Ending Institutional Racism in Education

Dover, M. A. (2020). Ending Institutional Racism in Higher Education. Academe Magazine Blog, American Association of Unviersity Professors. https://academeblog.org/2020/07/09/ending-institutional-racism-in-higher-education/

Recently Danielle Smith, executive director of the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers,  asked , “If you only have fifteen minutes to talk to a brand-new-to-the-topic mostly wealthy, white audience about racism/white supremacy culture and how this plays out in the organizations they lead . . . what would you include?”

In 2019, at an American Sociological Association plenary panel on racism in higher education, I asked these questions: “Is Bakke’s prescription for affirmative action still the law of the land? Should we still be talking about and fighting for affirmative action in higher education?” The reply to both questions was yes and that we should also focus on diversity and inclusion in general.

How can we conceptualize affirmative action and institutional racism in higher education? Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones, in an American Public Health Association  webinar  in June, said when there is “inaction in the face of need” that is disproportionately experienced by people of color, that is  institutional racism .