Ok, we'll just compare it to the other in-state SEC school. 21-13
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The general population of our country is only a little over 13% African American. So, any school not at 13% or so is below the national average from a comparison standpoint.
You also have to look at how tough it is to get into the various schools. Isn't MSU and UM's requirements for admission lowered due to the Ayers lawsuit dealing with the HBCUs in MS? Other SEC schools might have higher standards which make it harder for minority students to get into schools. African American dominated school systems are typically not as high performing. Several reasons for it but it causes kids to be behind the 8 ball when trying to get into college.
Total population of the state has nothing really to do with this. The question is - does the make up of student body reflect the population of the state? The fact is, we are the only school in the SEC that has a diverse enough student body that is anywhere close to reflecting the actual population of the state. With a larger population base, Alabama and Georgia should have more African-American students then they do since they have a large population pool to draw from. As Cooter points out - A/A make up 13% of the total US population - so even if you set that as a marker (which is well below the percentage of A/A population in every SEC state but Missouri), the SEC as a whole is still does not reflect the population of the country.
Now, don't confuse this as an argument that OM is doing something special, or something that should be applauded. The article is spot on in the way race and the Lost Cause still influences life on the OM campus. It's not unique to OM - I've heard similar feelings from students at UGA and Bama and other large state universities. Where the author errs is singling OM out as poor example of racial diversity when the reality is - as whole - the Universities in MS have done a better job then any other schools in the SEC in serving the minority populations of their states when you look at the statistics.
I don't get why MSU fans would want to push a standard where MSU is just "less racist" than Ole Miss. That's essentially what comparing their AA population to the state's does.
It's so easy to point out the origin of the term "Ole Miss", their mascots, the incidents they keep having on campus, etc. Why would you want to make an argument that MSU and Ole Miss both fall short when it comes to AA students, but state doesn't fall short as badly? I don't think there's any evidence that that's the case.
I hate OM more than anyone but this thread is PC garbage
I think MSU does a good job with diversity. Comparing our stats to someone like the University of Texas, in 2014 had a 4% enrollment of black students. The state of Texas is 11% black. I wonder if you took out all the black athletes what the percentage would go down to. MSU seems to do a better job than most in P5 conferences and UM actually doesn't do a bad job in comparison to other P5 schools.
Mississippi schools get a bad reputation because the entire state is deemed racist by media and the lingering Old South imagery that places like Ole Miss still perpetuate. Their dumbasses actually hurt MSU's image just from being in the same damn state.
Too many people now have knee jerk reactions to anything that isn't strictly liberal/conservative depending on your leanings. It isn't liberal to hope that all Mississippians have a chance at higher education and to improve their position in life. It also isn't conservative to hope that reverence for Old South imagery is kept around. I think plenty of conservatives hope that we can get rid of the things that divide us. Not many Mississippians want to look back on old times not forgotten with happiness. For the most part, that is a black spot on our state's history similar to Germany during Hitler's reign.
You walk into an graduate engineering class, not only very few AA’s there are almost no A’s. You go to a top MBA program report-out, Indians and East Asian people are the majority, everybody else is a minority
This is true at MSU, SMU, and Princeton to only include my personal experience. Personally, I think losing America’s technology and engineering edge should be a front burner topic over divisive race baiting ... just saying... let’s talk about baseball or something