tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/race-on-campus-18381/articlesRace on campus – The Conversation2018-10-09T10:55:21Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1009422018-10-09T10:55:21Z2018-10-09T10:55:21ZIt’s naive to think college athletes have time for school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239392/original/file-20181004-52678-vo3e6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The demands of college sports often take precedence over education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Oregon-California-Football/04dcc9c972464406b9ed6e02539da782/140/0">Don Feria/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>From my first day as a sociology professor at a university with a Division I football and men’s basketball team, education and athletics struck me as being inherently at odds. </p>
<p>Student-athletes filled my courses to take advantage of the fact that the classes met <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/uloop/the-life-of-a-student-ath_b_2963409.html">early in the morning</a>.</p>
<p>The football and men’s basketball players – <a href="http://time.com/4110443/college-football-race-problem/">most of whom were black</a> – quickly fell behind due to scheduling constraints. Only so much time was set aside for academics and, often, it wasn’t enough. Academic rigor and athletic success were simply incompatible goals.</p>
<p>Now – as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&user=btoK1KsAAAAJ">a researcher</a> who is studying college athletes through the lens of race and class – I have compiled evidence to show just how much more time college athletes devote to sports over academics.</p>
<h2>Lopsided but ‘normal’</h2>
<p>Early data from my <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ybtgcswj">ongoing research</a> on the academic experiences of black Division I football and men’s basketball players shows that they spend three times as many hours per week on athletics as they do on academics. On average, the players spend more than 25 hours on sports-related activities other than games, such as practice, workouts, general team meetings, film sessions and travel. On the other hand, the player spend less than eight hours on academics outside of class, such as writing papers, studying, getting tutored or working on group projects. This imbalance is institutionally constructed and perpetuated. Perhaps most disturbingly, the student-athletes I surveyed perceive this lopsided situation as “normal.” </p>
<p>Some may <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/30/opinions/college-athletes-not-exploited-ackerman-scott/index.html">argue</a> that the players should be satisfied with the fact that their scholarships enable them to reap the benefits of a college education. The problem with that argument is that college athletes aren’t able to fully actualize their identities as students to the same degree as their classmates. College sports is just too demanding, and universities do not make any special concessions for athletes’ additional time commitments.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239531/original/file-20181005-72127-5nbyod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239531/original/file-20181005-72127-5nbyod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239531/original/file-20181005-72127-5nbyod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239531/original/file-20181005-72127-5nbyod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239531/original/file-20181005-72127-5nbyod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239531/original/file-20181005-72127-5nbyod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239531/original/file-20181005-72127-5nbyod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Indiana’s Romeo Langford poses during an NCAA college basketball media day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Indiana-Media-Day-Basketball/7173ded23af041318da4d7932f16ec9c/8/0">Darron Cummings/AP</a></span>
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<h2>Money at stake</h2>
<p>It is important to distinguish the lives of college athletes who don’t generate money for their institutions, such as <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2016/03/17/how-college-football-props-entire-athletic-departm/">soccer and tennis players</a>, versus those who are deeply intertwined with the generation of revenue for colleges, universities and the NCAA, which cleared <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2018/03/07/ncaa-reports-revenues-more-than-1-billion-2017/402486002/">US$1 billion in revenue in 2017</a>. That kind of money cannot be made without <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/college-student-athletes-spend-40-hours-a-week-practicing-2015-1">serious time commitments</a> among the players.</p>
<p>Every time I watch a college football or men’s basketball game on TV, I can’t help but wonder what the players on my screen missed in class that day. </p>
<p>They are students such as Jalen (a pseudonym), a football player who requested a meeting with me mid-semester. He wanted to discuss how my office hours conflicted with the team practices and film sessions. For an hour we discussed what he understood as unfixable. Jalen wanted and needed to utilize the main academic support systems provided by the college, but literally didn’t have the time.</p>
<p>Jalen was by no means alone. Rather, his plight was emblematic of untold numbers of college athletes who struggle to balance sports and academics.</p>
<h2>Workers or students?</h2>
<p>So, are college athletes workers who attend school part-time? Or are they students who play sports part-time? Players at schools across the country are <a href="http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/17799739/nigel-hayes-wisconsin-badgers-carries-sign-asking-money-college-gameday">speaking up</a> about the fact that they generate revenue for the colleges they play for but not for themselves. They have attempted to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeleef/2017/02/22/federal-official-again-declares-that-college-football-players-can-unionize/#fb403a942e7e">unionize</a> and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2018/03/28/ncaa-must-defend-limits-compensation-college-athletes/467495002/">filed lawsuits</a> to get what they see as their fair share.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the NCAA claims that student-athlete balance is not only possible, but that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/11/04/142019366/mark-emmert-ncaa-athletes-need-respect-not-salaries">most Division I players</a> achieve it.</p>
<h2>Disparities persist</h2>
<p>The reality is most football and men’s basketball players
<a href="https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/black-mail-student-athletes-and-racial-inequities-ncaa-division-i-college-sports">underperform academically</a> and <a href="https://news.usc.edu/138228/leading-sports-schools-black-athletes-graduation-rates-lower/">routinely graduate</a> at lower rates than “other student-athletes, black non-athletes and undergraduates in general.”</p>
<p>Recent academic scandals – from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/unc-fake-class-scandal-details-2014-10">fraudulent classes</a> to <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article209984789.html">inappropriate tutor support</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/sports/baylor-football-sexual-assault.html">administrative cover-ups</a> – reveal that a sports-first mentality permeates college campuses.</p>
<p>The NCAA continues to describe Division I football and basketball players as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/ncaa-president-defends-amateurism-in-college-sports/">“regular students who happen to play sports.”</a> However, the NCAA rarely details how this student-athlete balance is supposed to work. There are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ltaRIJ0N2o">tournament time commercials</a> that remind viewers how most college athletes “will go pro in something other than sports.” However, less mentioned, if at all, are what kind of practical routes exist to this theoretically “balanced” identity. Even the NCAA’s own <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/GOALS_2015_summary_jan2016_final_20160627.pdf">surveys of college athletes</a> show that athletics takes precedence over academics. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/index.ssf/2018/01/alabama_footballs_piece_of_174.html">Coaches and college staffers are getting rich</a> in the name of higher education while their mostly black players are – in their own words – <a href="http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/10/13/zach-bohannon-nigel-hayes-wisconsin-ncaa">“broke.”</a> And this despite the fact that student-athlete responsibilities have grown as the business of college sports grows. For instance, some of the games <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/its-time-for-college-football-to-shorten-games-for-the-fans-and-players/">last longer</a>, and the <a href="https://www.alligatorarmy.com/2015/6/9/8752711/florida-gators-football-players-daily-schedule-graphic">average hours</a> that players spend per week on athletes continues to creep upward.</p>
<h2>Conflicts continue</h2>
<p>Recently, 2017 Heisman runner-up, Bryce Love, drew criticism for “<a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/why-stanford-star-bryce-loves-absence-from-pac-12-media-day-sets-a-dangerous-precedent/">setting a bad precedent</a>” for choosing to attend summer classes instead of Stanford’s media day.</p>
<p>Almost 60 percent of participants in my current national research study find it difficult or very difficult to balance sports and academics – from the moment they set foot on campus until graduation, if they graduate at all. Considering the fact that less than 2 percent of college football players get into the National Football League, and only 1.2 percent of college basketball players get drafted into the National Basketball Association, the reality is that many college athletes will <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/27/college-athletes-greatly-overestimate-their-chances-playing-professionally">never see a payoff in professional sports</a>. But the real tragedy is that – having devoted so much time to sports instead of their studies – they won’t really get to see their college education pay off, either.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Harris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows student-athletes spend triple the amount of time on sports as on academics, raising questions about whether they actually benefit from a college education, a sociology professor argues.Jasmine Harris, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Ursinus CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1007212018-08-14T10:32:22Z2018-08-14T10:32:22ZWhat Harvard can learn from Texas: A solution to the controversy over affirmative action<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231158/original/file-20180808-191025-n95gop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Top 10 percent policies could help universities such as Harvard achieve diversity.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cambridge-ma-may-29-students-harvard-197551889?src=2Hf-9837zLort-Gzw5XC-w-1-13">f11photo/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to the use of race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions, no one seems to be happy with the way it’s playing out.</p>
<p>Opponents charge that taking into account an applicant’s race or ethnicity amounts to “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/10/a-federal-investigation-into-reverse-discrimination-at-harvard/542220/">reverse discrimination</a>.” Supporters recognize that disadvantaged minorities have been losing ground under affirmative action. Blacks and Hispanics are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/24/us/affirmative-action.html">less likely</a> to attend a top college than they were 35 years ago. </p>
<p>As a professor of constitutional law, I’ve <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2642533">studied</a> an important college admission policy from Texas that – when paired with affirmative action – can more fully address inequality and its consequences.</p>
<p>This policy bears more relevance now that the Trump administration has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/us/politics/trump-affirmative-action-race-schools.html">reversed</a> Obama-era support for affirmative action, following instead a Bush administration <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/raceassignmentese.html">guideline</a> that “strongly encourages race-neutral” admissions practices.</p>
<p>I believe the policy could also be instructive for Harvard, which is currently facing a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/harvard-asian-admission.html">lawsuit</a> charging that the university’s efforts to increase racial diversity discriminate against Asian-Americans.</p>
<h2>The Texas top 10 percent policy</h2>
<p>The college admission policy in Texas holds that if students graduate in the <a href="http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/index.cfm?objectid=24937C2A-D8B0-34EB-1FC5AF875A28C616">top 10 percent</a> of their high school class, they earn automatic admission to the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M and other state-run universities. This promotes diversity in the colleges’ entering classes because students at poor, mostly minority high schools have the same odds of admission as students at wealthy, mostly white schools.</p>
<p>At UT-Austin, which admits students through both a <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2017/09/15/ut-austin-raises-automatic-admissions-threshold-6-percent/">modified</a> top 10 track and a standard track with an affirmative action component, the <a href="https://provost.utexas.edu/enrollment-management/admissions-research">top 10 students</a> are 34 percent Hispanic while the standard students are only 20 percent Hispanic. <a href="https://provost.utexas.edu/enrollment-management/admissions-research">Nineteen percent</a> of the top 10 students, but only 7 percent of the standard students, come from low-income families. When it comes to creating a diverse student body, the top 10 policy has done a better job than has affirmative action.</p>
<p>The top 10 policy has become a model in other states and countries. For instance, France <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/can-the-french-talk-about-race">uses</a> a top 10 policy in its system of higher education. And New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/02/nyregion/de-blasio-new-york-schools.html">proposed</a> a similar policy for New York’s elite public high schools.</p>
<p>Some observers worry whether high school class rank is an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/education/13education.html">adequate</a> measure of student ability. The top students from a weak school may not be as capable as middle-of-the-pack students from a strong high school.</p>
<p>But Texas has been able to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0162373709360063">maintain quality</a> with its increased diversity. The top 10 students at UT-Austin <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0162373709360063">achieve</a> at the same levels as their classmates who are most like the applicants who were denied admission because of the top 10 policy. The top 10 students also graduate at the same rate. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">How will colleges react to Trump policy on race in admissions?</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Addressing economic disparities</h2>
