When a noose turned up on the campus of Duke University recently, some were shocked. Many, however — particularly those who had had the experiences of students or faculty of color on a predominantly White campus (PWI) — were not.
As Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, chair of the Department of Sociology at Duke, pointed out, the issue is not a Duke problem. Nor is it a University of Mississippi problem or an Oklahoma University problem. It is an American problem, with the attitudes prevalent across the country being evident in the campus climate.
Take, for instance, Texas A&M University, which is historically regarded as being an institution for conservative White heterosexual Christian males, despite the fact that it is a public institution. Texas A&M is not regarded as an inclusive environment and, with campaigns like “Keep Texas A&M Normal” springing up on T-shirts, many students seem to make no apologies for the lack of inclusion.
What is unique, Bonilla-Silva said, is that people tend to want to think of racism as being a lower-class problem, unique to those without education or sufficient exposure to diversity. But when it shows up on campuses like Duke and many other flagships around the country, it becomes difficult to continue to paint the mindset as relegated to a small component of society.
Dr. Tonya Driver, associate director of multicultural services at Texas A&M, and Dr. Tammie Preston-Cunningham, associate director of student activities, said that Black students they surveyed felt three times the need to minimize their racial identity on campus and reported daily or weekly instances in which they felt uncomfortable because of other students’ reactions towards them.
Such a hostile environment would be difficult for anyone to navigate.
For many Black students on PWI campuses, said Driver, students minimized their experiences and tried to ignore some of the maltreatment they faced (such as being subjected to songs like “pick a bale of cotton” on student government association trips). Some students, Driver said, convinced themselves that they had “signed up for this when [they] decided to come” to a White campus. And many are leery of speaking out against some of the microaggressions, because they don’t want to be seen as always “playing the race card,” said Driver.
