Refuting the Stereotype That African-American College Students Are Obsessed With Black Studies

New Department of Education figures shows that the stereotypical view of the African-American college student rushing into black studies majors is totally false. Only 1,095, or 0.7 percent, of all African-American bachelor’s degree recipients received their degree in any type of ethnic or gender studies. Therefore, only one out of every 134 bachelor’s degrees awarded to blacks was in ethnic or gender studies.

In fact, there are more blacks who majored in the physical sciences — a field in which there are very few African Americans — than African Americans who earned their degree in black studies. There are nearly five times as many blacks majoring in computer science and more than five times as many blacks majoring in the biological sciences than in black studies.

Blacks make up only 13.4 percent of the students earning bachelor’s degrees in ethnic or gender studies. There are four times as many whites as there were blacks who earned bachelor’s degrees in ethnic or gender studies.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.