<p>Top 10 policies also address the problem of economic inequality by targeting a key cause – the “economic segregation” of neighborhoods in the United States. </p>
<p>Economic inequality creates highly uneven opportunities for success in life. Children in wealthier communities have <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/%7E/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2009/pewneighborhoods1pdf">much greater</a> chances for upward mobility than do children in low-income communities.</p>
<p>And what matters more for children’s professional opportunities is not how rich or poor their families are but how rich or poor their <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/%7E/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2013/mobilityandthemetropolispdf">neighborhoods</a> are. Thus, a poor child living in an economically diverse community has much greater upward mobility than does a poor child living in a poor community.</p>
<p>Traditional college admissions policies reward upper-income families for creating exclusive neighborhoods that have stronger school systems than elsewhere. The higher-quality high schools will more likely be seen as <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/talent-education/michigan-path-elite-colleges-flows-through-richer-high-schools-interactive-map">“feeder”</a> schools for top colleges.</p>
<p>But consider what would happen if elite colleges adopt something like the top 10 policy, where the best students from different high schools all have the same odds of acceptance.</p>
<p>If that were true, parents would weaken their children’s chances of admission by creating exclusive communities. Their children’s chances of admission would be greater if they lived in economically integrated communities. Top 10-like policies can turn elite universities from institutions that exacerbate inequality into institutions that foster equality.</p>
<p>Would parents really choose less exclusive communities and lower-performing schools to improve their children’s chances for admission to an elite college? They have in Texas. Studies have shown that many parents <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272712000990">select</a> lower-performing schools and <a href="http://users.nber.org/%7Ecortesk/ntj2014.pdf">live in</a> less prosperous school districts to take advantage of the top 10 policy.</p>
<p>To be sure, the effects on school and residential choice have been <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2642533">modest</a> – in the 5 to 10 percent range. But that’s because the top 10 policy doesn’t affect an applicant’s chances of admission to a private university or an out-of-state public university. If all elite universities followed the Texas model, the incentives for residential integration would be powerful.</p>
<p>And the benefits from residential integration need not come with a sacrifice of academic excellence, as some critics charge. As the Texas experience indicates, colleges can treat the top applicants from all high schools equally and maintain the quality of their student bodies. </p>
<p>To be sure, there are increased costs to smoothing the transition to the rigors of college studies for students from weaker high schools. Fortunately, elite colleges have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/world/universities-offshore-investments.html">ample</a> financial resources to meet the need.</p>
<h2>Preserving diversity</h2>
<p>If affluent students move to lower-performing schools, wouldn’t they simply displace their less affluent peers from the top of the class? That will happen to some degree, but a few aspects are reassuring.</p>
<p>Consider, for example, how top 10 policies affect the performance of students who already attend lower-performing schools. By increasing the chances for admission to an elite university, the policies give the students greater reason to work hard in school. And the students respond by achieving at <a href="http://users.nber.org/%7Ecortesk/KCortes%20LZhang%20Incentives-Top10.pdf">higher</a> levels.</p>
<p>Other innovative reforms, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/opinion/columnists/new-orleans-charter-schools-education-reform.html">the New Orleans charter school system</a>, have the same impact. When policymakers level the playing field for disadvantaged children, those kids excel in school, too.</p>
<p>Most importantly, colleges can pair the Texas model with affirmative action to realize the benefits of top 10 policies while also ensuring that their student bodies remain diverse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Orentlicher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In tandem with affirmative action, policies that guarantee college admission to students in the top 10 percent of their class could be a viable way to achieve diversity, a law professor argues.David Orentlicher, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Health Law Program, University of Nevada, Las VegasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1011562018-08-07T10:43:07Z2018-08-07T10:43:07ZSmith College incident is latest case of racial ‘profiling by proxy’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230803/original/file-20180806-191013-1ii8qnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Racial minorities face profiling on campus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/retro-filtered-campus-security-sign-on-185887085?src=t_NFegO6wavRrTJnSUb5MQ-1-0">Mr. Doomits/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Smith College has <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/02/police-called-on-black-student-eating-lunch-at-smith-college">opened an investigation</a> into a July 31 incident in which a staff employee called campus police on a black student who supposedly <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/02/police-called-on-black-student-eating-lunch-at-smith-college">“seemed to be out of place.”</a></p>
<p>It turns out the student, <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/02/police-called-on-black-student-eating-lunch-at-smith-college">Oumou Kanoute</a>, who had a summer job with the college, was <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/08/02/police-called-on-black-student-eating-lunch-at-smith-college">simply eating lunch</a> in a common area. </p>
<p>This incident did not happen in isolation. It is just the latest in a string of cases <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-race-triggers-a-call-to-campus-police-97507">referred to</a> as <a href="https://www.vera.org/blog/police-perspectives/avoiding-profiling-by-proxy">profiling by proxy</a> – instances where police are summoned to a situation by a biased caller.</p>
<p>We make this observation as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aPbFPvkAAAAJ&hl=en">researchers</a> with a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F6a4jNt7BEIwL64bgB5mcaoq8p41IcWqHBgKHYv3ZW2oSvFbBlWEVfC232Y0PhHrpUKRJky4E7VYKODpbpmH7MrLj8iIEDHFh4Y1D6xhf-rH5bI8hA&user=CCiMc5IAAAAJ">keen interest in how race comes into play</a> during day-to-day interactions with police both in and outside of college campuses.</p>
<h2>Outsiders on campus</h2>
<p>College campuses are often thought of as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23044032">safe spaces</a> and commonly regarded as forward-thinking environments. However, as the Smith College incident and other events demonstrate, merely being a student or even a faculty member does not always equate to acceptance and inclusion, particularly if the student or professor is a member of a minority group on campus.</p>
<p>Consider, for instance, two recent incidents on college campuses that involved racial <a href="https://www.vera.org/blog/police-perspectives/avoiding-profiling-by-proxy">profiling by proxy</a>. One incident took place in Colorado on the campus of Colorado State University earlier this year during a campus visit and tour. Two prospective students, who were Native American males, were accused of acting “odd” due to their quiet disposition and clothing by a parent of another student on the campus tour. Due to her heightened suspicions, she <a href="https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/05/04/colorado-state-university-police-body-cam-video-shows-response-native-american-students/581924002/">called the police</a> on the two teens. The other incident took place in Connecticut earlier this year on the campus of Yale University. In this instance, a white student <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html">called the police</a> on a black female graduate student who took a nap while writing a paper in their dorm’s common room.</p>
<p>All of these cases serve to show how racial micro- and <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814776186/">macro-aggressions</a> aren’t limited to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716212446299?journalCode=anna">neighborhoods</a>. They surface on college and university campuses as well. These recent incidents come not even two years after the hashtag <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/11/i-never-felt-safe-blackoncampus-stories-flood-social-media-after-missouri-protests/?utm_term=.07cd4b360e5c">#BlackOnCampus</a> flooded Twitter, exposing the daily occurrences of racism experienced by black students and leading to protests focused on race relations on <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/here-are-the-demands-from-students-protesting-racism-at-51-colleges/">over 50 college campuses</a>.</p>
<p>Campuses have often been described as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ss.56">“microcosms of society,”</a> so these incidents send a troubling message that the racist attitudes and behaviors that were part and parcel of American history endure in the present. They also highlight the need to move beyond policies addressing the legal restrictions that historically limited access to spaces and places to certain racial groups. Moving beyond this negative aspect of our nation’s past requires a shift in the current discussion from one that focuses on law enforcement and campus safety towards one in which we candidly discuss shared historical fallacies about the much-maligned “other.” This unpacking necessitates an understanding of how we, as a society, got to where we are today. </p>
<h2>The myth of black criminality</h2>
<p>From a historical perspective, American society was based on social constructions of race, ethnicity, gender and other identities. As a result, an <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Wf-TAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR3&lpg=PR3&dq=Bolton,+Kenneth,+and+Joe+Feagin.+2004.+Black+in+blue:+African+American+police+officers+and+racism.+London+and+New+York:+Routledge+Publishers.&source=bl&ots=5fvJ5OCrqH&sig=Sw0I4Jq4qsqaWXsF_yRhKIvMKI8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1wZi9pMjbAhWmt1kKHXXeDKoQ6AEIQzAF#v=onepage&q=Bolton%2C%20Kenneth%2C%20and%20Joe%20Feagin.%202004.%20Black%20in%20blue%3A%20African%20American%20police%20officers%20and%20racism.%20London%20and%20New%20York%3A%20Routledge%20Publishers.&f=false">American narrative</a> that defined being different from the majority as <a href="http://leeclarke.com/courses/intro/readings/becker_definingdeviance.pdf">deviant</a> became embedded within the framework of American society, as well as the nation’s legal system. </p>
<p>One example of this that appeared after the Civil War was the enactment of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes">black codes</a>, which greatly restricted blacks’ labor and movement. The different-as-deviant narrative still affects American society to this day. Public policies and governmental actions have often reinforced these notions of “otherness” by marginalizing those who are considered <a href="https://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/61060.pdf">undeserving and uncapable</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227470/original/file-20180712-27030-3v70k2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sign reading ‘waiting room for colored only, by order Police Dept.’ Ca. 1940s or 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/sign-reading-waiting-room-colored-only-245961340?src=MeCjJmkJIRr5kQtLCIZIFA-1-3">Everett Historical/www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Human beings have often been described as having an affinity for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.1330220225">myths</a>. One myth that continues to permeate society is known as <a href="https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/jpmsp/vol23/iss1/2/">Black Crimmythology</a> – or the myth that conflates blackness or otherness with criminality. </p>
<p>Black Crimmythology, as the converging legacy of the <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674012424">social construction of race</a> and the <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Stigma/Erving-Goffman/9780671622442">stigma</a> that accompanies it, continues to blemish our society. As such, it has a constraining limiting effect that impacts a person’s meaning, destiny and value – all based upon their physical appearance. </p>
<p>Political constructions are public policies that were created to reinforce the social construction of Black Crimmythology. Public policies – both before and after the Civil War – limited the spaces and places to which blacks and other people of color had access, with criminalizing effects. Implementing Black Crimmythology and the policies that legally reinforced it required the assistance of public servants – that is, law enforcement officers – and the support of white citizens who made up the dominant class. </p>
<p>The incidents at Smith College, <a href="https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2018/05/04/colorado-state-university-police-body-cam-video-shows-response-native-american-students/581924002/">Colorado State University</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html">Yale University</a> highlight how all these things – race or Black Crimmythology, practices of contemporary police officers and “support” from members of the dominant racial group – resulted in a negative interaction or encounter. The police were called to address each caller’s implicit or explicit bias or prejudiced anxieties. These incidents reflect the lasting nature of the old narrative of defining one who is different as deviant, even during what some have described as our <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/12238/">post-racial</a> or <a href="https://www.greenlightbookstore.com/book/9781439177556">post-black</a> society.</p>
<h2>Toward ‘brave’ spaces</h2>
<p>In order to make progress and lessen the potential for negative encounters between members of minority groups and campus police, society must be willing to enter into <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/From-Safe-Spaces-to-Brave-Spaces-A-New-Way-to-Frame-Arao-Clemens/75c56a5dba81efd0954597ea39eb7d55acc7a202">brave spaces</a> – that is, spaces where people find the courage to risk engaging in uncomfortable and unsettling dialogue around issues of race and racism. </p>
<p>This effort requires more than just acknowledging the pain of others, but actually acting upon it.</p>
<p>One tool that can help in this regard is the <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/227/threat-assessment-flowchart-rev-3b.pdf?1533746388">Handy Guide for Objective Threat Evaluation</a> utilized by the University of California-Irvine Police Department. This tool asks that prior to calling the police, members of the public should ask themselves a series of questions: Does someone seem suspicious because of something that they are doing? Does someone seem suspicious because of how they are behaving? Or, is it because of their appearance? If it is because of their appearance and not because of their behavior, the assessment advises not to call.</p>
