Racial Justice Resources: Colleges & Academia

Beth provides tips and resources for faculty to talk about racism in the classroom.

"We know firsthand what it means to be part of a white academic institution — we write as scholars of color who have committed a lifetime to anti-racism and cross-racial alliances. The two of us bonded and built a friendship over our shared experiences with racial hostility in the workplace. In this article, we want to share our personal stories and some of the relevant research to identify some of the common themes that underpin what silencing and sidelining looks like, especially from white progressive colleagues."

"It hurts students when their teachers only acknowledge what black people have done for this country and not what this country has done to them."

"David Harris gives his perspective as a college president and a black man on the events of recent weeks in Minnesota, Central Park and elsewhere."

Dena Simmons knows that for students of color, success in school sometimes comes at the cost of living authentically. Now an educator herself, Simmons discusses how we might create a classroom that makes all students feel proud of who they are. "Every child deserves an education that guarantees the safety to learn in the comfort of one's own skin," she says.

The article challenges academic outcomes and indicators for institutional success that do not factor in student-level demographics (including, race, socio-economic status, mother's education level, access to quality K-12 schooling, and racism, etc.) and socio-historical context.

Ciarra Jones goes over why we should rethink the texts and structures we use in higher education.

Conversation about what faculty should do to practice teaching strategies that are not grounded in the often hidden white-student-focused values

A satirical letter to a college campus about race.

"This is a paradigm shift: Instead of only asking black students who are not doing well in class to start identifying with school, we also ask teachers whose black students are not doing well in their classes to start identifying with those students."

"For this article, we interviewed eight educators of color across the country to hear about their work with white colleagues. We found disheartening trends. Educators of color report that they’re expected to take on a disproportionate share of work supporting students and teaching about race and racism. This work, they say, is often made more difficult by the indifference—and sometimes resistance—of white colleagues."

The purpose of this open-access course from Yale University is to examine the African American experience in the United States from 1863 to the present. Prominent themes include the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction; African Americans’ urbanization experiences; the development of the modern civil rights movement and its aftermath; and the thought and leadership of Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X.

"I argue that analyses of racial(ised) discourse and policy processes in education must grapple with cultural disregard for and disgust with blackness. This article explains how a theorization of antiblackness allows one to more precisely identify and respond to racism in education discourse and in the formation and implementation of education policy. I contend that deeply embedded within racialized policy discourses is not merely a concern about disproportionality or inequality, but also a concern with the bodies of Black people, the signification of (their) Blackness, and the threat posed by the Black to the educational well-being of other students. Using school (de)segregation as an example, I demonstrate how policy discourse is informed by antiblackness, and consider what an awareness of antiblackness means for educational policy and practice."
Request a copy through interlibrary loan.

"In this paper, we employ Critical Race Theory theoretically and methodologically to examine the racialized experiences of students of color in higher education and student affairs (HESA) graduate preparation programs. We employ counter-storytelling as a method for constructing narratives that disrupt the master narrative found within HESA graduate preparation programs, which often boast an espoused commitment to diversity and social justice."

"Despite inclusion rhetoric in student affairs, anti-Blackness shapes the experiences of Black graduate and full-time professionals, who are both hypervisible and invisible in student affairs. Using four scenarios reflecting composite narratives, the author discusses how inclusion hides the pervasiveness of anti-Blackness in student affairs practice. Offering a new framework, the author discusses four ideologies of absence: (un)belonging, (un)safety, (in)validation, and (un)reward. These ideologies of absence are contrasted with four ideologies of Black presence."

"Using a critical race theory lens, we examined the racialized experiences of 29 Students of Color in HESA programs across the United States. Students' experiences illuminate 4 themes: educating white peers, invalidation of experiences and identity, racial stereotypes, and isolation. Participants' experiences illustrate a disconnect between HESA programs' espoused commitment to social justice and inclusion and the enactment of this commitment. Implications and recommendations for HESA program administrators, faculty, and assistantship supervisors are provided."

"The goal of this study was to examine the ways that White students enrolled in a student affairs master’s program in a predominantly White institution engaged with race and racism and to locate their experiences within the context of the U.S. educational system."

"HBCU PA’LANTE connects diverse students of the African Diaspora to Historically Black College & University communities."