Asian-American College Students Report a Low Comfort Level When Dealing With African-American College Students

Much has been written about the relationships and interaction of black and white students on the campuses of colleges and universities in the United States. But there has been very little research on how Asian students interact with whites and blacks.

Researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah surveyed white and Asian students about their attitudes on race relations. As expected, both whites and Asians told researchers that they were more comfortable associating with members of their own race.

Outside their race, Asians were most comfortable associating with whites and least comfortable in relationships with African Americans. Whites who participated in the survey were least comfortable dealing with Latinos and most comfortable dealing with blacks.

The authors speculate the reason that whites reported they were most comfortable in dealing with blacks is because there are few African Americans at the university. They believe that whites’ perceptions about blacks were derived more from media representations of blacks in entertainment and sports rather than from interpersonal relationships.