<p>This tool was created to help the public identify when situations and incidents necessitate calling the police. If the callers at Smith College, Colorado State and Yale would have followed this guide, officers never would have been summoned in the first place.</p>
<p><em><strong>Editor’s Note:</strong></em> <em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-race-triggers-a-call-to-campus-police-97507">article</a> originally published on July 16, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Marie Headley has received funding in the past from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics to conduct research on police-community relations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian N. Williams and Megan LePere-Schloop do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An incident in which a Smith College employee called police on a black student who ‘seemed out of place’ is just the latest in a string of cases of racial ‘profiling by proxy,’ three scholars argue.Brian N. Williams, Visiting Professor of Public Policy, University of VirginiaAndrea M. Headley, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, BerkeleyMegan LePere-Schloop, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635762016-10-02T23:06:50Z2016-10-02T23:06:50ZWhat it means to be black in the American educational system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139951/original/image-20160930-6248-1p8gjs6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What do black Americans experience in the school system?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/masshighered/26681994970/in/photolist-GDNcw3-GDNchA-G9yU64-H4YTuk-G9tuSb-H4YT4R-H4YSfX-H4YRZX-G9yQai-H4YRLR-H4YRBn-H4YRxz-G9yNB8-G9tsgQ-GVDCaf-GDNaCo-GVDBqu-GVDAJu-GVDAj1-GDN8Su-GDN8FY-GDN8jf-GDN89f-GDN81u-GDN7i7-GDN6Xs-GDN6Ko-GDN6BC-GXUXbi-H4YRhp-GXUXuz-p9A9tY-diw1rt-divZYd-9W79Te-nqTT24-pUtPu7-nHcmr7-diwDmJ-divVWE-divWEr-nH6x8D-divYhW-nqTMq3-pUBowr-diwMKs-pUAzXx-pffwup-qbVxQv-pSHhyz">masshighered</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people still think that racism is no longer a problem in America. After the election of President Obama, academic <a href="http://english.columbia.edu/people/profile/442">John McWhorter</a> argued that
racism in America is, for all intents and purposes, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/30/end-of-racism-oped-cx_jm_1230mcwhorter.html">dead</a>. The prominent conservative scholar and African-American economist <a href="http://www.tsowell.com/">Thomas Sowell</a> has argued that “<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/427160/racism-america-history">racism isn’t dead, but it is on life support</a>.” Harvard professors <a href="http://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/people/william-julius-wilson">William Julius Wilson</a> and <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/home">Roland Fryer</a> too <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w16256#fromrss">have argued</a> about the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18489466">declining significance</a> of race and discrimination.</p>
<p>However, as we wind down the final months of Obama’s presidency, the declining significance of race and discrimination narratives seem to be at odds with the lived realities for African-Americans. President Obama himself has faced <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/30/politics/why-black-america-may-be-relieved-to-see-obama-go/">racist treatment,</a> such as the <a href="http://politic365.com/2012/01/27/the-10-worst-moments-of-disrespect-towards-president-obama/#">birther controversy and a member of Congress saying “you lie.”</a> And then, one incident after another <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men">has highlighted</a> the painful reality that black men are disproportionately likely to die at the hands of the police in comparison to any other demographic group.</p>
<p>Sadly, racism and discrimination are facts of life for many black Americans. As an African-American scholar who studies the experiences of black college students, I am especially interested in this issue. My research has found that black college students <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2013.00029.x/abstract">report higher levels of stress</a> related to racial discrimination than other racial or ethnic groups. The unfortunate reality is that black Americans experience subtle and overt discrimination from preschool all the way to college.</p>
<h2>Here’s what studies show</h2>
<p>The results of a <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">recent survey</a> by the Pew Research Center underscore this point. The survey found that black Americans with some college experience are more likely to say that they have experienced discrimination compared to blacks who did not report having any college experience. </p>
<p>Additional survey results <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">revealed several differences</a> between blacks with college experience versus blacks without college experience. For example, in the past 12 months, 55 percent of people with some college experience reported people had acted suspicious of them, compared to 38 percent of those with no college experience. </p>
<p>Similarly, 52 percent of people with some college experience reported people had acted as if they thought the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">individual wasn’t smart</a>, compared to 37 percent of people with no college experience. </p>
<p>So, what are the race-related struggles experienced by African-American students throughout their schooling?</p>
<h2>Story of Tyrone</h2>
<p>Let’s consider the case of Tyrone. Tyrone is a four-year-old black male raised in a two-parent household. Like most four-year-olds, Tyrone is intellectually curious, and has a vivid imagination. He loves books, loves to color and paint, and also loves physical activities such as running, jumping and playing games with his friends. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s the early school experience of black kids?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-138148640/stock-photo-elementary-pupils-counting-with-teacher-in-classroom.html?src=8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-1-85">Teacher image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Behaviorally, Tyrone is also similar to many four-year-olds in that he often likes to talk more than listen, and he can be temperamental. He can engage in hitting, kicking and spitting behaviors when he is angry. </p>
<p>One day Tyrone was playing a game with a friend and he lost. Tyrone got angry and threw the ball at his friend. A teacher witnessed that and immediately confronted Tyrone about his behavior. </p>
<p>Angry about being confronted, Tyrone started to walk away. The teacher grabbed his arm. Tyrone reacted by pushing the teacher away. The teacher sent Tyrone to the principal’s office. After consultation with the principal, Tyrone was deemed to be a danger to students and staff. </p>
<p>He was consequently suspended.</p>
<h2>Early years of schooling</h2>
<p>On the surface this looks like a simple case of meting out the appropriate punishment for perceived serious student misbehavior. There does not appear to be anything explicitly racial about the interaction.</p>
<p>However, consider the fact that there have been many instances of white students engaging in the same behavior, none of which ever result in suspension. This is the racialized reality black students experience every day in American schools. </p>
<p>Black boys are <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">almost three times</a> as likely to be suspended than white boys, and black girls are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/education/14suspend.html">four times as likely</a> to be suspended than white girls. Black students’ (mis)behavior is <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150914-kevin-cokley-lets-end-racial-disparity-in-school-discipline.ece">more often criminalized</a> compared to other students.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black boys are three times more likely to be suspended than white kids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-138148646/stock-photo-elementary-pupils-in-classroom-working-with-teacher.html?src=pd-same_model-138148640-8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-3">Children image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While black kids make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, they represent <a href="https://theconversation.com/racial-inequality-starts-early-in-preschool-61896">48 percent of students</a> receiving one or more suspensions. Getting suspended matters because it is correlated with being referred to law enforcement and arrested. <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">Black students account for</a> 27 percent of students who are referred to law enforcement and 31 percent of students who are arrested, while they only make up 18 percent of enrolled students. As a general rule, black students do not often receive the benefit of the doubt when they engage in bad or questionable behavior. </p>
<h2>School experience</h2>
<p>When Tyrone entered fourth grade, teachers noticed a change in his demeanor. His enthusiasm for school and learning had diminished considerably. He no longer eagerly raised his hand to answer questions. He no longer appeared to love books and listening to stories. He appeared to have little joy participating in class activities. His teachers characterized Tyrone as “unmotivated,” “apathetic,” having “learning difficulties” and “a bad attitude.”</p>
<p>Educators and researchers have referred to this phenomenon as “<a href="http://people.terry.uga.edu/dawndba/4500FailingBlkBoys.html">the fourth grade failure syndrome</a>” for black boys. Early childhood educator <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442207448/Early-Childhood-Education-History-Theory-and-Practice-Second-edition">Harry Morgan</a> suggested that this phenomenon occurred during this time because the classroom environment changes between the third and fourth grade from a socially interactive style to a <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ220389">more individualistic, competitive style.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By fourth grade, a child’s enthusiasm can diminish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-128729594/stock-photo-a-sister-are-helping-her-little-brother-with-his-home-work.html?src=8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-1-83">Boy image via www.shutterstock,com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This change in style is counter to the more communal and cooperative cultural learning environment which, according to research, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-01954-005">black students tend to prefer</a>. The fourth grade failure syndrome refers to a bias in schools (e.g., cultural insensitivity, disproportionately harsh discipline, lowered teacher expectations, tracking black students into special education or remedial classes) that has the cumulative effect of diminishing black students’ (especially boys’) enthusiasm and motivation for school.</p>
<p>By high school Tyrone no longer identified with school. His sense of pride and self-esteem increasingly came from his popularity and his athletic abilities rather than his intelligence. <a href="https://ed.stanford.edu/faculty/steele">Psychologist Claude Steele</a> has referred to this as “academic disidentification,” a phenomenon where a student’s self-esteem is disconnected from how they perform in school. </p>
<p>Tyrone is not alone. According to one study based on national data from almost 25,000 students black males were the only students that showed <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1997-43826-014">significant disidentification</a> throughout the 12th grade. My <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41343015?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">research</a> too has confirmed this, although I did not find evidence among black females, white males or white females. </p>
<h2>What’s the college experience?</h2>
<p>While the narrative of more black men being in prison than in college has been thoroughly <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2013/02/more_black_men_in_jail_than_college_myth_rose_from_questionable_report/">debunked</a> by <a href="http://www.journalnegroed.org/ivorytoldson.html">psychologist Ivory Toldson</a>, it is still the case that black men are <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/2015/11/a-snapshot-of-the-gender-gap-in-african-american-enrollments-in-higher-education/">underrepresented</a> in college. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 887,000 black women enrolled in college compared to 618,000 black men. </p>
<p>Owing in large part to the emphasis of education by his family, Tyrone is fortunate enough to be accepted to college. Excited and nervous about being away from home, Tyrone looks forward to starting his college experience. </p>
<p>Like <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/04/how-the-kids-do-it-now-partying/360367/">many college students</a>, Tyrone likes to go to parties thrown by Greek organizations, and he frequently attends parties thrown by black fraternities. While attending one party, Tyrone and his friends became upset when campus police broke up the party because of complaints of loud music and threaten to arrest the attendees. </p>
<p>Tyrone has partied with white friends and knows firsthand that their parties often involve <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/">drugs and reckless behavior</a>, yet, as my students tell me, police almost never break up their parties. As it turns out, white fraternities are frequently the perpetrators of <a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2015/03/15/timeline-list-of-recent-sorority-and-fraternity-racist-incidents/">racist incidents</a>, which cause Tyrone and other black students to engage in campus protests.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/college-fraternity-holds-racist-mlk-day-party-article-1.1586776">For example</a>, in 2014, Tau Kappa Epsilon, a fraternity at Arizona State University, was suspended for having a racist Martin Luther King Jr. party at which they drank from watermelon cups, held their crotches, wore bandannas and formed gang signs with their hands. </p>
<h2>Resilience</h2>
<p>To add insult to injury, Tyrone and other black students read opinion pieces in the student paper complaining how affirmative action discriminates against white students and allows less qualified “minority” students on campus. </p>
<p>Tyrone finds refuge in black studies classes, where he learns about theories such as “critical race theory” and terms such as “institutional racism,” “white privilege” and “hegemony.” Exposure to these classes provides Tyrone with the vocabulary and critical analytical tools to better understand the challenges facing black people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interest among black students in obtaining a degree remains high.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chandlerchristian/14065260817/in/photolist-nqTWL8-nH6EeT-nH6Dhc-nqTUqL-nH6rYR-nqU4SJ-nHmCxj-8F9wcY-nKaVQp-nHcgfW-nqU8fn-nqU3US-nHorZx-nqTT24-nHcmr7-nHcqzY-nH6x8D-nqTMq3-nqTHzN-nqUefD-nHcm3m-nqTKEk-nqTR2m-nqTLAh-nKaNwM-nFkTpj-nKaVtH-nqTHeC-nH6sax-nFkLNo-nHmHJ1-nqU91R-nKb1G8-nHckGS-nqU9rd">chandlerchristian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So it is not surprising that college-educated blacks like Tyrone <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/incidents/">are more likely</a> to report experiencing discrimination in college than blacks with no college experience in college environments where racist incidents and racial microagressions are frequently reported. In spite of the desire among many for America to be colorblind, at every level of education black students experience disproportionate amounts of discrimination. </p>
