Running Head: SOCIAL JUSTICE

Social justice as inclusion of minorities in higher education

Sabine T. Keleba
Northern Illinois University
CAHA 502
Fall 2015

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Social justice as inclusion of minorities in higher education

Abstract
This paper focuses on inequalities in adult education and how to fix the system, which is in favor
of the dominant culture. Minority students such as students of color, disabled students, and
LGBTQ students face many problems in academia. Their admission process is harder compared
to the dominant population. The goal of this paper is to find ways to help minority students to
have a voice and a safe place to learn and, if possible, how to teach minority students to fight for
their inclusion in higher education.

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Introduction
Education is defined as a place where anyone could go and learn. It is a place of hope for
everyone regardless of gender, race or age. Unfortunately education, in general still encounters
many obstacles, and adult education in particular continues to neglect minority students. This
still happening in education because the education system is controlled by whites males.From
its establishment, higher education has operated within a patriarchal system. Institutions of
higher education are still overwhelmingly led and run by whites men (Bystydzienski & Bird,
2006). Many advocates and leaders have fought for the right for all to attend school; but
problems in higher education still exist. White privilege, tuition cost, retention and poverty are
some of the problems faced by adult learners. Fortunately, advocates are still fighting for
education for all. bell hooks (1994), in her book Teaching to Transgress, gives some advices
about teaching students to transgress against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to
achieve the gift of freedom (p. 9).
In this paper, I will first discuss white privilege as the biggest problem in education. I will
develop how minority students find themselves providing a lot more documents than white
students. This paper will demonstrate how white privilege and racism can cause many adult
learners to abandon the process of going to school. The purpose of this paper is to explore how
white privilege and racism function in adult education graduate programs regarding admissions,
retention, and curricula.
Definitions of Terms
White privilege is a system that makes application easy for white students to get admitted
in a graduate program, and makes it harder for others to enter the program.

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Racism is systemic, with structured inequalities that support a schema, replete with policies,
practices, norms, and traditions, that automatically disadvantage and exploit one social group
for the good of another group (Sensoy and DiAngelo, 2009, p. 345).
Oppression is the visible operant tool of racism, "involves institutional control, ideological
domination, and the imposition of the dominant groups culture on the target group (Sensoy and
DiAngelo, 2009, p. 345).
Minority is the non dominant group composed of people of colors, disabled and LGBTQ.
Review of Literature
In their article, Juanita Johnson-Bailey, a student of color (black), and Lisa Baumgartner,
a caucasian student, explained different experiences during their time as graduate students. The
two authors demonstrate how different they were treated during their graduated year.
Baumgartner said she was easily accepted in the program, and she was offered a place in the
graduate assistant program; professors asked her if she was aware of an upcoming event on
campus or something else. She felt very welcome in the program. Johnson-Bailey on the other
hand, gave another view of her first application process. When she first applied at the graduate
school program, she got a rejection. She was rejected because she had a Grade Point Average (GPA)
of 3.49 and the requirement was 3.5. She was devastated. She had to come another semester with many
other recommendation letters and take some tests before getting accepted to the program. According to
Merrian, Caffarella and Baumgartner (2007),

white privilege is a large part of the hidden infrastructure of American society, directing,
driving, and often invisibly and subtly determining outcomes such as employment,
housing, education, and even interpersonal relationships. In order for white privilege, a
system that allows whites to prevail, to exist, there must be a counterbalance, a system
that disadvantages others, namely, racism (p.27).

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Over the years, many articles have criticized the correlation of race and white privilege.
Adults learners face too many other challenges in their everyday lives such as paying their bills,
mortgage, car, and food. With all these challenges, education system should simplify admission
for all. On top of making admission harder, some universities decided to include tests such as
Graduates Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT in order to be accepted in some programs.
According to Kincheleo and Steinberg (2001), who determines who falls inside and outside the
boundaries of the common culture? Who delineates? Who dictates what is included in the
educational curriculum? (p.45). The two authors supported that education curriculum is
controlled by the whites patriarchy, and this is why higher education needs to promote
multiculturalism. By promoting multiculturalism in higher education, this will lead to social
justice. This will also shrink inequalities in academia. Kincheleo and Steinberg (2001) said
having been situated in a state of oppression for so long, these experiences may point the way to
more sophisticated definitions of social theory and ethical authority. Oppressed groups often gain
unique insights into the forces than move history (p. 233)
Social justice, according to Spade (2011), took a great turn by unifying people who have
racial, economic, and gender problems, regardless of their sexual orientation. A large number of
these communities unified around a lot of the issues they all face and marched together as one
community. Spade (2011) called this trickle activism (p. 217). Trickle activism was
composed of homeless people, low-income people, people of colors, and the trans
communities (Spade, 2011, p. 218). The method of trickle activism shown by Spade is a great
example on how to increase diversity and social justice on campus. This is called
intersectionality.
Discussion

