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30 May 2012

Michelle Obama's Princeton Thesis

Sophie:  I rescue no one from their own spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors in their own thesis.



Michelle Robinson  (bottom right) at a sit-in.



Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community

by Michelle LaVaughn Robinson


A thesis presented to Princeton University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Department of Sociology. Princeton, New Jersey, 1985

(c) Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, 1985

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis.  I authorize Princeton University to lend this thesis to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson

I further authorize Princeton University to reproduce this thesis by photocopying or by other means, in total or in part, at the request of other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson

Princeton University requires the signatures of all persons using or photocopying this thesis. Please sign below, and give address and date.

CONTENTS

DEDICATION iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

Chapter page

I.     INTRODUCTION 1

II.     HYPOTHESIS 4
         Dependent Variables 4
         Interaction Attitudes 4
         Comfort and its Relationship to
         Interaction Attitudes 5
         Separationism/Pluralism and
         Integrationism/Assimilationism 6
         Benefit Attitudes 9
         Change Over Time in the Dependent Variables 11
         Independent Variables 15
         Causal Model 18
         Hypotheses 18

III.     METHODS 22
           Questionnaire 22
           Measures of the Dependent Variables 22
           Measures of the Independent Variables 24
           The Sample 25

IV.     FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26
          Description of the Sample 26
          General Attitudes of Respondents 27
          Background of the Respondents 33
          Explanatory Findings 36
          Time vs. Ideologies 36
          Time vs. General Comfort and Motivation
              to Black Community 37
          Association Between Time and Ideologies 39
          Time and its Correlates 40
          Association Between Ideologies and
          Schools Attended 43
          Associations between Ideologies and the
          Dependent Variables 44

V.      SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 51
          Revised Causal Model 51
          Major Conclusion 53
          New Hypothesis 57

VI.     APPENDIX 65

BIBLIOGRAPHY 66

DEDICATION

To Mom, Dad, Craig, and all of my special friends.  Thank-you for loving me and always making me feel good about myself.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been possible without the help and guidance of my advisor, Professor Walter Wallace. Thank-you Professor Wallace you have made me a much better student.

I would also like to thank my respondents, members of the ABPA, who participated in my study. It is good to know that Black Princeton students can count on the support of the Association.  Special thanks to Mr. Steve Dawson, President of the ABPA, and Mr. Richard Roper for their time and support.

Finally, I would like to thank Pat Larue and the Alumni Records office for assisting me in mailing my questionnaires.


Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION


The purpose of this study is to examine various attitudes of Black Princeton alumni in their present state and as they are perceived by the alumni to have changed over time. This study tries to examine the following attitudes of alumni: the extent to which they are comfortable interacting with Black and with White individuals in various activities; the extent to which they are motivated to benefit the Black community in comparison to other entities such as themselves, their families, God, etc.; the ideologies they hold with respects to race relations between the Black and White communities; and feelings they have toward the Black lower class such as a feeling of obligation that they should help improve the lives of this particular group of Blacks.

As a future Black alumnus, this study is particularly interesting because often times I take my own attitudes about such issues for granted;. never pausing to reflect upon how my experiences at Princeton may somehow have caused my attitudes to change. This is important for Blacks in contemporary society because as more Blacks begin attending predominately White universities it will be helpful to know how their experiences in these universities affect their future attitudes. In years to come if their attitudes do change, is it possible, for example, that they will become more comfortable interacting with Blacks or with Whites in various activities? Will they become more or less motivated to benefit the Black community? If there is a change in their attitudes to what might it be attributed? Will they feel any obligation as a member of the Black community to help other Blacks in particular who are less fortunate than themselves?  Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my “Blackness” than ever before. I have found that at Princeton no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my White professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.

Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with Whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be Black first and a student second.  These experiences have made it apparent to me that the path I have chosen to follow by attending Princeton will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant. This realization has presently, made my goals to actively utilize my resources to benefit the Black community more desirable.

At the same time, however, it is conceivable that my four years of exposure to a predominately White, Ivy League University has instilled within me certain conservative values. For example, as I enter my final year at Princeton, I find myself striving for many of the same goals as my White classmates–acceptance to a prestigious graduate or professional school or a high paying position in a successful corporation. Thus, my goals after Princeton are not as clear as before.

Is it possible that other Black alumni share these feelings? Do most alumni experience a change in their attitudes; and, if so, how are they likely to change? This study will try to provide some answers to these questions.

However, before discussing the findings, it will be necessary to define the variables of the study and explain the methods used to measure these variables.


Chapter II

HYPOTHESIS


DEPENDENT VARIABLES


This. study focuses on four dependent variables which may be divided into two attitude categories: 1) the extent to which respondents to the questionnaire feel personally and ideologically comfortable interacting with Blacks and with Whites; and 2) the relative degree of motivation these respondents have to benefit various entities–including the Black community, themselves, their families, and the American community at large (which is, of course, predominately White). Let us call these two categories “Interaction Attitudes” and “Benefit Attitudes”.


Interaction Attitudes


There are two basic variables in this category. By inquiring about the relative comfort that the respondents feel when interacting with both Blacks and Whites in various activities, the study tries to provide some idea of the respondents’ personal preferences when interacting with Blacks and with Whites, and thus measures their degree of attachment to individuals of different races. In addition, the study also inquires about respondents’ ideological preferences regarding relations between the Black and White communities. Let us consider these two variables more closely.

Comfort and its Relationship to Interaction Attitudes Webster’s Dictionary of English offers several key synonyms for “comfort”, some of which are ease, pleasure, and enjoyment. When one speaks of being “comfortable with” someone or something, one often thinks of environments which promote feelings of ease and with which one is familiar, such as being in one’s own home or with one’s family and close friends. More often than not, one finds comfort in things with which one is familiar rather than in unfamiliar things. It is also more likely that one is more attached to to things with which one is familiar than to things with which one is unfamiliar. Therefore, in the case of the respondents, I argue that the relative sense of comfort they may feel when interacting with Blacks in comparison to Whites (and vice versa) in various activities reflects the relative ease and familiarity the respondents feel with Blacks in comparison to Whites which, in turn, indicates the extent to which the respondents are personally attached to Blacks as individuals in comparison to Whites as individuals.

It is important to point out that one’s attitudes about race relations on an individual level have an important degree of logical independence from one’s attitudes about race relations on a community level. An individual who is more personally comfortable with Blacks than with Whites on an individual level need not hold political ideologies which support the separation of Blacks and Whites on a community level. Likewise, an individual who is personally more comfortable with individual Whites than with individual Blacks may or may not hold ideologies which support the integration of Blacks and Whites on a community level. Therefore, it is necessary to measure attitudes towards relations between Blacks and Whites on a community level (to be referred to as “ideologies”) independently from personal attitudes towards relations between Blacks and Whites on an individual level.

The variable to be discussed next tries to accomplish this by mesauring the extent to which the respondents are separationist and/or pluralist or integrationist and/or assimiliationist (to be referred to as sep/plur and int/assim).  Separationism/Pluralism and Integrationism/Assimilationism Unlike the discussion of “comfort”.in the previous section, literature defining concepts of sep/plur and int/assim was found. Therefore, in order to demonstrate the role of these concepts in this study, the following section will draw on the writings of such authors as van den Berghe, Billingsley, and Carmichael and Hamilton, to name a few, whose writings utilize these concepts.

Van den Berghe (1967), discusses the possibility of two types of pluralism: 1)cultural structural pluralism in which one finds different ethnic groups with their own languages, values, etc., but participating in a common social structure (things people do together); and 2)social structural pluralism in which one finds shared languages and values across different ethnic groups each participating in its own separate social structure.)1 These definitions of pluralism utilized by van den Berghe serve as a basis for using the term “pluralism” as a measure of the respondents’s attitudes about race relations between Blacks and Whites on a community level. The idea of separationism and pluralism (both cultural structural and social structural) is also discussed by Billingsley (1968) who believes there is a need for Blacks to build up their own communities; define themselves by new “Black” standards different from the old White standards; and exercise power and control over their own institutions and services within the Black community.

