EMPLOYING WHITENESS AS PROPERTY: LEADERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE SIGNALING DIVERSITY WHEN YOU ARE WHITE

Abstract

"Academic leaders in the United States are tasked with establishing university strategic plans that facilitate a holistic educational experience in order to meet the needs of our diverse student populations. A holistic education includes the academic, social, emotional, and spiritual (meaning of life, finding purpose) necessities of our students. To this end, let us consider the leaders accountable for upholding this ethical imperative. This autoethnography examines the concept of Whiteness as Property (WaP) (Harris, 1993) to identify how the distribution of power amongst educational leaders maintains whites in a space of racialized privilege while using people of color to signal their commitment to establishing a diverse university culture. Using the WaP lens, allows for the analyses of the practices, behaviors, and other social performances administrators engage in to construct their leadership identities in relation to the current sociopolitical milieu concerning inclusion and diversity. Autoethnography illuminates these leadership practices in unique ways—the narratives are from the perspective of the non-traditional leader. We serve to collectively lead our universities in the right direction to meet our strategic goals and provide equable education for all students. As a working-class Latina occupying educational leadership roles, autoethnography permits the theorization of my liminal perspective to underscore the interconnected role of universities as apparatuses assisting in capital accumulation, legitimation, and production. The narratives provide an analytical and profoundly humanistic understanding of the experiences that shape our conscious behaviors, actions, and thoughts in our workplace."