<p>In many ways my research on African-American students reflects my own experiences as a black male negotiating the challenges of being in predominantly white academic environments. The silver lining to this story is that black students are incredibly resilient and there are positive things to report. </p>
<p>In 2016, for example, enrollment at historically black colleges and universities <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/2016/09/more-good-news-on-enrollments-at-historically-black-universities/">has increased</a>. It is difficult to know if this increase is related to the negative experiences of discrimination black students often experience on predominantly white campuses, but it does suggest that interest among black students in obtaining a college education remains high. According to 2016 data reported in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, black women now have the highest graduation rate of any demographic group at the University of Georgia. </p>
<p>For every positive outcome for students like Tyrone, there are unfortunately also too many negative outcomes for other similar students. The educational experiences of Tyrone and all black students matters should be of concern to everyone.</p>
<p>While education is not a cure all for experiences with racism and discrimination, education can equip us with the tools to better understand, analyze and ultimately find solutions to the tragic incidents we are seeing too frequently involving police killings of black people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin O'Neal Cokley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What are the race-related struggles that African-American students experience throughout their school years? Here’s the story of Tyrone.Kevin O'Neal Cokley, Professor of Educational Psychology and African and African Diaspora Studies, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/524242016-03-04T11:17:45Z2016-03-04T11:17:45ZOrganizing a student protest? Have a look at 1970s Germany<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113785/original/image-20160303-9466-10224ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">May 1968 students' protest in Berlin. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TU_Berlin_1968a.jpg">Holger.Ellgaard</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The protests over race and diversity that shook campuses across the U.S. in 2015 continue to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/education/edlife/student-demands-an-update.html?_r=0">reverberate.</a> </p>
<p>In January the president of Ithaca College <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/01/14/ithaca-college-president-resigns-after-protests-over-race-issues/">resigned</a>. In February Princeton University began public discussions of<a href="http://wilsonlegacy.princeton.edu/"> the controversial legacy</a> of its former president and U.S. President <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-black-middle-class-was-attacked-by-woodrow-wilsons-administration-52200">Woodrow Wilson</a>. And also in February, the University of Missouri <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/education/turmoil_at_mu/university-of-missouri-curators-vote-to-fire-melissa-click/article_4b0ae653-2d61-5f3f-9ede-a129d12f0fd1.html">fired</a> the professor who called for reporters to be removed from covering a campus protest. </p>
<p>Although some administrators deem such students’ demands as fair and justified, others accuse them of revisionist and wrong, <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Removing-Racist-Symbols/234862">claiming</a> “history cannot be comprehended if erased.”</p>
<p>As a German Studies scholar, I am observing the controversies on U.S. campuses attentively. I am reminded of the discussions that students initiated in Germany in the 1960s to overcome the past.</p>
<p>Indeed, looking back at the protest movement in Germany reveals parallels that help to understand the present. </p>
<h2>The German burden</h2>
<p>Probably no other country has struggled as hard to come to terms with its past as Germany. </p>
<p>The Nazis’ unimaginable crimes cost the lives of millions of people, many of whom died in ghettos or in concentration, labor and death camps. Most of these victims were Jewish. Others included ethnic and religious minorities, political activists, members of resistance groups and gays. </p>
<p>After the war, all visible signs of Nazi rule – such as swastikas and portraits of Hitler – were removed under orders from the Allied Powers of the U.S., United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union. </p>
<p>But that did not mean that racism had been uprooted in postwar German society. </p>
<p>It was students who sparked a public discussion on race and gender. It was they who initiated what ended up being a cathartic process of healing. In the process, however, there was resistance and violence on both sides. </p>
<p>The students’ targets were clear. They were protesting against universities’ failure to remove professors that were known racists and had served in the Nazi administration; against the authoritarian and paternalistic structures at universities; and in favor of equality among the sexes. </p>
<p>In doing so they were targeting the German government itself.</p>
<h2>First attempts to undo 12 years of Nazi propaganda</h2>
<p>After World War II, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/apr/24/exorcising-hitler-germany-frederick-taylor">denazification and reeducation programs</a> were designed to undo 12 years of Nazi propaganda. </p>
<p>They had limited success. </p>
<p>The Nazis had consolidated their power through centralization and massive organizations. The Nazi Party itself had more than <a href="http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=47&articleID=599">8 million members</a> or almost 10 percent of the population. The German Labor Front, a state-mandated union whose leaders supported the regime counted as many as 25 million members. </p>
<p>The sheer number of people who had been members of Nazi organizations made the goal of removing them from government and public offices impossible. Many were able to move into high positions in the West German government, and some of those even had the backing of the United States, who considered them efficient anticommunists. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hans Globke.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F015051-0006,_Hans_Globke.jpg">Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F015051-0006 / Patzek, Renate</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of these was the director of the Federal Chancellery of West Germany, <a href="http://www.hdg.de/lemo/biografie/hans-globke.html">Hans Globke</a>, a jurist who had coauthored the Nuremberg Laws that revoked Jews’ citizenship in 1935.</p>
<p>Yes, the <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/research/research-in-collections/search-the-collections/bibliography/nuremberg-trials">Nuremberg trials</a> of 1945-46 convicted – in the spotlight of the international media – 22 main Nazi officials, military officers and business leaders. And, yes, there were a number of trials to follow in the 1950s. But it took until the 1960s and the <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/collections-highlights/auschwitz-ssalbum/frankfurt-trial">Auschwitz trials</a> for the larger public to be shaken out of its comforting illusion that an economic recovery could continue without addressing the traumatic experience of Nazi crimes and the involvement and passive support of significant segments of the population.</p>
<h2>New role models for students</h2>
<p>Student protests in West Germany were kickstarted by the decision of the center left Social Democratic Party to <a href="http://www.bpb.de/geschichte/deutsche-geschichte/geschichte-der-raf/49201/apo-und-studentenproteste">exclude its student union</a> from party membership in 1961. </p>
<p>The students saw themselves as legitimate political players. They began speaking up not just against the establishment’s decision to silence them but also the establishment’s past. </p>
<p>In their fight against the “lies of the fathers,” students turned to new intellectual role models, such as <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/adorno/">Theodor W. Adorno</a> and <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcuse/">Herbert Marcuse </a>, leading figures of the Frankfurt School of <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/">Critical Theory</a> who had been in exile during the war. </p>
<p>But if these “fathers of the revolution” sparked debate, it was often women who took action.</p>
<h2>Into the streets</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beate Klarsfeld in 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beate_Klarsfeld_(1970).jpg">Nationaal Archief</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The political activist <a href="http://www.klarsfeldfoundation.org/">Beate Klarsfeld</a>, for example, received major public attention when she slapped Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German chancellor from 1966-69. </p>
<p>Kiesinger had been a Nazi Party member and deputy director of the State Department’s foreign radio network. </p>
<p>It was unacceptable to students that a staunch opponent of free speech could be the highest dignitary of West Germany. </p>
<p>Kiesinger, however, struck back. He introduced an infamous “Emergency Law” in <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/68-movement-brought-lasting-changes-to-german-society/a-3257581">1968</a> that only intensified the protests against the government and its representatives. </p>
<p>The law was implemented in May 1968 and authorized the government to make wide-ranging decisions without confirmation or consent by the German Parliament. It gave the government power to strip citizens of constitutional rights such as the right of free speech in case of an armed conflict or a natural disaster. </p>
<p>Students attacked the law as undemocratic and took to the streets. Demonstrations became violent. The deadly shooting of <a href="http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=2391">Benno Ohnesorg</a> in 1967 (whose attacker <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/1968-revisited-the-truth-about-the-gunshot-that-changed-germany-a-627342.html">was revealed in 2012</a> as an undercover agent for the East German Stasi secret police) and of charismatic student leader <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-attack-on-rudi-dutschke-a-revolutionary-who-shaped-a-generation-a-546913.html">Rudi Dutschke</a> a year later, brought matters to <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/68-movement-brought-lasting-changes-to-german-society/a-3257581">a boiling point.</a></p>
<p>In the wake of this violence the student movement split. Most continued peaceful protests. But some, notably the <a href="http://www.socialhistoryportal.org/raf/">Red Army Faction</a> (RAF), turned to terrorism. It was their kidnapping and 1977 murder of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Martin_Schleyer">Hanns-Martin Schleyer,</a> the president of the Confederation of German Employers Association, that pushed the government into a state of emergency. </p>
<p>And once again the wartime past reared its head. </p>
<p>Until his kidnapping, the public had known little about Schleyer – one of the country’s most powerful business leaders. Now it was revealed that he had been an active Nazi party member, a Nazi Student Organization leader, and a Second Lieutenant in the infamous and murderous <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007400">Schutzstaffel or “SS.”</a> </p>
<h2>The legacy</h2>
<p>The RAF was undoubtedly a criminal organization without lasting impact on society as a whole. But the student protests changed the German mindset forever. </p>
<p>Students’ demands to have a role in governing universities were largely accepted. The government increased spending on education, changed curricula to prepare students better for the job market, and introduced Universities of Applied Sciences or “Fachhochschulen.” </p>
<p>More female high school graduates entered higher education. New nondiscrimination laws made it easier for women to pursue careers in higher education. In addition, universities lowered access barriers for students from low income families. </p>
<p>Students helped to democratize German society through instigating public debates on topics such as gender equality, wealth distribution, and the meaning of public leadership. </p>
<p>And if necessary, former protesters took matters into their hands and founded their own media outlets such as the left-leaning newspaper cooperation <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Tageszeitung">“taz”</a> in Berlin in 1978 – a publication that continues to be a thought leader today despite its relatively small circulation of 52,000 copies. </p>
<p>Other former protesters cofounded the Green Party, now a major player in Germany’s political landscape with an <a href="http://www.forschungsgruppe.de/Startseite/">average 10%</a> of the votes countrywide and currently in coalition governments in no less than eight of the sixteen German states. The Green Party’s most prominent member to this day is a former student leader from Frankfurt, <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Joschka-Fischer">Joschka Fischer</a>, who was the country’s Foreign Secretary from 1998-2005.</p>
<h2>2015-2016</h2>
<p>The echo of student protests in the 1960s and ‘70’s can still be heard to this day. </p>
<p>Yes, there are a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/27/pegida-germany-anti-immigrant-group-polarising-dresden">growing number</a> of nationalists that oppose Angela Merkel’s decision to open borders to <a href="https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/369/ressort/opinion/article/why-angela-merkel-is-right-about-refugees">1.1 million refugees</a> mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. But at the same time, students in Germany have vociferously expressed their support for refugees by volunteering in aid projects, teaching the German language, helping with translations, offering legal advice, and accompanying migrants to medical <a href="http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article148042064/So-helfen-deutsche-Studenten-den-Fluechtlingen.html">doctors</a>. More and more universities are opening up their English course <a href="http://www.tum.de/en/studies/international-students/refugees/">offerings for refugees</a> and a new tuition-free <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/29/migrants-get-help-through-german-online-university/74472260/">university in Berlin</a> is targeted specifically at migrants. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3469535/I-ll-damned-duty-refugees-says-Merkel-emerges-nine-ten-Germans-want-limits-migrants-coming-country.html">Merkel’s politics</a>, I believe, can be seen as a result of lessons learned by German history. The official response to political oppression and racism, in other words, must be civility and responsibility. </p>
