The Structure of Racism: Campus Climate Assessment as an Articulation of White Supremacy

• In Event: Dismantling Barriers: Perspectives, Learning, and Campus Climate

Abstract

This theoretical essay outlines the white supremacist nature of a specific institutional practice in higher education: campus climate assessment. Decades of higher education literature document the pervasive nature of negative or racially hostile campus climates experienced by Students of Color. Yet, scholars rarely identify campus climate assessment practice itself as a mechanism for reifying white supremacy. I argue that campus climate assessment practices are promotive of and serve only the interests of whites. The purpose of this work is to outline in detail the failure of campus climate assessment practices for eradicating racism and/or other forms of oppression, to challenge this and other facades of inclusion, and to move toward more meaningful investment in undoing racial harm.

Author

• Elvira J. Abrica, University of Nebraska - Lincoln