tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/racism-on-campus-13309/articlesRacism on campus – The Conversation2019-07-02T22:16:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1191452019-07-02T22:16:34Z2019-07-02T22:16:34ZRich private colleges in the U.S. are fuelling inequality – and right-wing populism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281282/original/file-20190625-81776-1yjkznp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C42%2C3528%2C2302&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oberlin College's lawsuit raises issues for global higher education, and has implications for U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Oberlin College in Ohio recently lost what began as a US$44.2 million defamation lawsuit because of its involvement in student protests against alleged racial profiling at a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/14/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-bizarre-lawsuit-between-oberlin-college-and-a-local-bakery/">local bakery.</a> </p>
<p>The payment was later cut almost <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2019/06/28/Judge-halves-damages-in-lawsuit-against-Oberlin-College/stories/201906280160">in half to $25 million</a> but the case has still sent <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/06/10/oberlin-ordered-pay-bakery-11-million-over-protests">shock waves through American higher education</a>. It also has implications for Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.</p>
<p>The private legal status of Oberlin and elite American universities is an important part of the story. The conservative media and Trump trolls are framing this as an example of left-wing political correctness, but the major problem with American colleges is not far-leftism, <a href="https://theconversation.com/subsidized-privilege-the-real-scandal-of-american-universities-113792">but excessive private privilege.</a></p>
<p>The Oberlin incident happened just after Trump was elected president in 2016. Three African-American Oberlin students (a young man and two young women) were involved in a scuffle with Allyn Gibson Jr., grandson and son of Gibson’s Bakery and Food Market owners. Gibson detained the male student after he had tried to buy alcohol with a fake ID and shoplift two bottles of wine.</p>
<p>The male student eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, a lesser charge than the extreme <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/the-publicly-shamed-sue-oberlin-college-verdict/591379/">felony robbery charges</a> placed on him. </p>
<p>Oberlin students organized mass protests against the bakery, claiming racial profiling. Oberlin College administrators got involved on the protestors’ side, a jury decided, and have been ordered <a href="https://quillette.com/2019/06/20/ideology-and-facts-collide-at-oberlin-college/">to pay massive damages.</a></p>
<p>The Oberlin president is defending the university by acknowledging the shop-lifting but arguing that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/22/735005809/oberlin-college-president-on-bakery-case">the university was not taking a side in the protests</a>. </p>
<p>As a sociologist, I’m interested in this case because while sociologists have <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-l-annee-sociologique-2016-1-page-171.htm">addressed how private wealth and inequality are impacting campus and intellectual life in the United States</a>, they have ignored how the private elite colleges that dominate America’s unique higher educational system are feeding right-wing populism. </p>
<p>But I’m also a Canadian who did my undergraduate degree at Cleveland State University near Oberlin, and so as a student I had friends there. I admire its intellectual calibre and its faculty and students.</p>
<h2>Backlash politics?</h2>
<p>Right-wing media and social media commentators are now alleging a higher education system is promoting <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/conservative-groups-offer-alternative-to-new-wave-of-political-correctness-on-campuses">far-left ideology</a>, <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2019/06/13/Oberlin-College-bakery-lawsuit-student-crimes-racism-slander-activism/stories/201906130033">political correctness</a> and race-baiting.</p>
<p>Is a $25 million judgment against a college <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/01/judge-slashes-award-oberlin-case-only-25m">going to chill free speech on campuses?</a> Or is this a case of an excessively liberal college abusing their power and resources <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/06/oberlin-college-lawsuit-woke-privilege/">to coddle and protect their excessively privileged students making unfair charges of racism against hard working local business people?</a> </p>
<p>Both uncritical Oberlin defenders and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/06/18/why-do-conservatives-hate-oberlin-so-much/">conservatives obsessed with the political correctness are missing</a> larger issues.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282281/original/file-20190702-126350-1bwpakn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The jury found that Oberlin officials were involved in supporting student protests against Gibson’s Food Mart & Bakery, pictured here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Polarized lawsuit</h2>
<p>The Oberlin College administration are using the banner of student free speech to defend themselves against a major <a href="https://oberlinreview.org/18975/opinions/media-coverage-of-gibsons-verdict-misses-the-mark/">public relations disaster and financial hit</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/local/education/2019/06/15/oberlin-college-gibsons-bakery-libel-lawsuit-race-community-free-speech/stories/20190614189">The protests against Gibson’s Bakery were unfair</a>. None of this erases the reality and injustice of racial profiling or <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/new-jim-crow">mass incarceration in America</a>. Oberlin students were right to be outraged at initial felony charges, and surely it would have been better for all concerned if the incident had not been escalated. And students should not shoplift. </p>
<p>But Oberlin College argues that it is wrong that they are being <a href="https://oberlinreview.org/18970/news/jury-rules-for-gibsons-assigns-44-million-in-damages/">penalized simply for protecting the free speech rights of their students</a>. The details from the trial, however, particularly email evidence, do not reflect well on the senior administration, even when discounting the bias of <a href="https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2019/06/15/despicable-and-indefensible-legal-insurrections-thread-with-details-from-gibsons-bakery-v-oberlin-college-trial-is-a-must-read/">conservative sources that are ramping up the rhetoric</a>. </p>
<p>The jury found that officials of the school <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/us/oberlin-bakery-lawsuit.html">were involved in supporting the student protests</a>. Appeals are possible, even though Oberlin has now <a href="http://www.chroniclet.com/cops-and-courts/2019/06/19/Second-letter-from-Oberlin-College-president-gives-FAQ-cutting-through.html">admitted to unprofessional language.</a> </p>
<h2>U.S. private colleges and subsidized privilege</h2>
<p>The elephant in the room is the private non-profit status of Oberlin College. The most elite colleges in the U.S. are private, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/01/09/year-after-tax-law-changes-new-guidance-still-rolling-out-colleges">and, up until 2017 and 2018 changes in the law,</a> have not paid <a href="http://ephblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/CRS.pdf">federal taxes on their massive endowments.</a> Nor do private nonprofit colleges contribute to the provision of collective social services of communities and states <a href="http://ncpl.law.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/resources/HenryHansmann-COLLEGEANDUNIVERSITYEXEMPTION.pdf">through property or sales taxes</a>. </p>
<p>Even the most elite Canadian universities have endowments that hover around $1 billion to $2 billion, while Harvard’s endowment tops the U.S. college endowment list at $38 billion. <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Which-Colleges-Have-the/245587">Columbia and Yale’s endowments are respectively about $11 billion and $29 billion</a> and these latter two colleges border communities of racialized poverty <a href="https://www.plannersnetwork.org/2009/10/columbia-universitys-expansion-and-the-struggle-for-the-future-of-harlem/">in Harlem</a> and <a href="https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-university-college-towns.html">New Haven</a>.</p>
<p>Oberlin has less than 3,000 students enrolled and an endowment of <a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/local/education/2019/06/13/jury-hits-oberlin-with-31-million-punitive-damages-bakery-protests/stories/20190613148">nearly $900 million</a>; the research-intensive Canadian university where I teach, McMaster, has more than 30,000 students enrolled and in 2017 its endowment <a href="https://impact.mcmaster.ca/sites/default/files/documents/eendowment_2016-2017_sm.pdf">was about $704.7 million</a>. The U.S. dollar is worth about C$1.30, so that means Oberlin’s endowment has more than USD$300 million than McMaster’s — at a school with 27,000 fewer students. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281276/original/file-20190625-81762-vm4nrh.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">Attorney Lee Plakas talks about his clients’ lawsuit claiming Oberlin College hurt their business and libelled them. In the background are Allyn W. Gibson, Allyn D. Gibson, Cashlyn Gibson, 11, David Gibson, and Lorna Gibson, on June 13, 2019, in Elyria, Ohio.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruce Bishop/Chronicle-Telegram via AP</span></span>
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<p>It is disproportionately (though not exclusively) at the elite private research universities like Yale, Columbia and Harvard, and the smaller liberal arts colleges like Oberlin, where <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/557315/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind-by-greg-lukianoff-and-jonathan-haidt/9780735224919">debates about trigger warnings, cultural appropriation and the deplatforming of conservative speakers have made headlines</a> and helped polarize American politics. The excessive educational privilege of American colleges create incidents like an earlier Oberlin controversy around <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-food-fight-at-oberlin-college/421401/">cultural appropriation of international food which made national headines</a>. </p>
<p>In this case, the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/11/08/college-administrators-are-more-liberal-other-groups-including-faculty-members">excessive political interventions by Oberlin staff</a> and the <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674059092">lack of political diversity on the faculty, as at many colleges</a> give Donald Trump a target to scapegoat campus liberals.</p>
<p>Scapegoating helps hide the reality that it is the Republican Party that is the major <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GDf4DQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA31&dq=dark+money+in+US+politics&ots=4aoEo8x-O6&sig=QcmTBoa1s0g320VfjS9jF1Kl86Y#v=onepage&q=dark%20money%20in%20US%20politics&f=false">defender of privilege and class inequality</a>. </p>
<p>American liberalism’s commitment to equality in education, however, is compromised by an unwillingness to address the distorting effect of private universities. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/upshot/student-loan-debt-forgiveness.html">Elizabeth Warren’s and Bernie Sanders’s plans to clear off massive student debt</a> do not confront the tuition inflation that is created in the private, not the public, sector of higher education.</p>