Stokely Carmichael and Charles Hamilton’s (1967) developed definitions of separationism in their discussion of Black Power which guided me in the formulation and use of this concept in the study.  The concept of Black Power rests on the fundamental premise: Before a group can enter the open society, it must close ranks. By this we mean that group solidarity is necessary before a group can operate effectively from a bargaining position of strength in a pluralistic society.’  Thus, Carmichael and Hamilton define separationism as a necessary stage for the development of the Black community before this group integrates into the “open society”.

The idea of creating separate social structure and cultural structures as suggested by these authors serves to clarify definitions of separationism/pluralism as they function in the dependent variable which tries to measure the respondents’ ideologies concerning political and economic relations between the Black and White communities.  Conyers and Wallace (1976) embody the idea of Blacks working with Whites as a plausible political and economic ideology about relations between the Black and White communities. Their discussion focuses on representative integration which is the integration of Black official into various aspects of politics. They discuss problems which face these Black officials who must persuade the White community that they are above issues of race and that they are representing all people and not just Black people. The idea of working with Whites to form a common social structure and cultural structure as opposed to creating two separate social structures and cultural structures discussed in the writings of Conyers and Wallace have aided in the development of concepts of integrationism and assimilationism as they function in this study.


Benefit Attitudes


The second set of dependent variables in this study tries especially to measure the extent to which the respondents were motivated to benefit various social groups. The first variable was designed to provide some idea of how interested the respondents are in positively contributing to the Black community relative to other social groups such as the White community, their families, their occupations. The second variable in this category was designed to measure the nature of the respondents’ attitudes not toward the Black community as an undifferentiated whole, but specifically toward members of the lower class in that community. Let us consider these variables a little more closely.

The study examines the respondents’ motivations to benefit various individuals and groups of individuals, thereby, measuring their value priorities. The study inquires about the respondents’ motivations to benefit him/herself, and the following social groups: the family, the Black community, the White community, God and church, the U.S. society, the non-White races of the world, and the human species as a whole.

In an individual’s lifetime, it is necessary that the individual focus his/her interests on benefiting a limited number of things at a time because it is impossible to help everyone and everything equally at the same time. Therefore, the individual must create a motivational hierachy from which the individual can determine which social groups are most important to benefit. Some individuals may place the highest value on benefiting themselves or their families. Others may value their occupational fields most highly. Others may place God before everything else. In still other instances, one’s motivation to benefit either the U.S. society, the non-White races of the world or the human species as a whole could be most powerful.

The desire to benefit the Black community as previously mentioned, is also included in the list of subjective motivations. However, this dependent variable did not differentiate the Black community in any way because it tries to measure the level of interest the respondents have in the Black community as a whole in comparison to other possible social groups as a whole. The variable discussed next tries to make up for that.

The second benefit variable examines the respondents’ desire to benefit specifically the Black lower class rather than examining attitudes towards the Black community as a whole. This identification is useful because there is a large segment of the Black community that is lower class and as a result of the strong likelihood that respondents now belong to classes higher and more powerful, politically and economically, than the lower class largely because they have graduated from Princeton University, it is interesting to see what their attitudes are towards a large majority of Blacks unlike themselves. Feelings of obligation to improve the life of the Black lower class, feelings of guilt for betraying the Black lower class, as well as feelings of shame or envy toward the Black lower class are investigated in this study.


CHANGE OVER TIME IN THE DEPENDENT VARIABLES


By adding a measure for change over time the dependent variables may be.studied both in their present perceived state and as they are perceived by the respondents to have changed over time. The study accomlishes this measure of change by dividing the respondents’ lives into three periods: “Pre-Princeton” (years before entering college), “Princeton” (years in college), and “Post-Princeton” (years 12 after graduating from college).3  It is important to realize that the change measured is that which is perceived by the individual; an introspective measure of change. For example, the individual answering the question may believe that he/she has changed in no way at all, however, if someone else, possibly a family member, were asked the same question about the individual, it is possible that they would believe that the individual has drastically changed over time.

The measure for change over time is focused around Princeton because the study attempts to examine the effects of a Princeton education on Blacks. Respondents are representative of a small number of Blacks who attend predominately White universities and they also represent an even smaller portion of Blacks attending Ivy League universities.  Unversities such as Princeton only began admitting Blacks in the 1960′s and presently Blacks comprise only about 10% of total enrollment. Due to the small number of Blacks in attendance, the University does not often meet the social and academic needs of its Black population because these universities focus their attentions on accommodating the White students who comprise the majority of their enrollments.

Dejoie discusses the claims of the negative effects of predominately White universities on the Black students attending those universities. Although I was unable to find empirical support for Dejoie’s essay, I feel the ideas she expressed are worth some discussion.  Dejoie believes that “Institutional policies of predominately White universities have established practices which favor the prefered groups and have ranked priorities which are meant to facilitate the tasks and improve the conditions of White students while ignoring the needs of the Black students”.” Dr. Dejoie goes on in her study to discuss the effects of biased curricula which does not encourage,”…The contribution of Blacks, the study of Blacks, as a group”.5  She states that Departments of Black Studies are kept very separate from White university curricula. Dejoie also discusses the negative aspects of social and non-academic activites at these schools: “Fraternities, sororities, homecoming activities and student government maintain the White status-quo. As in academic areas, the social aspects of university life systematically follow the interests of the White students–the majority group”.6


As a result of such biases, both academic and non-academic, it is often difficult for some Black students to adjust to Princeton’s environment; and unfortunately there are very few adequate support groups which provide some form of guidance and counsel for Black students having difficulty making the transition from their home environments to Princeton’s environment. Most students are dependent upon the use of their own faculties to carry them through Princeton.

Therefore, it is important to understand exactly what kinds of changes Black students undergo, if any, while in Princeton.

For this study, the Pre-Princeton measure provides a rough idea of what kinds of beliefs respondents held with respects to the dependent variables before entering college and the Post-Princeton measure provides some idea of what respondents’ beliefs are after college. Thus, if findings show consistency between the two periods (Pre-Princeton and Post-Princeton), it may be possible that no change occured as a result of their Princeton education, or possibly in this case, Princeton’s effect on the respondents’ beliefs lasted for a short time and then no longer effected their attitudes, thus making these effects temporary. If findings show some change through the periods, it may be possible that their Princeton education influenced these changes.


INDEPENDENT VARIABLES


By measuring a number of independent variables, this study will try to determine some correlates of the respondents’ interest in interacting with Blacks and Whites on an individual and a community level, as well as their interest to benefit various social groups; the Black community in particular. The independent variables of this study include the following: the actual time the respondents spent interacting with Blacks and Whites (to be referred to as “time”); and the racial make-up of the individual’s primary and secondary schools, in addition to the racial make-up of the individual’s neighborhood; the race of the person whom the individual most admired throughout his/her lifetime; the individual’s image of God; the number of books in the individual’s home while growing up and presently; and the age and sex of the individual. Therefore, although this study examines several independent variables, as will be shown in a later chapter, only a few independent variables were found to have strong relationships to the dependent variables.  This section will discuss the independent variables found to have the strongest relationship to the dependent variables first, and will discuss the independent variables of the study which are found to have no relationship to the dependent variables last.

As will be demonstrated, the independent variables which measure the actual time the indivdual spent with Blacks in comparison to Whites throughout Pre-Princeton, Princeton, and Post-Princeton years will be used as an independent variable. This variable is related to several other independent variables which measure the racial make-up of the individual’s neighborhood in which he/she grew up as well as the individual’s primary and secondary schools.  The individual’s past and present socio-economic status is measured by the independent variable which asks for the economic class in which the individual’s family belonged when growing up, in addition to the individual’s career mobility in comparison to the individual’s parents’ socio-economic status.

Another independent variable measured in this study is the race of the person whom the individual most admired thoughout his/her lifetime. This variable enables one to examine the influence of the race of the individual’s role models on their attitudes with respect to the dependent variables of the study.

