Chapter 21: Scratching and Surviving: Critical Race Theory and Being a “Blackademic” in the Academy

As critical race and legal studies scholar Derrick Bell (1992) noted, racism is a permanent feature of U.S society that affects all systems and forms of life. Higher education is a system that was founded on the exclusion of lower-class citizens and people of Color¹ for the enjoyment and progress of the white elite (Thelin, 2011). According to college president and higher education scholar M. Christopher Brown II and educational sociologist T. Elon Dancy II, predominantly white institutions (PWIs) are higher education institutions in which 50% or more of the enrolled student population is white (Brown II & Dancy II, 2010). Additionally, Brown II and Dancy II (2010) note that PWIs may also be referred to as historically white institutions (HWIs) due to the overwhelmingly routine exclusion of people of Color from these colleges and universities prior to the implementation of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Therefore, for the remainder of the document, we will refer to PWIs as HWIs to highlight the history of racism, prejudice, and discrimination faced by people of Color in higher education.