Brigham Young University - Provo

Date: Jun 11 2011
Major: Sociology (This Major's Salary over time)
Most students are both white middle, upper(up to the upperty)-class students and members of the Latter Day Saints church(85%). The experience at BYU cannot truly be diverse socially, culturally,racially, religiously,and even politically. Yes it is true that more than a half of the student body have spent at least two years in a foreign country (spreading church teachings and doctrines). The BYU experience may be diverse, linguistically. Yet less than 5% of students, are actually from those foreign countries visited. A large amount LDS whites are pretty friendly towards each other, but in terms of doing the exact same thing towards specifically LDS people of African decent: almost nonexistent. If it is supposed, that LDS whites were the most segregated racial/religious group in the United States. It seems as though a good amount of LDS middle-class whites have eluded the skills necessary to master a multiracial, if not multicultural environment. Nonetheless a person of African decent chances of being approached wholeheartedly by a member of the majority is more likely to happen if that member has lived in a foreign country where the majority of the people are of African decent, such as South Africa. The majority of students of African decent at BYU are actually from outside the United States, from countries such as Ghana,Kenya,Nigeria and Jamaica. Blacks from the United States (African Americans) are not present (hardly).

Of course, if you are an "ethnic minority" it is sometimes difficult to "fit in" with the majority. White non-LDS may have a higher chance of "fitting in" than ethnic subpopulations who are LDS. A minority may view majority culture has uniform and dominating. Even though the majority culture consists of people that are actually from different States of the United States and have visited different foreign countries around the world. It is easy for the minority to view the majority as uniform, dominant and sometimes socially suffocating. If not socially suffocating, culturally distant. As a student of African decent you may hear stories of African American students transferring from the university after one or two semesters. You may also hear a story of an African American professor Darron Smith, who was embarking on a sociological journey to spread the word about a supposedly new phenomenon called "color-blind racism" happening within the church and very concentrated. He was asked to leave his post (his contract cut short) but quickly got hired at another nearby university not affiliated with the LDS church.

Thankfully there is the -International Student- and the -Multi cultural Student- Services that were apparently developed to counteract these experiences or feelings of alienation from the dominant white LDS culture at BYU. The latter services have events that allow the Non-white LDS sub-populations, a sense of , unity, community and acceptance both amongst themselves and with the majority.

I would say that BYU has vast potential to be diverse.