<h2>Private system: Incubator of culture wars</h2>
<p>Oberlin College must help their students learn how to combine the <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CPFHBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT9&dq=Oberlin+college+left+history&ots=pPaGzDJd6D&sig=PklnCQ85Z2AVcxbvBbsw5LzpDKg#v=onepage&q=Oberlin%20college%20left%20history&f=false">proud history of progressivism the college has been a home to since the days of the underground railway</a> with a more disciplined concern with respect for different views. <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/01/us-provides-some-clarity-about-tax-endowments">Taxing the wealthy private colleges</a> could help pay for free public tuition, taking down the stakes in this national cultural war over education. The irony is that taxing <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/If-Republicans-Get-Their-Way/241659">the most affluent college endowments was promoted by Republicans</a> and <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/12/20/endowment-tax-passed/">has been opposed by high-profile Democrats</a> when a left version of this tax makes good sense.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/the-publicly-shamed-sue-oberlin-college-verdict/591379/">The Oberlin administration let their students down by not being the adults in the room,</a> and may have <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/new-election-map-ohio-colorado-no-longer-swing-states-n937646">strengthened Trumpism in a traditionally key swing state before 2020</a>. Competition for students paying tuition in the range of $50,000 to $70,000 in U.S. private colleges likely make administrators more interested in keeping students happy and safe rather than educated with politically diverse views. </p>
<p>Sociologists have rightly addressed significant pieces of the problems in American higher education <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/lower-ed">by exposing the exploitation of for-profit colleges</a>, the <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo24663096.html">underfunding of public universities</a> and how <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=J9qv-A3q01wC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=elijah+anderson&ots=B_kvOFIJci&sig=WDumNDQskEqLKns4F9nF1SFpeJs#v=onepage&q=elijah%20anderson&f=false">racial profiling incidents and racism play out in everyday life.</a></p>
<p>Scholars need to go further by confronting the fact that American private universities are part of the broader problem of inequality. Educators around the world should not see the American private system as the gold standard but as a deeply flawed incubator of cultural wars. Social democratic and public alternatives must be protected and fashioned in order to promote quality scholarship and provide broad access to higher education. </p>
<p>But the issue cuts deeper, as a university system led by elite privates lays the seeds for incidents that inevitably benefit the populist right, create tuition rates that leave far too many in debt and produce colleges not willing to tell the truth to students when they are in the wrong.</p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of a story originally published July 2, 2019. The earlier story used an incorrect figure for Oberlin College’s endowment.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil McLaughlin 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>Is a $25 million judgement against Oberlin College going to chill free speech – or is the wealth of a publicly subsidized private college helping polarize debates about race and politics?Neil McLaughlin, Professor of Sociology, McMaster 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/526042015-12-30T13:26:13Z2015-12-30T13:26:13Z2015, the year that was: education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106924/original/image-20151222-27894-1r46xgv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">2015 showed how much race still matters in education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/illinoisspringfield/14028616900/in/photolist-nnEk4b-eiuvry-KDhJy-ej1W7q-55XtUM-eiVc1e-ej1W31-eiVcN4-eiVbVi-ej1Wgh-eiVbJt-nnE5di-nDRU4x-nE8SN7-nDRTSF-nnEixq-eiVd42-eiVcyz-4SzDm9-bXYQjm-bXYQfb-ekDWdG-ekyb2e-ekDW4N-eioLFi-nE8Vx5-eiVcng-ej1VDd-eiVc7n-eiVbRe-eiVbwp-eiVbpt-nDWs9C-nE9MZD-nE9Mx6-eiVbFa-ej1Wkm-ej1V2w-ej1UUC-ej2fzj-eiVvST-bWUZvG-nDWtLq-nDRVyB-nnE6BR-nnEjSE-nnE8qj-nFWawZ-nDWsDf-nDWstf">Illinois Springfield</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As we approach 2016, we look back at the big stories of The Conversation’s education coverage over the past 12 months.</em></p>
<p>2015 was a year of much turmoil: higher education witnessed student activism not quite seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-history-is-shaping-the-studentblackout-movement-51078">since the free speech movement</a> of the 1960s.</p>
<p>The spark for the protests came from the University of Missouri – where students’ demands for racial justice <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-and-troubled-racial-past-of-mizzou-50639">had gone unheard</a>. With the football team joining the protesting students, events took a different turn and resulted in the resignation of the president, Tim Wolfe. Thereafter, protests spread to <a href="https://www.eab.com/daily-briefing/2015/11/24/student-protests-spread-to-more-than-100-campuses-nationwide">over 100</a> other campuses.</p>
<h2>Racism on campus</h2>
<p>Over the past year, scholars writing for The Conversation have emphasized how much race continues to be a factor in students’ success – and not just in college, but even through their early school years.</p>
<p>As some have pointed out, academia suffers from a <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-academia-black-professors-are-expected-to-entertain-while-presenting-46249">“stunning lack of diversity.”</a> Black scholars <a href="https://theconversation.com/reflections-of-a-black-female-scholar-i-know-what-it-feels-like-to-be-invisible-39748">describe experiences</a> ranging from <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-academia-black-professors-are-expected-to-entertain-while-presenting-46249">racial slights</a> to outright discrimination. At the K-12 level, research shows that black students <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">are more likely</a> to receive out-of-school suspensions for minor violations of the code of conduct. </p>
<p>On campuses, students have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-missouri-president-ouster-offer-lessons-to-universities-grappling-with-a-racist-past-50493">demanding for some time the renaming</a> of buildings whose names evoke a troubled racial past. Many universities and their past leaders were <a href="https://theconversation.com/unsurprised-by-missouri-scholars-on-the-roots-of-racial-unrest-on-campus-50636">intimately connected</a> to the slave trade and slavery. This year further escalated some of the tensions.</p>
<p>In this environment, Fisher v University of Texas, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-crucial-texas-case-on-race-considerations-in-college-admissions-44117">case</a> challenging the University of Texas’s race-conscious admissions policy, took on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-scholars-emphasize-the-need-for-affirmative-action-43692">even greater significance</a>. The policy <a href="https://theconversation.com/ban-on-affirmative-action-in-medicine-will-hurt-all-39904">allows the university</a> to build a racially and ethnically diverse student body. But the case challenging it says it violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.</p>
<h2>Tenure, college costs, guns</h2>
<p>The debates on university campuses in 2015 were many, and not just to do with race. </p>
<p>The issue of academic freedom became a fractious one after Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker put forward a proposal to slash spending on education and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-else-will-we-lose-when-wisconsin-faculty-loses-tenure-42929">modify the state laws</a> on tenure.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106925/original/image-20151222-27890-phlnmb.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">There were many issues of concern this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dustpuppy/6852779/in/photolist-B86n-B6Lt-B6YW-B7Ps-B8mC-B84A-B8ht-B7nq-B87p-pjYumV-pztNyb-aExUV3-B6E4-B7MX-B8ck-B6FR-B7u4-B7HG-B7eu-B8f3-B7zp-B7Vz-B733-B835-B76t-B7BW-B7bp-B8ko-B6Rn-B71h-B7wz-B786-B7py-B81G-B6K3-B7L7-B7DZ-B6Xo-B6SS-B79N-B7Xb-B7jt-B6Q8-B7cL-B8ac-B6MU-B7Tj-8ZPW1y-ym1o-ym1c">Björn Láczay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>All over again, issues of college affordability were <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reduce-debt-give-students-more-information-to-make-wise-college-choice-decisions-46064">brought center-stage</a> by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s announcement of a US$350 billion debt-free college plan. <a href="https://theconversation.com/clintons-debt-free-college-comes-with-a-price-tag-46378">Our experts argued</a> how such a large expansion in federal dollars would come at a cost. </p>
<p>And while students struggled with debt, smaller colleges struggled to keep student enrollment high enough. One of them, Sweet Briar, a women’s liberal arts college, was <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-we-learn-from-sweet-briars-near-death-44055">among those hit hard</a> by declining enrollment. While the board voted to close the doors, its alumnae made efforts to keep it going for at least another year.</p>
<p>In Texas, meanwhile, a “Campus Carry” gun law passed in spring 2015, <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-guns-on-campus-lead-to-grade-inflation-40748">raising faculty fears</a> about the possibility of grade inflation. </p>
<h2>Teachers, testing, new ESSA</h2>
<p>If higher education was in turmoil, so was K-12. </p>
<p>Testing pressures led to an ever-growing number of parents, teachers and students “opting out” of testing <a href="https://theconversation.com/students-are-opting-out-of-testing-how-did-we-get-here-40364">across all 50 states</a>. Some experts <a href="https://theconversation.com/arne-duncans-legacy-growing-influence-of-a-network-of-private-actors-on-public-education-48790">put the blame</a> on the influence of a “network” of private actors over the policies implemented under US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who will be leaving office at the end of this year.</p>
<p>A number of scholars commented on how policies have left schoolteachers <a href="https://theconversation.com/crisis-in-american-education-as-teacher-morale-hits-an-all-time-low-39226">highly demotivated</a>. In an effort to <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-somber-message-on-world-teachers-day-2015-our-teachers-are-at-risk-48550">improve the “annual yearly progress”</a> of their students, some schools not only <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-child-left-behind-fails-to-work-miracles-spurs-cheating-38620">resorted to unethical practices</a>, but also punished teachers for low scores. </p>
<p>How then are teachers being evaluated? It isn’t clear. Not least when music teachers can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-it-get-more-absurd-now-music-teachers-are-being-tested-based-on-math-and-reading-scores-47995">evaluated</a> based on the math and reading scores of students.</p>
<p>In answer to some of these concerns, before the end of the year, President Obama signed The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) – which will replace the NCLB and end many of testing and evaluation policies, although <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-every-student-succeeds-act-still-leaves-most-vulnerable-kids-behind-46247">experts still urge caution</a> on wholeheartedly embracing the ESSA.</p>