A rough measure of literateness (tendency for an individual to include reading and writing as a major part of his/her life) is attempted by the variable examining the number of books in the individuals home while growing up and presently; and finally, age and sex of the individual will also be measured.

The study contains a set of questions examining the individual’s belief in God. This measure has been used in place of the traditional measure which asks simply, “Do you believe in God? “requiring a “yes” or “no” response or “Which bests describes your religious beliefs? Check one: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Athiest, none of the above, other.” Instead of examining whether or not the individual believes in God, Piazza and Glock (1979) demonstrated that examining the specific content of the individual’s beliefs as opposed to measuring whether or not the individual believes in God provides greater insight into the individual’s ideas about God. The study found that when people answer “yes” or “no” to the traditional measure of Belief in God, they do not all mean the same thing; their conception of God varies. “Most Americans Believe in a God, but this does not necessarily imply that they have the same thing in mind”.7

In order to obtain a clearer idea of the content of the individual’s religious beliefs, Piazza and Glock developed a question that depends on three interrelated measures: the extent to which the individual does or does not believe in a God, the degree to which the individual believes God influences the way society is organized, .and the degree to which the individual believes God influences the individual’s own life.


CAUSAL MODEL








HYPOTHESES


It is my belief, as seen by the above causal model, that the independent variable which measures the actual time the respondents have spent throughout the three periods of their lifetime with Blacks and with Whites will have a strong effect on the dependent variables of the study because the more the individual spends time with a group of people, the more the individual will be familiar with that particular group of people. For example, if the study shows that more respondents spend time with Blacks than with Whites during each period of his/her lifetime, the study is likely to show more respondents tend to be comfortable with Blacks than with Whites when interacting in various activities.

I also further hypothesize that this sense of comfort with Blacks will be greatest in all the activities measured by this dependent variable except intellectual activites.  Intellectually, Blacks may be more comfortable with Whites as a result of a greater amount of exposure to Whites in an academic setting while at Princeton. Attending Princeton has probably forced the respondents to compete intellectually with Whites more than with Blacks and, thus, they have probably become more familiar with Whites intellectually, but in other activities they are not likely to have gained familiarity with Whites if they did not spend time with Whites in other activities besides intellectual ones.

As a result of this greater sense of comfort felt by respondents with groups with whom they have spent more time, more respondents will be interested in benefiting these particular groups in comparison to others. Thus, the variable measuring time spent with Blacks or Whites will also influence the dependent variable measured by the respondents’ motivation to benefit various social groups. For example, respondents who. have spent time with Blacks are likely to be more comfortable with Blacks and will, therefore, take a great interest in benefiting this group in comparison to other social groups. Consequently, it is also likely that these respondents are motivated to benefit self, their loved ones (who are also likely to be Black) and the Black community in comparison to other social groups indicated by this variable. While Blacks who are more comfortable with Whites than with Blacks will probably be less interested in benefiting the Black community.

The more respondents spend time with Blacks, the more positive and compassionate they will be in their attitudes towards lower class Black Americans, expressing strong feelings of obligation to take part in improving their lives.  Feelings of obligation will also tend to be strong for Blacks who have spent more time with Whites because of a general sense of compassion towards all underprivileged people. However, the feelings of pride in remaining apart from their lives will be much stronger than their feelings of pride in not remaining apart from their lives because these respondents will show tendencies of downplaying the relationship between themselves and other Blacks.

The socio-economic status of the respondents’ parents in addition to the individual’s career mobility are likely to place these individual’s in social and economic arenas more compatible with Whites, who make up a large segment of middle class Americans, because they will be able to afford all of the luxuries typical of the White middle class. Thus, the higher the class and the more upward the career mobility, the more comfortable these Blacks will be with Whites than with lower class Blacks. Class and upward mobility will probably influence the dependent variables in the same way that time spent influenced the independent variables.

My overall hypotheses described in this section focuses on the group with whom the respondents identify most. The independent variables measure identification through such questions as time spent with Blacks and Whites, socio-economic class, career mobility, etc. The individual’s degree of identification with either Blacks or Whites will determine his/her motivations to benefit various social groups, his/her ideologies about race relations between the Black and White communites, relative comfort felt by him/her when interacting with Blacks and Whites, and his/her interest in the Black lower class. The more the individual identifies with the Black community the more his attitudes will sway towards a positive relationship with the Black community, however, the more the individual identifies with the White community the more his attitudes will sway towards a negative relationship with the Black community. This idea of identification will be discussed further in the Summary and Conclusions chapter of this study.


Chapter III

METHODS
QUESTIONNAIRE


The first part of the questionnaire, questions 1, 3, 4, and 5 measure the dependent variables, interaction and benefit attitudes. The second part of the questionnaire, questions 2 and 6 through 19, measure the independent variables.


Measures of the Dependent Variables


Using a scale varying from feeling “much more comfortable with Blacks” through feeling “about equally comfortable with Blacks and Whites”, to feeling “much more comfortable with Whites”, the first question of the study asked respondents to indicate the relative degree of comfort they felt while interacting with Blacks and Whites in various activities during the three life-periods. The activities referred to were as follows: “intellectual (discussing philosophical, scientific, technical or artistic ideas”; “social (partying, dining, going to shows and sports)”; “religious (sharing religious views, worshipping)”; “political (participating in demonstrations, political campaigns and organizations)”; “business (working on a paying job, as ‘subordinate and/or superordinate)”; “dating (including all specifically sexual activities)”; “sports and athletics (including keeping in shape and competing)”; and “in general (considering all activities)”.

Question 3 asked alumni to rate the contributions to their behavior, during the three life-periods, of motivations to benefit various individuals and social groups. The scale used for this question varied from feeling the motivation made “no” contribution to their behavior through feeling the motivation made a “moderate” contribution to their behavior to feeling the motivation made a “very strong” contribution to their behavior. The individuals and social groups referred to were as follows: self; loved ones; occupation; God and church; local residential community; the Black American community; the USA as a society; the non- White races of the world; and the human species as a whole.

A similar scale was used to measure the respondents’ views during the three life-periods about relations between the Black and White communities in the U.S. in question 4.  In this scale, alternatives ranged from being “very strongly separationist and/or pluralist” through being “undecided” to being “very strongly integrationist and/or assimilationist.  Question 5, the last measure of the dependent variables asked respondents about their personal attitudes towards lower class Black Americans. This question was broken into a series of statements to which the respondents were asked 24 to indicate if they felt the statement was “very true”, “false” or if respondents were “undecided”. Some of the statements measured were as follows: “I feel proud that I have been strong enough to avoid remaining in or falling into, lower class life”; “I feel obligated to help improve their life”; “I feel they must help themselves”.


Measures of the Independent Variables


The second part of the questionnaire consists of fourteen questions aimed at measuring the independent variables of the study (e.g., how much time spent with Blacks vs. Whites). These questions are very straightforward and try to provide a general description of the respondents. For example, question 9 asks “Which of the following describes your primary and secondary schools?” The choices are, all or almost all Black, mostly Black, about equally Black and White, mostly White, and all or almost all White. This question, in addition to others like question 5 which asked for the predominate racial make-up of the neighborhood in which the respondents grew up, provide a general idea of the types of racial associations the respondents had before entering Princeton. Others such as those questionning respondents’ current living arrangements, age, sex, and career mobility in questions 16, 17, 18, provide a general picture of the respondents’ ,present lifestyle. Questions 6, 7, and 8 measure the content of the respondents’ belief in God. These questions asked the following: the respondents’ belief in “God”, the influence of “God” in the respondents’ personal life, and the respondents’ belief in the influence of “God” on the way society is organized. These variables may be combined to create new independent variables if desired.


