tudents are oblivious to racism's power and manifestations in society. Bright (1995) has stated that not only do students not understand cultural diversity issues, they tend to be actively resistant to learning about diversity.
Suleiman and Hashem (1995) state that students have biases against other cultures that they do not even realize and that this is why there resistance to diversity education and issues is so strong. Consciously, they truly are unaware of their prejudicial views and, therefore, see no reason for such programs.
According to Noel (1993), the views of students regarding diversity issues are often dependent upon the racial/ethnic composition of the region students are living in. For example, Noel points out that a multicultural education course is needed at Montana State University by both students and teachers; this because the homogeneous region in which they live as left everyone bereft of even a basic awareness of diversity issues.
The purpose of a study conducted by Echols (1997) was to measure the attitudes and perceptions of students on diversity issues such as affirmative action and anti discrimination in order to determine the relationship between race, gender, and other socioeconomic variables on students' degree of knowledge and support for affirmative action and anti discrimination.
Data were collected from two public schools in northeastern Ohio. Findings revealed that race was the key factor influencing students' knowledge and support for affirmative action and anti-discrimination with black students having more knowledge of and support for the issues than white students. Gender was not found to be significant for either knowledge of affirmative action or anti-discrimination. Other factors such as age, income, and education were also not significant in explaining the attitudes and perceptions of students toward affirmative action and anti discrimination.
Gratto (1997) examined the at...