International College Students' Experience of Racial Prejudice

Abstract

This chapter intends to discuss the experiences of international college students regarding racial prejudice on campus and explore the role of student associations as a way to increase cross-cultural interactions between domestic and international students. The aim is to examine how prejudice, more specifically racial-ethnic prejudice, affects their college experience. The findings suggest that active involvement in campus activities promote interaction across cultures and reduce racial prejudice. This chapter engages qualitative individual interviews with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Nigerian, Kenyan, and Ghanaian undergraduate international students (N=31). It is believed that this method is best suited to apprehend their experiences and to fully understand how they create meaning of perceived racial prejudice. Their testimonies are presented through verbatim transcripts of the interview sessions conducted in 2014-2015, in three New York research universities. A discussion of their experiences follows and suggestions for future research conclude this chapter.