THE SAMPLE


The sample of 400 Black Princeton alumni was obtained from the Alumni Records Office at Princeton University.  With the permission of Steve Dawson, the President of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni (ABPA) and his office, the staff at the Alumni Records Office assisted the study by selecting every fourth name on a mailing list of approximately 1200 names until 400 names were collected.  The questionnaire was sent through U.S. mail along with a letter from the President of the ABPA, encouraging subjects to participate in the study, and a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the return of the questionnaire. The sample consists of Black Americans who graduated from Princeton’s undergraduate program. The total number of returned questionnaires was 89; thus, the response rate for this questionnaire was approximately 22%.


Chapter IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
DESCRIPTION OF THE SAMPLE


The following section intends to provide an idea of how the alumni responded to the questionnaire in general. In order to fully appreciate such a discussion one must keep in mind the uniqueness of the individuals upon which this study focuses. Not only are these respondents representative of middle class Black Americans, but as some of the first Blacks to be integrated into Princeton University(infamous for being racially the most conservative of the Ivy League Universities).

With 73% of respondents indicating that they were between the ages of 25 and 34 years (see table 1), it is also probable that the majority of the respondents were attending Princeton during the 1970′s when affirmative action which provided numerous opportunities for Blacks economically, educationally, and occupationally was put into effect. For the first time since reconstruction Blacks were beginning to be properly represented in such fields as politics, government, medicine, education, etc. The Black Power Movement was also strong during this time and as I have mentioned earlier in the study, such leaders as Stokely Carmichael were stressing the need for Blacks to separate themselves from White society in order to strengthen the Black community. Thus, it will be fascinating to find out what types of Blacks decided to attend a prestigious, White university, and how this education may have affected them.


General Attitudes of Respondents


In table 2, during the Pre-to-Prin period, the percentage of respondents who reported spending more time interacting with Blacks than with Whites rose sharply from 43% to 61%.  Yet, during the Prin-to-Post period, the percentage of respondents spending time with Blacks dropped back down from 61% to 39%.  Data in. Table 2 only show percentages of respondents spending time with Blacks and Whites for what shall be regarded, for the purposes of this study, as particular points in time, i.e., Pre-Princeton, Princeton, and Post-Princeton.

One cannot know from these data, how individual respondents changed between these points. This type of information is available,: however, by examining Table 2a which shows the percentage of respondents that (1) changed in the direction of spending more time with Blacks, (2) made no change in this respect, and (3) changed in the direction of spending more time with Whites during the Pre-to-Prin and the Prin-to-Post periods. Thus, Table 2a shows that during the Pre-to-Prin period 46% of the respondents changed toward spending more time with Blacks, while only 26% changed toward spending more time with Whites. During the Prin-to-Post period, however, the percentage of respondents who changed toward spending more time with Blacks dropped drastically by 15%.

Thus far in the findings, an interesting trend has already appeared which shows that the changes and differences in the tables are related to something that happened to the respondents while at Princeton. This belief will be discussed further in the conclusion section of the study.

Just as the percentage of respondents who spent more time with Blacks than with Whites (and vice versa) appeared to change during Princeton, the percentage of respondents who reported holding sep/plur ideologies regarding relations between the Black and White communities also changed during Princeton. In Table 3, from the Pre-Princeton point to the Post-Princeton point the percentage of respondents who held sep/plur ideologies greatly increased from 26% to 40%. Yet, from the Princeton point to the Post-Princeton point this percentage of respondents declined from 40% to 31%.  In Table 3a which shows the individual-level change in ideologies over time, it is clear that 45% of the respondents changed toward becoming more sep/plur in comparison to only 16% who changed toward becoming more int/assim during the Pre-to-Prin period. However, during the Prin-to-Post period this 45% of respondents who changed toward becoming more sep/plur dropped to 19%, while the 16% of respondents who changed toward becoming more int/assim rose to 32%.

The data in tables 3 and 3a demonstrate that not only did the percentage of respondents who spent more time with Blacks than with Whites increase during Princeton, but there was also an increase in the percentage of respondents who held sep/plur ideologies.  Interestingly enough, the percentage of respondents who were motivated to benefit the Black community increased from 46% at the Pre-Princeton point to 63% at the Princeton point, and remained drastically unchanged (64%) Post-Princeton (see Table 4.3).

The change over time as seen in Table 4.3a shows that the 35% of the respondents becoming more motivated to benefit the Black community during the Pre-to-Prin period decreased to 13% during the Prin-to-Post period, and similarily, the 10% of respondents becoming less motivated to benefit the Black community increased to 20% during the same two periods. Thus, even though Table 4.3 shows roughly the same percentage of respondents were motivated to benefit the Black community Post-Princeton as Princeton, Table 4.3a shows that during the Pre-to-Prin period the individual-level change was away from this motivation.  Findings in tables 4 and 4.1 are roughly similar to findings in Table 4.3 for respondents’ motivations to benefit self and loved ones. However, for individual-level change tables 4a and 4.1a, a larger percentage of respondents became motivated to benefit self and loved ones during the Pre-to-Prin and Prin-to-Post periods than they become less motivated to benefit themselves and their loved ones. Thus, becoming increasingly motivated to benefit self and loved ones during both periods, but especially during the Prin-to-Post periods, and especially toward benefiting self.

Occupational motivations, in table 4.2 show that during Princeton, there was a larger percentage of respondents who were not motivated to benefit their occupations in comparison to the percentages of respondents who are moderately motivated and motivated to benefit occupation. During Post-Princeton, however, the percentage of respondents who were strongly motivated to benefit occupation increased greatly from 31% to 59%.  Tables 4.4 and 4.4a which show the percentage of respondents who are motivated or were motivated to benefit God, and the individual-level change in this motivation respectively demonstrate an increase in the percentage of respondents not motivated to benefit God; during the Pre-to-Prin period; 40% during Pre-Princeton to 45% during Princeton, which decreases during Post-Princeton from 45% to 41% (see table 4.4). Table 4.4a shows that during Pre-to-Prin period a larger percentage of respondents reported becoming unmotivated to benefit God, than they were becoming motivated to benefit God, but during the Prin-to-Post period a larger percentage of respondents reported becoming motivated to benefit God than they were becoming not motivated to benefit God.

Tables 5 and 5.1 which show the percentage of respondents feeling comfortable interacting with Blacks and Whites in both intellectual and social activities provide data which also appear to change during Princeton in comparison to Pre-Princeton and Post-Princeton. Even though the change is not drastic for intellectual activities, the 26% of the respondents who were comfortable with Blacks rose to 37% from Pre-Princeton to Princeton, and dropped back to 22% during the Post-Princeton point. The pattern of group-level change for social activities was similar: the change from the Pre-Princeton to the Princeton point (64% and 73% felt more comfortable with Blacks at these times) was followed during the Princeton point to the Post-Princeton point by an opposite change (73%, and 62% felt comfortable with Blacks).  In tables 5a we find that 36% of the respondents reported becoming intellectually more comfortable with Blacks, in contrast to the 16% of the respondents who reported becoming intellectually more comfortable with Whites during the Pre-to-Prin period. During the Prin-to-Post period, however, these figures were reversed, with only 10% becoming more comfortable with Blacks while 31% became more comfortable with Whites.

Similar individual-level changes in feelings of comfort in social activities appear in table 5.1a. The 31% of respondents who reported becoming comfortable with Blacks during the Pre-to-Prin period decreased to 10% during the Prin-to-Post period, and the 11% who reported becoming more comfortable with Whites during the Pre-to-Prin period increased to 31% during the Prin-to-Post period.  In table 5 we find that a larger percentage of the respondents reported feeling equally comfortable with Blacks and Whites in intellectual activities during each of the three periods than reported feeling more comfortable with Blacks or more comfortable with Whites. Indeed, comparing intellectual comfort (table 5) with social comfort, dating comfort, political comfort, and general comfort respondents feel interacting with Blacks and Whites in tables 5.1, 5.2, 5.4, and 5.6, table 5 shows a greater percentage of respondents who felt equally comfortable with Blacks and Whites than in any of these other tables (which is closer to feeling more comfort with Blacks) and also shows a smaller percentage of respndents who felt comfortable with Blacks in comparison to any of the other comfort tables. The latter supports the hypothesis that the comfort respondents feel with Blacks will be greater in all activities accept intellectual ones. However, it must be noted that for business and sporting (see tables 5.3 and 5.5), percentages of respondents reporting comfort with Blacks are also small in comparison to tables (5.1, 5.2, 5.4, and 5.6).


