Diversity has simultaneously become a pervasive goal and euphemism for racial differences in higher education. Although discourses within the postsecondary context highlight the positive impact of diversity on learning outcomes, organizational diversity efforts nevertheless warrant interrogation, given their possible obfuscation if not reification of, racial inequality and hierarchy. How do Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)—colleges and universities that are, by their very nature, racialized organizations within higher education—express and adapt to the challenges presented by diversity imperatives? In this article, we interrogate this question through systematic content analyses of visual and narrative materials from 31 HBCUs. Results highlight how these institutions often rely on the same mechanisms that characterize diversity within predominately White institutions (PWIs)—commodification of difference and disconnection from issues of racial equity. Consequently, diversity for HBCUs reflects the more general racialized inequality regime in higher education—a regime wherein these organizations largely reinforce ideas, such as racial capitalism, which have implications for racial equity. Our results and discussion hold implications for scholarship on organizational diversity but are also informative with regard to the capacity and constraints of racialized organizations to meet the needs and interests of those they serve.
Studies investigating college views largely neglect the Black advantaged and specifically the role of parents in the college search process. Drawing on interviews with upper, upper-middle-, and middle-class parents, this paper investigates how Black advantaged parents view their children’s college options. In an anti-black and credentialed society, parents contend with the consequences of where their children enroll in college and the names their degrees bear. Black advantaged parents’ views of their children’s college options reflect a set of dilemmas relative to college choices. As college graduates, parents recognize that degrees from HBCUs are weighed down by racial stigma and institutional anti-blackness. Fears about anti-black perceptions of HBCUs fuel parental concerns about racial discrimination post-graduation. Yet, parents also recognize that as students on historically white campuses their children are at risk of experiences with anti-black racism while enrolled in college. This article describes the challenge of antiblackness as multi-dimensional, impacting parents’ attention both to their children’s experiences as graduates and as students. This paper offers implications for black parenting, decision-making, and higher education.
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