<p>Despite the odds, schoolteachers and university professors remained unfailing in their commitment, innovation and dedication to their students. Indeed, innovative examples of teaching were among our best-read stories as well. Here are some:</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-understanding-the-prisoners-dilemma-can-help-bridge-liberal-and-conservative-differences-46166">How understanding the prisoner’s dilemma can help bridge liberal and conservative differences</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/want-more-innovation-try-connecting-the-dots-between-engineering-and-humanities-42800">Want more innovation? Try connecting the dots between engineering and humanities</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/a-teacher-uses-star-trek-for-difficult-conversations-on-race-and-gender-43098">A teacher uses Star Trek for difficult conversations on race and gender</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/through-the-brewing-class-what-beer-making-can-teach-students-about-business-42396">Through the brewing class: what beer-making can teach students about business</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/using-wikipedia-a-scholar-redraws-academic-lines-by-including-it-in-his-syllabus-39103">Using Wikipedia: a scholar redraws academic lines by including it in his syllabus</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-artists-creative-ways-to-teach-english-to-immigrant-kids-42588">‘Teaching artists’: creative ways to teach English to immigrant kids</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The year 2015 escalated many of the tensions that have existed on university and college campuses for a long time. It will be remembered as the year of student activism.Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor/ Director of the Global Religion Journalism InitiativeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/519712015-12-09T11:09:23Z2015-12-09T11:09:23ZHow much diversity can the US Constitution stand?<p>The Supreme Court’s ruling in Fisher v University of Texas, an affirmative action case the Court is currently deciding, will dictate whether public colleges’ and universities’ use of race to create diverse learning environments is constitutional. </p>
<p>Sixty years ago, the University of Texas (UT) was at the center of another Supreme Court decision, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/339/629">Sweatt v Painter</a>, a lawsuit involving UT Law School’s refusal to admit Heman Marion Sweatt, a black applicant. </p>
<p>In Fisher v University of Texas, UT’s admissions policy is being challenged again, but this time for its use of race to diversify its student body. Some expect this case to decide the fate of affirmative action. </p>
<p>My scholarship focuses on educational equity and the educational value of racial diversity at the college level. I believe that at the heart of the debate around diversity is the question: how much diversity is enough? </p>
<h2>What are the origins of affirmative action?</h2>
<p>Affirmative action was a response to pervasive racial discrimination. </p>
<p>Franklin D Roosevelt was the first president to issue an <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/462937/origins-affirmative-action">executive order</a> prohibiting racial discrimination in hiring defense contractors in 1943. But it was President John F Kennedy who, in an <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/462937/origins-affirmative-action">executive order</a> in 1961, coined the term “affirmative action” to stop racial discrimination by government contractors. </p>
<p>Subsequently, state and local governments, including universities, were inspired to introduce similar programs to <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/462937/origins-affirmative-action">promote equal opportunity</a>. </p>
<p>However, it was not until the Supreme Court decision in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/438/265">Regents of the University of California v Bakke</a> in 1978 that race was formally recognized as an aspect of educational diversity. </p>
<p>At the time, the University of California had set aside 16 out of 100 seats in its medical school for disadvantaged minority students. The policy was challenged by Allan Bakke, a white applicant, who was twice denied admission. </p>
<p>This was the first time educational diversity was considered as a constitutional justification for the use of race in admissions. A majority of the Justices held that the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">Equal Protection Clause</a> of the Fourteenth Amendment (which protects against racial discrimination by the government) required any use of race, whether to remedy discrimination or to achieve educational diversity, to be subject to strict constitutional review. </p>
<p>Justice Lewis Powell, in a part of the opinion joined by no other justice, recognized educational diversity to be a “compelling state interest” and he emphasized that race was but one aspect of educational diversity. He wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The atmosphere of ‘speculation, experiment and creation’ – so essential to the quality of higher education – is widely believed to be promoted by a diverse student body.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Consideration of race to achieve the educational benefits of racial diversity in the admissions processes of the university was determined to be constitutional. However, setting aside a specific number of seats for students of color was ruled an unconstitutional quota. </p>
<h2>The Hopwood years</h2>
<p>After the Bakke decision, universities, including UT Law School, invoked educational diversity as a constitutionally permissible goal.</p>
<p>To that end, they implemented admissions practices that considered race, among a broad array of factors, in their admissions calculus. </p>
<p>UT Law School created an admissions formula that relied on an “academic index” based primarily on standardized test scores and grades. Race was considered as a separate “plus factor” to further diversify the student body.</p>
<p>Then, in 1992, Cheryl Hopwood, one of several white applicants denied admission, <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1120774.html">challenged the school’s use</a> of race in its admissions decisions as unconstitutional. </p>
<p>She argued that she had better test scores and a higher grade point average than admitted minority applicants. Hopwood claimed that the school’s admissions policy discriminated against her because she was white, in violation of her equal protection rights. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1120774.html">Fifth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals</a> ruled in Hopwood v Texas that Justice Powell’s determination about educational diversity was not binding. The court prohibited the consideration of race in admissions processes at UT and other public universities and colleges in Texas. </p>
<p>Consequently, for seven years following the Hopwood decision, UT omitted race from its admissions calculus.</p>
<p>It continued to employ the “academic index” and added the “personal achievement index,” a metric which considers a variety of factors relevant to a student’s background and capacity to contribute to educational diversity, without explicitly considering race. </p>
<p>In addition, <a href="http://www.legis.state.tx.us/billlookup/text.aspx?LegSess=75R&Bill=HB588">in 1997 the Texas Legislature</a> adopted the Top Ten Percent Law, which grants automatic admission to any public state institution to all students who graduate in the top 10% of their high school class. </p>
<p>Then <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-241.ZO.html">in 2003</a> the Fifth Circuit’s prohibition on the use of race in admissions was overruled by the Supreme Court’s decision in Grutter v Bollinger. </p>
<p>Barbara Grutter, a white applicant, was denied admission to the University of Michigan Law School. She challenged the school’s use of race in its admissions process as racially discriminatory and as violating her equal protection rights. </p>
<p>A majority of the Court rejected her claim and endorsed Justice Powell’s acknowledgment of educational diversity as a compelling state interest. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made clear in the decision that “narrow tailoring does not require exhaustion of every conceivable race-neutral alternative” and ruled that Michigan’s consideration of race, as one of many factors relevant to educational diversity, was constitutional. </p>
<h2>Fisher v Texas – take one</h2>
<p>The decision in Grutter freed UT to resume explicit use of race as a “plus factor” in its admissions processes. Race was included as part of “personal achievement index.” </p>
<p>Then in 2008, Abigail Fisher, a white applicant denied admission to UT, challenged the school’s admissions policy as racially discriminatory. In 2009, a federal trial court ruled in favor of UT and dismissed the case.</p>
<p>The Fifth Circuit affirmed that decision, and Fisher appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit for a more rigorous assessment of whether UT Austin needed to consider race in admissions to diversify its student body.</p>
<p>The Fifth Circuit, following the Supreme Court’s instructions, <a href="http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions%5Cpub%5C09/09-50822-CV2.pdf">examined carefully</a> UT’s race-neutral admissions efforts to achieve racial diversity. It found that those efforts were not sufficient to achieve a critical mass of diverse students. </p>
<p>The court held that UT’s explicit use of race in deciding whom to admit, given the absence of workable race-neutral alternatives, was constitutional. </p>
<h2>Fisher v Texas: the remix</h2>
<p>So, as the court takes up the Fisher v University of Texas case for the second time, at the heart of the debate around diversity is the query – how much diversity is enough? </p>
<p>Fisher, who has since graduated from Louisiana State University, argues that post-Hopwood and pre-Grutter, when the use of race was prohibited, enrollment of students of color eventually reached pre-Hopwood heights.</p>
<p>Consequently, she asserts, there was no reason to return to a race-conscious admission process. </p>
<p>She further contends that after race was reintroduced into the admissions formula, it netted only a negligible increase in the number of enrolled black and Latino students. Therefore, she concludes, it was neither necessary nor constitutional. </p>
<p>UT contends that schools have the institutional discretion and expertise to determine how much diversity is enough to yield educational benefits. UT also argues that the number of enrolled black and Latino students produced by race-neutral means, even if comparable to pre-Hopwood rates, is not sufficient to constitute a critical mass of diverse students. </p>
<p>Accordingly, UT maintains, its use of race is constitutional. </p>
<p>The use of race may survive the battle if the Supreme Court deems UT’s admissions program constitutional. However, even if UT prevails, the Court’s requirement that a school exhaust <em>all</em> available race-neutral means of achieving racial diversity <em>prior</em> to considering race could create an insurmountable obstacle for many other colleges and universities. </p>
