White College Research Articles

The Great Migration in Myth and Reality

The founders of professional sociology in the United States constructed a system of racial segregation that paralleled the Jim Crow system in the American South. Recent research has analyzed both the structure and dynamics of this systemic racism, as well as the resourceful resistance to this discrimination by African-American scholars housed in historically Black universities and colleges (HBCUs). This essay extends that work by discussing the ways in which the Jim Crow structure was enacted and sustained over many decades, how this exclusionary project limited and distorted the research, analysis, and theory developed within the white universities; and how the work of Black sociologists – ignored and dismissed by the white establishment – constitutes a precious heritage of important and still valuable scholarship. This contrast between sterile white establishment scholarship and the still-valuable work of HSBCs scholars is documented by comparing the white and Black scholarship on the first decades of the Great Migration. This comparison demonstrates that even iconic texts by white establishment scholars presented an already disconfirmed portrait of the migration process and dynamics of Black migration from the U.S. rural South to Northern cities; and that distorted portrait of immigration was perpetuated through decades of subsequent establishment scholarship. In contrast the work of Black scholars provided indelible on-the-ground evidence that disproved the theories articulated and perpetuated by their white contemporaries, while documenting a broad theoretical perspective that remains valuable in understanding contemporary migration issues.

Twenty-four hours in the alt-right media ecosystem: analyzing race, space, and labor in Breitbart’s coverage of the Mollie Tibbetts murder

ABSTRACT This article examines media coverage of the murder by a Mexican farmworker of Mollie Tibbetts, a white college student, in the digital alt-right publication Breitbart as a case study analyzing the historicized racialized rhetoric of immigration in the American press. Examining all articles published within the 24-hour period of the discovery of Tibbetts’ body, this article argues that the rhetoric in Breitbart’s coverage of the case demonstrates the re-emergence of racialized themes that are rhetorically deployed to protect white spaces, such as the rural national imaginary, and white-dominated structures, such as the labor market. In the contemporary global, digital age Breitbart’s coverage of the Tibbetts case demonstrates the dominance of nostalgic alt-right fantasies of paternalistic white possession of spaces and structures in the far-right media ecosystem. Drawing on the principles of critical discourse analysis and engaging in a close textual reading of Breitbart’s coverage of the Tibbetts case, this article emphasizes the continued salience and significance of white possession.

Campus Counterspaces: Black and Latinx Students’ Search for Community at Historically White Universities

Campus Counterspaces: Black and Latinx Students’ Search for Community at Historically White Universities

Race and ethnic variation in college students’ allostatic regulation of racism-related stress

Racism-related stress is thought to contribute to widespread race/ethnic health inequities via negative emotion and allostatic stress process up-regulation. Although prior studies document race-related stress and health correlations, due to methodological and technical limitations, they have been unable to directly test the stress-reactivity hypothesis in situ. Guided by theories of constructed emotion and allostasis, we developed a protocol using wearable sensors and daily surveys that allowed us to operationalize and time-couple self-reported racism-related experiences, negative emotions, and an independent biosignal of emotional arousal. We used data from 100 diverse young adults at a predominantly White college campus to assess racism-related stress reactivity using electrodermal activity (EDA), a biosignal of sympathetic nervous system activity. We find that racism-related experiences predict both increased negative emotion risk and heightened EDA, consistent with the proposed allostatic model of health and disease. Specific patterns varied across race/ethnic groups. For example, discrimination and rumination were associated with negative emotion for African American students, but only interpersonal discrimination predicted increased arousal via EDA. The pattern of results was more general for Latinx students, for whom interpersonal discrimination, vicarious racism exposure, and rumination significantly modulated arousal. As with Latinx students, African students were particularly responsive to vicarious racism while 1.5 generation Black students were generally not responsive to racism-related experiences. Overall, these findings provide support for allostasis-based theories of mental and physical health via a naturalistic assessment of the emotional and sympathetic nervous system responding to real-life social experiences.