Background of the Respondents


There was a split between the sexes; 60% of the respondents were male and 40% were female (see table 6). Fifty-one percent of the respondents were raised in homes which were lower middle class; while 24% of the respondents were raised in lower or under class households, and 24% were raised in upper to upper middle class households (see table 7).

Table 8 shows that reading and writing became more apart of the respondents’ lives after they left Princeton. The seventy-four percent of respondents who indicated having 51 to over 100 books in their homes during the time they were growing up increased to 89%, while the 25% of respondents indicating living in homes with less than 50 books while growing up decreased to 11%.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they grew up in all or mostly Black neighborhoods, 20% said they grew up in all or mostly White neighborhoods, and 15% of the respondents reported growing up in neighborhoods that were equally Black and White. Fifty-one percent of the respondents reported that they grew up in cities, 40% grew up in suburbs, and only 9% reported growing up on a farm or in “open country”

Even though more respondents reported growing up in Black neighborhoods many attended secondary schools whose population was becoming less Black than White in comparison to their primary schools. For example, the percents for respondents who reported attending Black primary schools and White primary schools were almost equal; 46% Black, 45% White and 9% Black and White. However, for the secondary schools, the percent of respondents reporting that they attended White schools increased to 63%, while the percent of respondents who reported they attended Black schools dropped to 24%, and 13% attended schools that were equally Black and White.

Although the schools the respondents attended during the Pre-Princeton point became more White than Black, this trend did not appear with respect to their present living arrangements. Fifty-four percent of respondents reported living with one or more Blacks, only 5% reported living with one or more Whites, 4% reported living with one or more Blacks and Whites, and 38% lived alone.

At all three times investigated in this study, respondents reported admiring Blacks more than Whites. During the Pre-Princeton point, 58% reported admiring a relative, while 30% reported admiring a Black friend, or Black fictional or non-fictional person; and only 11% reported admiring a White friend, or White fictional or non-fictional person. During the Princeton point, 50% of the respondents reported admiring a Black friend or fictional/non-fictional person, while 39% reported admiring a relative, and once again, only 10% reported admiring a White friend or fictional/non-fictional person. During the Post-Princeton point, 47% reported admiring a relative, 44% reported admiring a Black friend or fictional/non-fictional person, and 9% reported admiring a White friend or fictional/non-fictional friend (see table 9).

Seventy-one percent of the respondents reported being in careers that have made them upwardly mobile from their parents’ socio-economic class, while none of the respondents reported being downwardly mobile from their parents’ socio-economic class, and only 17% of the respondents reported remaining even with their parents’ socio-economic class; 12% did not know yet how they were moving (see table 10).   With respect to belief in God, it appears that their general belief in some kind of God was relatively high. Sixty-two percent of the respondents said they definitely believe in God, while only 6% reported that they do not believe in God; .24% are uncomfortable with the word “God” but believe in a.transcendent force; and 9% either do not know or are uncertain. Seventy-one percent of the respondents believe God influences their own lives, but only 43% of the respondents believe that God influences the way society is organized.


EXPLANATORY FINDINGS


The strongest relationships found in this study focus on two variables. The amount of time the respondents spent with Blacks in comparison to Whites over the three periods of the respondents’ lifetimes was found to be stongly related to most of the dependent variables. However, it was also found that the ideologies held by the respondents about desirable race relations between the Black and White communities was also strongly related to most of the dependent variables. Thus, it was helpful to determine which of these variables was more closely related to the dependent variables.


Time vs. Ideologies


In order to determine which came first, time or ideologies, a new analysis was performed to obtain the relationships in tables 11-11.3. Tables 11 and 11.2 show how closely time is related to.ideologies, while tables 11.1 and 11.3 show how closely ideologies is related to time. This analysis is done to determine whether time is a better predictor of ideologies or whether ideologies is a better predictor of time. The comparison of the relationships in these tables demonstrate that there is no great difference between them.  For example, the difference between the 62% of respondents who reported spending time with Blacks and holding sep/plur ideologies and the 48% of respondents who reported spending time with Whites and holding sep/plur ideologies in Table 11 was not much smaller than the difference between the 74% of respondents who reported holding sep/plur ideologies and spending time with Blacks and the 56% who reported holding int/assim ideologies and spending time with Blacks in Table 11.1. Thus, it is not possible to determine which variable is a better predictor of the other.

Although the data of this study do not permit us to determine the primacy of time over ideologies or vice versa, I have chosen to examine time as the major controlling variable of the study as demonstrated by the causal model in diagram 1. Thus, it is my hypothesis that the actual time the respondents spent with Blacks and Whites throughout the three periods of their lifetime will have a strong effect on the dependent variables of the study.


Time vs. General Comfort and Motivation to Black Community


Support for the hypothesis discussed in the previous paragraph may be found in the relationships between change in time and change in general comfort the respondents feel when interacting with Blacks and Whites in various activates. In Table 12, there is a strong relationship between change in time from the Pre-to-Prin period and change in “general comfort” for the same period. The more respondents increased the time they spent with Blacks during this period, the more comfortable respondents became, in general, with Blacks; and the more respondents increased the time they spent with Whites during this period, the more comfortable respondents became, in general, with Whites. This same positive relationship is also shown in Table 12.1 for the period Prin-to-Post.

The motivation to benefit the Black community is also influenced by time (see table 13). The more respondents increased the time they spent with Blacks the more motivated they became to benefit the Black community; and the more the respondents spent time with Whites, the more unmotivated the respondents became to benefit the Black community.

The relationship between change in time and change in motivation to benefit the Black community for Prin-to-Post period in Table 13.1 is more ambiguous than the other relationships for time. A strong relationship is indicated in the top portion of the table which shows that the more respondents began spending time with Blacks, the more respondents became motivated to benefit the Black community. Yet, the relationship in the bottom portion of the table shows no relationship at all.

It is possible that the disappearance of this relationship in the bottom portion of the table is correlated to the inability to determine which of the variables, time or ideologies, is more closely related to the dependent variables. As opposed to Table 13.1, tables 19 and 19.1 demonstrate that the relationship between ideologies and motivation to benefit the Black community provides a less ambiguous finding. In these tables, it is clear that for both the Pre-to-Prin and Prin-to-Post periods there is a strong positive relationship which shows that the more respondents became sep/plur, the more respondents would become motivated to benefit the Black community, and the more respondents became int/asim, the more unmotivated respondents became to benefit the Black community. Thus, for certain cases and periods of time, it is possible that ideologies is more influential than time.


Association Between Time and Ideologies


The relationship between change in time and change in ideologies is demonstrated by tables 11-14.1. For each time period, it was found that the more respondents increased the time they spent with Blacks, the more they became sep/plur; and the more the respondents increased time they spent with Whites, the more respondents became int/assim. Thus, it may be understood that the more respondents increased the time they spent with Blacks or Whites greatly influenced their sense of comfort with Blacks and Whites, in general, in addition to influencing their desire to benefit the Black community, and their ideologies.

Before discussing the relationship between ideologies and the other dependent variables of the study, let us examine the actual percentage of respondents spending time interacting with Blacks and Whites in the three periods in order to gain an understanding of how these respondents’ attitudes may have been affected by the change in time.


Time and its Correlates


The frequencies from the data (see tables 2 and 2a) indicate that a smaller percentage of respondents spent time with Blacks during Pre-Princeton, in comparison to Princeton. During Princeton, this percentage increased greatly, but declined during Post-Princeton.  The percentages in tables 2 and 2a, in addition to the relationships between change in time and the dependent variables in tables 12-14.1 show interesting findings about the respondents. It is clear that during Princeton, as a result of the greatly increased percentage of respondents who spent more time with Blacks than with Whites, it is very likely that the percentage of respondents who've indicated that they spent more time with Blacks than with Whites was more comfortable with Blacks than with Whites in various activities while at Princeton in comparison to before entering Princeton and also in comparison to the percentage of respondents who spent more time with Whites or equal time with Blacks and Whites.