<p>In that case, affirmative action would ultimately <a href="http://works.bepress.com/tanya_washington/25/">lose the war</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51971/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya Washington 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>As the affirmative action case comes up before the US Supreme Court again, the question being asked is how much diversity is enough?Tanya Washington, Professor of Law, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/519452015-12-08T16:10:02Z2015-12-08T16:10:02ZWhy Supreme Court case on race in admissions matters more than ever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104718/original/image-20151207-3151-14vmbg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could the decision in the Abigail Fisher case exacerbate racial tensions on campuses?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/serenaleeblog/4966628941/in/photolist-8Acc7V-8AbYSr-8CNLau-8CKzCc-8Af8g3-aYLHjV-8CNX6y-AdfSaM-8D25PV-9G5Ks2-dEut35-GTmgV-kLwGPd-rs4cyW-AnrWLL-p1Mdmo-pPz9FK-p9pC87-pPAPp3-pFcx7r-pFbeL7-qerhrP-8k2STh-8k2SNC-9G5KwR-9G5MFz-xei9nF-8AY9Xy-8xpuyW-7YiKLg-9G5K9K-9G5KfB-9G5Km6-8MbKcs-8yTgGn-8yWmPG-8yTgKt-8yTgCB-8yTgEc-8yTgEZ-8yWmRN-8yWmMw-8yWmUE-8yWmNW-eg1axF-8yTgJx-auXs3b-8yWmL1-Bn56mC-mwaS5M">Serena Lee</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a number of recent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/us/university-of-missouri-system-president-resigns.html">incidents</a> across the country, black students have expressed how they continue to experience hostility because of their skin color. These students have spoken of their feelings of isolation and disempowerment.</p>
<p>Colleges and universities urgently need policies to address these challenges. One such existing policy includes the limited consideration of race in admission decisions. This policy allows institutions to build a racially and ethnically diverse student body. </p>
<p>This Wednesday, December 9, the US Supreme Court will consider the <a href="http://theconversation.com/explainer-crucial-texas-case-on-race-considerations-in-college-admissions-44117">Fisher v University of Texas</a> case. This will be the second time the court rules on the constitutionality of a race-sensitive post-secondary admissions policy at the University of Texas.</p>
<p>A decision that further restricts the consideration of race could potentially exacerbate the racial tensions that we are seeing around the nation.</p>
<h2>Background to the case</h2>
<p>In 2008, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=192703172">Abigail Fisher</a>, a white female, applied to the University of Texas at Austin and was denied admission. She then sued the university on the grounds that the university’s race-conscious admissions policy violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. </p>
<p>The case is now back before the Supreme Court. </p>
<p>In its 2013 decision, the Supreme Court had sent the case back to the lower court to conduct a more rigorous assessment of whether UT Austin needed to consider race in admissions to advance its interest in the educational benefits of diversity. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court was concerned that the lower court’s decision had relied primarily on the university’s judgment, without conducting an independent review. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104719/original/image-20151207-3122-r8139h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104719/original/image-20151207-3122-r8139h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104719/original/image-20151207-3122-r8139h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104719/original/image-20151207-3122-r8139h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104719/original/image-20151207-3122-r8139h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104719/original/image-20151207-3122-r8139h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104719/original/image-20151207-3122-r8139h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Abigail Fisher case on affirmative action is due to come up on December 9.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/307639437/in/photolist-tbJue-pLFihs-9sMTg8-pVDtsm-xj8dC-fUJT36-3P99ph-5Y3htE-pLGztn-eXMwpm-conrr3-APqHp-oXceR9-peG69R-9sMQEz-oXcUFm-cjK2zL-7YWhrB-my1QAP-djzBuH-6x6kmn-etjK2-mFPdVW-rbUh3s-6K2mxv-6x6kaD-6YsKD3-aofJU-byuha4-pP6ZFb-5Vnu54-5TPQZi-eWs9A5-eVXHqp-8s1Vsi-4Q42k7-aFfq3j-9s8LrU-H587R-aC9aKG-fp7JBQ-4YmVeo-7tLNFt-ch288s-9mNV9x-4TN9ZF-dLk4J-5SB1T1-eVXHYK-27D3n">Jeff Kubina</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After reconsidering the case, the Fifth Circuit ruled that the university’s policy was necessary. Court rules, however, allow the parties to appeal the decision back to the Supreme Court, which Fisher did. In June 2015 the court agreed to hear the case again. </p>
<h2>Impact on student diversity</h2>
<p>My research shows that limiting the use of race in higher education admissions policies can have harmful consequences for the diversity of the student body. </p>
<p>In an earlier research paper, my <a href="http://theconversation.com/ban-on-affirmative-action-in-medicine-will-hurt-all-39904">coauthor and I found</a> that bans on race-sensitive admissions led to declines in racial and ethnic student body diversity in the field of medicine. </p>
<p>We examined the impact of bans in six states: California, Washington, Michigan, Nebraska, Florida and Texas and analyzed data from 19 years – 1993-2011. We found that following these bans, underrepresented students of color at public medical schools dropped from 18.5% to about 15.3%.</p>
<p>In other words, before bans on affirmative action, for every 100 students matriculated in medical schools in states with bans, there were 18 students of color, whereas after the ban, for every 100 students matriculated, about 15 were students of color.</p>
<p>One of my prior <a href="http://aer.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/01/14/0002831212470483">studies</a> also found declines across a number of important graduate fields of study, including engineering, the natural sciences and the social sciences. Other research too has documented declines in African-American and Latino enrollment at the most <a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/REST_a_00170#.VmbvJ9-rR">selective undergraduate schools</a> in the fields of <a href="http://www.nyulawreview.org/issues/volume-72-number-1/threat-diversity-legal-education-empirical-analysis-consequences">law</a> and <a href="http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/kidder_paper.pdf">business</a>. </p>
<h2>How prohibitions on race-conscious policies can harm students</h2>
<p>These declines in racial student body diversity can isolate and stigmatize students of color who are admitted and make it more difficult for institutions to create a welcoming campus environment for students of color. </p>
<p>In addition to leading to less diversity in the student body, barring the consideration of race in admissions can prevent institutions from addressing the ways in which race shapes the educational experiences of all students.</p>
<p>We might not think that admissions policies can have an influence on the work of administrators charged with supporting students of color once they are on campus, but findings from a more recent <a href="http://aer.sagepub.com/content/52/5/828">study</a> suggest that the influence of these laws extend beyond the composition of the student body. Bans on affirmative action can have a detrimental influence on work that is critical to the success of students of color on campus.</p>
<p>For <a href="http://aer.sagepub.com/content/52/5/828">this study</a>, my coauthor and I interviewed 14 campus-level administrators charged with implementing diversity policy at the University of Michigan, a flagship public institution representative of elite public schools in other states that have been affected by these laws. </p>
<p>We sought to understand how these administrators understood the influence of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/us/supreme-court-michigan-affirmative-action-ban.html?_r=0">Proposal 2</a>, a ballot initiative that banned race-sensitive admissions policies at public post-secondary institutions in Michigan in 2006.</p>
<p>Our interviews took place during 2011 and 2012, by which time Proposal 2 had been in implementation for five years. Consequently, the university had had time to respond to the law and to clarify any initial uncertainties regarding its legal requirements.</p>
<p>Specifically, we found the following: the law 1) limited the conversations campus-level administrators felt they could have around race and racism; 2) made individuals’ efforts to support racial diversity less visible; 3) made individuals feel less empowered to advocate for racial diversity and 4) contributed to concerns about negative perceptions regarding the university’s commitment to racial diversity.</p>
<p>These findings suggest that barring race-sensitive admissions policy at the outset can undermine the support students of color need to succeed. This is because efforts to support diversity on campus require visible, sustained support at various institutional levels. And individuals need to feel empowered to do the work that is necessary to support students of color.</p>
<h2>How considerations of race can lead to social cohesion</h2>
<p>By contrast, other <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rhe/summary/v035/35.4.griffin.html">research</a> has found that race-sensitive admissions policies can signal to students of color that their diverse backgrounds are valued on campus. </p>
<p>Moreover, a <a href="http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/legal-developments/legal-briefs/amicus-brief-of-social-scientists-in-fisher-case">friend-of-the-court brief</a> in the Fisher case filed by 823 social scientists across the country, for which I served as counsel of record, summarized findings from other research demonstrating that classifications on the basis of race (such as what is involved in race-sensitive admissions) may be necessary to improve race relations. It also argued that race-sensitive admissions policies can help address issues about how race influences students’ educational experiences. </p>
<p>This is because race operates not only at the structural level – shaping a child’s life chances, including his or her opportunity for a quality education – but also at the individual level. </p>
<p><a href="http://books.wwnorton.com/books/Whistling-Vivaldi/">Race influences</a> thoughts and behavior of individuals of all races in subconscious ways – through implicit biases, such as attitudes toward particular social groups – and other psychological phenomena such as stereotype threat, classically manifested in high-stakes test performance, involving the threatening experience of conforming to negative race-based stereotypes present in the larger society.</p>
<p>Because race often shapes attitudes and behaviors subconsciously, not paying attention to race in admissions can further harm race relations. At the same time, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2007.00149.x/abstract">permitting its consideration</a>
can lead to social cohesion. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a decisive vote in the Fisher case, has <a href="http://edr.sagepub.com/content/44/8/442.abstract?rss=1">acknowledged in past decisions</a> how much race continues to matter. </p>
<p>This understanding, however, needs to reflect the ways in which race matters and also take into account the impact of the court’s decisions in a post-Ferguson, post-University of Missouri society. </p>
<p>Colleges and universities need all tools they can have at their disposal to improve race relations on their campuses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51945/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liliana M. Garces 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>Limiting the use of race in higher education admissions policies for institutions can have harmful consequences for the diversity of the student body.Liliana M. Garces, Assistant Professor of Education , Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/511782015-12-08T14:34:37Z2015-12-08T14:34:37ZThe covert racism that is holding back black academics<p>Students are walking out in protest against racial inequality and injustice in the US and have been rallying together in days of action at campuses across the country. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/racism-on-campus">#StudentBlackout movement</a> has challenged and confronted white supremacy and anti-black attitudes on university campuses, <a href="https://theconversation.com/students-demand-for-diverse-faculty-is-a-demand-for-a-better-education-50698">and has made demands</a> for more black and minority ethnic faculty members. </p>