Towards the decolonisation of religion education in a pre-service education classroom

ABSTRACT In this article, I reflect on my attempts to decolonise religious education at a historically white university in a post-apartheid South Africa. This pre-service education project conducted in 2017 happened against the backdrop of two events, namely, a renewed curriculum policy, Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) and the #RhodesMustFall (RMF) and #FeesMustFall (FMF) protests. These events encouraged me to reflect on my academic role as a teacher-educator preparing pre-service teachers to teach religion in schools. This led to me asking many questions such as, what is the effect of my teaching religious education?, How do teacher-educators prepare religious education pre-service teachers for a multicultural and multireligious society?, How does my teaching align itself with the decolonisation of education? and How do I redress the colonial past in my religious education classroom? The data which included reflective reports, student experiences and self-reflexivity acknowledged the findings that religion education served as a unifying factor in building social cohesion. The significance of this paper lies in the argument that decolonisation becomes an imperative if one is striving for social justice and intends to commit oneself to a more equitable society where crossing borders must be a seamless act.

Diversity without integration? Racialization and spaces of exclusion in international higher education

In predominantly white universities in the United States, international students are frequently exposed to racism, xenophobia, and other forms of exclusion. This ethnographic research examines how students from China’s Pearl River Delta negotiate a predominantly white Midwestern university in an era of reenergized racism and nationalism. It reveals the persistence of the ideology of whiteness and culture-based exclusion, which not only racialize foreign students of color, but also engage with this student population to perpetuate white supremacy. It also highlights race as a transnational construct, where China’s state ideology of anti-Blackness and Han ethnocentrism powerfully push Chinese students to isolate from Black and Asian American communities.

The Patronage Dilemma: Allison Davis's Odyssey from Fellow to Faculty

This article analyzes the role of the Julius Rosenwald Fund in shaping the career of W. Allison Davis, a distinguished anthropologist who became the first African American appointed to the faculty of a mostly white university. From 1928 to 1948, the Rosenwald Fund ran an expansive fellowship program for African American intellectuals, which, despite its significance, remains largely unexamined in the scholarly literature. Davis tied his academic aspirations to Rosenwald Fund support, including for his early research and the terms of his faculty appointment. His experiences illustrate the dynamics inclusion and exclusion of African Americans in the academy; paternalistic promotion and strategic denial functioned as two sides of the same coin. Spotlighting Davis's negotiations, this article establishes how presumptions of racial inferiority guided Rosenwald patronage and demonstrates the extent to which the principles of meritocracy and expertise remained secondary concerns for those interested in cultivating African American intellectuals.

Persistence and opportunity: Leveraging Living Learning Communities to ensure equitable access for all students

Abstract The present literature review explores research on characteristics of effective Living Learning Communities as a means to inform the continued development of a new LLC at Cleveland State University, a large urban, Predominately White University (PWU). Research on retention and persistence is explored with respect to students’ strengths and developmental prerequisites, rather than having a hyper-focus on deficits in effort to inform the continued development of an LLC at Cleveland State University. The objective is to create an LLC that showcases a balanced approach, where students’ needs are addressed while helping them realize and harness their individual strengths for success in college and beyond. Research regarding the perspectives of students who attended LLCs at PWUs as well as short and long-term outcomes for students in terms of persistence, retention, GPA, and future projections, in order to develop a successful LLC, is reviewed.

Hybrid Femininities: Making Sense of Sorority Rankings and Reputation

Gender researchers have only recently begun to identify how women perceive and explain the costs and benefits associated with different femininities. Yet status hierarchies among historically white college sororities are explicit and cannot be ignored, forcing sorority women to grapple with constructions of feminine worth. Drawing on interviews with women in these sororities (N = 53), we are able to capture college women’s attitudes toward status rankings that prioritize adherence to narrow models of gender complementarity. Sorority chapters were ranked according to women’s perceived heterosexual appeal to elite men. Women believed that top-ranked sororities conferred social power whereas middle- and bottom-ranked sororities offered greater freedom from policing over members’ bodies, fashion, and socializing. However, middle- and bottom-ranked sororities sometimes sought to rise in the rankings. When this occurred, existing members were marginalized, and a new pledge class with a greater tolerance for socializing with high-status “rapey” fraternities was sought. Women’s discussions of sorority rankings show evidence of a hybrid femininity that fuses practices from traditional models of gender complementarity and more recent models of women’s empowerment.

