Institutional and systemic racism and how it affects African American graduate students enrolled at a predominately white institution

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The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological study was to understand the persistence of African American students enrolled in graduate school at a predominantly White institution (PWI). For the purposes of this research, the persistence of African American students was defined as being enrolled in graduate school while not experiencing feelings of belonging and inclusion equivalent to their White peers. Although African American students are admitted into and attend graduate school at PWIs. They have indicated that the experience they hoped they would have and what they have experienced are completely different. The disparity in the expectation of their experience, and what they have endured has damaging effects on how students perceived the institution. Therefore, it is imperative that PWIs who seek to enroll African American graduate students not only recruit them but also create an inclusive atmosphere conducive to their learning. Keywords: institutional, systemic, African American, hbcu, pwi, racism, microaggressions, sexism, American University, higher education, graduate students, master's degrees, critical race theory, white privilege, critical whiteness studies, Whiteness, anti-black