<p>So it is ironic that the US is the destination of choice for British black and minority ethnic academics who feel worn down by incidents of racism, exclusion and marginalisation in Britain. Recent research that I worked on, <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/academic-flight/">published by the Equality Challenge Unit</a>, found that as a result of their experiences black and minority UK academics were significantly more likely to consider a move to overseas higher education than their white counterparts. </p>
<p>Many spoke of the potential opportunities they identified in working for American universities. I can’t help feeling they might have to re-evaluate their options in the light of what is going on in the US. Many of the demonstrations across American campuses have been triggered by specific local circumstances – such as reports of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11971221/Yale-University-fraternity-sets-white-girls-only-party-admission-policy.html">all-white parties</a> and <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/11/7/9689330/yale-halloween-email">students in blackface at Yale</a>. </p>
<p>But taken as a whole they represent a response to more widespread concerns about racism within American academic culture. These demonstrations also reflect the wider groundswell in concern across America exemplified by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/blacklivesmatter-and-the-myth-of-a-postracial-america-46491">Black Lives Matter demonstrations</a> which have been sparked by unlawful killings by the police. </p>
<h2>Protecting white privilege</h2>
<p>In the UK, such protest has not yet been seen. Academics present themselves as guardians of a space that highlights liberal sentiments, progressive values and a commitment to meritocracy. Many regard their “seats of learning” as places that challenge inequalities and injustice. But this is clearly not always the case in reality. </p>
<p>My <a href="http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/en/research-resources/published-research/research-by-theme/leading-equality-and-diversity/the-experience-of-bme-academics-in-higher-education-aspirations-in-the-face-of-inequality.cfm">research</a> has found that many black and minority ethnic academics report experiences of subtle, covert and nuanced racism in higher education in which white identity is privileged and protected within the space traditionally reserved for the white middle class. </p>
<p>During the past decade there has been a <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/equality-higher-education-statistical-report-2015/">significant increase</a> in the numbers of black and minority UK academic staff in higher education – from 6,000 staff in 2003-4 to almost 10,700 in 2013-14. There were even more non-UK black and minority academic staff, as the graph below shows. </p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5I7dA/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>But black and minority ethnic academics <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-fewer-than-100-black-professors-in-britain-why-24088">are far less likely</a> to be in senior roles compared to their white colleagues: 11.2% of UK white academics were professors compared to 9.8% of UK black and minority ethnic staff (of which only 4.5% were black). There <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/equality-higher-education-statistical-report-2015/">are only</a> 20 deputy or pro vice-chancellors who are black or minority ethnic compared to the majority, 530, who are white. </p>
<p>Significant policy changes in the UK, such as the 2010 Equality Act and the introduction of the <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter/">Race Equality Charter</a>, designed to measure how successful universities were at delivering inclusive policy in practice, might suggest higher education had become more inclusive. But in reality, covert racist behaviour impacts heavily on the career trajectories of many black and minority ethnic academics. </p>
<p>A total of 21 higher education institutions took part in the pilot of the Race Equality Charter 2014 of which eight were successful in gaining a bronze award. The Race Equality Charter works in a similar vein to the <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/equality-charters/athena-swan/">Athena Swan charter</a>, which was introduced in 2005 to advance the representation of women in science and engineering subjects.</p>
<h2>On the outside</h2>
<p>It is often hard to pin down or confront racist behaviour in universities because it is indicative of an environment in which inequality flourishes behind the scenes, rather than centre stage. For example, black academics report goalposts, such as selection criteria, being moved when they apply for promotion – which doesn’t happen for white colleagues.</p>
<p>In my <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/academic-flight/">research</a>, which included interviews with 30 US-based academics and 35 who were based in the UK, respondents indicated that in both the UK and US an increase in fragility and risk within academia had resulted in greater competition for new jobs, threats of pay cuts, and fears about job security and <a href="https://theconversation.com/wisconsin-controversy-with-fewer-tenured-positions-who-benefits-from-academic-freedom-43167">tenure</a>. </p>
<p>In a climate of financial global insecurity, competitiveness over job security was <a href="http://www.lfhe.ac.uk/en/research-resources/published-research/research-by-theme/leading-equality-and-diversity/the-experience-of-bme-academics-in-higher-education-aspirations-in-the-face-of-inequality.cfm">far more likely</a> to privilege those from white middle-class backgrounds. Black academics I interviewed in both the US and UK were less likely than their white colleagues to have access to established networks of knowledge and support. These networks open the door for new opportunities in which job offers are made and access granted to particular institutions and insider processes. </p>
<p>I found that “who you know” still counts for far more than “what you know” and fears of job insecurity and fragility actively work to promote the interests of white established elites in academia. This environment of insecurity is of greater value to white academic elites, for who it serves to maintain their ascendancy.</p>
<p>While public displays of racism in the academy are rare, a more pernicious set of behaviour has emerged. Black and minority ethnic academics <a href="http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/academic-flight/">told me</a> of instances when colleagues would not make eye contact with them in meetings, their opinions were not taken into account and there was constant undermining or criticism of their work. </p>
<p>We must continue to disrupt, challenge and dismantle such covert racism if we are to move forward in our quest for a socially just society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kalwant Bhopal has received funding from the ECU last year and LFHE this year for project grants. </span></em></p>Subtly racist behaviour impacts heavily on the career trajectories of black and minority ethnic academics.Kalwant Bhopal, Professor of Education and Social Justice, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510782015-11-23T10:31:55Z2015-11-23T10:31:55ZHere’s how history is shaping the #studentblackout movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102692/original/image-20151121-412-1j3ctc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students across campuses are protesting against racial injustice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/max-goldberg/23050032346/in/photolist-B7RryN-Awbuko-B8X7Vo-AwbEzk-AwbtPU-AwbEkc-qEiTCL-pZS6oo-qEpMhM-qErwhv-qEhveN-pZS13d-qEpHAP-qErtgR-qWHh34-qWS8VD-qErsdP-qEpDRz-pZRVcG-qErowa-qWMunY-dVdmE3-dV7LWR-dV7LP4-dV7LDT-dVdm73-dVdkWU-dVdkPb-dV7KZk-dVdkwj-dV7KEn-dV7Kuc-dV7KhF-dVdjGj-dV7JVa-49dLju-5AmTdn-qWHogB-qErxY6-qUz6zd-qEiPwu-qWSbyp-qErr2R-qErqKi-qEpEhK-qEiEvy-qWS34i-qEhjHY-qEiCm3-qErjkz">Max Goldberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="http://dailycampus.com/stories/2015/11/20/yale-missouri-protests-spark-nationwide-backlash-on-college-campuses">Students are protesting</a> over racism across campuses in the United States. We asked Marshall Ganz, who dropped out of Harvard as an undergraduate to be an organizer in 1964 and now teaches organizing and leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, to discuss the significance of these protests and the history of student activism.</em></p>
<p><strong>What is the history of student activism in the United States and how has it been a catalyst for change?</strong></p>
<p>Student activism in the US goes back to the 19th century, but <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/why-david-sometimes-wins-9780195162011?cc=us&lang=en&">I became involved</a> in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, a time when student activism – initiated largely by Black students – played an especially prominent role. </p>
<p>Dr [Martin Luther] King, when he led the bus boycott, was only 25 years old. The leaders of the “sit-ins” in Tennessee and North Carolina were 19- to 21-year-old students at Historically Black Colleges (HBCs). For those of us who were not Black but shared the values of the civil rights movement, it was both challenging and inspiring to see the courage of peers who were “walking the walk.”</p>
<p>Although <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo5939918.html">many of the activists</a> came from colleges, for the most part colleges were not the targets of the movement. The civil rights movement was more focused on issues such as voting, public accommodations, police brutality and schooling.</p>
<p>But the civil rights movement inspired other currents of change that did target colleges. For example, the <a href="http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/sixtiesprotest/berkeley.htm">free speech movement</a> that started in the fall of 1964 was sparked by University of California’s attempts to curb student fund-raising for <a href="http://www.core-online.org/History/history.htm">civil rights</a> <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sncc">groups</a>. </p>
<p>It led to a reaction that spread rapidly across campuses. In the famous words of <a href="http://www.savio.org/who_was_mario.html">Mario Savio</a>, one of the key leaders of this movement, students protested against attempts by universities to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ELARIo1Xb1sC&pg=PA205&lpg=PA205&dq=folded,+spindled,+and+mutilated+mario+savio&source=bl&ots=rCFtl-HLvx&sig=-_On-iikm3HS1yR1J8paRH1md3I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic0O6TiqPJAhVEXD4KHZxYCOYQ6AEINjAD#v=onepage&q=folded%2C%20spindled%2C%20and%20mutilated%20mario%20saviofol&f=false">“fold, spindle, or mutilate”</a> them in ways that denied their dignity and capacity for self-determination. </p>
<p>Then came <a href="http://www.afhso.af.mil/topics/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=15267">Operation Rolling Thunder</a> – when the large scale “call-up” of young people to fight the war in Vietnam started. The “draft” meant that every young man had to make a choice – some among the more privileged stayed in school; some went to Canada; some others went to jail. </p>
<p>This was also the time when universities became the focus of the antiwar movement, as that was where the students were. Many viewed universities as being complicit – through war-related research, or the presence of <a href="http://100.lmu.edu/Assets/Centennial/Website/Oral+History/Articles/mcnerney2.pdf">ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps)</a> on campus. So they became a focal point for protest. </p>
<p><strong>From your perspective, how does the current #studentblackout movement look?</strong></p>