<p>History, much like in the U.S., should adapt to the values of the present, not the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christoph Zeller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Probably no other country has struggled as hard to come to terms with its past as Germany. Here’s what students contributed to that struggle.Christoph Zeller, Associate Professor of German and European Studies and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506942015-11-17T11:02:50Z2015-11-17T11:02:50ZMany small microaggressions add up to something big<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102087/original/image-20151117-4964-1fvbp5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1521%2C0%2C5486%2C3671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What was that supposed to mean?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=6787255">Women image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Upon entering a classroom or office for the first time, I frequently take more than a few seconds to place my book bag on the floor. I do this to give the occupants of the room the opportunity to brush aside all assumptions they may have made before meeting me, their professor or invited guest. Inevitably, though, some soul will make a comment like “I didn’t quite expect you when I talked to you on the phone,” “registered for this course,” or some other seemingly innocent remark.</p>
<p>These innocuous-on-the-surface comments are examples of microaggressions. They allow the expression of biased opinions while freeing the aggressor by means of a thin veil of doubt: was that action, comment or behavior intentional? Often microaggressions take the form of unconsciously delivered instances of failing to acknowledge or making light of the experiences of others from different cultures, traditions, races – and they’re easily justified or ignored. These are subtle messages that leave the recipient doubting whether they occurred at all and how to respond.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/170642574/Offensive-Mechanisms-Chester-Pierce#scribd">term was first used</a> to describe subtle communications of expectations and stereotypes associated with race. It’s in this context that the idea of microaggression is being discussed now amid racial tensions on campuses across the United States. Usage has evolved to also include those who’ve traditionally been marginalized, such as women and people living with disabilities. Whether conscious or unconscious, microaggressions are acts that <a href="http://alk.nazwa.pl/tamarajournal.com/index.php/tamara/article/viewFile/104/89">silence or minimize those with less power</a>. What might seem to be no big deal to the more powerful actor can have long-lasting, damaging effects on a recipient who has to deal with these kinds of marginalizing expressions on a daily basis.</p>
<h2>Three forms of microaggressions</h2>
<p>Think of some male-occupied spaces where misogyny is carried out without anyone batting an eye. There are many similarly homogeneous spaces – heterosexual, Christian, American, able, middle-class. Within them, there’s a norm and those who are different are sometimes referred to in terms that don’t leave these spaces unless the speaker has lost control, is hidden behind the screen of the internet or is truly ignorant.</p>
<p>Though debatable, some would argue that we now live in a post-racial society where explicit racist comments and imagery are rarely tolerated. <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470491396.html">Microaggressions are instances</a> when these kinds of <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-047049140X.html">biased thoughts become apparent</a> in the wider culture.</p>
<p><strong>Microassaults</strong> are verbal or nonverbal communications that typically convey insensitivity or rudeness. Examples would be using a derogatory racial slur, displaying a Confederate flag or posting images demeaning to women in a public area to be seen by all.</p>
<p><strong>Microinsults</strong> are subtle messages that convey to the recipient that their presence would not have been possible were it not for preferential treatment. Often these comments are couched in the form of questions that appear to be legitimate. Think about asking a female student to explain her admission to a prestigious math or science program. Though not overtly aggressive in nature, the surprise implicit in the question implies that the student’s record of achievement is unexpected or not comparable with that of her peers. In addition to verbal comments, microinsults are behavioral in nature – clutching a purse or exiting an elevator at the sight of a man of color constitute microinsults.</p>
<p><strong>Microinvalidation</strong> removes the receiver from her experiences. For example, the perpetrator may assert that he is colorblind, that a person’s racial background is not important to him: “I don’t care if you are black, white or purple.” As with microinsults, these comments may not be hostile in intent. However, they reject the receiving individual’s experiences in a decidedly non-colorblind world, while relieving the perpetrator of any responsibility for authentic engagement with the invalidated other. And frankly, I think you should care if I were purple.</p>
<p>While ignorance of how something will be received is not an excuse for what can be less-than-conscious acts, more damning is the dismissal of the recipient’s perception. Often the microaggression’s recipient is told, “You’re too sensitive,” or “Stop being politically correct.” In these moments, a thoughtful interaction concerning intention and perception would further our communal growth. Typically, though, two bruised fighters return to their own corners.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102088/original/image-20151117-4936-1k35dqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102088/original/image-20151117-4936-1k35dqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102088/original/image-20151117-4936-1k35dqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102088/original/image-20151117-4936-1k35dqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102088/original/image-20151117-4936-1k35dqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102088/original/image-20151117-4936-1k35dqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102088/original/image-20151117-4936-1k35dqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102088/original/image-20151117-4936-1k35dqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dealing with microaggression daily can be psychologically draining.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=189334079">Man image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
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<h2>Microaggressions, macro impacts</h2>
<p>Each individual instance of microaggression represents a missed opportunity for mutually enriching engagement. But worse, people who are frequently on the receiving end of microaggression <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.39.3.329">experience ongoing psychological distress</a> that can have long-term impacts.</p>
<p>For example, one study found almost 40% of 174 <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2010.29.10.1074">African-American doctoral students and recent PhD graduates</a> – a high-achieving group – reported being treated rudely or disrespectfully within the last year; 30% indicated that their ideas or opinions were minimized, ignored or devalued or that they have been ignored, overlooked or not given service; 26% stated that they had not been taken seriously; another 22% stated they’d experienced being considered fancy or exotic by others. The researchers found high experiences of underestimation of personal ability were related to elevated levels of perceived stress.</p>
<p>When encounters commonly come with subtly denigrating messages, recipients use substantial mental energy dealing with the incidents and figuring out how to respond.</p>
<p>Remember my personal example of the surprise some people voice when I walk to a lecture hall’s podium. Instead of just getting ready to teach, I have to deal with their comments, internally or publicly. I feel responsible for helping the speaker release their notions of what a policy and research professor – or someone with the surname Van Sluytman, for that matter – looks like, or how a black man sounds on the phone.</p>
<p>I feel challenged to validate my experiences, and question both my privilege and my marginalization. And I feel obligated to validate the experience and presence of all others who have ever stood or will stand in my place facing the subtle message that they’re not what or where they’re expected to be. They do not belong. There are limits to their possibilities. But I know that we are not all equally equipped to run this gauntlet; some will not survive.</p>
<p>Beyond the personal effects, the stress associated with repeated exposure to intentional and unintentional microaggression may erode an individual’s willingness to engage with the larger society. Perhaps this is the goal of microaggressors – an erasure of those who represent difference. But that’s not realistic.</p>
<p>Instead, in tandem with other forms of institutional discrimination, the repeated onslaught of microaggression and the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00067">effort to resolve the resulting emotions</a> can lead to <a href="https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=23+Chicano-Latino+L.+Rev.+15&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=7f5340abbb92d9112f19e0ca3b9a43f5">negative results</a> for the recipient groups. In addition to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764207307742">psychological distress</a>, those who retreat face the possibility of reducing the support they need to develop maximum self-confidence, as well as the networks that enhance the group’s economic and social status while reducing the risks for poverty.</p>
<h2>The matter at hand and the way forward</h2>
<p>For the students of University of Missouri, Yale and other learning centers, active engagement is a requirement of success. The tacit restrictions – no longer marked by Jim Crow-era signs – subvert the goals of the institution: educational attainment and the individual’s subsequent capacity to participate in the global community. In university mission statements across the United States, student growth is a pillar of institutions. These pillars support the campus environment and the future of the communities to which students belong. Microaggression against students renders them less likely to participate in the richness that campus life has to offer. It strips them of the ability to build networks that would enhance their communities.</p>
<p>While Americans have elected their first African-American president and Hillary Clinton seems poised to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling, many Americans struggle to accept the plurality of the country’s population with regard to gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and race. Members of minority communities continue to face <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022146510383838">disparities</a> in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pros.21314">health outcomes</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00019">incarceration</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00063">unemployment</a> and earnings, among other negative outcomes. They face microaggressions that challenge confidence and diminish their capacity to engage needed systems and services, and leave us in much more impoverished world. </p>
<p>We must acknowledge that each person’s experience is of value though it may be distinct from our own. Being present and mindful could lead to reducing microaggressions that seek to dismiss, devalue or destroy the vibrant diversity that is American society. Be open to the possibility that your Chinese classmate was born and raised in Santa Monica. Commenting on her unaccented English is not a compliment. It positions her as a constant outsider, never truly American. The way forward depends on our ability to embrace our society’s plurality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurens Van Sluytman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These innocuous-on-the-surface comments and actions take a psychological toll on marginalized groups. Here’s why they’re a part of campus debates on race.Laurens Van Sluytman, Assistant Professor of Social Work, Morgan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506392015-11-13T10:52:41Z2015-11-13T10:52:41ZThe long and troubled racial past of Mizzou<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101766/original/image-20151112-9362-zcqzm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why the racist incidents at Mizzou are not surprising.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cafnr/15465715968/in/photolist-pyDQxj-pR7tez-pyEnjQ-pRaG93-pRbyTu-pyBsJV-oUfy59-pyHne5-oUisAr-oUi9Zp-pRbshU-pyGvME-pRaFiL-oUi9c2-pRbgDu-pyEG5e-pyEdb9-pyBrUt-5mNbjo-5Jb15e-5JaZqa-5Jfgyd-4cFSyT-o5bafU-4swMoG-nSgZJ7-npSjxQ-npQ3Nt-nnMrgo-nrACtD-npxDCj-nrABEp-npQ3eH-nrAD1v-npxBDP-npSm8d-nnMs2m-npSkU7-nSgmbT-o9C8Zf-o9CPBb-omDgvm-o9BZcW-nSg8jb-nSgams-o7HqVy-nSgiC7-o7J813-o9FkSA-obyovV">CAFNR</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Perhaps on the outside looking in, the events at the University of Missouri appear baffling. They’re not. </p>
<p>I taught there from 1996 to 2008. The recent racist incidents and lackadaisical administration response, which sparked the amazing display of student solidarity, is part and parcel of a long-established pattern.</p>
<h2>Long history of racism</h2>
<p>Founded in 1839 in a slave state, the University of Missouri, known affectionately as Mizzou, is the state’s flagship, Research 1 campus. But even 100 years later it held fast to the slavery legacy. </p>
<p>In 1936, an African American, Lloyd Gaines, was denied admission to the Law School solely because he was black. Missouri’s constitution, <a href="http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=home;c=gnp">it was argued</a>, called for “separate education of the races.” </p>
<p>Gaines challenged the decision and won in front of the Supreme Court - in fact, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/305/337">the State of Missouri ex rel Gaines v Canada</a>, case is one of the key rulings on the road to the landmark <a href="http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/?referrer=https://www.google.com/">Brown v Board of Education (1954)</a> decision. </p>
<p>In response, the university administration tried to do whatever it could to stop the enrollment of black students, including actually paying the tuition for African Americans to <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/305/337/case.html">receive an out-of-state education</a>. </p>
<p>Although the US Supreme Court ruled that Gaines had to be admitted, he never stepped foot into the Law School. In one of the great mysteries of the 20th century, Lloyd Gaines <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/12gaines.html?_r=0">simply disappeared</a>. </p>
<p>And for more than a decade <a href="http://gobcc.missouri.edu/about/notablefirst/">no black student entered</a> the university, despite the Gaines decision.</p>
<p>It was only in 1950, after another series of Supreme Court decisions – <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/339/629">Sweatt v Painter</a>, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/332/631/case.html">Sipuel v Oklahoma</a>, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/339/637">McLaurin v Oklahoma</a> – made clear that the walls of racial segregation were cracking in higher education, that the University of Missouri finally geared up to admit its first black student, <a href="http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/first-mu-african-american-graduate-student-speaks-to-inspired-audience/article_b75e9ab5-36a1-5602-a19a-1f6b4b354274.html">Gus T Ridgel</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101784/original/image-20151113-12382-nudv91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black students were not allowed on the campus before 1950.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nonorganical/9639246507/in/photolist-fFMEai-fFLSk8-fFLT9F-fG5gJA-fFMEuz-fG4sfY-fG4tSm-fFMFS6-fFLTAT-fFMERH-6gyCfe-fG4oSy-fFLRxX-fG5ViY-fFLRCZ-fFNkLv-fG5VHh-fFNkmv-fFLRQK-fG5V9q-fFLRKc-fG4rxy-fG5W8j-fFNkeR-fFNkEF-fFLRZF-fG5V21-5yMWjA-5yHDjM-5yMWdU-5yHD5v-5yHDhV-5yMWcA-5ELPXx-5ELL5K-5ELH24-aUrQ4M-fG5kv1-fG6dS5-fG6e33-fFNDC2-fFNDVR-fFNCXz-fG6ewN-fFLQBZ-fG6eFU-fFLQvZ-fFLQq4-fFLQTH-fG6eps">nonorganical</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Ridgel lived alone because no white student would room with him. He <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/us/an-original-missouri-concerned-student-1950-speaks-at-age-89.html?_r=0">had to go off campus</a> to a coffeehouse because every social space on campus was “whites only.” </p>