Tables 15-16.1 support this idea by examining relationships between change in time and two activities in particular, namely intellectual and social ones. The tables demonstrate that for both the Pre-to-Prin and the Prin-to-Post periods, the more respondents increased the time they spent with Blacks, the more comfortable respondents became while engaging in intellectual and social activities with Blacks and the less comfortable they became with Whites. The more respondents increased time spent with Whites, the more comfortable respondents became while engaging in intellectual and social activities with Whites and the less they became comfortable with Blacks. Thus, the respondents who spent more time with Blacks during the Pre-to-Prin period were uncomfortable when interacting with Whites in social and intellectual activities.

Tables 14 and 14.1 show that during the Pre-to-Prin period, respondents’ ideologies became sep/plur as opposed to int/assim. Therefore, not only did respondents who began spending time with Blacks prefer interacting with Blacks in comparison to Whites on a’ one-to-one basis, but they increasingly held ideologies which support sep/plur. This observation indicates a likelihood that the high percentage of respondents who began spending time with Blacks during the Pre-to-Prin period did so consciously as opposed to being forced to do so as a result of discrimination on the part of the University forcing Blacks and Whites apart.

Also, given relationships shown in tables 13 and 13.1, it may be seen that the respondents who increased time spent with Blacks during the Pre-to-Prin period also became more motivated to benefit the Black community than respondents who increased the time they spent with Whites.  As we have seen, the findings discussed in the previous paragraphs seem to support the hypothesis that respondents who were increasing the time spent with Blacks were becoming more attached to the Black community during the Pre-to-Prin period both in their individual interactions and in their political ideologies about Black and White relations on a community level. Respondents who were increasing time spent with Blacks were also becoming interested in positively contributing to the Black community.

As a result of the huge decline in the percentage of respondents who began increasing time spent with Blacks during the Prin-to-Post period demonstrated earlier in Table 2, it seems probable that as respondents became. attached to the White community with respects to their attitudes, they became detached from the Black community.  Evidence to support the hypothesis previously discussed may be seen in Table 2a which shows the percentage of respondents who began spending time with Blacks and Whites.  During the Prin-to-Post period, as respondents reported spending time with Whites (an increased from 26% to 31%), respondents also began spending less time with Blacks (a decrease from 61% to 39%).

However, it must be noted that these findings could be the result of the questionnaire design. Respondents were asked to rate their attitudes by comparing Blacks and Whites, thus, as certain attitudes towards Blacks increase, it is inevitable that these attitudes towards Whites will decrease and vice versa.  Association Between Ideologies and Schools Attended The study tries to examine ideologies as it relates to the dependent variables. Table 17 demonstrates change in ideologies during the Pre-to-Prin period is not only related to change in time but also to another independent variable, namely, “schools attended”, which measures change in the racial make-up of the primary and secondary schools attended by the respondents before Princeton.

The variable, schools attended, was created by calculating the difference between the racial make-ups of each respondents’ primary school and his/her secondary school.  “Schools attended” was crosstabulated with ideologies only for the period Pre-to-Prin and not the period during Prin-to-Post because too much time elapes from before Princeton and after Princeton to consider any relationship between these two variables. Table 17 shows the more the respondents went to secondary schools whose populations were becoming more Black than that of their primary schools, the more the respondents would become sep/plur; and the more respondents went to secondary schools whose populations were becoming more White than that of their primary schools, the more the respondents would become int/assim. Thus, ideologies during Princeton are not only related to time during Pre-Princeton, but to a combination of time and schools attended.


Associations between Ideologies and the Dependent Variables


It is my hypothesis that ideologies held by the respondents will be positively related to attitudes, comforts, and motivations of respondents. However, tables 18 and 18.1., which show relationships between change in ideologies of respondents and the change in comfort felt when interacting with Blacks and Whites in general on an individual level for the periods Pre-to-Prin and Prin-to-Post, indicate an unexpected finding. In Table 18, it is clear that a strong relationship exists which demonstrates that as more respondents became sep/plur, more respondents became comfortable with Blacks in general; and as more respondents became int/assim, more respondents became comfortable with Whites in general. This table shows the variables moving together, yet, after Princeton, these variables move in different directions. Table 18.1 shows that the previous relationship disappears.

In order to explain this disappearance it would be helpful to find some third variable having the same relationship to ideologies and to general comfort during the Pre-to-Prin period but would have different relationships to these variables in the Prin-to-Post period. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find such a variable in this study. Ideologies and “general comfort” were crosstabulated with every variable in this study and no such relationship occurred to explain the disappearance. Thus, in this instance, I will not venture to speculate beyond the limits of my data.Despite this peculiar occurance, ideologies and other dependent variables show relatively strong relationships with few inconsistencies. For example, tables 19 and 19.1 demonstrate that the more respondents became sep/plur, during the Pre-to-Prin period, the more respondents became motivated to benefit the Black community; and the more int/assim they became, the more unmotivated they became to benefit the Black community.

One possible explanation for this occurance may be that both integrationist and separationist strive to benefit the Black community because supporters of these ideologies may believe that their ideologies best serve to benefit the Black community. However, it is possible that while a Black separationist may be solely concerned with the particular community he/she chooses to work within, a Black integrationist may be equally concerned with the Black and White communities, thus must divide his/her motivations between these communities. In essense, a Black integrationist who is dividing motivations between two groups is less concerned with benefiting the Black community specifically than a Black separationist who is placing his/her energies into the Black community only. Such reasoning could account for the findings which show separationists becoming more motivated to benefit the Black community in comparison to integrationists.

With respect to their attitudes towards the Black lower class, during both the Pre-to-Prin and the Prin-to-Post periods, the more respondents became sep/plur, the more respondents became obligated to help improve the lives of the Black lower class (see tables 20 and 20.1). However, the relationship between the change in ideologies during the Prin-to-Post period and the change in feeling of obligation to the Black lower class in table 20.1 is much weaker than the relationship during the Pre-to-Prin period.

Relationships in the previous tables could be the result of the respondents’ increased occupational motivation during the Prin-to-Post period as discussed earlier. This table shows that the percentage of respondents who became motivated by their occupation increased from 28% during the Pre-to-Prin period to 50% from the Prin-to-Post period, while table 4.3a shows that more respondents lost their motivation to benefit the Black community during the Prin-to-Post period.  These findings make it possible to speculate that at the Post-Princeton point, as more respondents were becoming increasingly motivated by their occupations, they had less attention to divide among their other priorities. As a result, some of their motivations to the Black community may have become withdrawn in order to place more emphasis on occupational attainments. Consequently, their feelings of obligation to the Black lower class were decreased as well.

Tables 21 and 21.1 demonstrate that a different relationship exists for both periods when change in ideologies was crosstabulated with the feeling of pride the respondents have in avoiding remaining in or falling into the life of the Black lower class. It was found that the more respondents became int/assim, the more proud they were of this fact; and the more sep/plur they became, the less proud they were. But, it should be noted that the relationship during the Pre-to-Prin period, in this case, is a little weaker than the Prin-to-Post period relationship.

With some speculation, these findings may be attributed to the idea that in order for an individual to be int/assim, that individual may hold the belief that Blacks, as a whole, should strive to become integrated into, as opposed to segregated away from the White community, while a Black who is sep/plur may believe in striving for the opposite goal.  Therefore, an int/assim may not be achieving his/her goals by falling into a life with other Blacks, and thus, be more proud of avoiding their life. A sep/plur, however, may feel that falling into a life led by other Blacks is a step towards achieving his/her goal and, thus, be less proud of avoiding the life of the Black lower class.

When the relationship between change in ideologies and guilt of betraying the Black lower class is analyzed in tables 22 and 22.1, it is evident that respondents who became sep/plur, felt more guilt of betrayal and those who became more int/assim, felt less guilt.

