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Welcome to The EDU Ledger! We’ve moved from Diverse: Issues In Higher Education.

Section: Opinion

Get and Give All You Can: Advice for New Graduate Students

It’s that time of year — new graduate students are setting foot on campuses across the nation hoping to gain knowledge and have new experiences that will help them progress in their careers. As a professor and adviser, I get really excited about new graduate students. They are usually wide-eyed, excited, and eager to get […]

August 10, 2009

Navigating the Racial Highway in America

If you want to have a good debate or scare people away, then start talking about race. The ‘race’ word is a powerful one in America’s lexicon and seems to bring out passionate feelings in us. It is a catalyst for both change and status quo. It is my thinking that the word race has brought […]

August 8, 2009

White Privilege: What if Henry Louis Gates had been White?

By now, most enlightened people have heard about the incident involving Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge, Mass., police. As a recap, the Cambridge police arrested the eminent scholar in front of his home. Just having returned from filming a PBS special in China, Gates, along with his Black taxi driver, were […]

July 23, 2009

Michael Jackson: A Transformative Human Being

Okay. I will confess that I was a huge Michael Jackson fan! From the time I was a teenager, I rabidly purchased all of his albums. To me, he was one of the greatest entertainers to live. To this very day, I still harbor that assessment. In fact, on the very evening of his passing […]

July 19, 2009

Racism, It’s Viral

“To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make monkey sounds.” That’s the photo caption of Michelle Obama speaking to her daughter Malia posted on Free Republic. Disclaimer on Free Republic: “Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government. ” For those of you who have argued vociferously […]

July 12, 2009

Paul Quinn College: To Save or Not to Save

Recently, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) voted to revoke Paul Quinn College’s accreditation, noting financial and academic problems. In the same breath, however, SACS acknowledged the excellent work being done by Paul Quinn’s president Michael Sorrell in recent years. Sorrell plans to appeal the SACS’s decision. The loss of accreditation at Paul […]

June 30, 2009

The Flawed Logic of Anti-affirmative Action Bake Sales

The Affirmative Action Bake Sale is used by conservative groups on college campuses to further polarize college campuses along racial lines using affirmative action as a hammer. Writing for Fox News, Wendy McElroy said, “Through Affirmative Action Bake Sales, conservative groups on campuses across America are satirically and peacefully spotlighting the injustice of AA programs that […]

June 24, 2009

Racial and Religious Extremism Rears Its Ugly Head

Last month, I wrote a column discussing the racial hostility, paranoia and potential violence that was increasing in America. A month earlier in April, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report that attempted to inform Americans about a potential upsurge in right wing extremist violence. While there are some who may continue to […]

June 23, 2009

HBCUs a “Land of the Lost”? I Don’t Think So

Today, I came across a blog post written by a colleague who has worked in the HBCU community for many years. He titled the post “Land of the Lost” — after the Sid and Marty Krofft TV show and more recently, the movie. At first glance, I thought the post was a review of the movie […]

June 22, 2009

Black Males Need the “Old School Approach”

The behavior of some Black males has always been called into question. Adjectives like intimidating, aggressive and rude have been labels that have been affixed to us for as long as I can remember. It seems at times in today’s one-strike-and-you’re-out society that these aforementioned adjectives trump our education and our socio-economic status. It is […]

June 15, 2009

Trading an Education for Thug Life

In the past several weeks, we have witnessed “two Black men in a Cadillac” being accused of kidnapping a White woman. The truth was that the woman had voluntarily gone to Disney World and could not tell her husband. He would find it hard to believe that she would go to Disney. It was easier, […]

June 14, 2009

Understanding the “Tools of Whiteness” (Notes from AERA, Part 2)

A common figure in teacher education is that roughly 90 percent of public school teachers in the United States identify as White. As the percentage of ethnic minority students continues to rise, teacher training and professional development often include diversity training or a focus on multicultural education. Alternative routes into teaching such as Teach for America, […]

June 13, 2009

Intellect and Discipline: The Keys to a Successful Academic Career

I have a good friend who is the most brilliant individual I know. He has a mind that most of us would kill for — at least most academics would. He is well-read, possessing a deep, almost stunning, knowledge of diverse subjects. He thinks in innovative and refreshing ways. He also has the “proper” educational […]

June 8, 2009

Diversity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Why is it that people assume that Historically White Institutions are diverse, yet in the same breath assume that Historically Black Institutions are not? And, when I say people — I mean all kinds of people — of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. If you take a look at the nation’s Historically White Institutions (HWIs), […]

June 4, 2009

It is High Time for a Black Woman on the High Court

“Make me do it.” -Barack Hussein Obama The relevance of the above challenge issued by then-Senator Barack Obama will soon become obvious. For now, let me first congratulate Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s nominee for the soon-to-be vacant seat of retiring high court Associate Justice David Souter. Obama’s historic nomination of the first Latina to the […]

June 1, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor: A Fabulous Choice For The Supreme Court

Even before she was considered to be the front runner as the next Supreme Court Justice, there were rumblings from political conservatives about the “problems” with Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Now that she has been officially nominated by President Obama, certain segments of the right have come out swinging and kicking. One could argue that they are fouling […]

June 1, 2009

Reframing the School Safety Debate (Notes from AERA, Part 1)

Last month I participated in the 2009 American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting along with thousands of other educational researchers. Each year the meeting is an incredibly stimulating time for me, especially since it comes late in the academic year. One element of the meeting that always stimulates my own intellectual work is hearing […]

May 27, 2009

Are a Boy’s Chances Better at Becoming a Sports Star or a Doctor?

I often ask young children, especially boys, what they want to do when they reach adulthood. One of the most repeated answers is that they want to become professional athletes. The two primary sports that they have an interest in, and not to my surprise, are basketball and football. It seems that basketball almost has […]

May 27, 2009