Examining the Role of Racist Nativism in California Higher Education Policy

• In Event: Undocumented Students and Access to Postsecondary Education: Reviewing Policy Research and Setting the Research Agenda

Abstract

Purpose
The manner in which racist nativism becomes institutionalized in California’s K-12 public schools by state-mandated restrictive language policies, such as Proposition 227, has been examined in the literature (Pérez Huber, 2011). In this work, restrictive language policies supported teacher practices of English dominance in K-12 public schools. Such practices were used as tools to subordinate these students, perpetuate institutionalized racist nativism, and continue a historical legacy of domination over Latinas/os generally, and undocumented Chicana students in particular.

Framework
Latina/o critical theory (LatCrit) in education is a powerful theoretical framework that can expose how multiple and intersecting forms of oppressions mediate the educational trajectories of Latinas/os. Racist nativism is a further framework developed from LatCrit that examines the “inextricable” link between race and immigration in our current historical moment (Sánchez, 1997). Racist nativism is a form of racism that, 1) occurs within a historical and contemporary context, 2) intersects with other forms of oppression and, 3) based on real and perceived immigration status (Pérez Huber et. al., 2008). Racist nativism can be used as a tool to explain the discourses, practices, and policies targeting undocumented Latina/o immigrant students (and those racialized as immigrant).

Methods, Data, and Findings
This study draws from 20 testimonio (testimonial) interviews, which includes ten undocumented Chicana college students attending a public research university in California. Findings reveal the role of state policy in perpetuating and maintaining institutionalized racist nativism that targets undocumented Chicana college students specifically, and Latina/o undocumented college students generally in California public higher education.

Significance
This study seeks to extend this work into higher education to examine how California postsecondary institutional policies perpetuate racist nativism and the subordination of undocumented Latina/o college students.

Author

• Lindsay Perez Huber, California State University - Long Beach