‘Your experience is gonna be similar’: white habitus and college students’ discursive strategies

Abstract

ABSTRACT Though more people of colour are entering higher education, significant barriers remain, with higher education remaining a culturally white institution. This paper adopts a framework consistent with Critical Whiteness Studies to understand the ways that the power of whiteness is reproduced on a diverse college campus. This research uses qualitative interviews to identify rhetorical strategies used by white students that reflect and reinforce a white habitus. Three main themes emerged: an understanding that diversity is ‘anything’, that commonalities in the student body are more important than differences, and that learning about diversity equates to learning about only the most visible aspects of culture. These themes are contrasted with counterthemes from students of colour, revealing the ways white students remain ignorant of their peers’ of colour experiences on campus.