Community-As-Difference: Non-Black Students in One Black University Space

Abstract

In this article, we draw from a larger qualitative study to examine how racial encounters are experienced for three non-Black members in a university-based historically-Black student organization. Using the idea of community-as-difference, we present three findings that break open assumptions about racial coexistence: the importance of being singular yet historically-united, an ambivalence to belonging, and critiques of institutional multiculturalism. Given the oft-times superficial approach to diversity in higher education, these students, as well as the organization as a whole, demonstrate what spaces of multi-racial encounters can offer beyond the optics of integration. Communities-as-difference provides a useful framework that nourishes reflection into the complex and contradictory meanings of self with others. This work is relevant to higher education in the United States where under-represented minoritized students continue to advocate for meaningful inclusion on their respective campuses.