Part of the Solution and Part of the Problem: The College Campus Ecology of Whiteness

• In Event: 44.084 - Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: 44.084-14 - Race, Identity, and Ethnicity

Abstract

The issue of Whiteness is noticeably absent from diversity-related analyses in higher education, and quantitative analyses are generally divorced from critical interrogations of Whiteness. Using an ecological systems theory analysis, this research uses a national survey-based data set from the Higher Education Research Institute (Diverse Learning Environments) to examine how Whiteness is both recreated and challenged within institutions of higher education. Specifically, it examines how involvement in different areas of the campus environment either enhance or disrupt White students’ beliefs in reverse racism. This is critically important in the context of institutions of higher education because it is not possible to create inclusive campus environments if the subject of Whiteness if left unaddressed.

Authors

• Nolan L. Cabrera, The University of Arizona

• Abigail Kiyoko Bates, University of California, Los Angeles

• Edwin Hernandez, University of California - Los Angeles