<p>There is a <a href="http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/productgroup/390/The-Prophetic-Imagination">deep affinity</a> between generational change and social change. Protestant theologian <a href="http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/productgroup/390/The-Prophetic-Imagination">Walter Bruggemann says</a> that “prophetic” or “transformational vision” may occur when a person’s experience of the world’s hurt (a critical view) interacts with a person’s experience of the world’s promise (a hopeful view). Similarly, young people come of age with a critical eye on the world they find, but also, almost of necessity – with hopeful hearts. </p>
<p>The civil rights movement opened a lot of doors. But it left so much undone. It expanded the opportunities for so-called “qualified” people of color to enter the power structure, but failed to reconfigure the power structure itself. </p>
<p>In particular, the economics of institutionalized racism were not really addressed, nor was urban poverty, segregated housing or poor schooling, with all its consequences. Dr King, when he was killed, was organizing the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91626373">“Poor People’s Campaign.”</a> At the time, racial justice, economic justice and political justice were linked. </p>
<p>Subsequently, they got decoupled. Economics in particular got left behind.</p>
<p>Something similar happened in the American women’s movement that began to open pathways into the power structure but <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/sociology/sociology-general-interest/states-markets-families-gender-liberalism-and-social-policy-australia-canada-great-britain-and-united-states">did little</a> to change the conditions faced by working women – who needed access to childcare and family leave policies. Contrast that to other countries where there was less focus on access for the elite. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students are protesting against racial injustice across campuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/max-goldberg/22657705877/in/photolist-AwbEzk-A">Max Goldberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is a great thing that this generation has been challenged and motivated to take this fight forward.</p>
<p>In the past, the thrust of student movement as such was not as focused on race in particular. This movement is much more focused. It is a bit ironic that while there has been progress on race and gender equality since the 1960s, we have gone backwards on economic equality. </p>
<p><strong>Should the troubled past of racial history be removed from campuses?</strong></p>
<p>When we did the <a href="http://www.educationanddemocracy.org/ED_FSC.html">freedom schools</a> in 1964, we had a book called <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/docs/negro_history_primer.pdf">Freedom Primer</a> – it was a telling of Black history – as nobody knew Black history. What was being taught in the schools was reconstruction and redemption. The narrative was that reconstruction was a disaster – when savages took over. And redemption brought order with the restoration of white rule. Black history had been obliterated.</p>
<p>That racial history is embedded everywhere. The process of reclaiming African-American history was an important part of the claims about dignity. And continues to be. It is all a part of challenging the narratives that try to make you less than a human being – an object.</p>
<p>I like the fact that in Harvard’s <a href="https://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ememhall/">Memorial Hall</a> the only names listed are the names of those Harvard students who fought for the Union. White students from the South protest from time to time but, so far, with little success. </p>
<p>You have to take on what you have access to – and that is what the students are doing. The question is whether that is sufficient. </p>
<p><strong>What about students at Princeton asking to remove the name of Woodrow Wilson?</strong></p>
<p>Woodrow Wilson reinforced racism in the US at a time when leadership was needed in the opposite direction. The Japanese at the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YwHbgnSi_sQC&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=Japan-Race-Equality-Institute-Routledge&source=bl&ots=gv_Ef67pMe&sig=Br3hU6t_8uv9jdC7L1BfQbPrvh8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic3bWc4Z_JAhWCRyYKHQeGCKkQ6AEIODAE#v=onepage&q=Japan-Race-Equality-Institute-Routledge&f=false">League of Nations were arguing for racial equality</a>, which he opposed. </p>
<p>Why should schools carry the name of such an outspoken and influential racist? </p>
<p>It still does not shift the economic reality, the criminal justice reality or the political disenfranchisement reality. It’s only a piece of it. </p>
<p><strong>Is dialogue not better than confrontation?</strong></p>
<p>Dialogue becomes possible only under conditions of equal power. It is hard for unequals to have a dialogue. In a posture of inequality, the one with the power sets the terms. The one without power is expected to accept the terms. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300056693">first step</a> toward creating a dialogue may be to shout and speak the truth. Then comes the strategic question: can we build the power we need to create the conditions in which real dialogue can occur? And that’s when movements have to be resourceful enough to find new sources of power. Substituting dialogue for equality is a sham and winds up being a play-act. Power, as it is, is never ceded willingly.</p>
<p>Missouri offers an <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2587592-tim-wolfe-resigns-as-missouri-president-amid-protests-boycott-by-football-team?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial">interesting example</a>. It started with the football team, which has a lot of economic power – you get to a dialogue stage only when you get to a balance of power. </p>
<p><strong>Is a more corporate structure of universities changing who has the power?</strong></p>
<p>Yes, some things are changing. There is pressure to monetize – especially at some for-profit colleges. But the thing is that some structures have not changed – for the most part, especially in the elite colleges, the people who had power are the ones who still have the power – donors, traditional elites. Look who’s on the board of <a href="http://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvards-leadership/president-and-fellows-harvard-corporation">Harvard corporation.</a> </p>
<p>If anything, there is more leverage today – people are willing to challenge and speak up.</p>
<p>Universities will tend to accommodate to the extent they can without ceding real power. They will agree – “okay, we will change the name of X.” That’s important and significant, but it needs to be joined with greater economic opportunity, not only for African Americans able to get into college in the first place, but black youth more broadly. </p>
<p><strong>What about the role of leadership in present times?</strong></p>
<p>On one hand there is the leadership of the students’ movement, which is vibrant, dynamic, emergent and, like most social movements, <a href="http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/joreen/tyranny.htm">tends to view structure</a> with skepticism. </p>
<p>On the other hand is the university leadership, which is not very well-prepared. Few faculty have much training in leadership, especially the kind of moral leadership grounded in confidence, clarity about one’s own values and empathetic understanding of role of challenge in creating constructive change. That can be tough when you don’t know how to find the courage to respond constructively in the first place.</p>
<p>This movement is quite extraordinary – a new generation accepting responsibility for confronting the deep roots of racial inequality in this country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marshall Ganz 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>A former activist turned professor says previous student movements may have opened the door for people of color to have greater opportunity but fell short of changing the power structure.Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506952015-11-16T11:10:21Z2015-11-16T11:10:21ZWhy have the demands of black students changed so little since the 1960s?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101946/original/image-20151115-10438-ainmxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's new about black students' demands?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/snakegirlproductions/17303015461/in/photolist-sn1tEM-sn3TUZ-9ujE3d-Vtpp-biTh9X-bjrq7a-bjrwqB-8ZsRs9-bjrxVv-EzhDq-dJvabV-biTg22-bjrwye-6t2jz-pdE9qN-wT5iJX-79apGu-nbsZMA-biTijK-xQAihT-6v9hek-nbyyPf-rD3nJX-bjrxba-bjrxs6-7YjEQu-bDRPuS-9chSab-5rdMaE-8xcPmQ-apeSDm-9NJfwE-biTeYn-9NDgMs-8x9MR4-9G5Ks2-8x9Mzi-8xcNUy-biTbdF-biTbZH-8xcNPb-biT966-8xcP5U-9TW2tn-7z2qHX-bjrwUt-bjryvn-bjrxkD-bjsAhz-nbyq5u">Beverly Yuen Thompson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The student protests at the University of Missouri and on other campuses across the country have brought greater attention to the educational plight of black students. </p>
<p>The protests have exposed how experiences of black students in predominantly white campus environments are cloaked in isolation, invisibility and downright disregard for their rights.</p>
<p>Sadly, campus racism is not new, and neither are the demands of black student activists.</p>
<p>In my role as an associate professor of higher education and student affairs at Indiana University’s School of Education, I study black student experiences in college. </p>
<p>My book, <a href="https://sty.presswarehouse.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=148350">Culture Centers in Higher Education</a>, was the first to focus on the establishment of campus culture centers. These centers emerged as a result of the demands from activists during the student movements of the late 1960s to provide safe and welcoming spaces for students of color on campuses.</p>
<p>Over the past week, I have thought about the present context of black student protests in relation to the protests of their 1960s counterparts. And one thing is clear: the current student demands closely resemble those made by students in the 1960s. </p>
<h2>Pattern of demands</h2>
<p>Let’s look at students’ demands in the ‘60’s and '70’s to understand their similarity to today’s demands. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What did student demands look like in the 60s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/38971527@N04/5924946220/in/photolist-a2yU6b-a2yVeG-dS9vhT-fuPHRP-39mwr9-oT5RSF-dUMvPv-iyvDJK-o3uB2A-a2yViS-5g7api-jmjHm2-5THR7Q-o5eHsK-o5qKZY-a2w2F8-iyvq4w-o7j9Pt-o5x1BK-o5qDRf-dUMvtH-dUMvjX-dUMwDc-dUMvxc-dUMvoT-dUT6R5-dUTbh5-dUMw7i-dUMvAZ-o5eJKz-o5qu5y-o5qsqw-nN3zjA-7xJi3Y-fv4tSy-nN3vPE-jmmW3Q-jmmjUx-jmjEnB-dS9BDB-fv4tVL-dS9BEz-fuPbsM-vQenu3-fv4sXq-hU3wYU-dS9BEP-dSfnhS-5T2gq5-2vA6rS">Village Square</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Student demands typically included an increase in the number of faculty, greater recruitment and scholarships for black students, more courses on black history and black experiences in the curriculum, and setting up of a center to serve as a place of refuge from an otherwise racially hostile campus environment. </p>
<p>These early <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_college_student_development/v047/47.6patton.html">demand letters</a> dating back to the late '60’s often followed a similar structure, which included a preamble stating the overarching issue, followed by a list of demands. </p>
