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Kelly Chu
CAS 138T
Ben Henderson
April 14 2016
Know Your Colors
Race has always been a sensitive issue especially in the United States. From privilege and
entitlement to oppression and appropriation, problems stemming from race has made its presence
in the media, the government, and in our everyday lives. These problems mainly exist because of
misunderstandings, stereotypes and discrimination which can be cured through education.
Currently cultural diversity has been at its peak and it will only continue to grow in future years
-- this is also evident in the United States college student population. Since the end of World
War II, U. S. colleges and universities have become increasingly more diverse.
(Multiculturalism in Higher). Targeting college students would be beneficial because they are
the future leaders, employers, and owners of this world and will be capable of terminating racial
profiling in younger generations. To educate college students on cultural diversity, fulfilling a
course on multiculturalism should be set as a graduation requirement in order to receive a degree
from a 4-year college or university.
There are misrepresentations in the media that only portrays races with their generalized
stereotype and therefore reinforcing the idea that everyone in the certain group embodies the
stereotype. Some examples of these stereotypes would be every Black person is dangerous, every
Hispanic person came in this country illegally, every Asian is going to hack the U.S, and all
White people are racist. A show notorious for perpetuating racial generalizations is Family Guy.
In one episode, a character said, What kind of man would I be if I just ran off now? and

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another character responded with, Well, youd be a black man. This reinforces the stereotype
that black men are athletic and tend to run away often whether it is because of stealing or
avoiding responsibilities. If a person grew up in a non-culturally diverse community with slim or
none interaction with another race, the only exposure that person would have to that race would
be the stereotypes displayed in the media. Mass media is an effective educator. From the alphabet
and numbers in childrens programming to how many murders happened in the world today,
mass media teaches the population whatever it chooses to present including racial stereotypes.
One of the reasons why prejudice is prevalent in society is simply because of ignorance.
The dominant culture that makes up most of the college population is Caucasians; therefore,
most students are barely exposed to minority cultures. Although the percentage of minority
students enrolled in colleges and universities are increasing while the Caucasian percentage is
decreasing, the Caucasians percentage is still overbearing. In 2012, 60 percent of college
students are White (National Center for). Being unaffected and unaware of cultural divide is
one of the symptoms of being a part of the dominant culture. Being educated on different types
of cultures would diminish the stereotypes and act as a catalyst for more inter-racial interactions.
The wall of ignorance is also present between fellow minority groups as well. For
example, in February 2016, there was a misunderstanding between the Black and Chinese
population. February is known as National Black History Month and on this year, Chinese New
Year also fell in the month of February. According to the Chinese Calendar, this year is the year
of the monkey, so a purple monkey was the design of T-shirts for a basketball teams, The Kings,
giveaway in efforts to celebrate The New Year; however, the shirts were never given to the
public because the Kings president, Chris Granger, removed the shirts due to a couple of racial
concerns (Perez). The shirts were not meant to be offensive, just merely to celebrate Chinese

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New Year, but some of the Black population was not aware of its intentions and meaning. This
misunderstanding would not have been a problem if the Black population was informed and
Chinese intentions were made clear.
Because of a general lack of information about several cultures, acts of discrimination
and prejudice are visible on college campuses nationally. An act of prejudice happened during
November 2015 on the University of Missouri made national headlines when a senior, Peyton
Head, was verbally attacked because of his skin color. He stated, I really just want to know
why my simple existence is such a threat to society (Calamur). Another act of prejudice
happened at The Pennsylvania State University when an Indian student was physically and
verbally assaulted because of his preconceived race. A student, Nicholas Tavella, grabbed the
Indian student by his throat and said, Dont make me put a bullet in your chest (Marino). Court
documents states Tavella threatened him because the Indian student appeared to be of MiddleEastern descent and was acting suspicious. These cases show racist acts because of
discrimination. Therefore, by providing these students with education about minorities and
enforcing the idea that groups do not conform to stereotypes may prevent tragic events such as
these in the future.
To educate the students, the multiculturalism course would consist of a course load
covering a variety of cultures from different perspectives. The course will be a discussion based
history course focusing on analyzing stereotypes throughout the media. The readings would be
written by authors of different cultures explaining their lives in the United States. The purpose of
the readings is to expose the students to different types of perspectives and experiences. In a
survey of New York Times articles published in 2011, author and cultural commentator Roxane
Gay discovered that nearly 90 percent of the reviewed books were authored by white writers.

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Among Amazon editors top 20 picks of 2014, just three authors were minorities(Govinnage).
The population is mainly exposed to a certain point of view and not an aerial view. Reading a
book about Hispanic culture written by a person of white descent does not have a same
validation as a book about Hispanic culture written by a person of hispanic descent.
Incorporating texts written by authors about their respective culture will provides new insight
about topics students do not experience themselves.
In addition to the readings discussion will also be a part of the class. The facilitator of the
discussions will be the professor. The professors who will teach this class will be taken from the
universitys cultural department. Before this policy is taken into effect, all the cultural studies
professors must gather and give a lecture in their respected field; therefore, the professors are
informed about a variety of the culture the multiculturalism course will entail. In compliment of
the instructors, there will be guest lecturers of different races that will simply state where they
are from, how they grew up, experience and what they do. Through this, students would be
exposed to other peoples traits other than their respective stereotypes.
Educating students on multiculturalism would be implemented in the requirements of
general education or the core curriculum. General Education is something every students has to
fulfill regardless of major choice to earn a degree from a 4-year university. Joseph Urgo, a
Provost at the University of North Carolina Asheville, suggests general requirements should be
looked at as civic preparations (Urgo). In other words, the goal of general education is to foster
people who will participate in helping their community. A community could have a connotation
of a neighborhood, a town, a city, a state, a country, or the world. Regardless of area range, a
community consists of people with different values, beliefs, traditions, and culture; therefore, a
course on multiculturalism should be implemented as general education.

