Belonging for ‘Outsiders Within’, A Critical Race Perspective on Whiteness as a Means of Promoting the ‘Insider Without’ Syndrome

Abstract

A university education and subsequent qualification may enable graduates to achieve symbolic capital – interspersed with social and cultural capital. It is shown that some graduates have the potential to achieve social mobility and increased employment prospects. It is also shown that year on year, students of color are entering the UK higher education (HE) en masse – at a higher rate than any other group. Why is it then that universities are becoming hostile spaces for people of color? How does this compromise their sense of belonging? What are some of the issues that people of color face in achieving a sense of belonging in the academe? How can this be overcome? This article offers answers to these questions and argues that rather than an isolated incident, the prologue is best understood as an example of the predictable iterations of microaggression, inequality and normative Whiteness that undergirds the UK HE. First, this article will draw on critical race theory (CRT) as a theoretical and methodological framework to analyze how racial conditions promote social inequalities that are reinforced through institutions and institutional structures of HE at the expense of students and staff of color. Second, institutional Whiteness and the dichotomy of liberalism will be discussed in order to unveil the “post-racial” hegemony that it ratifies. Professor Patricia Hill Collins’ concept of the “outsider within” will provide a further analysis of the web of Whiteness and highlight how what I call the “insider without” syndrome is developed – a state of double consciousness that results from battle fatigue caused by perpetual microaggressions. This will be unpacked, drawing on the allegory provided in the prologue. Finally, I will conclude with thoughts on how educational spaces can be transformed by using the experiences of the “insiders without” to effect transformational change.