<p>For example, a November 1968 letter of <a href="http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/reedhisttxt&CISOPTR=17282&REC=9%22%22">student demands at Reed College</a> in Oregon started with the following preamble:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Reed is actively recruiting black students. They bring us here, force us to study the culture of our oppressors (Europe and America), and then neglect our own contributions to civilization. Black people are different. We come from a culture (history and language) and must face a different environment than white people after graduation. Reed does not answer this need.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They go on in this letter to ask for a black studies program. The Black Student Union asked to select the faculty who would teach in the program and wanted control over the curriculum until black faculty were hired to lead it. </p>
<p>Similar demand letters were drafted at other universities. </p>
<p>In May of 1968, the <a href="http://www.northeastern.edu/aai/about/history/">the Afro-American Association at Northeastern University</a>, based in Boston, demanded 50 scholarships for black students as well as curriculum changes to include an Afro-American literature course, an African language course and other cultural courses. They later expanded this initial set of demands to include a black studies program and the establishment of an African-American institute. </p>
<p>Two years later – on October 3 1970 – students at the University of Florida raised similar issues.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This university operates in such a manner as to unjustly exclude black students and professors, and to underemploy black personnel – and damn little is being done to correct the situation. On the contrary, many influential persons are operating under the illusion that progress has been made. To do so is to compare the present to the past without realizing that neither extends a modicum of justice to more than a handful of blacks. There have been many meetings and few results.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They continued with such demands as the recruitment and admission of more black students, establishment of a department of minority affairs and hiring more black faculty.</p>
<h2>Student demands in the present</h2>
<p>Fast-forward nearly 50 years and the demands from black student activists at the <a href="http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/mizzou-football/heres-list-demands-mizzous-protesting-athletes-students/">University of Missouri</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/13/minority-students-at-yale-give-list-of-demands-to-university-president/">Yale University</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/invisiblehawks">University of Kansas</a>, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KM__SDc4-QaQKXyl_DYUlDKRjN0DgLN0xVln986LunI/mobilebasic?pli=1">Emory University</a>, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/UC-Berkeley-black-students-demand-fixes-to-6139786.php">UC Berkeley</a> and other schools across the country look eerily similar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Today’s students are asking for many of the same things as the students in the ‘60’s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/codnewsroom/16467302850/in/photolist-r6aeqE-r69jxd-rnHEPa-ehCYFS-biT9tX-9NvF6h-iMeym-8j956y-8yQtot-biTaTz-j4f2XU-biTgPD-EzhCt-d4KaS5-bjrwNn-8x8whf-biThcF-zpW98K-arAn5P-8LodQi-AnSRD-9RzVV-8xdfcw-qqWBDz-9vkBZv-ehCYAj-ehCYzo-ehCYuo-ehxda4-ehCYyG-ehCYBL-ehxd6r-ehCYmh-ehxd5D-ehxdkX-88UpRE-ehCYDd-ehCYwf-7BTSgR-pw1ZMK-biTdGx-bjrxfH-hwerUr-ehCYEU-ehxdeg-ehxdbM-ehCYzm-ehCYD5-ehxd8e-ehxdg2">COD Newsroom</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.greensboro.com/news/schools/black-guilford-college-students-demand-better-treatment/article_6f7e3b73-c16f-5580-af3c-9fe8d63d55f9.html">Students</a> <a href="http://claremontindependent.com/cmc-students-feel-marginalized-demand-resources-and-resignations/">still want</a> a <a href="http://wtvr.com/2015/11/12/vcu-activists-march-into-presidents-building-demand-changes/">more inclusive</a> curriculum that reflects their experiences, an increase in black faculty, efforts to recruit and retain black students and establishment of a safe space on campus, such as a black culture center.</p>
<p>University administrators in the 1960s may have been unprepared for the influx of black students to their campuses, but it appears that even 50 years later, they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/13/purdue-pres-mitch-daniels-calls-school-proud-contrast-to-missouri-and-yale-despite-own-history-of-unrest/">remain</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/living/university-louisville-racist-staff-party-feat/">underprepared</a> and uninformed. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, students wanted more black people in faculty and leadership roles. Today, black faculty and administrators do exist but make up only a minuscule fraction of the entire faculty nationwide. </p>
<p>So, for instance, in 2013 only 6% of faculty were black, and in 2011 only 6% of college presidents were black. The fact is that an overwhelming <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Racial-Disparities-in-Higher/234129/">majority</a> of faculty and institutional leaders are white (80% and 90%, respectively). </p>
<p>Following their demands, many black students in the 1960s got <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.02/abc.160/abstract">culture centers</a>. However, <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/1952/">these</a> culture centers are <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/university_of_akron_layoffs_include_all_employees_in_multicultural_center_and_ua_press.html">typically deprioritized</a> and viewed as promoting separatism. </p>
<p>These days, institutions are <a href="http://cnycentral.com/news/local/ithaca-college-appoints-diversity-officer">appointing</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mizzou-diversity-officer_56422821e4b0411d3072a9e9">senior diversity officers</a> who serve as top campus administrators. Their <a href="http://www.lex18.com/story/7912120/college-appoints-its-first-chief-diversity-officer">role</a> is to conduct strategic planning and implementation of the large-scale diversity initiatives on campus. </p>
<p>Often, their division or department encompasses the work of culture centers. As a result, these senior-level administrators and their culture center counterparts are expected to “do diversity” while other campus entities are relinquished from the same responsibilities. </p>
<p>In addition, the strategic plans designed to foster diversity can often contribute to the negative racial climate on campus by relying on language that positions people of <a href="http://eaq.sagepub.com/content/43/5/586.short">color as outsiders</a>. </p>
<p>Ultimately, students of color feel excluded despite efforts to promote inclusivity. </p>
<p>Institutional responses to student protests of the past, in other words, have not resulted in steady progression. At best, it is a case of three steps forward and <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_higher_education/v080/80.4.harper.pdf">two steps backward</a>.</p>
<h2>Dealing with racial realities</h2>
<p>The point is that post-secondary institutions are simply unwilling, it seems, to engage in substantive change for racial progress. </p>
<p>The fact that demands of black student activists, both past and present, remain similar illustrates this reluctance. Black students <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/11/12/missouri-protests-embolden-student-leaders-on-other-campuses">continue</a> to be disenfranchised, which creates the ideal ground for <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/education/7/71/496143/racism-lingering-problem-among-collegiate-millennials">more protests</a> to emerge. </p>
<p>Perhaps black student activists should be demanding something different. I am concerned that when institutions (attempt to) meet the commonly documented demands, it could make black students feel (even if momentarily) a false sense of vindication. </p>
<p>The reality is that little systemic change will take place as long as institutional leaders, faculty, curriculum and culture remain predominantly white. </p>
<p>Racism <a href="http://uex.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/01/0042085915602542.refs">flows throughout</a> post-secondary institutions in ordinary, predictable and taken-for-granted ways. For every effort made to meet student demands, several more incidents will create a negative campus racial climate. </p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean that the protests should stop.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lori Patton Davis 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>Here’s what black student activists were asking for 50 years ago. So, what changed?Lori Patton Davis, Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/388182015-03-26T10:29:30Z2015-03-26T10:29:30ZShades of segregated past in today’s campus troubles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75702/original/image-20150323-17709-iqq6uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many of today's campus troubles have their roots in a racial past of American universities </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml">Book image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Demands to rename <a href="http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/pickens-county/tillman-hall.html">Tillman Hall at Clemson University</a>, the circulation of a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/08/frat-racist-sae-oklahoma_n_6828212.html">video</a> showing a racist chant at the University of Oklahoma and the discovery of a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/03/21/3637251/fraternity-suspended-notebook-detailing-rape-lynching/">fraternity pledge book</a> discussing lynching at North Carolina State University demonstrate how persistent racial issues are on college campuses. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tillman-Reconstruction-Supremacy-Morrison-Southern/dp/0807825301/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1427037879">Benjamin Tillman</a> was a post-Civil War politician, racial demagogue and participant in racial violence, who was critical to Clemson University’s founding in the late-nineteenth century. </p>
<p>Tillman was not the only one. The University of North Carolina trustees are considering a request this week to <a href="http://abc11.com/education/students-demanding-rename-of-unc-building-named-for-kkk-leader/501011/">rename Saunders Hall</a>. The building was named in 1922 for William Saunders, a leader of the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan. </p>
<p>Buildings named after participants in racial violence and songs celebrating the segregation as well as the lynching of black people are not merely offensive. They recall the violence used to maintain all-white institutions for much of this country’s history.</p>
<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>
<p>As a co-founder and director of the <a href="http://shared.web.emory.edu/emory/news/releases/2010/02/transforming-community-project-creates-agents-of-change.html#.VQOV4kivLvk">Transforming Community Project</a>, I used the history of race at Emory University to help members of the university community understand the meaning of equity for the institution today. </p>
<p>In 2011, I co-organized, “Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies,” the first <a href="http://shared.web.emory.edu/emory/news/releases/2011/01/slavery-and-the-university-focus-of-emory-conference.html#.VQOViEivLvk">conference</a> on the history of slavery and racial discrimination at institutions of higher education. Scholars and administrators from across the United States shared the troubled past of slavery and segregation of a majority of colleges and universities. </p>
<h2>American universities were connected to slave trade</h2>
<p>Today many see the goals of higher education institutions as providing access to all seeking upward economic, political and social mobility, regardless of race, class, gender and religion. But it was not always so. </p>
<p>Colleges and universities built curricula and performed research that supported the enslavement of Africans.
