The Presence of Racism on Campus: How Effective are Difficult Dialogues at Addressing Racism

Systemic racism continues to be an issue on university campuses, especially those that are predominately white. Previous research has found this type of treatment to negatively affect people of color’s academic performance and mental health. Commitment to diversity and a positive racial environment on campus aids in the collegiate success of students of color. This study investigates the connection between race and the resources the campus community uses to combat racism before attending the difficult dialogue session. Difficult dialogue sessions involve conversations about racism. The implementation of difficult dialogues has raised awareness and provided a safe space for students, staff, and faculty to openly discuss racism. Successful difficult dialogue sessions have the power to identify what collective actions are necessary to implement social change on campus. Through these sessions, participants were faced with discussing racism that occurs at their university. Trained notetakers recorded the responses of the participants during each session. After, participants completed a survey about their experience before and after completing a difficult dialogue session. Through a quantitative and qualitative approach, participant feedback from each session was analyzed to understand the responses of individuals in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM, field. Results show that white STEM participants claim to have more resources to combat racism before the difficult dialogue sessions than non-white STEM participants. Analysis of the open-ended responses describes the reasons for these results. Through further research and data analysis, we hope to gain insight into how resources are obtained and used by participants to further implement and improve race relations across campuses