Inequitable rewards: experiences of faculty of color mentoring students of color

ABSTRACT Employing the analytical lens of Critical Race Theory, I explored how faculty of color view their mentorship of students of color at predominantly White colleges and universities. The research was conducted through an anonymous online questionnaire shared with faculty of color at 136 predominantly White institutions. Three main themes emerge and show that faculty of color feel: (a) a sense of social responsibility to their communities of color; (b) that this demanding and often specialized work comes at a cost to their professional careers, and; (c) that shared marginalized identities create unique mentorship responsibilities and demands. I then discuss the implications for social justice in higher education.

African American College Students' Drinking Behaviors and Their Relationship to Self-Efficacy and Positive or Negative Expectancies Regarding Alcohol Consumption.

College students’ alcohol consumption remains a significant concern for colleges and universities. However, most research overwhelmingly utilizes White samples from predominantly White universities, limiting knowledge of African American students’ drinking behaviors on historically Black campuses. This study examined alcohol usage among African American college students by investigating relationships between alcohol consumption and positive and negative expectancies as well as self-efficacy. A convenience sample of 282 students was used. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) measured alcohol consumption and identified individuals whose consumption created hazardous drinking patterns. Alcohol expectancy was measured by the Alcohol Effects Questionnaire (AEQ), and the Spheres of Control Scale measured self-efficacy. Students in this sample tended to believe that alcohol consumption was linked with more negative than positive alcohol expectancy beliefs. Alcohol expectancies, specifically positive expectancies, appeared to play a significant role in predicting alcohol consumption. There was also a positive relationship between positive expectancies and alcohol consumption. Despite these results, our regression model was only able to account for about 20% of the variance (r2 = 0.187). These findings are important in developing prevention and intervention programs to address the pervasive and critical social ills and reduce alcohol consumption among African American college students.

The roles of ethnic identity and metastereotype awareness in the racial discrimination-psychological adjustment link for Asian Americans at predominantly White universities.

The literature on Asian Americans yields mixed findings regarding the protective effects of ethnic identity on the racial discrimination-psychological distress link (Park, Schwartz, Lee, Kim, & Rodriguez, 2013). This study introduces metastereotype awareness (MSA; the awareness one has regarding stereotypes others hold of their group) into this relationship, focusing on the stereotype of Asians as unsociable. We examined a 3-way interaction between racial discrimination, ethnic identity commitment, and MSA on a latent psychological distress variable among a sample of Asian American emerging adults attending predominantly White universities (N = 276, 60% female, mean age = 20). Structural equation modeling suggested a significant 3-way interaction in which the protective role of ethnic identity commitment varied depending on the level of MSA. Specifically, high levels of ethnic identity commitment buffered the racial discrimination-psychological distress link for individuals reporting high levels of MSA. Furthermore, low levels of ethnic identity commitment buffered the discrimination-psychological distress link for Asian American students reporting low levels of MSA. In contrast, a positive link between discrimination and psychological distress persisted for Asian American students reporting a combination of high ethnic identity and low MSA and vice versa. In summary, Asian American college students who had high levels of both ethnic identity commitment and MSA or low levels on both variables were protected from psychological distress associated with racial discrimination. These findings illuminate the nuanced relationship between racial discrimination, ethnic identity commitment, and MSA in predicting psychological distress outcomes for Asian Americans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The complexity of leadership in South African universities

