The “Doings of Racism” and the Felt-Experiential Knowledge of Black and Non-Black Students of Color

• In Event: Exclusive Inclusion of White Space: Systemic Racism Experiences of Students of Color in Higher Education

Abstract

Purpose. Historically white institutions (HWIs) are not structured to protect Black and non-Black students of Color from racial harm. Anti-racist policies continue to center around colorblind, race- and power-evasive considerations, and intentionality remains the primary criterion upon which to evaluate malice, despite researchers underscoring the need to examine the entirety of structures that enable these behaviors and the systems that universalize them (Author, 2023). While HWIs may be attempting at systemic change, hence, most efforts assume individualistic, non-intersectional perspectives, skewing toward safeguarding whiteness (Castagno, 2013) and reforming individuals and their racist behaviors. Indeed, HWIs are white spaces where whiteness functions as a technology, an “assemblage of knowledges, practices, techniques, and discourses” (Leonardo & Zembylas, 2013, p. 151) of affect used to regulate membership and belongingness. In this study, we examine the consequences of living within white space as racialized students of Color where whiteness, race, and racism are constantly doing harm. We ask: How do Black and non-Black students of Colors make sense of the multi-layered structures and systems that normalize practices of anti-Blackness and whiteness? How do they use their felt-experiential knowledge of racism to navigate HWI spaces?

Framework. Framed by Critical Race Theory (Bell, 1995), a racial-spatial framework of systemic racism (Author, 2023), and Psychosocial Model of Racism (Neville et al., 2012; Neville & Pieterse, 2009), we understand that racism is sedimented in higher education institutions. Whereas implementing antiracist policies can address immediate inequalities in educational spaces, cultivating a sustained antiracist culture within higher education requires dismantling structures that normalize and privilege whiteness as property (Harris, 1993). Because Black and non-Black people of Color are differentially racialized (Bell, 1995) within these spaces, they maintain different proximities to whiteness and anti-Blackness (Dumas & ross, 2016), and thus, nuanced felt-experiential knowledge.

Methods/Data. Our research team comprises Black and non-Black researchers of Color who are faculty and graduate students committed to cultivating antiracist cultural shifts at an HWI. Our study is based on a yearlong college racial equity audit wherein, we conducted 17 extensive, qualitative interviews with Black and non-Black graduate students of Color around their experiences in a college. We conducted inductive and deductive coding centered on felt-experiential knowledge and experiences of racism and microaggressions, and how they navigate through white space of the academy.

Findings. Findings suggest that (1) students regularly feel like they are in racist spaces; (2) students regularly experience racial trauma and microaggressions; (3) few faculty understand students’ experiences with/feelings of racism; (4) students possess racial awareness and seek community with faculty and students of Color. Notably, Black students tend to specify Blackness in recalling their experiences and identifying support.

Significance. Our study adds to the literature on the harms of microaggressions and racist incidents to exacerbate trauma at HWIs. Findings suggest the insidious pervasiveness of how racism works—through concrete incidents and unseen, but certainly felt, mechanisms. Structural change requires policies and practices that specify the unique needs of Black and non-Black students of Color, and cultivating affinity spaces for Black and non-Black students of Color.

Authors

• Rossina Zamora Liu, University of Maryland

• Jioni A. Lewis, University of Maryland

• Di-Tu Dissassa, University of Maryland

• Patrice Greene, University of the District of Columbia

• Bridget Turner Kelly, University of Maryland