How do college freshmen compare these days to their counterparts 40 years ago, in terms of their socioeconomic characteristics and personal beliefs? As Inside Higher Education reports, each year, UCLA conducts a comprehensive survey of such questions and has just recently released a report that chronicles trends over the past 40 years. There results are quite interesting, particular in terms of racial/ethnic questions:

In 1971, 90.9 percent of first-time, full-time freshmen were white, while today the percentage is down to 76.5. Since then, all minority groups have made attendance gains, although at different rates and some, like African Americans, already reached their numerical peak and, due to various factors, have slowly decreased their share of the freshman population. . . .

About two-thirds of students today socialize with people of another race or ethnicity in high school, and a similar percentage expect to do so in college. This contrasts markedly with students’ views on racism and their institutions’ obligation to foster interracial dialogue: A little over a third believe promoting racial understanding is “essential” or “very important,” down from its peak just after the Rodney King incident in 1992, while 19.1 percent believe to some extent that racism is no longer a major problem in society.

In a departure of tone from the rest of the document, the authors expressed explicit disapproval of these trends, writing, “students’ personal goals and beliefs at college entry may be cause for concern.”

Let’s summarize -- college freshmen are increasingly non-White, but the overall percentage of all college freshman who think that race relations is a major issue has been steadily declining. Like I said, quite interesting. Is that a contradiction?

On the surface, it may appear that way but as many sociologists have commented, American society in general and the media in particular, have increasingly shied away from discussing race relations issues in recent years, so in that context, it’s not surprising to learn that their primary audience (young people) have bought into the myth of living in a colorblind society.