Chapter 8, The Recoloring of Campus Life, Student Racism, Academic Pluralism, and the End of a Dream Summary and Analysis

Steele begins the chapter by noting that on university campuses in his day there has been a renewed sense of ethnic conflict. Campus racism seems to be reasserting itself and lines between races are becoming hardened. Many of the reports may be exaggeration but there is something to the phenomenon and the reasons for it are mysterious.

Steele speaks to many of the students involved and discovers that the conflicts do not have to do with racial inequality but instead are a reaction of anxiety to racial equality. When kids are brought together from different parts of the country, they find themselves confronted with difference. This causes anxiety and produces concentrated...