In this instance it is possible that respondents who became sep/plur face some conflict that may produce feelings of guilt for betraying the Black community. This conflict may result from actively integrating in a predominately White environment by attending Princeton. If separtist ideologies are based on total separation from the White community, a certain level of guilt is’ more likely to be felt by a respondent who became sep/plur than by those who became int/assim. An integrationist is not opposing any of his/her ideologies by attending Princeton. On the other hand, the respondent is acting in the best interest of integrationist ideologies and, thus, is faced with no conflict to cause feelings of guilt.

Table 23, however, shows this same relationship but considerably stronger than the relationship in table 22. For the Pre-to-Prin period, when respondents were asked if they felt that the Black lower class must help themselves, a very weak relationship showing that the more sep/plur the respondents became, the more the respondents felt that the Black lower class must help themselves appeared; and the more int/ assim they became, the more they felt that the Black lower class must not help themselves. This same relationship was present for the Prin-to-Post period in Table 23.1, but it has become stronger.

Integrationist and separationist ideologies both encourage the active participation of the Black community in working towards self-help. Integrationism and separtionism may both be ways for the Black lower class to help themselves.  Thus, it is not surprising that the idea of self-help by the lower class continued to increase through the life periods of the respondents.

Finally, tables 24 and 24.1 demonstate a strong relationship for the change in ideologies during the Pre-to-Prin period and the feeling that the situation of the Black lower class is hopeless, such that the more respondents became sep/plur, the more respondents felt hopeless; and the more respondents became int/assim, the less hopeless they felt.,

However, once again, this relationship was very weak for the same relationship in the Prin-to-Post Table 24.1.  My speculation for this finding is based on the possibility that a separationist is more likely to have a realistic impression of the plight of the Black lower class because of the likelihood that a separationist is more closely associated with the Black lower class than are integrationist. By actually working with the Black lower class or within their communities as a result of their ideologies, a separationist may better understand the desparation of their situation and feel more hopeless about a resolution as opposed to an integrationist who is ignorant to their plight.


Chapter V

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS


The original hypotheses of the study as demonstrated earlier by the causal models in diagram 1, stated that time would have a positive relationship to the dependent variables such that the more respondents began spending time with Blacks, the more they would become attached to Black individuals and the Black community in several respects; and the more respondents began spending time with Whites, the more they would be attached to Whites in several respects.  The findings as demonstrated by the revised causal models below in diagrams 2 and 3, were not far off from these original hypotheses.



The causal model in diagram 2 demonstrates that there is still a positive relationship between time and the dependent variables. Ideologies, however, was found to have the same relationship to the dependent variables. Unfortunately, the data do not provide a way of determining whether time or ideologies is more closely related to the dependent variables for reasons discussed earlier. However, I have chosen to examine the time respondents spent with Blacks and Whites as it determines later ideologies and attitudes because I am more interested in this relationship as opposed to examining how ideologies determines time.


 


The causal model in diagram 3 demonstrates that the study examines the respondents who spent time interacting with Blacks and Whites on an individual level as the major causal variable of the study. As discussed earlier, the time spent has a positive relationship to all the dependent variables of the study which show that the more respondents began spending time with Blacks, the more respondents became sep/plur and.the more respondents became attached and interested in the Black community. However, the more respondents began spending time with Whites, the more they became attached to and interested in the White community.

The causal model goes on to argue that the relationships between ideologies and the variables which measure attitdues, i.e., towards the Black lower class, comfort felt on an individual level with Blacks and Whites , and the desire to benefit the Black community is as follows: the more respondent became sep/plur, the more respondents became comfortable with Blacks, the more respondents became motivated to benefit the Black community, and held more positive attitudes towards the Black lower class in general. The more respondents became int/assim, the more they became comfortable with Whites, the less motivated they became to benefit the Black community, and the less positive their attitudes became towards the Black lower class in general.


MAJOR CONCLUSION


The major conclusion to be drawn from the findings of the study is as follows: despite the respondents’ sense of comfort with Blacks and Whites, their motivation to benefit the Black community, or their attitudes towards the Black lower class before Princeton, more respondents tended to identify with Blacks during Princeton in every measured respect.  However, after Princeton this identification decreased drastically. Before discussing this finding in more detail, I feel it is necessary to clarify this idea of identification as it is used in this study.

When I first set out to examine the attitudes of the respondents towards Blacks and Whites, I believed that the extent to which a respondent identified with the Black community would determine that individual’s attitudes. In defining the concept of identification or the ability to identify with the Black community, I based my definition on the premise that there is a distinctive Black culture very different from White culture. Elements of Black culture which make it unique from White culture such as its music, its language, the struggles and a “consciousness” shared by its people may be attributed to the injustices and oppressions suffered by this race of people which are not comparable to the experiences of any other race of people through this country’s history. However, with the increasing integration of Blacks into the mainstream society, many “integrated Blacks” have lost touch with the Black culture in their attempts to become adjusted and comfortable in their new culture–the White culture. Some of these Blacks are no longer able to enjoy the qualities which make Black culture so unique or are unable to openly share their culture with other Blacks because they have become so far removed from these experiences and, in some instances, ashamed of them as a result of their integration.

There are other Blacks who, in being integrated have not lost touch. They have maintained an awareness and a sincere appreciation for the uniqueness of the Black culture. Unlike those who have lost touch, these Blacks have not become ashamed of Black culture.  It is with these ideas that I formulated my conception of identifying with the Black community. Thus, I believe that a respondent who did not identify with the Black community would be less likely to spend time with Blacks and be less motivated to benefit the Black community. However I encountered several problems following this line of reasoning.

I now believe it is incorrect to assume that just because a Black individual does not enjoy or choose to participate in the culture of his people, that that individual is not interested in benefiting that group of people. For example, a Black may not enjoy the music, or language of the Black community because his preferences lead him to other interests, but this same individual may actively work to improve employment for Blacks because of a sincere interest in ameliorating this condition. Therefore, the inability to identify with one aspect of the Black culture does not necessarily cause apathy towards Blacks in general.  Also, a Black individual may be unable to understand or appreciate the Black culture because that individual was not raised in that culture, yet still be able to;identify as being a Black person. For example, a Black person may have all White friends and prefer these friends and their activities to those with Blacks without the individual believing that he/she is White. It is possible that the individual identifies with being a Black person and chooses to benefit the Black community because he/she is a Black person, but does not necessarily identify with the culture.

Thus, defining identification as an appreciation and an enjoyment found in the Black culture is not complete enough for the purposes of the study. However, through my study I was able to redefine the concept of identification.  Earlier in the discussion of “comfort” in the Hypothesis Chapter, the concept of familiarity was introduced. Until this point familiarity only served to explain the role of comfort in this study. However, after completion of my study, it is clear to me that familiarity or the extent to which respondents are familiar with the Black community is helpful in redefining the concept of identification. It is my belief that a respondent’s sense of familiarity with the Black community or with the White community will result in the respondent’s inclination to become attached to Blacks or Whites on an individual and on a community level.

By measuring relative comfort respondents feel interacting with Blacks and with Whites as well as the time spent actually interacting with Blacks and Whites, the respondents ideologies, motivations, and ‘ attitudes towards the Black lower class, the study is providing an idea of the respondents’ familiarity with Blacks and Whites, which will influence the extent to which respondents are attached to Blacks or Whites, thereby indicating the extent to which the individual identifies with Blacks or Whites. For example, a respondent who spends increasingly more time with Blacks in comparison to Whites or feels comfort with Blacks in comparison to Whites or holds ideologies that are sep/plur rather than int/assim, or is more motivated to benefit the Black community as opposed to being unmotivated, or is more obligated to the Black lower class, is more likely to be familiar with Blacks as opposed to Whites, be more inclined to become attached to Blacks as opposed to Whites and, thus, identify more with Blacks as opposed to Whites.


