This week, I read a piece on Critical Race Theory as it relates to higher education. The piece, by Parker, argued that racist institutions, faculty, administrators, and alumni all have an influence on university policies, which are in turn also implicitly racist. Parker also elaborated on the contradiction of education that Kennedy-Lewis discussed previously. Universities implement covertly racist policies under the guise of social justice and equity, often invoking a discourse of equity in their admission of guilt to avoid further blame and the implementation of real policies or initiatives to reduce racism. I think we’ve very clearly seen an example of this at Bowdoin with the recent numerous bias incidents. President Rose’s email assumed institutional guilt for the offenses, however nothing concrete was proposed. No one knows the Dean of Diversity and Inclusion or what they do. They are probably going to make a ‘working group’ who meets to talk and never do anything. Parker states that the benefit of critical race theory is that it understands that racism is a fact of everyday life, even (especially) within institutions such as higher education, and that despite claims of equality, neoliberalism inherently prohibits equity.
I also began editing my video by identifying themes that are consistent between my interviews and my scholarly articles:
- Climate of fear
- there are divides at an individual level distrust and hostility – culture of distrust between black and white students – culture of fear
- Chem free, cant mess up
- Reporting not accessible, distrust in the system
- Black children were perceived as being more disruptive and violent
- Showing defensiveness = punishment
- Students who are submissive get more lenient sentences
- Power of the deans, prejudiced deans
- Their judgement is seen as comprehensive and accurate
- Bias most likely in the dean’s office, prejudice
- Students seen as pathological (discourse of security)
- Rely on precedent, not context
- A semester off isn’t going to fix your issues, most likely
- Good citizens , good consumers
- Brown and economization
- Readmission policies used to discriminate, maybe still do
- People don’t know about the resources and their options
- Discourse of equity, the school has a responsibility to be equal
- Contradictions of neoliberalism
Parker, Laurence. 2003. “Critical Race Theory and Its Implications for Methodology and Policy
Analysis in Higher Education Desegregation.” Counterpoints 195: 145-180.
Parker discusses how Critical Race Theory may provide new insights into the desegregation of education and law. Parker’s intended audience is academic, and their research is credible and well-supported. This piece expands upon prior research on bias in higher education, but it goes further to include an in-depth theoretical perspective that frames the research.