A new study has found that black students experience more online racial discrimination and generally have a more negative view of campus racial diversity than their white counterparts.
Brendesha M. Tynes of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Suzanne L. Markoe of the University of California at Los Angeles will present their study at the American Educational Research Association conference on Monday. They used an online survey of 217 African-American and European-American college students to gauge factors such as online victimization, social networking, and campus racial climate.
The study found that the black students spent more time online than their white peers and had more diverse contact online. But black students reported higher rates of online victimization and more negative racial climate on their campuses.
Ms. Tynes, an education professor who was recently awarded a $1.4-million grant to study the effects of online racial discrimination, said the study could be significant for scholars examining campus climate. Results of the study will be released widely after journal review, Ms. Tynes said; the study has already undergone AERA review.
Ms. Tynes said online discrimination can be as simple as viewing a racist picture posted on Facebook, and the impact on students can be depression and anxiety. She also said the amount of hateful speech directed at African-Americans has risen sharply since the election of President Barack Obama.
But the impact of positive online contact appears to be less than its offline counterpart. According to the survey to be presented at the AERA conference, while diverse offline contact has been associated with a more positive campus for both black and white college students, similar online contact had no such effect.
It’s possible that the negative online interaction outweighs the positive, although that area needs further research, Ms. Tynes said.
Ms. Tynes and Ms. Markoe published another study relating to race and technology, which appearing in the March edition of the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. The study analyzed the responses of the same 217 college students to racially themed party images on Web sites such as Facebook.
About 60 percent of the black students surveyed said they were unambiguously bothered by the images, compared with only about 20 percent of their white peers. The study found that white students with “colorblind” racial attitudes, who believe racial differences in society do not or should not exist, were more likely to not take offense at those pictures; those low in colorblindness tended to display their opposition to those photos more vocally.
Ms. Tynes said that the relationship between the Internet and race is still a small field that needs much more study.
“Because I think the Internet is going to be a powerful tool in helping us to better communicate across racial groups, I think that studying this sort of range of aspects of online racial discrimination can move us forward,” Ms. Tynes said.
Know of any interesting research on college students’ online activity as it relates to race? Be sure to post it in the comments or send us a note via Twitter: @wiredcampus.
20 Responses to Black Students Experience More Online Bias Than Do Whites
ksokoya - April 30, 2010 at 5:14 pm
For Black students, these findings are a yawn. Of course, Blacks would encounter more racism and view the campus environment more negatively because…. they are most often the victims of racism. If you want to assess if a problem still exists, ask the population that is targeted.
realangel21 - April 30, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Let’s face it….older whites, especially in high profile positions in academia, politics, and other professional areans, for whatever reason, continue this dead end racist torment against blacks. Whites have ALWAYS felt that they founded this land and it’s theirs, and any other race, especially blacks, are unwanted. Many white feel this same with the spanish culture also. But here’s the kicker, whites feel that the spanish people have come to america illegally and our hard earn tax dollars are being used to take care of them, and their, Mom,Dads, cousins, sisters, cat, dogs, etc. HOWEVER, american born blacks are viewed as poor, slow, violent trouble makers…..I wonder why? Could it be that over four hundred years of treating a human being as an animal, withholding rights for an education, equal salaries, taking blacks as slaves, dividing families, raping women(many blacks looks like their white) could it be, that you created a monster that for all pretense purposes have rose from the ashes, to show up in school, in politics, in the arts,music, in affulent neighborhoods, not to mention the white house, this has given whites another reason to hate blacks even more. Which only supports the fact that whites are extremely fragile. Intimidated by what you precieve as thiers, and that being taken from them, by a race they force to come under slavery and bondage, so how dare blacks get an education(no blacks allowed)how dare blacks get a job (we don’t hire color folk)how dare blacks have money in the bank, want to raise a family, or build a business. How dare blacks, uh? This was your world , and contining the racist card will keep it that way, uh?
dashwood - April 30, 2010 at 5:34 pm
The headline and study description are terribly misleading. This study does not, as asserted, find “that black students experience more online racial discrimination.” Rather, this study finds that black students report more online racial discrimination. “Reporting more online discrimination” and “experiencing more online discrimination” are two very different things.I can think of at least two possible intepretations of these data. First, it is possible that black students actually experience more online discrimination. Second, it is possible that black students are far more racialized than their white counterparts and that they perceive discrimination and/or racialized messages where none exists.There is nothing definitive in the authors’ findings to support either conclusion. For the authors of the paper (and the writer of this story) to leap to that conclusion based on inconclusive data is problematic. Rather, this story should have reported simply that black students were more likely to state that they perceive discrimination in their online viewing than white students. That would have been the more accurate (and more reasonable) conclusion to be drawn from these data. This is also quite an interesting finding by itself without sensationalizing it with exaggerated claims not supported by the data.I do agree that Ms. Tynes contention that the relationship between the Internet and race is still a small field that needs much more study. But we must be much more careful in drawing inferences about racial discimination than is done in this study.
