For more than a century, students and higher education leaders, practitioners, and scholars have imagined and implemented strategies to subvert racism and advocate for racial equity within U.S. higher education. However, racist campus climates and exclusionary practices persist because institutions of higher education themselves are structurally rooted in whiteness and white supremacy. In this chapter, the authors connect their social and political subjectivities as white scholars with their dedication to the dismantling of structures of whiteness within higher education in order to present one way to transform institutions. Through the presentation of theoretical and practical examples, they make the case that it is the shared responsibility of white leaders across the spectrum of higher education to take action against the racialized policies and norms that privilege white people by examining and abolishing institutional structures that support whiteness. Ultimately, the fight for equity and justice in higher education must center the challenging of structural manifestations of whiteness.
“The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up—ever—trusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy?”— Terry Tempest Williams
TopIntroduction
For more than a century, students and higher education leaders, practitioners, and scholars have imagined and implemented strategies to subvert racist power structures and advocate for racial equity within U.S. higher education (Bradley, 2018; Kendi, 2012; Rojas, 2010). However, racist campus climates and exclusionary practices persist because institutions of higher education themselves are steeped in white1 supremacy, unable to disjoin from realities and histories that are deeply rooted in colonialism, slavery, and eugenics (Wilder, 2013). White supremacy, as a structuring property that upholds white ways of being as superior, remains pervasive in higher education through taken-for-granted and uninterrogated manifestations of whiteness, particularly in university practices, policies, and culture (Bonilla-Silva, 2018; Cabrera et al., 2016; Gillborn, 2005). To transform racial inequity within institutions towards racial justice, higher education leaders and practitioners, and particularly those who identify as white, must commit to the work of addressing how our campuses support and are supported by structural manifestations of whiteness (Ahmed, 2012; Bensimon, 2018; Ray, 2019).
In this chapter, we connect our social and political subjectivities as white scholars with our dedication to the dismantling of structures of whiteness within higher education in order to present one way to transform institutions. We argue that it is the shared responsibility of white leaders across the spectrum of higher education to take action against the racialized policies and beliefs that privilege us (Bonilla-Silva, 2018) by examining and abolishing institutional structures that support whiteness. Further, we contend that this work, while informed by individual insights and understandings, must fundamentally take place at the structural or organizational level if white scholars and practitioners truly aspire to create equitable and critical spaces within institutions of higher education that challenge and resist whiteness and white supremacy. As such, while we are constantly speaking through our personal lenses and perspectives as white people, we attempt to do so without explicitly centering our voices and stories in our writing.
In grounding our understanding of the importance of a critical awareness of whiteness and white identity in efforts to enact transformational change in our respective racial journeys and ideologies, we situate our perspectives in a critical form of what Barbara Smith (1993) and others have coined “identity politics.” As white scholars and practitioners within the fields of higher education and student affairs, we are constantly, and frequently unconsciously, influenced by our white racial identities and the ways that we are privileged and empowered within a white supremacist system (Bonilla-Silva, 2018). Importantly, we view our white racial identity as a call to action, but not as the medium through which that action is taken or manifested. We approach our work and scholarship through a critical lens (Ahmed, 2012; Parker & Lynn, 2012) that guides how we approach efforts to resist whiteness within institutions of higher education. This grounding prompts us to reimagine how we think about transformation within higher education and student affairs research and practice as an act of changing structures and policies rather than simply stopping at the personal work of identity development and reflection. We believe that any transformation towards a more just and equitable system of higher education must challenge core structural manifestations of whiteness in an effort to revolutionize institutions of higher education, such that they completely divest from whiteness in as many ways as possible.