personal feelings about their social acceptance
of other groups. According to Parrillo, the survey revealed encouraging
news about the country in terms of greater acceptance of diversity.
"What we found is evidence of what could be called a ‘unity
syndrome’ following the tragic events of last September,"
Parrillo suggested. "Bonded together as Americans under attack,
as a people we united against a common foe. Only time will tell how
lasting this new spirit is."
As in previous studies, respondents were undergraduate and graduate
students at colleges and universities across the nation, drawn from
a scientifically selected random sample. A total of 2,916 students
enrolled in 22 colleges and universities throughout the United States
participated. The national survey sample represented four geographic
regions: East, South, Midwest, and West.
Participants were asked to respond in a written survey to seven indicators
of social distance ranging from the highest level of tolerance ("would
accept marrying into my family") to the lowest level of tolerance
("would bar from entering my country") for 30 different
groups. To reflect U.S. society’s changed demographics since
1977, the new study removed some smaller and mostly assimilated groups
(such as Armenians, Czechs, Finns, Norwegians, Scots, Swedes) and
added more recently arrived and larger groups (Arabs, Cubans, Dominicans,
Haitians, Jamaicans, Muslims, Vietnamese). The more an individual
was willing to accept members of another group from among these choices,
the better that group’s social distance score.
Responses were fairly similar in each region of the country, although
according to Parrillo, responses from participants in the East expressed
generally less tolerance of other ethnic groups, especially Muslims
and Arabs.
According to the results, African Americans gained their greatest
level of social acceptance, moving from 17th place in 1977 to ninth
place in the current study, even jumping ahead of some white ethnic
groups such as the Dutch, Jews, Polish and Russians. This marked a
significant change in racial attitudes, as a high percentage of whites
expressed a willingness to accept blacks in close, personal relationships.
Another surprising finding, according to Parrillo, was the placement
of Italians as second, closely behind U.S. whites, the latter group
consistently first in all studies. A highly ostracized group 100 years
ago, Italians in this study placed ahead of Canadians, British, and
Irish for the first time. A key factor in this ranking was that Asians,
blacks, and Hispanics all indicated they were more tolerant of Italians
than of other white ethnic groups, while whites also indicated high
social tolerance of Italians.
Not surprisingly, according to Parrillo, Muslims and Arabs ranked
in the last two places in the national sample. "However,"
says Parrillo, "even though these groups scored in the bottom
of the rankings, their social acceptance scores were nonetheless better
than for the bottom 18 groups in the 1977 study, indicating that Americans
are more accepting of these and other ethnic groups overall."
Most Hispanic groups ranked in the middle third, while most Asian
groups ranked in the bottom third. Notable exceptions, according to
Parrillo, were the Filipinos and Chinese in the middle, and Cubans,
who surprisingly ranked in the bottom third behind all other Hispanic
groups as well as Jamaicans. Further, respondents in the East ranked
Cubans lower than did those in the Midwest, South, or West.
"We must be cautious in our interpretation of what exactly this
attitudinal evidence tells us," Parrillo added, "as there
is an oft-existing discrepancy between individuals’ expressed
attitudes and their actions. Also, since this study only captures
social acceptance of groups at a given moment in time, it is neither
conclusive nor indicative of new patterns. We’ll need to conduct
this social distance study several more times in the years ahead to
get a clearer picture of how tolerant Americans remain in their ever-growing
multi-racial, multi-cultural society."
Parrillo is author of numerous scholarly articles and books in the
field of immigration, race and ethnic relations, some translated into
eight languages. A frequent lecturer at universities throughout Canada,
Europe and the United States, he is listed in International Who’s
Who in Education and received the Outstanding Educator of America
award. He was also the producer, writer and narrator of two television
documentaries: "Ellis Island: Gateway to America" (1990),
and "Smokestacks and Steeples: A Portrait of Paterson" (1992).
The Eastern Sociological society is a non-profit organization dedicated
to promoting excellence in sociological scholarship and instruction.
The oldest of five such regional associations in the United States,
the Society has approximately 1,000 members and is currently headquartered
at William Paterson University.
William Paterson University, one of the nine state colleges and universities
in New Jersey, offers 30 undergraduate and 18 graduate programs through
five colleges: Arts and Communication, Business, Education, Humanities
and Social Sciences, and Science and Health. Located on 370 hilltop
acres in Wayne, the University enrolls approximately 10,500 students
and provides housing for nearly 2,300 students. The institution’s
363 full-time faculty are highly distinguished and diverse scholars
and teachers, many of whom are recipients of prestigious awards and
grants from the Fulbright Program (26 scholars), the Guggenheim Foundation,
the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes
of Health, the National Science Foundation and the American Philosophical
Society.
- 3/7/02
For
Further Information, contact:
- Mary
Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966
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