Campus

Racism
Ciara Gormley, Clarissa Santiano,
Jasmine Yearian & Lauren Witty
U.S. Universities : A
Brief History
- US colleges modeled after English ones -
birthplace of colonialist sentiments & racist
“intellectualism”
- Also not considered places of free thought
or bold speech - more rigid and strict
- Old institutions like Harvard, Yale, UPenn,
Columbia, etc. were built with slave labor and
funded by slave-owners
- Oberlin was first college to admit Black
students in 1830s, but later segregated them
- Most universities didn’t accept Black
students until late 1800s/early 1900s, or
later
North Carolina State University Class of 1893
 Case-Study of Overt Racism
● Hate Crimes on the rise today
● Racists pasts -- often refuse to acknowledge or
change
● Incident: Syracuse University
○ Just one of hundreds and hundreds over
past decades around various campuses
○ Racist graffiti found all over campus, as well
as reports of racial harassment
○ Students organized protests, striked in the
admin building, even had hunger strike
○ Admin did very little to address it, besides
telling people to go home
■ Tried to cut off supplies to protestors
to make them leave
○ After Floyd’s murder, said they “stood
against discrimination” while still doing
very little to change anything
■ Have been prioritizing profits over
students’ well-being during COVID
 COVID & Racism against Asian Students
● NYPD, Asian hate crimes has risen by

1900% ,1,800 racist incidents against

Asian Americans in the U.S. in the

span of just two months

● July 2020: Ice announced that

students “raise significant national
security concerns”
● “Chinese virus” and “Kungflu”
○ 30 % percent of Americans
have witnessed blaming asians
for the pandemic.
● student presence from China:
369,548 / about 1/3rd of the
international students in US
● University of Washington student
 Mental Health: “Woke” Culture & “Allies”
- Whenever there’s a race-related event, (White) people suddenly
“remember” racism exists
- May “speak out”
- Create pressure on students affected to say something
- “Checking in” to be validated as a “good white person”
- Creates additional emotional labor on those affected
- Usually no real change enacted
- Allies need to check their intentions
- Create space w/o creating pressure
- Decentralize self
- Infographics =/= problem solved
- Do things w/o demanding praise
- Don’t be defensive
- Continually learn & listen - you’re never perfect
 Socioeconomic Consequences
- Bias on campus → less research, networking, prof. dev. Opportunities
- Name bias even w/ “colorblind” interview processes
- Fiscal consequences
- Wage gap
- Mental health impacts from burden of systemic racism
- Student debt higher among Black students
- Affects everyone
- How many inventions and discoveries have we missed out on because
most of the world’s population have been historically excluded from
higher education, research, and career opportunities?
- Post-University:
- Black grads 2x as likely to be unemployed as white students, even in “high
demand” fields
- Black & Hispanic people make up about 6% and 8% of CS degrees,
respectively
- @ Google, tech workers were 3% Hispanic & 1% Black

How can historically White career fields become more welcoming to BIPOC students and
maintain high retention rates?
 “Why does racism occur,
especially on a college
campus, which is supposed
to be a place of so-called
enlightenment?”
EDUCATION AS A “CURE”
FOR RACISM
“Prescribing education as the cure for racism
often confuses individual bigotry with a
system of domination.”

- The Intellectualization of Racism

- White People Gain Comfort in the
“Uneducated” Racist

Education is the first step. However, it needs to

be followed with active attempts to
redistribute resources
THE FALSEHOOD OF LIBERALITY &
Educational Privilege
- Even when institutions attempt to
implement diversity & inclusion policies,
they often don’t recognize it’s
consequences
- Just because a student attends college
does not mean that they participate in
regular, active conversations about race
- Educational privilege - the ideas &
opinions of degree-holders are more
highly regarded than those without
degrees
Case study 1:
UW College Republicans’ Affirmative Action Bake Sale
- Bake sale hosted by UW College Republicans to
protest the repeal of I-1000
- I-1000 : an initiative passed in Olympia in April
2019 lifting the statewide ban on affirmative
action
- Hosted right across the HUB walkway from the
annual Polynesian Day celebration
- Bake sale protest not supported by WA Federation
of College Republicans → drives polarization
- “Weak Republicans don't support real protests
that seek to solve real problems. We will not
back down to liberals or RINOs alike!”
- UW Administrative Response
- Ana Mari Cauce condemns bake sale and
highlights offensive nature of “pricing” people
- UWPD presence at event
 Case study 1:
UW College Republicans’ Affirmative Action Bake Sale
Issue at hand
- People with privilege oversimplifying systemic
racism
- Overtones of victimization of privileged individuals
- Sentiment expressed with the price of
invalidating the struggles of historically
oppressed students
- Facilitated creation of hostile space where no one
was willing to listen to each other
- UW College Republicans President Chevy
Swanson knew people would show up angry,
but he hoped to “explain the issue to them”
- UW administrative response highlights dilemma of
protecting free speech, even when it offends
others
 History of Greek Life

● 1776 - First Fraternity-Exclusive for white, wealthy men

● 1800s-1900s-white only clauses in the sorority and fraternity
constitution
○ “full aryan blood” and must be “members of the caucasion
race”
○ Historically Black Greek Letter Organization as a response to
segregation, a safe haven
■ University of Mississippi, first black house on greek row
burned down
● After 1960s -Greek organization unofficial segregation
○ University of Alabama- First integrated rush in 1991 , First
black sorority member 2003
○ Today , 95 % of historically white fraternity and sorority
members still identify as white.
● UW-Sigma Alpha Epsilon Chanta and Black Lives matter protests
 Cultural Appropriation
● Taking from a culture that it not your own, usually

including harmful Stereotypes

○ Members of a dominant culture taking

University of Louisville Staff, 2015
form a group that has been systematically

oppressed.

