Racial and ethnic diversity in schools: Why is important?
by Jonathan Ward
One of the most difficult, long and exhausting days of my childhood was Immigration Day — a day in which every person from my fifth grade class was given a made-up identity and assigned the task of passing through Ellis Island, an old immigration inspection station. This was especially challenging because many of our assumed personas were at the mercy of the ruthless PTA moms — I mean, immigration officers — who occasionally denied us entry based on the grounds of sickness, physical disability or culture.
As a white fifth grader who grew up in a wealthy area of North Texas, this day marked one of the first experiences in my life to broaden my worldview and help me see life through the perspective of another culture. This day was humbling.
Experiences such as these were common for me because I grew up attending relatively racially diverse schools. According to Motovo Real Estate’s demographic report from 2010, 48 percent of the student body at Rice Middle School — my middle school — is Asian, which means I was in the ethnic minority. The Texas Tribune also reported in 2010 that the student population of Plano Independent School District was roughly 11 percent African American, 49 percent white, 19 percent Hispanic and 21 percent Asian — a relatively diverse school district given the national school average.
All of my friends who grew up in these schools with me recognized this racial and ethnic diversity — and we celebrated it.
Granted, we didn’t necessarily celebrate our differences deliberately by constantly bringing up our skin colors; instead, we merely spent a lot of time together and strengthened our connections as human beings. Celebrating diversity almost became a by-product of these friendships, rather than the central focus or goal of our relationships.
Personally, I think racial and ethnic diversity is a vital component to a rich and rewarding educational experience, and I believe racial diversity enhances nearly every facet of a school environment. By constantly sharing and learning about cultures other than my own, my worldview expanded vastly and enabled me to perform better in my all of my classes, especially literature, humanities and history.
I’m certainly not the only one who feels this way. According to an article titled, “The Educational Benefits Of Sustaining Cross-Racial Interaction Among Undergraduates” by Mitchell J. Chang, Nida Denson, Victor Sáenz and Kimberly Misa, racial diversity in a collegiate environment improves students’ “knowledge of and ability to accept different races [and] cultures, growth in general knowledge, critical thinking ability, and problem-solving skills, and intellectual and social self-confidence.”
It’s no coincidence that racial diversity promotes enhanced learning. There was a running joke at my senior high school that all of the top-ranked students were Asian and that the Asian students received amazing grades in all of their classes — granted, even though this was a racial stereotype, it turns out it’s not too far from the truth.
Amy Hsin, assistant professor of sociology at Queens College, City University of New York, published a study with University of Michigan professor Yu Xie that concluded the reason Asian students outperform their white peers in school is because they generally work harder.
This stereotype certainly wasn’t too far from the truth in my own experience. A significant percentage of the top ranked students at my high school, Plano Senior High School, were Asian, and the majority of my Advanced Placement and accelerated learning course classmates were also Asian. As a white student, I admit that at times I felt intimidated by being the racial minority in these classes, but I also felt the drive to do better and break the stereotype of white kids underperforming in challenging classes.
“Asian Americans have access to a unique set of resources that are not available to other immigrant groups,” explains Hsin. Sharing in these resources certainly benefited me, and I think all of my white peers would agree.
Please don’t misunderstand me — I don’t think we should promote racial diversity just for the benefit of white people or the majority race in any given school. Instead, I think promoting racial diversity in the learning environment improves society as a whole by investing in the future of our communities and workplaces.
For example, I think it’s important for students to learn the value of working in diverse environments early on in their lives so that they can understand how to interact with people of different cultures and ethnicities. Students will then have the opportunities to educate their parents on racial diversity and teach acceptance to generations that may not have had the same educational privilege in their educational experiences.
Ultimately, I believe racial diversity paves the way for an improved future of racial harmony. It’s apparent that our country is still healing from deep racial wounds, but I believe empathy and understanding are two vital weapons for combating racism. While I don’t think racial diversity in the school systems will completely eradicate racism or racial biases, I do think it’s an important and necessary step for our country — a beautiful, humbling step.
