Ethnic and Class Preferences Among College Negroes

Abstract

Beginning with the classical study of social distance by Bogardus in 19252 it has been repeatedly shown that American students readily arrange a list of group denominations such as English, American, Chinese, Negro, Jew, into a rank order of preference which does not vary in its essentials among different groups of subjects studied at different times and places. In general the order of preference obtained for white college students is: American, English, Northern and Western Europeans, Southern and Eastern Europeans, Asiatics, Negroes. The regularity with which these results have been reported has led Hartley to suggest that these preferences are an integral part of American culture.' The present study was designed to determine: (a) if Negroes would adopt the order of preference, and if not, how different would their preferences be? (b) do American Negroes differentiate between Northern white Americans and Southern white Americans? (c)