Race and Racism in Higher Education

Abstract

Much has been talked about and written about race and racism in higher education over decades and centuries of the institution’s North American tradition. More importantly, real people have experienced the effects of racism from racialized policy, procedure, and prejudice. This issue of About Campus brings into focus some of those experiences, how they are built from structural qualities in our higher education system, and ways that anti-racist college educators might confront, mitigate, or dismantle them. Racial dynamics in higher education have shifted dramatically just in the time since the University of Denver began hosting About Campus. As an organization, ACPA: College Student Educators International, has adopted anti-racist philosophies and tenets as organizing principles. College campuses see an outgrowth of racial awareness nationwide. Incidents of racial bias are reported in greater numbers and taken more seriously, at least by readership of trade magazines, journals, and newspapers. Studying race and racism in higher education is no longer seen as exceptional, but rather as necessary. Perhaps this is what progress looks like in this moment. However, it is imperative to recognize, honor, and repair the painful fact that many people, families, communities, and institutions have known the real effects of structural racism and racial bias for centuries. Race and racism were not hiding secretly in the corners of our campuses. Their deleterious and disgusting dangers were in plain view, often displayed proudly by the systems of domination and supremacy that are built into our modernist institutions of higher learning. That is to say, Black and Brown academics, students, administrators, custodians, records analysts, alumni, families, food service workers—members of the campus community and the publics that have been excluded from campus—have known the racist foundations of our institutions forever. And no one was keeping it a secret. The resources to learn about, witness, and take action against these racist foundations have been around us all along. In this issue, authors revisit anew many of the components of higher education’s racist infrastructure. They also excavate higher education’s potential to dismantle racism. Activating campus potential to engender equity, confront inequality, and advance justice becomes paramount for higher education to serve democracy. An anti-racist imperative to higher education cuts across disciplines, positionings, ranks, and constituencies. Yet we must recognize that we each are positioned with differential relationships to racism, differential opportunity to take action, and differential risks. It is incumbent on those of us with more advantage to secure the capacity for others’ to more safely engage in anti-racist work, and recognize it as the productivity needed by the institution. And we must join in that work with humility, recognizing we all can contribute.We all can learn.We all will bemade better through the anti-racist work we do together. I’m proud this issue has come about at this time in the University’s tenure as steward for About Campus. I expect our readership will appreciate the tensions brought forth, as we hope to do with each issue, provoking more questions than answers, while offering concrete practical steps to keep things moving as we keep learning from one another.