<p>A telling memo in the university archives, which I uncovered in my research, shows that the only way the university prepared for this transformative moment was to search for someone on campus who could be a shoulder for Ridgel to cry on when the possible epithets, shunning, or outright blatant discrimination happened. </p>
<p>What the administration did not set out to do was to make the epithets, shunning, and blatant discrimination unacceptable and therefore unlikely. The onus, instead, would be on Ridgel to absorb the attacks, to figure out how to soldier on through the blows. </p>
<h2>Students organize but racism continues</h2>
<p>In the midst of our own struggles on the campus, I researched further into the university’s commitment and found that African American students in the late 1960s formed the <a href="http://mizzoulife.missouri.edu/legion-of-black-collegians-lbc/">Legion of Black Collegians</a>. They experienced a campus that hovered somewhere between being indifferent and decidedly hostile to their presence. </p>
<p>They strategized. They organized. They mobilized. </p>
<p>Three of their top demands were: hire African American faculty – there were none; establish a Black Studies program – there wasn’t one; and remove the 5 ½ ton <a href="http://umcspace.missouri.edu/historic/buildings/ConfederateRock/">“Confederate Rock”</a> – dedicated in 1935 and a symbol of the state’s struggle to hold onto its slave owning past – from its prominent place on the campus. </p>
<p>It was only through a long series of protests and meetings that the students’ <a href="http://umcspace.missouri.edu/historic/buildings/ConfederateRock/files/confederate%20memorial%20rock%20may%20get%20new%20home%20soon.txt">demands were met</a>. But, as is the nature of Mizzou, it was not quite a victory. </p>
<p>For example, the so-called <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/african-american-response-to-confederate-memorial-rock-at-mu">Confederate Rock</a>, a memorial to Missouri men who fought for the South, finally got dislodged from the university only to be relocated a few blocks away to the courthouse, which backs right up against the black neighborhood in Columbia, Missouri. The rock has been at the courthouse for more than 40 years. </p>
<p>It has taken the recent race-related killings on June 17, 2015 at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston to <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/local/county-plans-to-move-confederate-rock/article_d446a6f8-f379-5408-8343-dae57d17790b.html">reignite the debate</a> over where the rock should be sited. </p>
<h2>Faculty faces racism</h2>
<p>Then there are issues that confront black faculty. Despite students’ enormous efforts, the administration managed to undermine the issue of black faculty.</p>
<p>Records in the university archive make clear that nearly a decade after the student uprisings of the 1960s, the administration, ostensibly to deal with budgetary concerns, decided to reorganize and close several departments. </p>
<p>As the target list began to circulate, one administrator noted that the majority of all African American faculty were located in the departments slated for closure.</p>
<p>The administration’s documented response was a simple, “yes, we know.” They then proceeded to shut down those departments. </p>
<p>As is documented in a memo, dated April 1982, kept in the University of Missouri Archives, the number of African American faculty subsequently plummeted. This then led to a <a href="http://facultycouncil.missouri.edu/news/UMC%20Final%20Report%20422041%201.pdf">mediation agreement</a> in 1988 between the US Department of Justice, the <a href="http://www.naacp.org/">National Association for the Advancement of Colored People</a>, and the university to address the problem. Mizzou promised to do better.</p>
<p>However, between the late 1990s to the early 2000s, there were fewer than 50 black faculty (out of more than 1,500 total) at Mizzou. </p>
<p>I personally observed an onslaught of racist incidents. In one such incident, a white student, angry with her grade, cursed at an African American professor in the classroom and followed the faculty member all the way into the department’s office swearing the entire time. </p>
<p>I worked with the faculty member as she tried in vain to get someone in the university to condemn the student’s actions. </p>
<p>In another case, I watched another professor being denied tenure by her department because her research and teaching – the attributes for which she was allegedly hired – were about African Americans and, therefore, “not mainstream.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101785/original/image-20151113-12409-58a2lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The only reason the university paid attention this time was because of the football team.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jahofker/5230110711/in/photolist-8YaFGB-fJ79RS-8xJzER-8YdJVN-pagfXQ-pa2G62-oSMRqr-oSNQKK-oSNf29-ggM4nK-ggMjdg-ggM2vR-8xMxXw-8xMGnC-fHPyMx-ggLRpD-ggM3zL-ggM3cS-ggLPbb-ggLNrV-ggM9ak-ggM3RV-ggLTkU-ggMbJP-ggLHPs-ggM2ts-ggLEwW-ggLWfv-ggM47V-ggMpD6-ggLZSG-ggMdSg-ggMkk6-ggLTVv-8xJHzi-8xMKfu-ggMjsp-ggM4iD-ggLBjU-ggM5aP-ggM1DF-fJ7aM1-8xJAf2-73xQzP-pa2yVv-p8g6AQ-oSMEVt-oSNnAh-73zwng-8pgeo1">jahofker</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eventually, as the <a href="http://facultycouncil.missouri.edu/news/UMC%20Final%20Report%20422041%201.pdf">incidents mounted,</a> black faculty mobilized. We gathered oral histories. We collected data. We pored through the university archives to discern the patterns. And we met with the provost and the chancellor repeatedly. But nothing happened. The administration urged the African American professors to “just let it go.” </p>
<p>As has happened now, it was only through the intervention of the head coach of a prominent high school basketball program, that the administration <a href="http://digmo-01.missouri.edu/a/80284/deaton-moves-minority-affairs/">agreed to take some action</a>. </p>
<p>This happened in 2004.</p>
<h2>Will the resignation have any meaning?</h2>
<p>Eleven years later, African American students at the University of Missouri have experienced this same phenomenon. </p>
<p>Once again, they brought the evidence to the administration. They met. They discussed. One student even went on a hunger strike. But, once again, nothing happened. </p>
<p>Black students, apparently, were just supposed to “let it go,” absorb the hit, take the blows, and soldier on. </p>
<p>The administration did eventually decide to take action but only when the football players threatened to boycott the season and the university, it seems, saw a threat to the athletic revenue stream. </p>
<p>The resignations, however, will have no meaning if the university does what it has done before: abdicate responsibility for courageous, effective leadership and expect strong African Americans to just “let it go,” absorb the hit, take the blows, and soldier on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carol Anderson received funding from the University of Missouri and the University of Missouri System. While a faculty member at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I received several research grants for my work, which was subsequently published.</span></em></p>I taught at Mizzou from 1996 to 2008. Here’s why the events don’t surprise me.Carol Anderson, Professor and Chair of African American Studies, Emory UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506362015-11-13T02:08:45Z2015-11-13T02:08:45ZUnsurprised by Missouri – scholars on the roots of racial unrest on campus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101760/original/image-20151112-9400-1daqmqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">#WeStandWithMizzou activists join the movement.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/JackieRehwaldNL/status/664879543950282752">Jackie Rehwald, Springfield News Leader</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Monday afternoon, after days of protests against his failure to address urgent concerns over racism on campus, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-missouri-president-ouster-offer-lessons-to-universities-grappling-with-a-racist-past-50493">University of Missouri’s President Tim Wolfe resigned</a>. </p>
<p>This may have alleviated the immediate tension in Columbia, Missouri, but the wider debate over race relations on campuses is now spreading across the country.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, over 1,000 people attended <a href="http://cjonline.com/news/2015-11-11/frustration-anger-toward-ku-administration-mark-forum-race">a forum on racism</a> at the University of Kansas. At the University of Iowa and Smith College, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/12/protests-over-campus-race-relations-spread-more-campuses?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=d6b04e7ae8-DNU20151112&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-d6b04e7ae8-198580045">students organized demonstrations</a> to show their solidarity with Mizzou students. </p>
<p>Over the past year, The Conversation US has heard from a variety of scholars on the issue of race on college campuses and in higher education more generally. Here are some of the highlights from our archives. </p>
<h2>The weight of history</h2>
<p>At the root of today’s racial troubles on campuses, <a href="https://theconversation.com/shades-of-segregated-past-in-todays-campus-troubles-38818">Emory University historian Leslie Harris</a> argues, is the past, when most American universities were intimately connected to slave trade and slavery. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In fact, colleges and universities historically have supported hierarchies of race and other forms of difference from their founding in the colonial era through the civil rights struggles of the late-20th century.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Harris organized the first conference on the history of slavery and racial discrimination at institutions of higher education. </p>
<h2>Race on campus</h2>
<p>How can teachers teach in this environment? And how can professors engage students around race and privilege in America?</p>
<p>Cherise Smith, a professor at University of Texas at Austin, wrote a powerful article reflecting on her personal experience as a black scholar. “I know only too well what it feels like to have <a href="https://theconversation.com/reflections-of-a-black-female-scholar-i-know-what-it-feels-like-to-be-invisible-39748">people look right though you</a>,” she said. “If you can’t see us, you don’t have to engage with us or with our perspectives.”</p>
<p>Meghan Mills of Birmingham-Southern College says that we must begin by <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-talk-race-a-teacher-tells-students-not-to-be-color-blind-43739">not pretending to be color-blind:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>What I have found to be most critical to this discussion is challenging my students to apply their “sociological imaginations,” which can enable them to look at underlying social issues behind some recent news events.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jennifer Harvey of Drake University continues this thread, arguing that when teaching her white students in particular, she finds that our entire framing of race is stymied because we do not discuss what it means to be “<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cannot-teach-race-without-addressing-what-it-means-to-be-white-43827">white</a>.”</p>
<h2>The wider context</h2>
<p>Vanderbilt sociologist <a href="https://theconversation.com/ferguson-is-not-a-special-case-34655">Tony Brown</a> is unequivocal about why the events like those in Ferguson are not a special case: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A serious read of history demonstrates that black lives have been treated as less valuable than white lives, and that well-meaning whites have, on the whole, failed to appreciate the origins of racial-ethnic disparities in health, wealth, education, and incarceration – or to see them as a problem.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That is why, says legal scholar Mechele Dickerson from the University of Texas at Austin, candidates for public office – both conservative and liberal – must address race’s critical <a href="https://theconversation.com/candidates-are-ignoring-races-crucial-role-in-determining-who-thrives-struggles-43899">role in who thrives and struggles:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fed researchers considered whether education, rather than race, was the main cause for the wealth gap. They found that age and education play only small roles in explaining the gaps. Racial and ethnic differences in financial well-being remain even after accounting for the age and educational attainment of the head of the family.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And yet moderate conservatives – the very group that Martin Luther King Jr called on in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail – are silent, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-silence-of-moderate-conservatives-is-dangerous-for-race-relations-45480">Christopher Parker and Megan Ming Francis of the University of Washington</a> point out:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We believe this nation is, as it was in the 1960s during the Birmingham Campaign, at a crossroads in race relations. The reality on the ground is that blacks are dying at an alarming rate at the hands of agents of the state (law enforcement) as well as individual white citizens like George Zimmerman and Dylann Roof. Combating such injustice will require moderate conservatives to take a bold stand.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
As the debate spreads from Missouri to universities across the country, insights from The Conversation’s coverage of race on campus.Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor/ Director of the Global Religion Journalism InitiativeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/504932015-11-10T19:01:37Z2015-11-10T19:01:37ZDoes Missouri president ouster offer lessons to universities grappling with a racist past?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101486/original/image-20151110-21211-1p0w6hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities struggling with racist past?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/question_everything/2184296001/in/photolist-4k266T-2ojkd-ormYX-6HvH1Z-4sn1gR-4kRqVA-3aYww5-617DEP-8WLk32-2XDXcU-e9NoGs-LkG4D-2XfUcB-4j3ZtA-8WPodY-4k67Yw-3aYknf-6s8nYS-4k68ed-3aYkzE-apo2Jg-4iYXTn-7SFtdz-bJnGX8-4j3W2d-8WLh9i-8WPhXq-8WPfHC-2XzCm8-9BnVsf-4j3UgG-5oiTNz-4k26gT-4j3Xyo-f7GNEa-8WLcqX-f7X3tw-hPoSrS-6hMYam-6hMY9m-gHM42S-9KPfBk-3aYyaj-7ThxDa-3aYx7u-bHqe3F-388cLa-9BnVqm-8vmuqv-617NyP">Let Ideas Compete</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>Note: This article was published in 2015.</strong></p>
<p>In the wake of the <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/11/09/mizzou-faculty-walks-out-student-association-calls-presidents-removal/75448392/">resignation</a> of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe, much is being written about the power of collective action among student groups to affect positive change on their campuses. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter</a> movement has demonstrated the same. Young people are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/magazine/our-demand-is-simple-stop-killing-us.html">bringing to light</a> issues in overlooked communities across the country. </p>
