‘Built on my B(l)ack’: racial capitalism and anti-Blackness in predominantly white institutions of higher education

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents a qualitative analysis of Black student organizers’ experiences of racism at the University of Missouri, where they led a resurgence of campus struggles in 2015. Semi-structured interviews with former student organizers were conducted and, together with archival materials, subject to thematic analysis. Black students faced frequent racist aggression, wherein their presence in campus social and intellectual life was cause for white alarm and aggression. Analyzing experiences and impacts of everyday violence in relation to broader systems of anti-Blackness and racial capitalism, the article identifies educational, psychological, social, spatial, material, and political consequences of campus racism. Several broader impacts of anti-Black racism are delineated, including psychological harm, economic dispossession, and institutional maintenance. The findings illuminate the effects of varied but cohesive instances of anti-Black racism in higher education, making visible repetitive moments of everyday violence that universities both enable and erase.