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According to Jones and Abes (2013), intersectionality focuses on the intersecting

identities of participants. For them, this is the interconnected structure of inequalities. In order to
have a successful turn in education, all students should be seeing as equal and not as minority
students, disabled students, LGBTQ students nor privileged students. All students must be
treated with an equal opportunity (mutual care and trust). Dill and Zambrana (2009) framed
intersectionality as an analytical strategy-a systematic approach to understand human life and
behavior that is rooted in the experiences and struggles of marginalized people (p.4).
According to (Z N), it has been challenging trying to find a fit, I often struggle to provide
something other than a list of attributes separated by those proverbial commas (gender, sexuality,
race, class) (p.123). Again instead of solving a much separated problem, educators should refer
to Spades article by working as a group with the most vulnerable, not individually in order to
obtain a better solution. Even everybody is thrown in the same basket, it is very important for
each individual to know who they are, and at one point to find their veritable identity as (Z N)
mentioned. If possible each individual should dissociate themselves from the whole group
because each individual must be aware of his uniqueness while working in a group for the quest
of social justice. An example of intersectionality of two people: one in minority class and the
other in the privileged class. Mitchell (2014) showed,
Gabriel a Hispanic-gay-Catholic-very poor: I became intensely aware of the ways in
which others perceived my identities () what others thought I should be doing and how I
interpreted my experiences.
Leah a researcher, lesbian, white female and atheist said, it easy to lose side of the
privileges and privileged identities on hold because as identities piled up, the minority or
marginalized grow in number, the dominant identities are easy lost and forgotten.

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Leah exemplifies well that being a lesbian causes her to lose her white privilege. Therefore she
became a minority as Gabriel the Hispanic.
Dill and Zambrana (2009) argued that intersectionality challenges traditional mode of
knowledge production in the United States and illustrated how this theory provides an alternative
model that combines advocacy, analysis, theorizing, and pedagogy-basic components essential to
the production of knowledge as well as the pursuit of social justice and equality (p.1).
The use of trickle up activism in education is clearly one of the best solutions
to find an outcome; but in the mist of the mass and the most vulnerable, each individual should
not forget their identities and what their real objective should be. Intersectionality and all the
others association are to remind each one that there are many others who are marginalized as
well. Learning that others people suffer the same injustice or problems create a connection
between students. This connection creates a common point and must be viewed as an access to
help others reach a certain goal. They can share their experiences and also can feel secure in that
group.
Promising Praxis
In order to build a great outcome, education needs to be revised by changing the system,
which in the past was unfair to a certain group of people. Educators must try to find new ways to
solve issues and reinvent the education system. To do so, education should copy the trickle up
activism by including the most vulnerable students in future education projects, not only the
wealthy and white students. The method of trickle activism shown by Spade is a great example
of how to increase diversity and social justice on campus. At Northern Illinois Campus, there is
the Center for Black studies who help mentoring black students succeed in their academic years.

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Also the Asian Center, the Hispanic group, and the LGBTQ Center, which are located on the
campus to help minorities students succeed. This matters because it is good for adult education to
liberalize their programs. It is better for universities to embrace diversity in their programs.
Making admission process easy for the majority and make it harder for minority is not ethical.
Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989. A scholar of law, critical race
theory, and Black feminist thought, Crenshaw used intersectionality to explain the experiences of
Black women who-because of intersections of race, gender are exposed to exponential forms of
marginalization and oppression. For Audre Lorde (1984),
to those of us who stand outside the circle of this society definition of acceptable
women; those of us who are poor, lesbian, who are Black, who are older-now that
survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and
sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with others identified as outside the
structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can flourish (p.112).
Universities and counselors should create a welcoming environment for all students. Teachers
must take diversity courses in order to embrace all diverse backgrounds. No barrier should stop a
student to register. Since school is the place to acquire knowledge, access should be available for
all. Higher education must be free of racism. Also those tests that graduates students take before
entering higher education must be waived. Those tests are not free, they cost between one
hundred dollars to two hundreds, and not everyone is fortunate to pay. This is a way to make
admission harder. The GRE is an aptitude test to see if graduate applicants have a critical
thinking analytic. The test also checks their math level. This test is taken on computer and the
exam is completed in about six hours. This step should be remove because most graduate

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students have already some basic math skills and a critical analytic. GPA requirement should be
enough to enter a graduate school.

Summary
Since education is what makes each one of us free, many adult learners are still enrolling
in classes hopefully to get a facilitator who guides and explains the comprehension of the
materiel much easier as a relation to subject to subject than subject to object. Student can
surprisingly be full of knowledge. Tamayo R. (1994) defines "school as a place that can exist
anywhere, in the jungle, the mountains, or at home, and it is not just for children, but for
everyone"(p 197). As a liberalist, my philosophy is similar to Paul Freires, by believing in every
student regardless their background, because each student is unique and is a bank of knowledge.
School should be a place free of oppression where student learn as a community.

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of law. Cambridge, MA: South End

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