Deconstructing Elite Institutions: How Students Inhabit Race Frames at Liberal Arts Colleges

• In Event: 81.032 - MTCC Roundtable Session 37
  In Roundtable Session: 81.032-8 - Critical Theories in the Sociology of Education

Abstract

Bringing together inhabited institutionalism, race frames, and colorblind racism theories, this study examines how institutional structures shape how undergraduates “inhabit” race frames, specifically colorblindness. Through an in-depth case study of one elite liberal arts college, we find that institutional structures encourage and enable students—particularly, but not exclusively, White students—to avoid conversations about race. By “opting out” of these interactions, students “save face”—preserving their own reputation, their stake in the collective eminence of the elite campus community, and the eventual promise of financial gain. When students “opt in” to conversations about race, institutional structures encourage and enable “civil discourse,” anchored in individualism. These practices naturalize social and academic segregation, teaching students to praise diversity and disregard structural inequities.

Authors

• Ingrid Nelson, Bowdoin College

• Beatrice Cabrera, Bowdoin College

• Hannah Graham, Bowdoin College

• Natalie Rudin, Bowdoin College