ABSTRACT The South African campus protests of 2015–17 in demand of decolonisation and free tertiary education presaged similar demonstrations on campuses throughout the English-speaking world and revealed the dilemmas of university leadership under conditions of sustained crisis. This research examines the typology of leadership exercised by senior administrators in South African higher education in the period just prior to these events, when the tensions that led to them were already manifest. It proposes a new conceptual model for leadership in higher education that will allow leaders to move beyond the bureaucracy and enable a conception of leadership as a complex interactive dynamic through which adaptive outcomes can emerge. Complexity theory frames the study, as it reconceptualises leadership by focusing on the dynamic interactions between all individuals within organisations; explains how those interactions can, under certain conditions, produce positive outcomes; and takes into account the properties of non-linearity, uncertainty, ambiguity and disequilibrium under which universities worldwide operate. A Likert-scale survey of senior higher-education leaders produced data that were analysed using both linear and non-linear statistical methods. The study finds that no distinctive leadership characteristics are evident at the senior levels of South African higher education management and that there are no significant differences between the leadership characteristics of senior managers in the country’s historically white, historically black, and post-apartheid universities. An appreciation for complexity is critical within a university environment where bureaucratic assumptions are often the mode of operation. This article proposes a new model for leadership in higher education that will allow leaders to move beyond the bureaucracy and enable a conception of leadership as a complex interactive dynamic through which adaptive outcomes can emerge.

Social and Environmental Influences on Sexual Behaviors of College Black Women: Within Group Diversity Between HBCU vs. PWI Experiences.

Black women carry a disproportionate number of new HIV infections in the USA. Studies that have assessed HIV risk perception along with HIV prevention interventions for Black women have primarily focused on Black women of low socioeconomic status. Few studies have assessed HIV risk perceptions and sexual behavior among college-educated Black women of higher socioeconomic status despite their high risk of HIV. College-educated Black women are most likely to acquire HIV while in college, and there has been a marked absence of research assessing the environmental and cultural influences present throughout college-campuses, coupled with evaluating how these factors shape sexual behaviors. We conducted surveys with Black female students attending a historically Black college and Black female students attending a predominately White university, and compared baseline differences in sexual behaviors among both populations. Results showed that for participants attending the historically Black college certain sociocultural elements, such as music and media, had a significantly stronger influence on sexuality and sexual behaviors compared with students attending predominately White universities. The development of future HIV prevention interventions for Black women necessitates an understanding of the diverse microcultures that Black women come from. This research is high priority for college-educated Black women given this population's lack of inclusion in HIV prevention research.

Theorizing racial microaffirmations: a Critical Race/LatCrit approach

ABSTRACT This article theorizes the concept of racial microaffirmations and illustrates different microaffirmation types. We report findings from a study that employed narrative interviews to solicit stories from racially minoritized students at a predominantly white university. Participants included 16 graduate students and 18 undergraduate students who identified as African-American, Latinx or mixed race. Students shared microaffirmations that they experienced related to their racial identities. We developed a typology of four microaffirmation types from the students’ stories: microrecognitions, microvalidations, microtransformations and microprotections. Drawing on the students’ stories, we further define each microaffirmation type and root the typology in the foundational elements of Critical Race/LatCrit theoretical framework. This study offers concrete examples of experiences university students found affirming that are helpful to practitioners seeking to better understand what racial microaffirmations are and ways they may be promoted. This work also expands the literature on microaffirmations and points to areas that need further research.

The Chair's Role in Leveraging Multigenerational Workforce Strategies in Times of Crisis

The Chair's Role in Leveraging Multigenerational Workforce Strategies in Times of Crisis

A Comparison of Breastfeeding Exposure, Attitude, and Knowledge Between Collegiate African American and White Males with no Biological Children.