NEW HYPOTHESIS


Many questions arise from these findings. For instance, why did some respondents tend to become more attached and interested in the Black community during Princeton? What influence did their Princeton environment have on their attitudes and why were these influences not present before and after Princeton? The findings provided by this study leave these questions unanswered because the questionnaire was not designed to investigate these surprising occurances. However, it is possible to develop new hypotheses which might explain these findings and suggest methods for testing them.  One possible hypothesis explaining why some respondents  become attached to Blacks during Princeton was derived from some ideas Dejoie brought out in her report discussed earlier in the Hypothesis Chapter. Predominately White universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the White students comprising the bulk of their enrollments. At Princeton, for example, presently their are only five Black tenured professsors on its faculty; and the program of Afro-American studies is one of the smallest and most understaffed departments in the University only offering four courses during the spring semester of 1985; and there is only one major University recognized organization on campus designed specifically for the intellectual and social interests of Blacks and other Third World students.

Activities organized by University groups such as Student Government rarely, if ever, take into account the diverse interests which exist at a University that is not 100% White. If Black students want to have certain speakers or programs, catering to their interests, they must form separate groups within the University, i.e., the Organization of Black Unity, the Princeton University Black Thoughts Table, the Society of Black Engineers. Several Black students within the past four years, have even organized a Food Cooperative which provides these students with an inexpensive alternative to University eating facilities and Eating Clubs which are very expensive by comparison. Thus, it is not surprising that, in their attempts to satisfy their own intellectual, social, and also economic needs, some respondents became attached to Blacks during the Pre-to-Prin period.

In order to study this hypothesis which, in essence, is saying that the more respondents became attached to Blacks during the Pre-to-Prin period, the more respondents became dissatisfied with the social and academic environment at Princeton, one might measure the degree of satisfaction respondents felt in their experiences at Princeton. By creating a scale from being “very satisfied” to being “not satisfied at all”, respondents could be asked to rate numerous Princeton experiences, i.e., social life, academic diversity, eating options, and in general on this scale. From such a question, one could discover how satisfied Blacks were at Princeton and what satisfied them most and least.  Another possible hypothesis created from this study’s findings explaining why respondents became attached to Blacks at Princeton is that the mood of Black students at Princeton during the time that most of the respondents were attending Princeton was more separationist. As discussed earlier, most respondents were attending Princeton during the 70′s, at a time when the Black Power Movement was still influencing the attitudes of many Blacks. It is possible that Black individuals either chose to or felt pressured to come together with other Blacks on campus because of the belief that Blacks must join in solidarity to combat a White oppressor. As the few Blacks in a White environment it is understandable that respondents might have felt a need to look out for one another.

One can contrast the mood of the campus years ago and the level of attachment to Blacks to that of the present mood of the campus, which is more pro-integrationist, and the level of attachment to Blacks. Presently, with the Black Power Movement behind us and with the implementation of CURL (College Undergraduate Residential Life), the mood of the campus has been shifted in such a way that Black students are discouraged from forming separate groups because of a fear that they are segregating themselves from mainstream campus life by doing so. Thus, if a survey were to be made today of the level of Black involvement in minority organizations and their involvement in campus organizations, there would be a larger percentage of Blacks involved in mainstream life in comparison to the years when these respondents were at Princeton. But, on the other hand, the percentage of involvement in Third World organizations would be much lower now than then. It appears, that the present mood of the campus is one that encourages the integration and assimilation of Blacks, whereas the mood of the campus and even society in general several years ago encouraged the separation of Blacks. Thus, the mood of the time may have contributed its influence to more respondents becoming attached to Blacks.

So far, I have discussed a few characteristics of Princeton and the time at which respondents were attending the University which may account for some of the main findings of this study. However, it is still necessary to discuss why the respondents’ Princeton experiences were different from their Pre and Post-Princeton experiences. It is important to remember that before Princeton, a large percentage of the respondents were attending secondary schools whose population was more heavily White in comparison to their primary schools.

After Princeton, one may speculate that respondents were also in predominately White work environments or attending graduate or professional schools that were also predominately White. Thus, a discussion of the differences between these experiences in predominately White environments and Princeton experiences that prevented Pre and Post environments from changing their attitudes will be interesting.  What I believe distinguishes Pre-Princeton from Princeton experiences accounting for the respondents’ tendencies to identify more with Blacks during Princeton, is the presence of a support group, i.e., family or home, during Pre-Princeton that was absent during Princeton. During Pre-Princeton if respondents became frustrated or discouraged as a result of their experiences in a predominately White academic environment the respondents could always escape from these frustrations when they left these environments to go home.

Thus, respondents’ families and homelives provide relief from any problems or tensions encountered in predominately White environments. However, when respondents enter college, many, if not most, are unable to go home for support from families readily when they are frustrated or discouraged by their Princeton environment usually because their familiies are far from them and telephoning home may be restricted because of the expense. Thus, in their attempts to find a substitute support group, respondents turn to individuals in their environments who most resemble their old support groups; individuals who share the same problems as themselves and understand their complaints. Consequently, many respondents find themselves spending more time with other Blacks while at Princeton because it is likely that other Blacks are more sensitive to respondents’ problems, and it is also likely that respondents are identifying more with Blacks.

What distinguishes Post-Princeton from Princeton experiences, accounting for the respondents’ tendencies to identify more with Blacks during Princeton are the respondents’ increased motivations to benefit their occupations. Assuming that most of these respondents are working or attending schools during Post-Princeton that are predominately White, most of their time during Post-Princeton will be spent interacting with their White co-workers or classmates. Thus, the increasing amount of time spent with Whites resulting from the respondents’ occupational pursuits can account for the increased attachment to Whites during Post-Princeton.  In essence, in order to advance in their careers or post-graduate studies, respondents realize they must be able to get along with their co-workers or classmates who are likely to be White, thereby identifying more with Whites.  I began this study questionning my own attitudes as a future alumnus. I wondered whether or not my education at Princeton would affect my identification with the Black community. I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with Whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that Black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the Black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility.

Findings show that some respondents did experience a change in their attitudes over the periods of time indicated in this study. By studying respondents who did change, it was shown that respondents’ experiences while attending Princeton caused their identification with Blacks and the Black community to increase as their’ identification with Whites and the White community decreased. However, after Princeton, respondents’ experienced the opposite change in attitude; their identification with Blacks and the Black community decreased as their identification with Whites and the White community increased. Thus, these findings suggest that respondents who experience change as a result of their Princeton experiences are likely to identify less with Blacks and the Black community in comparison to Whites and the Whites community.

It is important to note that it is impossible for me to generalize these findings for all Black Princeton alumni because the sample for this study was much too small to make any kind of generalizations. Therefore, I am only able to draw conclusions from these findings for the respondents to my questionnaire.

What is left to be done now is a further examination of this issue to determine if a Princeton education has unique effects on Blacks or if the effects are common for all college-educated Blacks in general. It is my belief that such a study should be undertaken by developing a new questionnaire to be distributed to Black alumni of several different types of universities. Such a study could prove to be invaluable to bettering the educational environments for Blacks who are able to attend college, thereby improving the overall quality of a college education for Blacks.






Footnotes


1 Pierre van den Berghe, Race and Racism, (New York: Wiley), 1967: p. 35.
2 Stokely Carmichael and :Charles Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, (New York: Vintage Books), 1967: p. 44. 

3 For this study, change was computed for first, the Pre-Princeton to Princeton period (to be referred to as “Pre-to-Prin”) and then for the Princeton to Post-Princeton period (to be referred to as “Prin-to-Post”). By calculating the difference between the number indicated by respondents for Pre-Princeton point and the number indicated by respondents for the Princeton point, it was possible to estimate the change during the Pre-to-Prin period. Likewise the difference between the number indicated by the respondents for Princeton point and the number indicated for the Post-Princeton point shows the change during the Princeton to Post-Princeton period.

4 Dr. Carolyn Dejoie, “Low Morale in Higher Education: Blacks in Predominately White Universities”, (source of article unknown).

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Piazza and Glock, “Images of God and Their Social Meaning”, Religious Dimensions, (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.), 1979: p. 69.






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