<p>I’m forced to think about not only the histories of protests at American colleges and universities, in general, but specifically about the campus where I attend school as a graduate student in South Carolina: Clemson University. </p>
<p>Similar to the University of Missouri, we are proud to call ourselves the Tigers. We also pride ourselves on our competitive football traditions. Ours is the number one ranked football team in the country. I also imagine we have similar issues with regard to the events that led the Missouri students to organize for change on their campus.</p>
<h2>Figures of exploitation</h2>
<p>When major sports networks show our team running down the hill onto the football field taking part in “The Most Exciting 25 Seconds In College Football,” they show only part of a complicated picture.</p>
<p>At the hill’s apex is former Vice President, South Carolina Senator and slave owner John Calhoun’s historic Fort Hill Plantation house, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/videos/watch-john-oliver-blast-ncaa-for-not-paying-athletes-20150316">overlooking</a> an exploitative circumstance for which no case needs to be made. </p>
<p>The building used as a backdrop for the scenic South Carolina campus shown on television as they cut to commercials — the one named for virulent racist and white supremacist Benjamin Tillman — makes the situation all the worse. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101487/original/image-20151110-21220-rlb69h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101487/original/image-20151110-21220-rlb69h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101487/original/image-20151110-21220-rlb69h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101487/original/image-20151110-21220-rlb69h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101487/original/image-20151110-21220-rlb69h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101487/original/image-20151110-21220-rlb69h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101487/original/image-20151110-21220-rlb69h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Benjamin Tillman: a troubled past at Clemson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/7918315738/in/photolist-d4Hrp9-4fjdxe-6tXqYG-oyPH2r-dWMaLD-5nSqyK-dWMaWn-dWMb9a-8eJqdq-dWSP7S-dWSPru-a9itdo-dWSPBo-djKxTZ-51Utz2-6ZHP2U-vpC7LZ-yfZ7B-yfZ7y-oeRyee-e1HE4y-rRGXun-rtNb4S-eZDbx4-dubT48-e9PWrV-ESvhh-535eUc-qG9gBn-btgpDF-oeV2hP-oepNAd-8FAmUf-owC7Dr-4XJhLk-bF4jri-bs9qno-bs9qwQ-duRtZ1-owufLg-owa8TB-a6F8pk-ovWddS-ovFfno-oeBQ2Y-odY3z9-ovHS7f-e8FN1o-odY3Lb-e8aR8C">PRORon Cogswell</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/09/should-this-controversial-s-c-governors-statue-be-included-in-the-debate-over-confederate-symbols-on-statehouse-grounds/">public record is pretty clear</a> on Benjamin Tillman. Search his name and you’ll find quote upon quote demonstrating his disdain for black people and his calls to kill them. Yet, come to campus, or watch ESPN’s “College Gameday,” and you’ll see his name adorning the most recognizable building associated with Clemson. </p>
<p>He not only openly advocated murdering black people, he participated in the Hamburg Massacre of 1876 during which his paramilitary group, the Redshirts, murdered six black men. In the same year, black State Senator Simon Coker was murdered by Tillman’s men as <a href="http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/ben-tillman-was-a-racist-terrorist-and-murderer-its-time-to-take-down-his-statue/Content?oid=4857402">he knelt in prayer</a>. </p>
<p>Ironically, South Carolina recently suffered a tragedy eerily reminiscent of this violent past with the killing of South Carolina State Senator Clementa Pinckney and eight other members of the church who were participating in Bible study. Clemson <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/25/1396611/-In-One-Image-Clemson-University-Captures-White-Tone-Deafness-And-Just-How-Deep-White-Supremacy-Runs#">memorialized the victims</a> with wreaths in front of the building named for Tillman.</p>
<h2>Troubled past spills into present</h2>
<p>Clemson students have been organizing over the past two years to get the attention of the administration focused on issues of racism, diversity and inclusion. </p>
<p>Students and staff have held several demonstrations and teach-ins and hosted speakers to help spread the word and hold the administrators accountable for their promise to make sure everyone feels a part of the “Clemson Family.” </p>
<p>In an effort to raise awareness about these issues, students started the <a href="http://seestripescu.org/">See The Stripes campaign</a>, which simply asks our fellow community members to try to see our mascot – The Tiger – as it should be seen, rather than “Solid Orange,” which is the term often used around here to describe the “Clemson Family.”</p>
<p>The student body, faculty and administrators have also struggled to come up with ways to address the tensions over building names across campus. </p>
<p>But as recently as a week before the semester started, there was a Confederate flag rally directly in front of the building named for Tillman during which the flag was raised over the statue of Thomas Green Clemson. The building was also <a href="http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/29492928/confederate-flag-raised-in-front-of-clemsons-tillman-hall">vandalized</a> with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/09/clemson-confederate-flag-racist-tillman-hall">spray paint</a> with “RIP Senator Coker” and “RIP Senator Pinckney.” </p>
<p>The institution was silent. </p>
<p>There were no words of consolation for any students who might feel put off by such actions and very little movement on doing anything about the name of the building honoring one of American history’s most notorious racists. </p>
<p>This season, as we hosted ESPN’s “College Gameday” again, in the background, iconic as ever, stood the clock tower, the spire, known all too well. </p>
<p>And the silence.</p>
<h2>Will it take another football team?</h2>
<p>I’m struck by the irony of celebrating the future number one ranked football team in the country, a team with many black players and coaches, on national TV in front of a building named for a man who believed them all to be subhuman and not worthy of the rights of white people. Or those players and coaches running down a hill atop which stands John C Calhoun’s plantation house. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101491/original/image-20151110-21232-1admc45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101491/original/image-20151110-21232-1admc45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101491/original/image-20151110-21232-1admc45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101491/original/image-20151110-21232-1admc45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101491/original/image-20151110-21232-1admc45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101491/original/image-20151110-21232-1admc45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101491/original/image-20151110-21232-1admc45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will it take action from student athletes to make change happen?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lulieboo/3037747373/in/photolist-5CrfsH-6cor6W-M68XY-5jrLSn-352JL7-6XSK5h-6XSDfC-6XNy9e-6XNoL8-6XRAJ1-6XNodx-6XNkpZ-6XRWTN-6XNQZi-6XNRke-6XNNaV-6XNBSP-6XSh9Y-6XNhva-6XRCJA-6XSKKU-6XRAxo-6XNC2z-6XNhZx-6XSGqQ-6XRzKj-6XSUdL-6XSGgs-6XSKVs-6XSpmL-6XNBgV-6XNSyF-6XNHGx-6XNhDP-6XNCuM-6XSoHf-6XSRjh-6XRWc5-6XRSpd-6XNwYk-6XNGjF-6XN3GD-6XNCc8-6XSkWJ-6XRCVf-6XSgYm-6XNGuV-6XRWxo-6XRCyb-6XNqiD">Lauren Nelson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is all the more striking because <a href="http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20140620/PC20/140629899">“86% of college football players</a> live below the federal poverty line.” I am aware that Clemson’s football coach, Dabo Swinney, who relatively <a href="http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10314032/dabo-swinney-clemson-tigers-gets-8-year-deal">recently received</a> an “eight-year, [US]$27.15 million contract extension,” wants to have no conversation about paying the athletes “<a href="http://sports.politicususa.com/2015/03/16/hbos-john-oliver-completely-destroys-ncaa-for-not-paying-athletes-while-raking-in-billions.html">because</a> there’s enough entitlement in the world as it is.” </p>
<p>And I wonder how our students who are athletes feel in the wake of what has happened at Missouri. </p>
<p>If, as Shakespeare writes, “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” I suppose that which we call the “legacies of racism and white supremacy” feel like business as usual. </p>
<p>But at least we can acknowledge, or contextualize it.</p>
<p>That could be done by honoring people like Senator Coker and Senator Pinckney. Or, perhaps, honoring the countless enslaved people, sharecroppers and “convict” laborers who contributed to the institution. We can recognize Benjamin Tillman as a founding trustee while also acknowledging that without them we would not have our “High Seminary of Learning.” </p>
<p>What if the Clemson Tigers decided to do what the Missouri Tigers did? What if, along with the groups of students, staff and faculty who have made it known they would appreciate a building name change, student athletes refused to participate in their sport until they were heard?</p>
<p>Would it still take the board of trustees six months to act if this football season was on the line?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson is the founder of the See The Stripes Campaign at Clemson University. </span></em></p>Clemson students have been organizing over the past two years on issues of racism and inclusion. What if the Clemson Tigers decided to do what the Missouri Tigers did?A.D. Carson, Associate Professor of Hip-Hop, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/436682015-07-10T15:30:57Z2015-07-10T15:30:57ZReview: Dear White People offers a smart, sassy take on race and identity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88063/original/image-20150710-17478-6wgaqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Witchfinder Publicity</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dear White People is not a laddish drinkathon college flick a la <a href="http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?DVDID=9838">Animal House</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/04/23/old_school_2003_review.shtml">Old School</a> and <a href="http://www.film.com/movies/re-views-national-lampoons-van-wilder-2002">Van Wilder</a>, but rather a pacey, whip-smart tale of campus politics. The film sits somewhere between John Singleton’s <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/higher-learning-1995">Higher Learning</a>, David Fincher’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/14/the-social-network-review">Social Network</a> and Spike Lee’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940DE5DD1639F931A25751C0A96E948260">School Daze</a>. After it was premiered to <a href="http://www.indiewire.com/article/sundance-review-racial-satire-rarely-gets-better-than-justin-simiens-smart-hilarious-dear-white-people">critical acclaim</a> at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Justin Simien’s first feature film has now hit a <a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-white-people-ponders-post-racism-but-we-need-to-talk-about-that-43813">limited number</a> of screens across the UK. </p>
<p>Sam (Tessa Thompson) is a militant mulatto who runs a radio show called Dear White People, in which she calls out examples of racism on campus and beyond. Sam unexpectedly defeats ex-boyfriend Troy Fairbanks (Brandon Bell) to become president of Armstrong-Parker House. Once the only all-black residence at Winchester University, Armstrong-Parker is now mixed-race, following the randomisation of accommodation on campus. Other houses are organised according to shared interests and beliefs, Sam argues, but an all-black house is a threat to white power.</p>
<p>Indeed, the popularity of Sam and her supporters, especially admirer Reggie (Marque Richardson), provokes Kurt Fletcher (Kyle Gallner) the editor of satirical student rag Pastiche and President of the white, rich kids’ Garmin Club to throw a black-themed Halloween party – to which students turn up in blackface. The party is exposed by journalist Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams), and black students invade to break it up.</p>
<h2>Being black enough</h2>
<p>Fathers loom large in Justin Simien’s movie. Troy and Kurt are pushed on by their fathers – Dean Fairbanks (Dennis Haysbert) and President Fletcher (Peter Syversten) respectively – who are themselves locked in rivalry because the former is junior to the latter, despite having graduated from Winchester earlier and with a better degree. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Sam has an ill (white) father whom we never see, but whose heart condition prevents her from becoming the Malcolm X radical Reggie wants her to be. Sam is also seeing Gabe (Justin Dobies), a white teaching assistant who is tellingly framed behind Sam when she receives news from home. But Sam’s relationships with white men do not suggest that black people need white people. If anything, Winchester’s white students’ obsession with black culture might be an expression of rich, white society’s need for its own, poorer others – those who, in the American context, have historically been black.</p>
<p>The film presents an array of black characters, in particular Sam, Lionel, Troy and Colandrea “Coco” Conners (Teyonah Parris), who all in their own ways resist the pressure on them (including from other black characters) to conform to a singular idea about what, or who, they should be. As Lionel says when interrogated by Reggie after joining Armstrong-Parker: what he finds hardest is not being black enough for white kids, nor being black enough for black kids, but being black enough for neither. What is hardest, is being himself.</p>
<h2>Meta media</h2>
<p>Dear White People is not just about finding your identity or being yourself in a bubble, though. The issue of representation and the pressure to conform to a specific image loom large. This is emphasised by the plethora of media technologies – phones, vlogs, radio, Sam’s 16mm films – that pervade and enrich the texture of the film. Indeed, Dear White People starts and ends with a (black) TV producer (Malcolm Barrett), who is in town to devise a show about black people in white-majority environments.</p>
<p>The film shows that it’s hard to be a black person when the media-drenched world expects you to be not a person but a character – or even a caricature. But the film’s coda also wryly suggests that it’s just as hard to escape being a character in order to a be person full stop – regardless of skin colour. So, does Simien himself manage to avoid caricature? </p>
