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Survey Finds More Prejudice Toward American Indians
By Associated Press
Oct 2, 2007, 22:11

TULSA, Okla.

Results of a racism survey at the University of Tulsa showing American Indians more likely to be regarded with prejudice than other minorities by White students surprised researchers.

 

A written survey of 55 White, middle-class college students in their 20s who had been in college for more than a year found that American Indians were consistently regarded less favorably on social factor indicator scales than Black people.

 

Researchers said the mix of the state’s many tribes increased the likelihood of students coming into contact with an Indian person.

 

“The findings support the idea that although overtly racist ideas toward African-Americans appear to be less prevalent in contemporary America, overt racism towards American Indians is present,” UT researchers reported in the study.

 

According to 2006 U.S. Census estimates, 43,364 self-identified American Indians live in Tulsa County. Statewide, the number is 397,041.

 

Findings from the study indicate that although the respondents knew that Indians are different in culture, they were viewed less positively than Black people. One aspect was perceived privileges, such as free health care, researchers noted.

 

Dr. Dennis Combs, a former UT associate psychology professor who now works at the University of Texas at Tyler, participated in the research. Combs says the findings are surprising because college students are perceived as liberal regarding race issues.

 

“Also, American Indians may also be subject to a newer form of racism called subtle racism, which is centered on them as being different, having poor work ethic and unfavorable,” says Combs, who conducted the study along with student Melissa Tibbits.

 

Indians also are more likely to be regarded with “blatant prejudice” than Black people, the survey showed.

 

Officials with the Tulsa Indian Coalition on Racism, who viewed the study’s results, say that when generalities about Indians abound, negative viewpoints are nurtured and sustained.

 

“People think we have privilege and all get gaming checks. ... That’s not true,” TICAR President Louis Gray says. “People don’t think of us as human; we’re just symbols, but we have hopes and dreams like everyone else.”

 

--Associated Press

Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin Says:
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:55 pm

Yes, in areas where the largest group of people of color are not African American a survey of White students may show them as more racist against that group rather than African Americans. I found this the case, as one of about 6 African American adults, in the general “metropolitan” area of 18,000 when I worked at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. I am also a quarter-blood Apache. Just because white students were MORE vocal about their nasty racism against American Indians (all based on their unrecognized White privilege BTW) didn’t mean they were any more enlightened about Blacks or Latino’s. I was racially harassed off of that campus and out of the community 13 years ago. Also who says white students are “liberal” on race? They may think they are liberal but ask their few Black and Latino (and American Indian if any) professers and see what THEY say! And since when is this so-called subtle racism new or those nasty stereotypes only attributed to American Indians.

 

 

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