Student Culture Shifts

Student cultural attitudes and changes can be a research topic of its own. For the scope of this project, a broad overview of student cultural shifts about white-black race relations will be explained here. In the following section, a closer examination will be done comparing the change from the 1960s to 1974, including a notable point of conflict among both students and faculty.  

Student culture at Mason’s beginnings was a racist one, engaging with activities like slave auction roleplays and blackface for entertainment and fundraising. The 1970s were a period of significant change and back-and-forths. Practices from the 1960s carried over into the 1970s but were more greatly brought to ridicule. Some members of campus life began arguing for an end to racist traditions for the sake of minority and disenfranchised students. This did not entirely stomp out racist entertainment from campus life, but aided in mitigating it. Several notable instances would still occur throughout the 1980s and 90s, some resulting in George Mason University being subject to national coverage. With American society as a whole abandoning social practices reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, and Mason’s student population retaining more black students after initiatives set out in 1985, student culture adapted to become more inclusive.