Human milk is the preferred source of infant nourishment; yet, acceptance of human milk as the norm for infant feeding is debated. In the United States there is a disparity in breastfeeding rates, which are significantly lower in African Americans compared to Whites. Multiple variables appear to influence breastfeeding, including the male partner. To assess and compare breastfeeding exposure, attitude, and knowledge between African American and White college males with no biological children. A second objective was to explore the relationship between breastfeeding variables and educational attainment, academic major, and sibling presence. A subset of responses from a larger cross-sectional survey were analyzed. African American and White collegiate males aged 18-40years without biological children were included in the study. The questionnaire included demographic, exposure, attitude, and knowledge items. A total of 117 African American and 713 White males were included and represented all academic colleges on campus. African American participants documented less exposure to breastfeeding, a more positive attitude, and similar poor knowledge scores compared to their White counterparts. Sibling presence was linked with exposure, and exposure was linked to attitude. Both African American and White science majors scored higher on all factors than humanities or business majors. Breastfeeding exposure influences males' attitudes toward breastfeeding. Future research should consider types of exposure to identify the sources most influential. Furthermore, tailoring breastfeeding interventions to increase exposure and knowledge in core wellness courses may improve attitudes and social acceptance among collegiate males.

Why We Need More Histories of Low-Status Institutions

As scholars of higher education regularly point out, American universities face a fundamental tension between access and exclusion. On the one hand, as publicly supported institutions operating in a democracy, they are charged with promoting social mobility and sharing knowledge that can improve society. On the other, they are tasked with identifying and supporting elites—those talented, ambitious, and hardworking individuals who deserve the most money and accolades. In his 1993 History of Education Society presidential address, “Race, Meritocracy, and the American Academy during the Immediate Post-World War II Era,” historian James Anderson describes one way in which northern white colleges and universities coped with this tension after World War II. During this time, Fred Wale, director of education for the Julius Rosenwald Fund, compiled a list of 150 outstanding black scholars with degrees from schools like the University of Chicago, Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Michigan; extensive teaching experience at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs); and highly regarded publication records. Wale sent his list to hundreds of university presidents, encouraging them to consider these qualified candidates for faculty appointments. His efforts made minimal impact: between 1945 and 1947, only twenty-three of the scholars on Wale's list were offered permanent faculty positions at northern white universities.

Negotiating anti-Black racism in ‘liberal’ contexts: the experiences of Black youth workers in community-based educational spaces

ABSTRACT This paper examines how Black community-based youth workers navigate anti-Black racism in their educational programming with Black youth in a majority white college town widely recognized as ‘nice,’ ‘liberal,’ and ‘progressive’ with stark racial disparities between its Black and white residents. With racial liberalism and BlackCrit as theoretical guides, this paper draws on in-depth interviews with Black youth workers and observations at city events addressing racial disparities facing Black youth to understand how anti-Black racism within the larger city informs community-based educational programming. Findings indicate a 1) disregard of Black suffering, 2) deliberate shutdown of critical race dialogue and programming, and 3) the exploitation of Black youth workers’ labor and the denial of advancement to positions of leadership within organizations to do white discomfort. This paper challenges liberal and progressive claims of social justice in education within predominantly white cities that reify anti-Black racism.

Sex and Racial Differences in Patterns of Disordered Eating and Alcohol Use

The present study aimed to determine how young adults’ use of disordered eating behaviors (DEBs) and alcohol uniquely cluster with one another, how these clusters differ by sex and race, and map onto health-related correlates. As a part of a cross-sectional study assessing college student health and experiences, female (n = 1,026), male (n = 336), White (n = 640), and Black (n = 561) young adult college students at three universities (M age = 20.54, SD = 1.80) completed measures assessing DEBs and alcohol use, and physical and mental health. Multigroup mixture modeling was used to identify subgroups of female, male, White, and Black young adults that are characterized by different levels of DEBs (fasting, food avoidance, loss of control eating, overeating) and alcohol use (binge drinking, drinking quantity). Whether group membership relates to theoretically and clinically relevant health correlates (stress, depressive symptoms, sleep health) was examined via auxiliary analyses. Qualitative and quantitative differences were identified in the best-fitting mixture models for female (four groups), male (four groups), White (five groups), and Black (three groups) participants that suggest sex and racial variations exist in patterns of DEBs and alcohol use severity. Generally, classification in groups characterized by moderate to high probabilities of DEBs only, or the combination of moderate to high DEBs and alcohol use, was associated with worse affective concerns across sexes and races. Targeting young adults’ DEBs and alcohol use via diversity-informed treatments focused on coping skill development may help promote health and well-being.