● Wearing a Marginalized group oppression as a

costume.

○ 'Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos' party,

(sexually derogatory rephrasing of

Navajos, a southwestern tribe.USA vs

Mexico, Asian Prime at Duke university,

Cal Poly Lambda Chi Alpha, 2018

 Relationship with Administration

● Alumni donations after college.

● Disproportionately represented in Positions of power- Trustee

boards and Administrative positions and even political positions .

85% of Supreme Court justices since 1910, 85% of Fortune 500

executives, 76% of U.S senators, and 18 presidents since 1877 were

fraternity men.-cycle of privileged segregation

● There is also the question can it be reformed after the multitude of

changes and it being built on exclusion and racism.

○ Greek life hierarchical nature

Case study 2:
UW Greek Row 2020-21
- UW Greek Life response to the Black Lives Matter Movement
- Releasing statements of solidarity with the Black community in June 2020
 Case study 2:
UW Greek Row 2020-21
Issue at hand
- Many acts of solidarity from Greek organizations are painfully performative
- Claim to commit themselves to “fighting injustice” while they contribute to issues
that disproportionately harm marginalized communities
- Hypothesized root of issue: Students are quick to abandon critical thinking and basic
consideration for human life for the sake of obtaining their “college experience”
- Particularly dangerous as UW Seattle is not located in an isolated college town
“Where Do Black People
Escape Racism?”
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES (HBCUs)

More Access to Black Empowering College

Professors
The average percentage of
Black Professors at PWIs is 6%.
At HBCUs, the majority of
professors are Black
Experience
A large sense of community over
a shared identity and experiences

Trump Era & Safety

Black Centered Curriculums
Attends to true history of the US
(unlike many high schools in the US)
and includes the racist history of a
variety of disciplines
Concerns
2016 - higher application and
enrollment numbers of Black
students at HBCUs
BIPOC Campus
Activism
- There is a long history of
Black student organizing -
both on and off campus
- At the University of
Washington, BIPOC students
consistently advocate for
change:
- Diversity Credit
- Blocked Out Monument

Campus activism helps generate unity

on campus and paves the way to a safer,
more equitable, and anti-racist campus
 RESOURCES
1. “'Affirmative Action Bake Sale' draws protest on UW campus” Kiro 7, 3 May 2019,
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/-affirmative-action-bake-sale-draws-protest-on-uw-campus/946091963/
2. Aja, Alan, and Victor Ray. “Perspective | Racism Isn't about Ignorance. Some Highly Educated People Have Upheld Systemic
Inequality.” The Washington Post, 2 July 2020,
www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/18/racism-isnt-about-ignorance-some-smartest-minds-have-upheld-systemic-ineq
uality/.
3. Bender, Kyle. “Twentieth annual Poly Day overshadows College Republicans’ racist bake sale” The Daily, 6 May 2019,
https://www.dailyuw.com/news/article_b0df61c6-6f9c-11e9-9232-fb8742a6bf40.html
4. Dahal, Suhani. “Affirmative action is not for sale, especially Friday” The Daily, 6 May 2019,
https://www.dailyuw.com/opinion/article_14c68424-6fae-11e9-a566-676a4481beed.html
5. DeRuy, Emily. “The Complicated Process of Adding Diversity to the College Syllabus.” The Atlantic, 29 July 2016,
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/the-complicated-process-of-adding-diversity-to-the-college-syllabus/493643
/.
6. Geoffrey T. Wodtke, Are Smart People Less Racist? Verbal Ability, Anti-Black Prejudice, and the Principle-Policy Paradox, Social
Problems, Volume 63, Issue 1, February 2016, Pages 21–45, https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spv028
7. Graham, Natalie. “UW College Republicans Are Holding an "Affirmative Action Bake Sale" with Prices Based on Race and
Gender” The Stranger, 2 May 2019,
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/05/02/40085226/uw-college-republicans-are-holding-an-affirmative-action-bake-sale
-with-prices-based-on-race-and-gender
8. McHenry, Eric. “What Began as a Protest Ends in Common Ground.” UW Magazine, Sept. 2005,
magazine.washington.edu/feature/what-began-as-a-protest-ends-in-common-ground/.
9. Museus, Samuel D., et al. “Racism and Racial Equity in Higher Education.” ASHE Higher Education Report, vol. 42, no. 1, 2015,
pp. 1–112., doi:10.1002/aehe.20067.
10. Roger Saul & Casey Burkholder (2020) Intellectualizing whiteness as a response to campus racism: some concerns, Ethnic and
Racial Studies, 43:9, 1636-1653, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2019.1654116
11. Rowley, Erin. “Diversity Graduation Requirement for UW Undergraduates Approved.” UW News, 3 June 2013,
www.washington.edu/news/2013/06/03/diversity-graduation-requirement-for-uw-undergraduates-approved/.
12. Williams, Janelle L., and Robert T. Palmer. A Response to Racism: How HBCU Enrollment Grew in the Face of Hatred. Rutgers
Center for Minority Serving Institutions, 2 June 2020, vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/98987.
 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

● How does attending a “liberal” university excuse students from

attending to their own biases and racist actions?
● In what ways do structural systems need to change to be more
inclusive, welcoming, and anti-racist?
● In the context of campus racism, what elements are necessary in
having a productive conversation about issues? In what ways have
you seen UW do well or fall short in crafting safe spaces for
meaningful discussion?
● If you are comfortable, would you want to share any of your
experiences with campus racism - including student &
administrative response?
● Why has Greek Life not been abolished?