ray31 - April 30, 2010 at 5:43 pm
Racism does exists. It does not exclude color of skin, nationality, and culture. White, Asian, Black, Latino, Arab, Russian, and many other ethnicities and races are capable of discrimination. Youtube and Yahoo forums are places where online discrimination happens on both sides, like a civil war. Blacks shouting racial insults at whites and vice versa. Its appalling to see this behavior. I guess that is what freedom of expression has brought to this country. There is no need to spend 1.4 million dollars to figure out that online racial discrimination against blacks exist. It exists against Asians, Latinos, and yes even whites as well. One thing that bothers me about this survey is that European-Americans were all lumped as “white”. Are these “White” students decendents of the Spaniards, Irish, Italian, Polish, Greek, Portugese, other European nationalities. There is a lot of online racial diversity among “White” people. Does a person have to be brown or dark skinned to experience more diverse racial contact? If there are racist photos against a certain race, of course the target race will be offended. There are plenty of women who become offended by photos that depict women negatively. You don’t need 1.4 million dollars to figure that out. You also don’t need millions to figure out that a different race and ethinicity may not find it offensive. For example, recent events regarding muslims and southpark. I believe there are a lot of images on the internet depicting blacks in a negative light. The million dollar question is what. What can we do with this survey? To be frank, this is a very small survey targeting a small population of people. I would like to see a lot more people surveyed across a broad range of locations across the US.
eelalien - April 30, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Dr. Tynes future research using the $1.4 mil. grant should be of extreme interest to those who teach 100% online courses. The fact is that the students’ racial information is typically unknown to the online instructor, as is the racial “identity” of the instructor to the students. The online venue is actually a fairly good equalizer in that, unless a student’s name is of foreign derivation or, in some cases, of American “Africanization”, neither side should have a clue as to the racial identity of the other. Should prejudices appear in this online environment, there ought to be fairly specific variables that identify such.
cellini12 - April 30, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Since you have all so eloquently covered the topic of racial hatred, bigotry, etc. lets cover the topic of waste; 1.4 million dollars to interview 217 students about a topic everyone seems to already know the answers to. What will actually be done with this statistically insignificant database of information? Will a solution be found to irradicate prejudice? Will speech or images that promote “depression and isolation” due to racial bigotry be outlawed from the Internet? Well, we can’t do that…the ACLU will interpret that as infringing on people’s freedom of expression. And the Supreme Court would have to strick down any such legislation. So, nothing can be legally done to prevent this from appearing on the WWW. Racist groups of all colors will continue to exist, You Tube will continue to allow bigots to post videos of their poisoned views and people of color, Arab-Americans, Jews, Pakistanis, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and European-Americans, will all encounter bias and bigotry on the web. Nothing will come of this wasted 1.4 million dollar. Ms. Tynes will not have any significant or real results that will improve the quality of the online experience for anyone and every taxpayer, White, Black, Yellow or Brown, will have paid for yet another idiotic study. The only positive outcome of this is that Ms Tynes will be awarded tenure or get rich from speaking engagements. Beyond that, nothing will change.And by the way, anyone who feels entitled to make the sweeping comments about Whites feeling entitled and Whites viewing Hispanics as all being freeloading illegal aliens is a bigot themselves. Accusing an entire group of people, whatever their race, color or religion, of acting all together in one certain way is displaying prejudice of the worst kind.
idixon - April 30, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Good dialog and some interesting statements which is the entire purpose of academic research. Before we get too carried away with the position that money was wasted on this study, most working folks would view the vast majority of academic research as wasted money. Most academic resarch does not change anything (nor does good research purport to do that) so let us not hold Mr. Tynes or her colleague to a different standard for their work. Their work is meant to inspire discussion and that is the standard for all academic research, inspire thoughtful (civil if you will) discussion.
swish - April 30, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Wow, realangel21, if you get that angry from reading such a ho-hum article, you *must* be viewing and reading things on the internet through very different eyes than mine. And cellini12, you must’ve had a bad day, too.Perhaps the entire $1.4 million was not all used up on this little survey? Maybe the survey was just a preliminary investigation to help determine the direction of the real research?That said, I do agree with the critics. It’s a no-brainer — not worth reporting on. And as to feeling depression and anxiety: don’t we all see things online that make us feel that way? Heck, a lot of the comments I’ve seen in the *Chronicle* have made me feel that way. That’s the way it goes in our diverse society.