<p>The media-savviness of Dear White People suggests a self-conscious engagement with this issue, as do his characters’ endless references, including to Tyler Perry and his popular <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/apr/03/tyler-perry-comedy-black-entertainment">Madea films</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88056/original/image-20150710-17428-o45zav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88056/original/image-20150710-17428-o45zav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88056/original/image-20150710-17428-o45zav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88056/original/image-20150710-17428-o45zav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88056/original/image-20150710-17428-o45zav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88056/original/image-20150710-17428-o45zav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88056/original/image-20150710-17428-o45zav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Self conscious and reflective.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Witchfinder Publicity</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dear White People is a fearlessly intelligent artistic achievement all of its own. In Sam’s language, the film is neither an oofta (the playing up of blackness for a white audience), nor a nosejob (the playing down of blackness in order to be more white), but rather a 100 (someone who is 100% at terms with their black identity).</p>
<p>Although its title suggests that it is intended for a white audience, the invasion of the Garmin Club party by black students on Halloween signals the return of America’s repressed racial history. Between Dear White People, Fruitvale Station and Selma, we can see the continuation of a politicised black American cinema, which sits alongside the more comedic Tyler Perry movies.</p>
<p>If you go to Dear White People looking for a clear answer about race politics in contemporary America, you will be disappointed. But you will also have asked the film an unfair question. What this film does offer is an artistic collection of ideas that will stimulate thought and discussion between all its audiences – whether white or black.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Justin Simien’s first feature is a strong contribution to black cinema, for all audiences.William Brown, Senior Lecturer in Film, University of RoehamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/441172015-07-02T10:20:18Z2015-07-02T10:20:18ZExplainer: crucial Texas case on race considerations in college admissions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87038/original/image-20150701-27131-8gq0hg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An important affirmative action case comes back to Supreme Court. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/supermac/6931213037/in/photolist-byuha4-6YsKD3-5FEU7p-bonpHU-5nGB65-pwoRPY-fQN9BB-oXceR9-fQZbCN-peG69R-oXcPWR-5Y3htE-7cQZJH-oXchvs-oXcUFm-ro6AW6-f26B56-f1qyZB-fQGbng-85LYwH-fQTu7u-f2A64E-fb65rE-f1rkcZ-faQMUv-qVGH36-qVGGUk-f1Gccf-f1rTqi-f1rC2R-f1R9fq-f2k8X8-f1QPKf-f2m1a6-f26BDe-aaGB53-aaGBgQ-6eZ9Zf-5NvR7Z-fQZbEU-f2k8Zk-qVyoAt-aaGAPh-f1P46h-fQZbCy-pYWt9p-fQTv7w-f1yLNv-xj8dC-eWJfQv">Supermac1961</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Twelve years ago, after an <a href="http://www2.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/Grutter_v_Bollinger_539_US_306_156_L_Ed_2d_304_2003_Court_Opinion">epic legal battle</a> over the University of Michigan’s affirmative action admissions policy in its law school and undergraduate school, the Supreme Court upheld the importance of student body diversity for the institution’s educational mission and the need to consider race as a factor in admissions. </p>
<p>The case, <a href="http://www2.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/Grutter_v_Bollinger_539_US_306_156_L_Ed_2d_304_2003_Court_Opinion">Grutter v Bollinger (2003)</a>, which also relied on a prior case that dated back to 1978, <a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1977/1977_76_811">University of California v Bakke</a>, cited extensive evidence about the importance of a racially and ethnically diverse student body.</p>
<p>However, in 2012 the Supreme Court reopened the issue, with the <a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/2010-2019/2012/2012_11_345">Fisher v University of Texas</a> case. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/10/10/who-is-abigail-noel-fisher/">Abigail Fisher</a> is a white female applicant who applied to the university in 2008 and was denied admission. She then sued the University of Texas at Austin on the grounds that the university’s race-conscious admissions policy violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. </p>
<p>Now the case is, once again, back before the Supreme Court (after having been decided, again, in UT-Austin’s favor by a lower court and appealed, again, by Fisher) and will be heard in the 2015-2016 term. </p>
<p>While the case raises questions specific to UT-Austin’s program, it is also possible that the Supreme Court may further limit the use of race in higher education admissions policies for institutions across the nation. </p>
<p>This could be a historic decision, following a term in which the court decided to severely curtail <a href="http://www2.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/Shelby_Cnty_v_Holder_No_1296_2013_BL_167707_US_June_25_2013_Court">the Voting Rights Act</a> and <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-682_8759.pdf">uphold the constitutionality of a ban on affirmative action</a> in Michigan.</p>
<h2>Fisher: Round 1</h2>
<p>The Fisher case was expected to be a fundamental decision on affirmative action in universities. </p>
<p>When the court first agreed to hear the case in 2012, the social science community came together, along with the <a href="http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/">Civil Rights Project at UCLA</a>, to support the race-conscious admissions policy at UT-Austin. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.aera.net/EducationResearch/LinkingResearchtoPublicInterest/AmicusBriefs/FishervUniversityofTexasatAustin/tabid/13333/Default.aspx">The American Educational Research Association</a>, along with numerous other scholarly organizations, filed a brief summarizing the extensive research demonstrating the educational benefits of a racially diverse student body. </p>
<p>Some 444 social scientists from 172 institutions across the nation submitted a <a href="http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/legal-developments/legal-briefs/amicus-curiae-brief-in-fisher-v.-university-of-texas-at-austin">brief</a> for which the lead author of this article served as counsel of record, outlining the evidence demonstrating the limits of so-called race-neutral policies in achieving racial diversity. </p>
<p>In its <a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/2010-2019/2012/2012_11_345">decision</a> in 2013, the court reaffirmed the important value of educational diversity.</p>
<p>However, a contentious issue was left unresolved: the court did not reach a judgment on the key question of whether there was a nonracial way to achieve the diversity that would make consideration of race unnecessary and therefore illegal under the court’s standards. </p>
<h2>Can diversity be achieved by ignoring race?</h2>
<p>The decision was subsequently described as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LUiKBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA209&lpg=PA209&dq=breaking+in+rise+of+sotomayor+compromise+in+fisher&source=bl&ots=zWmAXjPzfI&sig=94e_oBga8wtFlgRi-pWSyXd_S-I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JUWUVdTEAYb5-AHxv5KQAQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=breaking%20in%20rise%20of%20sotomayor%20compromise%20in%20fisher&f=false">“compromise”</a> in which seven of the eight justices who heard the case agreed to send it back to the lower court for review. </p>
<p>Only Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented, on the grounds that she would have found the policy constitutional without further review by the lower court. </p>
<p>The decision clarified that the means institutions use to further their interest in diversity required judicial overview, meaning that a judge may not rely on the judgment of the university alone, or defer to its determination, but will require evidence that supports the institution’s decisions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87053/original/image-20150701-27118-vcu7ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87053/original/image-20150701-27118-vcu7ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87053/original/image-20150701-27118-vcu7ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87053/original/image-20150701-27118-vcu7ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87053/original/image-20150701-27118-vcu7ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87053/original/image-20150701-27118-vcu7ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87053/original/image-20150701-27118-vcu7ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Supreme Court will be hearing the briefs of many organizations on the issue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/merrimack/6848471333/in/photolist-brbcVX-brbebZ-brbdNv-brbdrt-brbcMe-brbdzV-brbd6V-brbdVR-brbdgr-88yCms-boA4g9-5b53en-5MHFrN-8Hghu3-8Hda7v-7Cydgj-e3S6z6-6eySrL-Chreb-52m7Pp-9F99M5-2fqC2-nQVHrq-Rk2Uy-fTRP7-k1FHV-egy1by-gX7xEV-ffJ4NA-9chSab-oosYGC-5ThPMi-5pUZiz-dSEfhG-6iRhnx-LAeDb-47pZp7-2yoDBX-6bSpKN-9JbC4L-yU8mv-6g8ZyQ-dSedC5-bbWCYH-bbWFot-bbWHwK-bc8EZn-egxZdW-egsfBp-egseeD">Merrimack College</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In doing so, the decision also clarified the importance of considering workable race-neutral alternatives. </p>
<p>If a nonracial approach could promote diversity “about as well and at tolerable administrative expense,” then the university could not consider race directly. This placed a high, but not insurmountable, bar to justify ongoing consideration of race in admissions policies.</p>
<p>The justices asked the lower court, which had appeared to defer to the university’s judgment on the necessity of considering race, to reach its own decision on this issue. </p>
<p>The case went to the Fifth Circuit, which reheard the case and decided, for the second time, that UT-Austin’s admissions policy met the requirements of the court’s clarified standard in Fisher and that of past cases.</p>
<p>Fisher, however, appealed arguing that the Fifth Circuit still had not applied the test correctly. </p>
<h2>Fisher: Round 2</h2>
<p>In the first round, the lawyers for Abigail Fisher said they were not asking the court to reverse prior cases. What they argued, instead, was that UT Austin’s race-conscious policy was not necessary because other laws in the state, such as the <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/tribpedia/top-ten-percent-rule/about/">Top Ten Percent Plan</a>, allowed the university to achieve what the Fisher lawyers saw as sufficient racial diversity. </p>
<p>This seems to be the same argument they are presenting in this second round (though that could change as the briefing develops).</p>
<p>Under the plan, students who graduate at the top 10% of their class can be automatically admitted to any campus of the university they wish to attend. The university was able to achieve some level of racial diversity with the plan. </p>
<p>But UT-Austin found that as an alternative to the direct consideration of race in admissions, it was insufficient. The university thus sought to complement the 10% plan with a race-conscious review process.</p>
<p>After the remand in 2013, the Fifth Circuit agreed, but one judge strongly dissented, arguing that the university had failed to provide evidence showing that the 10% plan had not produced sufficient diversity. </p>
<p>This judge also argued that the court had not been sufficiently demanding in examining the university’s justifications: the university’s goals, he said, were vague and the “critical mass” of diversity the university needed not well-defined.</p>
<h2>Need to consider race</h2>
<p>The concept of critical mass has been at the center of affirmative action litigation efforts since Grutter, and will be central again in this second round in Fisher.</p>
<p>Universities seek to attain it because token representation of a minority group produces problems of extreme isolation and gives little opportunity for other students to interact with minority students.</p>
<p>Opponents challenge it as a goal that is ill-defined and ask for a definition that specifies a number (even though such a number could be considered an illegal quota under the court’s decision in Bakke). </p>
<p>My own <a href="http://edr.sagepub.com/content/43/3/115.full.pdf+html?ijkey=92cWalR5daVIg&keytype=ref&siteid=spedr">analysis</a> shows that the notion of critical mass cannot be reduced to a number, as it depends on a number of contextual factors necessary to obtain the benefits of diversity.</p>
<p>Other research also shows that when race is not considered in a holistic admissions process, as has been the case at institutions in the <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/affirmative-action-state-action.aspx">eight states</a> that ban affirmative action policies, racial and ethnic diversity in the student body declines significantly, especially in highly selective campuses. </p>
<p>These declines have taken place at <a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00170#.VZHtk-1VhHx">colleges and universities</a>, in <a href="http://cue.usc.edu/racial%20diversity.pdf">graduate</a> education and across different <a href="http://aer.sagepub.com/content/50/2/251.full.pdf+html?ijkey=Bzu6u6tV6z2xc&keytype=ref&siteid=spaer">fields of study</a>, including engineering, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, and in the important <a href="https://theconversation.com/ban-on-affirmative-action-in-medicine-will-hurt-all-39904">field of medicine</a>.</p>
<h2>Need for diversity</h2>
<p>In recent years, even with affirmative action in the great majority of states, students of color and low-income students are earning college degrees at <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/higher-education/report/2014/09/09/96689/how-public-universities-can-promote-access-and-success-for-all-students/">lower rates</a> than their peers, deepening the concern of civil rights groups about the Court’s new move.</p>
<p>The court’s decision to hear the case again was also immediately criticized by <a href="http://www.civilrights.org/press/2015/fisher-SCOTUS.html">the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights</a>, representing more than 200 civil rights groups.</p>
<p>As with the first round, one of the justices who had recused herself earlier – Justice Kagan – will not participate, given her prior role as solicitor general when the case was being litigated earlier. With one fewer vote than usual, there is a possibility for a tie, which could leave the lower court decision supporting the University of Texas in place.</p>
<p>The court is likely to hear from many research and higher education organizations who can present evidence via friend-of-the-court briefs. </p>
<p>In the weeks before briefs are to be submitted to the court, researchers working in this field will be discussing the issues, updating research syntheses, and, once again, seeking to offer critical data to aid the court’s deliberations and to inform the broader public not yet aware of the potential consequences of the coming decision.</p>
<p>Our nation’s colleges play a critical role in preparing students for a multiracial society. It is our hope that the court will be guided by the weight of the social science research documenting the myriad educational benefits of diversity and the need to consider race, in a limited fashion, to meet their educational mission.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liliana M Garces served as counsel of record in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in support of the University of Texas at Austin when the case was before the Court in 2012.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary Orfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Could the Abigail Fisher case, which is back before the Supreme Court, further limit the use of race in higher education admissions policies for institutions across the nation?Liliana M. Garces, Assistant Professor of Education , Penn StateGary Orfield, Professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.