IDENTITY: POWER, PRIVILEGE + INTERSECTIONALITY

 How does whiteness and white supremacy culture impact the youth and educational spaces that you inhabit? What does it look like? Feel like in your body and movements? How does it sound? Taste? Slip by or call out?

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Whiteness impacts my everyday educational setting. Looking back at history, higher education was originally created for wealthy white males. College wasn’t intended to be for everyone, and you can still feel traces of this today. Most recently, in my line of work, the Supreme Court overturned Affirmative Action, meaning college admissions offices can no longer consider race when making admissions decisions. This was devastating for the world of admissions. The government has essentially decided that race no longer matters and that a student’s identity should not be a factor in these decisions. However, colleges are still allowed to use legacy status favoring students with familial ties to the institution, in their admissions process. How is that fair? Colleges were originally built for white men, so the majority of legacy students come from white families. It seems that identity and relationships are only considered when it’s convenient for colleges and the lawmakers who support this.

In my youth work, whiteness is often viewed as the default standard for college admissions. When I’m on the road working with admissions colleagues, we often discuss recruitment strategies. Some schools choose to visit only “white and wealthy” high schools, creating barriers for students from marginalized communities who aren’t getting the same level of attention and relationship-building with admissions counselors. Even in my role at RIC, we’ve been encouraged to recruit from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. We were even advised to Google towns to check their average income and demographics before booking a visit, so we would know the “type” of students we’d be dealing with.

When I hear colleges and admissions teams brag about the type of students they recruit, it makes me angry. Some schools openly state that they don’t visit places like Providence, Hartford, CT, or Brockton, MA, and they talk about it like it’s an accomplishment. In reality, it’s just blunt discrimination. How can some people not check their privilege enough to realize this is inappropriate? How can a college think this is okay? How can ignoring schools based on diversity and socioeconomic status be allowed? But remember what I said at the beginning college was built for the rich and white, and many schools have yet to change and become friendlier to minorities.

Higher education is not always welcoming to its students, and it’s also not always welcoming to its staff. I remember a time when I spoke up in a meeting about how we work with undocumented students. I was met with hostility and was told that “those types of students” might not be able to afford college and that we shouldn’t dwell on that. On top of the rude comments made during the meeting, a passive-aggressive article was sent the next day, discussing how colleges have to decide whether to help minority students or students who can actually afford the school. A white man was behind the email and the response. These comments from higher-ups happen all the time, basically criticizing any efforts we make to help or make college friendlier to minority students.

Being a woman of color whose job is to fight for more students of color to come to college can feel like an uphill battle. College admissions for minorities is like an obstacle course the whole time, whereas for their white counterparts, it’s just a stroll in the park. This can be discouraging for both the students and the admissions professionals trying to help them.