realangel21 - April 30, 2010 at 9:27 pm
No swish, I wasn’t angry when I wrote my comment, just a little in a hurry. On the other hand, my comments did derived in part from black and white college students that I mentor, and have followed from jr high school. Both tell me what they’ve experience and how they feel, many are best friends, this newer generation would like to bury racism for good. Their sick and tired of hearing about the great black/white divide, and frankly I am too. Those grants are hard to come by, so to get a grant of this magnitude, one would hope it could be very effective, even bring on a change, but as my prote’ge says, rascism goes far deeper than online. Grants for research such as this one, would be better utlize in communties both poor and affulent, cooporate america, and even on wall street. While where researching, we may uncover information that we can really use.
chroniclebarnacle - May 1, 2010 at 9:54 am
Why, oh why can’t we just love one another? There are so many beautiful people in the world of all skin colors. I challenge your all to check your biases at the door and treat your fellow man & woman as you would like to be treated- this would be a good start to letting go of descrimination on both sides of the issue. If you haven’t a positive word, gesture, or attitude to offer- try keeping it to your self instead of poisoning the world with hatred. Somebody famous said it well- “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I suppose the author assumed that person would have a noble intent!
rick1952 - May 1, 2010 at 4:47 pm
While I agree that basic research is often a good thing that is often misinterpreted or misunderstood by those of us not directly involved in the research, I none-the-less agree that there may be better uses made of research funds in the future. I think we all would agree that all people, individually and collectively, can engage in discriminatory behavior – there is enough human history to demonstrate that “us vs. them” attitudes and concommitant behavior is not simply a “white vs. black” phenomenon; the on-line environment is just a new venue for this behavior.So, could we get $1.4 million, or even larger amounts, to fund research that helps us understand what can diminish the human propensity to engage in harmful discrimination and encourage the willingness to build positive relationships across differences? I am aware of several efforts, insufficiently funded both from a research as well as an implementation perspective, to promote understanding across lines of difference. Examples: the National Coalition Building Institute, the Anti-Defamation League, the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, and the Interfaith Youth Core (the former two being long-standing while the latter two are of more recent vintage.) We know what our problem is; what we don’t know enough about is how to overcome the human propensity to engage in discriminatory behavior. More money directed at research and implementation on this front would be money well-spent today and for generations to come.
philostitute - May 2, 2010 at 12:29 pm
I am surprised that no academic has mentioned the media’s complicity in creating an America crippled by depictions of “otherness” in the most negative light. We have to change the images and dilute the influence of major media networks if we want this to end. Hence, this is a political issue playing out on all corporate owned media channels including the Internet.Simply put our corporate controlled media generates images that emphasize cultural differences in the most negative stereotypical fashion. Middle and working class citizens buy into the media characterizations and we have a poltical discourse that emphasiszes difference for the purpose of dividing natural allies in the electorate. For example, on Fox News the sub-prime mortgage meltdown is portrayed as a problem prepetuated by underserving borrowers who plotted to buy homes they could not afford. Though middle and working class citizens should be for more financial regulation, they are diverted into thinking that it was the irresponsible among them that brought the ecoonomy down, a ruse indeed. With a divide and conquer strategy in the media, blame for economic/social injustices is heaped upon the victims of those practices. It serves the power elite if the rabble do not get along. If we are busy stereotyping and harming one another, a light can never shine on structural inequities that permit the perpetuation of racism, sexism and myriad forms of discimination based on false “labels”. Let’s look at the causes and conditions that create the possibility that racism will take root and open a compassionate dialogue about mainstream corporate media. Also let’s unplug our kids and get busy closer to home respecting one another. We can lead by example, but it will take a lot of people to reject media depictions before these images are no longer viable depicitons.
spowell14 - May 2, 2010 at 8:16 pm
It would be interesting to find out what types of online victimization was being reported.
lowrie - May 3, 2010 at 7:21 am
“For example, on Fox News the sub-prime mortgage meltdown is portrayed as a problem prepetuated by underserving borrowers who plotted to buy homes they could not afford.”This sounds like a comment from someone who doesn’t watch Fox News, but bases their opinion on this channel from far-left liberal website reviews of what happens on that network. As a regular watcher, I can tell you definitively that this statement is categorically false. What you do hear on Fox is that the underlying cause of the mortgage meltdown was due to government programs that created the conditions whereby banks were either encouraged and/or forced to give out these loans. I have not heard one reporter or commentator ever blame those who received the loans as being responsible for the mess.
