Voluntary Segregation

In this day in age, we promote social integration in all aspects of social events and actives. For example, fraternities, sororities, sport events, and school clubs. However, even though as a society we promote social integration, do we practice it? Voluntary segregation, occurs when individuals choose to build social relationships with members of their own race, despite access to relationships with individuals of all races. Being a student at Florida Atlantic University I believe this topic is worth researching, because in this day in age, there is a rise in racial tension even though we live in a social integrated society. By doing my search on school campus, my study will seek to find out if FAU students prefer to socialize within their …show more content…
In addition, exploratory projects to collect data on some measure to establish a baseline with which future changes will be compared. My hope is that this research project may provide insight to the racial division that is built into our culture despite the promotion of integration. The method of gathering data was to look for groups of three or more that sat together and socialized among each other. Single or pair students were not factored into the observation. A table that consisted of only one race group was labeled self- segregated and tallied. At the end of my observation I would tally up how much self – segregated groups I …show more content…
However, this can also skew my results because the students may just sit together because there is an open seat, not necessarily because they share the same racial background. Ethical issues that will most likely face are determining a student’s race by looks. It would be rude and stereotypical to label an individual simply by the way he or she looks or dresses. Not only is this an ethical issue, but a weakness as well, I will not be able to take into account students who are mixed raced, or may appear to be one ethnic group but is either the complete opposite or does not identify as such. Another ethical issue involving race would be to ask complete strangers personal questions in regards to racial issues. Like I mentioned before racial issues has become a sensitive topic to discuss, so asking individuals to express how they feel about self- segregation can possibly offend someone overhearing or within the that group. Another weakness this approach may face is “why are they gathering together”, meaning they might just be group partners for a class assignment and not necessarily friends. I will not have clear indications of the type of relationships groups remembers have with one another. My research also struggles with Validity, since I am not interacting with students. I