Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education

Book excerpt: College and university administrators are increasingly called to confront the deeply entrenched racial inequities in higher education. To do so, corresponding attention must be given to historical and contemporary manifestations of whiteness in higher education and student affairs.This book bridges theoretical and practical considerations regarding the ways whiteness functions to underwrite racially hostile and unwelcoming campus communities for People of Color, all the while upholding the interests and values of white students, faculty, and staff.While higher education scholars and practitioners have long explored the role of race and racism in college and university contexts, rarely have they done so through a lens of Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS). Exploring such topics through the lens of CWS offers new opportunities to both examine white identities, attitudes, and ways of being, and to explicitly name how whiteness is embedded in environments that marginalize and oppress students, faculty, and staff of color. This book is especially concerned with naming the material consequences of whiteness in the lives of People of Color on college and university campuses in the United States.Part one of the book introduces theoretical ideas and concepts administrators, scholars, and activists might use to interrogate how whiteness functions on campus. Part two of the book explores practical considerations for how whiteness functions across campus spaces, including student leadership programs, fraternity and sorority life, faculty tenure and promotion, LGBTQ support services, and so forth.