A racial reckoning has emerged this year as the nation bears the consequences of police brutality against Black citizens, white vigilante violence, and a president who stokes racial tensions. Yet most Americans still misunderstand systemic racism.
What is most surprising to those who are just learning about systemic racism is that it does not require racially bigoted people in power in order to persist. The inequitable strategies and procedures of yesteryear embedded in our structures reinforce systemic racism even without individual bad actors driving current policy. This reality is as prevalent in higher education as in all other sectors.
For all the ways that education is a means to lift all boats, it is not a system that operates outside of the stranglehold of racism. Disparate retention and graduation rates for students of color are explained not by individuals’ aptitudes or abilities but by a college’s refusal to create anti-racist policies, procedures, learning environments, and support services. Consider the following examples:
Curricula — Course content is nearly always Eurocentric whether in arts and humanities, social sciences, or STEM. European-centered perspectives allows some students to connect to course material while alienating those with racial and ethnic traditions outside of Europe. Eurocentric curricula upholds the false notion that what people of color have contributed to the human experience is of little or no value.
Academic and career advising — Research about academic advising practices in colleges and universities reveals that students of color are more often steered into educational tracks that lead to lower-wage jobs than their white peers, and that they are less frequently encouraged to pursue post-baccalaureate education.
Representation — It is critical for students of color to meaningfully interact with faculty and staff who share their racial or ethnic identities. Developing professional relationships with employees who share language and communication styles, cultural history, and lived experiences provides powerful modeling for students. This means institutions must commit to recruiting, hiring, supporting, and retaining diverse employees for students’ sakes.
Educational environment — Physical and virtual environments send messages. Often, students of color scan for environmental cues to determine whether they will be welcome in a space or able to succeed within it, so when designing spaces creators must consider what messages students might receive. Is art in communal areas culturally diverse? Whose names are on campus buildings? Do instructors address racially insensitive comments on online class discussion boards?
Student support — Support should be culturally responsive and relevant to students’ experiences. For students of color this means affirming their identities, recognizing the roles that families play in the educational journey, providing affinity spaces, addressing common harms such as microaggressions and feelings of isolation, and ensuring that students know how they can successfully navigate the institution.
The majority of administrators do not intend to harm students or complicate their educational pathways. But impact eclipses intention, and the impact of systemic racism on students of color often means crushing emotional burdens, elusive education goals, and fewer professional opportunities after college.
We must move away from considering systemic racism as policies or laws enacted by hateful individuals for malevolent reasons. Systemic racism is the complex interaction of history, culture, policy, and social institutions that grants advantage to white people and oppresses others. It thrives even if we are good people, until we dismantle it with informed, empathetic anti-racist action.
Melissa Williams is a 30-year resident of Vancouver and is the director of Student Equity and Inclusion at Clark College.
