Selling Graduation: Higher Education and the Loaning of Liberation

While the costs to attend college continue to rise exponentially, a bachelor’s degree is held up as required for economic stability within the U.S. and across the globe. With drastic disparities in earning potentials after graduation reduced by racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ableism, and related structural disparities, the value of a degree continues to be questioned, especially for historically marginalized communities. As the loan industrial complex continues to profit off of students, President Biden has offered $10,000 in student loan relief for some borrowers, though this action has been blocked by federal courts and is currently on hold. Whether Biden’s loan forgiveness comes to fruition or not, student loans remain an overwhelming burden, impacting capacity to accrue wealth, sustain economically, engage in family planning, or emerge from poverty. This conceptual analysis thus challenges the reliance on loans and future debt to fund higher education, connecting author financing narratives within structures designed to continue wealth extraction from communities of color. The paper concludes by arguing beyond student loan forgiveness to center an anti-capitalist purpose of higher education, based upon reparations and free college as sustainable pathways from an extractive higher education system

Race, Racism and Multiraciality in American Education

This research monograph analyses and describes what multiracial undergraduates have come to think of in terms of their own lives and issues of race and racism. Race is often construed by others as a mono-racial taxonomy (black/white, etc). This work describes the multiracial populations, discusses critical analysis of race and racial identity theory for tertiary education. Dynamics and suggestions for educators as well as a review of current literature. Index and robust bibliography. Academica Press is an independent scholarly press specializing in publishing monographs and reference material in the humanities and social sciences. We are particularly interested in producing works of scholarly interest English language studies, literary history and criticism ,drama, sociology, education and Irish studies. (Our dedicated imprint, Maunsel & Co., specializes in scholarly research in Irish studies.) We have recently developed projects in African and Afro-American research areas as well as Theology and Legal Studies.https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/education_books/1007/thumbnail.jp

They are still asking the "What are you?" question: race, racism, and multiracial people in higher education

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002The purpose of this study was to understand how multiracial undergraduate students think about race and racism, and to understand how education (K--12 and college) has prepared them to think critically about race, racism, and their multiracial identity. This is important because multiracial people are one of the fastest growing groups of people in the U.S., because our current thinking of race and racism is limited to historical monoracial groups, and because multiracial students offer a unique perspective into understanding the new faces of race and racism. Data collection consisted of interviews and semi-guided creative writings, and both were coded, and analyzed to generate recurrent themes. The results of this study indicate that these students had many K--12 teachers that did not address, much less validate, their multiraciality, presented a white Euro-centric curriculum, and ignored the often intense racial teasing they endured from their peers. While these students took different routes to college, they were able to learn for the first time about race and racism through courses, and through their first exposure to large communities of peers of color. While they continued to face racist rejection from many of their white peers and faculty, these students were able to find support from some of their peers of color, many of whom were activists around race issues. These students ultimately suggest that higher education can develop critical awareness of race, racism, and racial identity. One such method of supporting such development could occur if educators required a two pronged course series centered on global issues and personal narratives of diverse peoples. This requirement, coupled with infusing race and racism (and other excluded perspectives) into the curriculum, could serve to make higher education more supportive of complex multiple identities while educating about the dynamics of racism and other forms of social exclusion

Shut Up and Listen: Teaching Writing that Counts in Urban Schools

Less than fifty percent of African American students graduate from high school. Their educational failure is built into the racial structure of curriculum, standardized testing, teacher preparation programs, and even teacher recruitment pathways. Shut Up and Listen argues that African American students should be taught to navigate and resist the racism perpetuated in every aspect of society and schools, and that to do so requires the development and expression of a culturally-rooted voice as a foundation for multicultural, multilingual, democratic communities. Shut Up and Listen focuses on the voices, perspectives, and experiences of urban African American students - and on their writing, to remind educators of the power of voice, and how far schools are from addressing the reality of racism.https://digitalcommons.tacoma.uw.edu/education_books/1006/thumbnail.jp