Money from <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/09/17/223420533/how-slavery-shaped-americas-oldest-and-most-elite-colleges">the African slave trade and slavery</a> financed institutions of higher education.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many American colleges used or owned slave labor in the past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml">Hand image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many college campuses used or owned enslaved blacks, who erected and maintained the buildings and grounds, and served the faculty, students and administrators. At many schools, students, faculty and administrators brought their slaves with them to campus. </p>
<p>One might imagine that this was true only in the South. But the most prestigious educational institutions in the North – <a href="http://www.harvardandslavery.com/">Harvard</a>, <a href="http://registrar.princeton.edu/course-offerings/course_details.xml?courseid=012214&term=1142">Princeton</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/opinion/23mon3.html?_r=0">Brown</a>, and others – were intimately connected to the slave trade and slavery.</p>
<p>Most students, who came to these schools from all over the United States, were supporters of slavery, and some were wealthy slave owners themselves.</p>
<h2>Scholars believed in racial inferiority</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ebony-Ivy-Troubled-Americas-Universities/dp/1608194027/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427307593&sr=1-1&keywords=craig+wilder">University scholars</a> of the time argued that the racial inferiority of people of African descent justified their enslavement; and that enslavement would bring blacks closer to Christian salvation. </p>
<p>Faculty and students also argued for the centrality of slavery to the nation’s economic success. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ebony-Ivy-Troubled-Americas-Universities/dp/1596916818/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1427308580">Coursework</a> in history, religion and other subjects supported the moral and political correctness of slavery. </p>
<p>The influence of college graduates reached beyond North America into slave-holding societies in the Caribbean and South America. Graduates took up positions among the slave-holding elite as plantation owners and politicians. Others became ministers or educators who upheld slavery through preaching and teaching. </p>
<p>Those who spoke against slavery on college campuses were few, and faculty spoke out against slavery at the threat of losing their jobs. In the United States before the Civil War, only anti-slavery colleges such as <a href="http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Oberlin_College">Oberlin College in Ohio</a> were consistent in their opposition to slavery and racism. </p>
<p>Following the Civil War, historically white colleges North and South diverged only slightly in their willingness to admit non-white students. These schools also limited or prevented the enrollment of other groups, such as non-Protestant Christians or Jews. </p>
<h2>Quota systems were used by universities in the north</h2>
<p>In the south, legal segregation prevented black students from attending colleges and universities. In northern schools, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Student-Diversity-Big-Three-Princeton/dp/1412814618/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_6">quota systems</a> limited the number of blacks who could attend.</p>
<p>In both North and South, schools limited the enrollment of non-Protestant Christians, such as Catholics; and Jews, among other groups. These practices reinforced racial and religious hierarchies until the late-twentieth century. </p>
<p>The threat or use of violence was central to maintaining racial and religious segregation in all parts of society. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ku Klux Klan members were also active on American college campuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml">Ku Klux Klan image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1924, Ku Klux Klan members (including the city’s mayor and police chief) <a href="http://catholicgators.org/our-founder">kidnapped and castrated a Catholic priest</a> serving the small group of Catholic students there. They believed that the priest was converting Protestant students to Catholicism. </p>
<p>When Tillman supported the founding of Clemson University in 1889, he had already established himself as in favor of upholding racial segregation by violence. There was no question that the university would be for whites only.</p>
<h2>Court cases and funding threats forced desegregation</h2>
<p>State schools established for whites maintained racially exclusionary practices towards blacks until forced to integrate by Supreme Court rulings <a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1949/1949_44">Sweatt v. Painter</a> in 1950 and <a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1952/1952_1/">Brown v. Board of Education</a> in 1954.</p>
<p>Pressure from national professional organizations who threatened to withhold accreditation, as well as from the federal government and foundations who threatened to withhold grant funding from segregated institutions, forced most <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Desegregating-Private-Higher-Education-South/dp/0807154474/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=">private institutions to desegregate in the early 1960s. </a></p>
<p>However, it was not until the 1970s that segregation for non-whites and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Student-Diversity-Big-Three-Princeton/dp/1412814618/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_6">quotas</a> for non-Christian students in universities were completely abolished. </p>
<p>Southern institutions fought desegregation through a series of law suits. And the first African Americans students to attend these schools suffered acute harassment. </p>
<p>At <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2240973">the University of Texas</a> for instance, in 1950, the Supreme Court ruling in Sweatt v. Painter forced the law school to admit <a href="http://ddce.utexas.edu/sweattsymposium/2013/03/15/legacy-of-heman-sweatt/">Heman Sweatt</a>, its first black student. </p>
<p>During Sweatt’s first semester on campus, someone burned a cross at the law school and inscribed KKK (Ku Klux Klan) on the steps of the law building. Most faculty members and students at the law school did not support Sweatt. He ended up leaving after two years without a law degree. </p>
<p>In 1954, as part of its continuing resistance to desegregation, the University of Texas named a new dorm for <a href="http://deadconfederates.com/2010/07/12/william-stewart-simkins-the-klan-and-the-law-school/">William Stewart Simkins</a>, one of the law school’s first professors. </p>
<p>Simkins, a native of the same South Carolina county as Benjamin Tillman, was also a founder of the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/terror/k.html">Florida Ku Klux Klan</a>. Both Simkins and Tillman boasted of using violence to enforce racial segregation. </p>
<p>Honoring Simkins in 1954 symbolically reinforced the school’s commitment to segregation. Similar actions occurred throughout the south and included the reclamation of the Confederate flag by southerners and lynching of civil rights activists as part of a “<a href="http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=25349">massive resistance</a>” to desegregation. </p>
<h2>Significant progress on campuses</h2>
<p>The events occurring on campuses today echo these troubled times, and reveal the continuing unease that some have with diverse campuses. But significant progress has been made in the 65 years since Heman Sweatt attempted his law degree at University of Texas. </p>
<p>The vast majority of higher education institutions recognize that serving a diverse campus community is of intrinsic value to the educational enterprise and to the nation at large. </p>
<p>As a result, many schools are struggling to align their campuses with these changes by renaming buildings and limiting racist behavior. </p>
<p>In 2010, the University of Texas <a href="https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsi12">renamed</a> Simkins Hall to Creekside. At the University of Oklahoma, following the circulation of a video in which members of the local chapter of <a href="http://www.sae.net/page.aspx?pid=756">Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE)</a>, the only national fraternity founded in the South, sing of excluding from their fraternity, and hanging, “niggers,” the national fraternity leadership <a href="http://www.sae.net/home/pages/news/news---media-statements---fraternity-leadership-closes-chapter-at-university-of-oklahoma">closed the chapter</a>. </p>
<p>The Pi Kappa Phi chapter at North Carolina State has been suspended as university and national fraternity officials investigate <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pi-kappa-phi-nc-state-notebook">the pledge book</a> that contains references to lynching and rape.</p>
<p>The landscape of US higher education today would be completely unrecognizable to Benjamin Tillman and William Stewart Simkins. </p>
<p>This is a profound achievement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leslie M. Harris received funding from the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Initiative, 2007-2011. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center.</span></em></p>At the root of today’s racial troubles on campuses is the past, when most American universities were intimately connected to slave trade and slavery. Harvard, Princeton, Brown were no exception.Leslie M Harris, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, Emory UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/320902014-11-13T03:13:36Z2014-11-13T03:13:36ZDon’t be a bystander – help eradicate racism from campus<p>In recent weeks we have been reminded that our university campuses, like everywhere else, are not racism-free spaces. The controversy surrounding <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/24/barry-spurr-v-new-matilda-the-facts-the-law-and-the-porridge">poetry professor Barry Spurr</a> serves to remind us that universities cannot be complacent when it comes to racism, and that building inclusive, diverse campuses should be an active and ongoing process. </p>
<p>Academics have written an <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/academics-urge-universities-to-act-on-race-and-gender-discrimination-20141031-11f1px.html">open letter to vice-chancellors</a> asking that complaints of racist harassment, bullying and vilification be taken seriously, to avoid more victims and more silence. </p>
<p>University campuses are not safe from the Islamaphobia that is swirling in the world around us. Muslim students have reported vilification and other forms of racist incivility, particularly while in transit to campus. Fortunately, there are <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2782274/Student-secretly-films-reactions-racist-rants-against-Muslims-Sydney.html">citizens who speak out and challenge the proponents of racism</a> when they attempt to injure and exclude through their aggressive rants.</p>
<h2>Teach bystanders to be active</h2>
<p>While there are many ways to tackle racism, <a href="http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/ResourceCentre/PublicationsandResources/Discrimination/Bystander%20Discrim%20FULL%20REPORT.ashx">international research</a> says that tackling bystander inaction is one of the most effective ways to combat racism in an institution like a university.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/1503629/Bystander_Anti-Racism_A_Review_of_the_Literature_draft_only_">Bystander anti-racism</a> is action by “ordinary” people in response to interpersonal or systemic racism that they witness. <a href="http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/bystander-discrimination">Research has found</a> that while many people are uncomfortable when they see racism, for a variety of reasons (fear of becoming a target, and lack of knowledge of what can be done) they do not always respond.</p>
<p>There are many <a href="http://www.uws.edu.au/ssap/ssap/research/challenging_racism/initiatives">forms of anti-racism</a>. This bystander training complements some of the more familiar community relations initiatives that most universities run, such as <a href="http://www.omi.wa.gov.au/omi_harmony_week.cfm">diversity celebrations</a> and <a href="http://www.uws.edu.au/newscentre/news_centre/more_news_stories/uws_celebrates_ramadan_iftar">culturally specific events</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/bystander-discrimination">Research</a> has shown it is possible to build a culture of active bystanders within organisations, specifically large workplaces and academic settings. However, researchers have found very few examples of bystander programs that have been undertaken in Australia. The work on bystander anti-racism by the <a href="http://www.uws.edu.au/ssap/ssap/research/challenging_racism">Challenging Racism Project</a>, led from UWS, emphasises the need to develop evidenced based bystander anti-racism programs in Australia.</p>
<p>Bystander anti-racism programs have to build people’s knowledge and skills, address the social conditions that can lead to race-based discrimination and intolerance, and establish a climate where there is strong visible support for constructive bystander action.</p>
<h2>Doing something about racism</h2>
<p>The University of Western Sydney is one of the most culturally diverse university campuses in Australia. Its student body is made up of students from more than 100 different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. As a result, UWS has undertaken an anti-racism project called Do Something About Racism.</p>
<p>The project comprises three elements that aim to address racism on campus. The first consists of a series of bystander anti-racism workshops for staff and students, that explore racial identity and racism in Australia; look at who is responsible for challenging racism; and provide learners with opportunities to role-play being an active anti-racism bystander in the face of an incident involving racism. So far, eight workshops have been conducted with professional staff, academic staff and students.</p>
<p>The second element is a <a href="http://www.uws.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/748725/DoSomethingAboutRacism_4Postcards.pdf">communications campaign</a> using artwork developed by fourth-year UWS design students, which aims to send a strong message to the entire UWS community that we all need to do something about racism.</p>
<p>The final element of the project provides an opportunity for cross-cultural contact between the UWS community and three of the largest culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Western Sydney, namely Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian, over dinner. The dinners were developed in consultation with the communities and create a space where people of diverse cultural backgrounds can work together to host and enjoy the events. </p>
<p>UWS is using this project as an opportunity to obtain research data on the effectiveness of bystander anti-racism interventions. Once we have analysed the data to look at how effective the program has been, research findings will assist UWS and other universities to develop effective strategies to combat racism and other forms of discrimination. </p>
<p>All university staff and students should speak up and speak out when they witness racism. Taking action does work. People just need to know what sorts of action they can take, and how to do so safely and with effect.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Dunn receives funding from the Australian Research Council, University of Western Sydney, Australian Human Rights Commission, VicHealth and NSW Police Force.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Nelson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tatiana Lozano 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>In recent weeks we have been reminded that our university campuses, like everywhere else, are not racism-free spaces. The controversy surrounding poetry professor Barry Spurr serves to remind us that universities…Kevin Dunn, Dean of the School of Social Science and Psychology, Western Sydney UniversityJacqueline Nelson, Senior Research Officer, Western Sydney UniversityTatiana Lozano, Equity and Dievrsity Education Manager, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.