EDITORS' CORNER
OPINION: But ‘anti-blackness’ is inherent to higher education, authors say
Black students do not feel welcome at “Hispanic-serving institutions,” according to a new study.
However, higher education in general has a racist history, according to the University of New Mexico scholars who wrote the study.
“Conceptualizing Anti-Blackness at a Hispanic-Serving Institution,” includes interviews with black students who attend one of these colleges.
“To qualify as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), an institution must be an accredited degree-granting college or university with enrollment of at least 25% full-time equivalent undergraduates who self-identify as Hispanic,” the study explains.
The authors include Brandi Wells-Stone, who directs “African-American Student Services” at the University of New Mexico. Her employer is a Hispanic-serving institution.
They argue that while racism existed from the beginning of higher education in America, it still exists today. “Unfortunately, anti-Blackness has continued to permeate[colleges] into the 21st century. Today, anti-Blackness in U.S. [colleges studies includes the institutionalization of Black suffering.”
As would be expected, the paper is hodgepodge of critical race theory-laden language: black student suffering, the reader is told, includes “racial microaggressions, tokenization, psychological torments leading to imposter feelings, unequal labor distributions, [and] curriculums that lacks Black contributions.”
The suffering also includes “defunding of Black student success work, and the framing of racialized acts towards Black people as unrelated or separate from the legacy of the university system by placing the primary focus on the individual(s) involved.”
“Anti-Blackness includes the culmination of interpersonal racialized moments within a broader systemic devaluation of the Black body rooted in chattel slavery, colonization, and systems upholding white supremacy,” the authors also write.
The actual survey involved just one unidentified university in the Southwest (there are 615 Hispanic-serving institutions in the U.S.).
The responses are what is to be expected from a small survey group focused on asking people to share their grievances.
“As a biracial, LGBTQ+ PhD student, I faced unique stressors, microaggressions, and repeated invalidations,” one person wrote, taking intersectionality to the max. “Peers often insulted me, whether they realized it or not, and overreacted to my opinions, despite being asked to share them. […] Since finishing my coursework, I’ve seen these incidents decrease, but the damage done during those early years has been lasting.”
Probably uncomfortably for the researchers, another student shared that he felt the leadership of black groups was too gay.
“Not enough heterosexual visible Black male leadership outside of Frats,” one student wrote.
Another student said she was the victim because she was often the only black woman in some of her classes.
This one is a good example of the fakeness of racism surveys. It’s not clear what specifically the university is supposed to do about this.
First, the comment suggests there were black males in the class. Second, it’s a Hispanic-serving institution, so off the bat at least 25 percent of the class would be expected to be non-black. Finally, should the university force more black students to take classes with other black students? Separate but equal?
Another response, possibly from a different student, said she felt out of place as “a Black woman in STEM.” So let’s say she responded to one of the many efforts to increase minority representation in STEM. Now her school is being faulted for accepting her into a program or recruiting her into it.
There can be some situations a university must respond to – racial harassment of students, pervasive and clear bullying (not “microaggressions), or professors legitimately treating minorities differently.
That differs from many of these examples, which can be attributed to hypersensitivity, barring any further information.
Unfortunately this research is now part of the body of “evidence” that can be cited in support of DEI and affirmative action – which should call into question any time someone says there is a scientific basis for these practices.
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