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It is feasible to pass a policy on requiring a course on multiculturalism in order to receive
a diploma because efforts to help rid prejudice with a multiculturalism required course has been
taken into effect by many colleges across the nation. Although universities are showing the desire
to promote diversity, there are flaws in the current system. Many schools have a diversity course
requirement; however, the policy limits students with only one exposure to a certain culture.
Students are only required to take a course on a separate specific culture such as Italian,
Japanese, Brazilian, etc. This only exposes the students to one culture and although that is better
than none, it is still not a holistic picture. This multiculturalism course will expose students to
entire culture spectrum.
Some will argue that this course would be fostering a particular or biased view of cultural
diversity. The purpose of this course is not to teach students what to think, but rather simply
exposing the students with different perspectives before they form opinions strictly from
stereotypes. This course will be like a history course. History is biased, everything is written
through someone elses perspective. Another class this multicultural course will resemble is
literature. Analyzing stereotypes in the media and figuring out what message they are trying to
convey is similar to analyzing a portion of a text in English class. The goal of this course is not to
brainwash students into being liberals, but to inform the students as to how history shaped
society today and to educate the students that stereotypes are not always true and that there is
more to a person than societys generalizations about a certain group.
Another refute would be people may not pay attention and just breeze through the course
without actually caring. This viewpoint will not be any different than students opinion on other
classes. Some students will breeze through courses paying no heed, while some have the intrinsic
desire to pay attention and learn. On top of that, this class may be the only opportunity students

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are learning about other cultures; therefore, the availability of opportunity is better than no
opportunity at all. People tend to gravitate towards people similar to themselves. According to a
Reuters/Ipsos poll, 40 percent of white Americans and about 25 percent of non-white Americans
are surrounded exclusively by friends of their own race (Dunsmuir). Instating this course could
encourage opening doors to interracial interaction.
On top of possibility ending acts of prejudice, educating students on culture will give
students different kinds of knowledge which will benefit them socially and academically. Both
informal and formal interracial interactions increase cross-ethnic friendships, which lead to lower
interethnic anxiety and more positive attitudes where students live and work (Garces). Being
informed about cultural diversity will make students more opened to interacting with a person of
a different race, thus creating a new opportunity of knowledge and academic growth. Garces also
states that, diverse backgrounds improve students critical thinking skills and academic selfconfidence (Garces). With an increase in critical thinking and academic self-confidence, a
students academic performance is also increased. Educating students on culture have benefits
inside and outside of the classroom.
One of the major goals of college is to prepare students to achieve in the work field. As
diversity within the United States is increasing, diversity within the work field is too; therefore,
preparing future employees with a global knowledge will only be beneficial to their future.
Census data shows that, between 2000 and 2050 new immigrants and their children will account
for 83 percent of the growth in the working-age population (Kerby). Cooperation in the work
field will be smoother when employees understand a portion of their background. On top of
cooperation skills, leadership skills are also improved with education of cultural diversity. Of
321 large global enterprisescompanies with at least $500 million in annual revenuesurveyed

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in a Forbes study in 2011, 85 percent agreed or strongly agreed that diversity is crucial to
fostering innovation in the workplace (Kerby). With knowledge of a variety of cultures, a
plethora of new methods and a new way of thinking can promote change or a breakthrough from
a typical path due to only one type of view. Being culturally aware will advance ones way of
thinking.
The increase in United States cultural diversity is affecting everyone and therefore being
educated on the topic would be beneficial in getting rid of prejudice as well as improving
personal interactions and academic performance. Implementing a course on multiculturalism is
not going to change everything but it is a necessary key to unlocking the door to understanding
and valuing cultural diversity. This course is important because the preconceived notions of
certain groups before interacting with them is detrimental to self-growth and impeding further
advancement in society. The United States have a dirty history regarding race and it is time to
move forward, not backwards. Racial issues seem to be literally and figuratively Black and
White; however through this multiculturalism course, students will be informed otherwise and
hopefully the gradual change will be visible nationwide as well.

Works Cited
Calamur, Krishnadev. "What's Happening at the University of Missouri?" The Atlantic. Atlantic
Media Company, 9 Nov. 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.
Dunsmuir, Lindsay. "Many Americans Have No Friends of Another Race: Poll." Reuters.
Thomson Reuters, 08 Aug. 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.

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Garces, Liliana. "Balancing Liberty and Equality." Balancing Liberty and Equality. University of
Texas, 9 Oct. 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Govinnage, Sunili. "I Read Books by Only Minority Authors for a Year. It Showed Me Just How
White Our Reading World Is." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 24 Apr. 2015.
Web. 07 Apr. 2016.
Kerby, Sophia. "The Top 10 Economic Facts of Diversity in the Workplace." Center For
American Progress. N.p., 12 July 2012. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.
Marino, Mark. "Student Charged with Felony Ethnic Intimidation of an Indian Student." The
Daily Collegian. The Daily Collegian, 8 Dec. 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.
"Multiculturalism in Higher Education - Demographics and Debates About Inclusion, An Aerial
View of National Diversity Requirements." - Students, Curriculum, Courses, and
American. Education Encyclopedia, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.
Perez, A.J. "Sacramento Kings Remove 'Year of the Monkey' Shirts before Game." USA Today.
N.p., 2 Feb. 2016. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
Urgo, Joseph. "From General Education to Civic Preparation: The Public Purpose of the Liberal
Arts and Sciences." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 4 Nov. 2014. Web. 07
Apr. 2016.