The findings of the survey are super surprising. Despite the fact that 74% of students polled say that there is diversity on their campus, the findings show that two thirds of students reported incidents of harassment and use of racial slurs on campus in the last year.  For more on our findings read our full report on Prejudice on Campus.

This points to an unfortunate truth on college campuses and across the nation in general: diversity does not necessarily lead to tolerance. Although we live in a multicultural nation, people’s attitudes, perceptions, and tolerance of others’ differences can be downright intolerable.

This survey couldn’t have come at a more poignant time, as the country undertakes a presidential election that may indeed elect the first African-American president. Although most students said that race would not affect their vote, the number of non-white respondents who said that race did matter in their vote was double that of white respondents. These findings may contradict what some reporters are speculating might be a Bradley Effect, where white voters say they will vote for a black candidate, but on election day switch their vote to the white candidate.

This last Wednesday, on “The Daily Show with John Stewart”, John Stewart poked fun at these predictions by speculating that Barack Obama, who is of mixed race, may not know who to vote for come election day: “Your white half will all of a sudden decide, ‘I can’t do this’.” Obama certainly seemed amused at the idea that he might secretly wish to vote for McCain. If you want to see if the survey predicts your vote, read our report on Prejudice on Campus.

Kudos to all of you who filled out this groundbreaking survey, but don’t let your voice end here. Go out on November 4th and VOTE!

High school graduation rates are lower for black male students than white male students.

According to a Schott Foundation report, about half of black male students are failing in school. 

And some cities are worse than others. Indianapolis has a 19 percent graduation rate and Detroit has a 20 percent graduation rate for black male students.

Your best bet is Ford Bend, Texas which has an 80 percent graduation rate for black male students.

Here are some more stats:

•  For Grade 8 Reading, the national percentage of White, non-Hispanic male students scoring at or above the Basic level was 78% in 2007. The percentage of Black, non-Hispanic male students scoring at or above the Basic level in Grade 8 was 46% in 2007.
• For Grade 8 Mathematics, the national percentage of White, non-Hispanic male students scoring at or above the Basic level was 82% in 2007. The percentage of Black, non-Hispanic male students scoring at or above the Basic level in Grade 8 was 46% in 2007.

Do these numbers point to a race issue? What about black girls?

Black girls actually get pretty good grades, go to college at decent rates and graduate from college at very good rates, earning degrees as twice the rate of men. And these girls live in the same neighborhoods and go to the same schools as the black boys.

If black girls are doing well at the same schools, is high school graduation rates a race issue…or a gender issue?