philostitute - May 3, 2010 at 11:47 am
Lowrie: I’ve watched Fox News and they haven’t a shred of truth in their analysis. The station is a propganda arm run by a “naturalized Australian” (Murdoch) who would like to see our social safety dismantled and shredded. No one can force anyone to provide a loan. That’s ludicrous. Faux News is not a credible source; they are the mouthpiece for the Republican party, neo-con contingent. If you follow their financial advice/analyses regarding the economy on any program, you’ll be penniless soon enough.
philostitute - May 3, 2010 at 11:47 am
Lowrie: I’ve watched Fox News and they haven’t a shred of truth in their analysis. The station is a propganda arm run by a “naturalized Australian” (Murdoch) who would like to see our social safety dismantled and shredded. No one can force anyone to provide a loan. That’s ludicrous. Faux News is not a credible source; they are the mouthpiece for the Republican party, neo-con contingent. If you follow their financial advice/analyses regarding the economy on any program, you’ll be penniless soon enough.
dkugoe - May 3, 2010 at 2:43 pm
This has to be a huge waste of money. It seems the same data was used for both studies. The amount of data milking is absurd. We need to fund better studies in academia instead of the same stuff. There is nothing new about what Ms. Tynes is publishing. This is clearly an indication that the researchers were familiar with the granting agency. We need to have better checks and balances to ensure that our tax dollars are not wasted on frivolous research. There is a tendency to focus on negative non-productive non-relevant research. Money should be spent on funding women and people of color on developing positive connections on the Internet. It is unfortunate that we are still focused on those statements like “more racism experienced among students of color” instead of focusing on creating spaces where change can happen that focuses on bridging racial divides.
philostitute - May 6, 2010 at 9:18 am
Lowrie: I’ve watched Fox News and they haven’t a shred of truth in their analysis. The station is a propganda arm run by a “naturalized Australian” (Murdoch) who would like to see our social safety dismantled and shredded. No one can force anyone to provide a loan. That’s ludicrous. Faux News is not a credible source; they are the mouthpiece for the Republican party, neo-con contingent. If you follow their financial advice/analyses regarding the economy on any program, you’ll be penniless soon enough.
philostitute - May 6, 2010 at 9:37 am
Lowrie: I’ve watched Fox News and they haven’t a shred of truth in their analysis. The station is a propganda arm run by a “naturalized Australian” (Murdoch) who would like to see our social safety dismantled and shredded. No one can force anyone to provide a loan. That’s ludicrous. Faux News is not a credible source; they are the mouthpiece for the Republican party, neo-con contingent. If you follow their financial advice/analyses regarding the economy on any program, you’ll be penniless soon enough.
honore - May 12, 2010 at 9:57 am
realdangel,WOW, I don’t even know where to begin with your ignorant rant. There is no doubt that Sub-Saharan blacks have been at the bottom of the social,economic ladder in this HEMISPHERE for 500 years.NO ONE could argue that, EXCEPT Native Americans from the South Pole to the North Pole, who have seen their entire culture and physical presence almost erased completely. There is no doubt that Blacks in No. America, Central and So. America are at the bottom and only an idiot would argue against that reality. And no amount of bogus touchy-feely “can’t we just all get along” campus “diversity” workshops will change that…NOT even with a mulatto president in the White House.However, your “points” about the “Spanish” are WAY OFF base and on the verge of sliding off the monitor screen into the garbage can of stupidity. FIRST of all, the only “Spanish” are IN SPAIN! Yes, there are Spanish-descended, Latin-Cultured and Spanish/Portuguese speaking people in the American Hemisphere, BUT we stopped call Mexican Indians with Spanish names, “Spanish” about the same time we stopped calling African-Americans “darkies”.And as a point of information, the people you so cavalierly refer to as “Spanish” in many instances are NOT Spanish but of other European, Asian, Middle Eastern of Sub-Saharan African background.Speaking Spanish does NOT transform someone’s race.Now, I DO realize that in the current American context of hemispheric myopia and ethno-stupidity, THAT simple reality is WAY TOO large to fit into the average American brain regardless of race, but that is DEMOGRAPHIC truth.The former President of Peru was Japanese (Fujimori), the former President of Mexican was of Europe-descent (White American father/European mother), the colonial governors of Puerto Rico for over 500 years have been Spanish, Irish, Corsican, Mallorcan, Basque, Galician etc, the former president of Argentina is/was German (Kirchner), the fomer president of Chile is of French descent (Bachelet). But why would we want to understand THOSE factual realities when we can get our “Spanish” information from the Taco Bell Chihuahua, Cheech & Chong or from a tattoo on J Lo’s butt.