Racial Arrested Development: Campus Ecology, White Entitlement, and Social Comfort in Higher Education

• In Event: “Something Doesn’t Feel White”: Racial Affect, White Dissonance, and the Possibility for Challenging Whiteness in Education

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes
Within higher education literature, there is a persistent question: How can institutions maximize the educational outcomes for all students? Traditional campus ecology literature (Banning 1992, 1993, 1997) is problematic in that it can ignore that students experience the campus environment differently based upon their racial/ethnic background (Rankin & Reason, 2005).

Harper and Hurtado (2007) argued that much of the campus climate literature highlights the prevalence of campus sub-environments where Whiteness is the cultural norm. Gusa (2010) refers to this as White Institutional Presence (WIP), arguing that Whiteness is both present and dominant in much of the campus environment. This paper interrogates campus ecology literature from the perspective of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) with a specific focus on racial comfort.

Theoretical Framework
CWS is dedicated to unveiling how Whiteness is socially constructed as normal, masking the realities of social dominance via systemic White Supremacy (Apple, 1998; Feagin, 2006, 2010; Lipsitz, 2011; Roediger, 2007). As applied to campus ecology, it critically examines WIP and its relationship to inequitably producing social comfort along the color line within post-secondary institutions.

Modes of Inquiry/Data Sources
The interactions among campus components construct the climate that supports or hinders students; central to the analysis is the relationship between comfort and student performance (Banning, 1993, 1997; Banning & Kuk, 2005). Within CWS, the interaction between the individual and space has emerged as a unit of analysis. George Lipsitz (2007) argues that “race has a spatial dimension, and the lived experience of space has a racial dimension” (p. 12). Within institutions of higher education, privileges of Whiteness allow White students to ignore the discomfort/pain of racism on their campus (Rankin & Reason, 2005).

Point of View/Substantiated Conclusions
This cross-interrogation of campus ecology literature with CWS led us to the following conclusion: while social comfort may help enhance White students’ learning, avoidance of racial agitation only serves to reinforce the normality of White spaces (Gusa, 2010). First, it serves to further marginalize Students of Color on campus (Gusa, 2010; Rankin & Reason, 2005). Second, it limits White students’ abilities to develop their racial selves keeping them in a state of racial arrested development (Broido & Reason, 2005).

Scholarly Significance
W.E.B. DuBois wrote, “Agitation is a necessary evil to tell of the ills of the suffering. Without it many a nation has been lulled into a false security and preened itself with virtues it did not posses” (1971, p. 4). The assumption of White racial comfort glosses over racial realities that are omnipresent for students of color (Rankin & Reason, 2005). Therefore, a certain degree of agitation is needed to awaken White students to issues of racism and push them from racial apathy toward racial cognizance (Reason & Evans, 2005). Campus ecology literature needs to develop an additional focus on campus structures that foster social discomfort at the service of promoting growth and equity.

Authors

• Nolan L. Cabrera, The University of Arizona

• Jeremy D. Franklin, University of Utah

• Jesse S. Watson, University of Southern California