Confronting Equity and Inclusion Incidents on Campus: Lessons Learned and Emerging Practices

289 Pages·2020·5.189 MB·English

by  Hannah Oliha-Donaldson (editor)

CONFRONTING EQUITY AND INCLUSION
INCIDENTS ON CAMPUS
This timely book unpacks critical incidents occurring on college and uni-
versity campuses across the nation. Featuring the voices of faculty, staff, and
students, this edited volume offers an interdisciplinary exploration of con-
temporary diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenges at the intersec-
tions of race, class, gender, and socioeconomic status, while illuminating
lessons learned and promising practices. The narratives in this book articu-
late contemporary challenges, unpack real events, and explore both failed
and successful responses, ultimately shining a spotlight on emerging solu-
tions and opportunities for change.
Marrying theory and practice, Confronting Equity and Inclusion Incidents
on Campus provides a framework for building more inclusive campuses that
embody equity and the values of community. A key resource for profession-
als, students, and scholars of higher education, this volume provides under-
standing for fostering educational spaces that cultivate belonging among
all members of higher education communities, including those historically
underrepresented and marginalized.
Hannah Oliha-Donaldson is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department
of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas, USA.

CONFRONTING EQUITY AND
INCLUSION INCIDENTS ON CAMPUS
LESSONS LEARNED AND EMERGING
PRACTICES
Edited by
Hannah Oliha-Donaldson
First published 2021
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Oliha-Donaldson, Hannah, editor.
Title: Confronting equity and inclusion incidents on campus : lessons
learned and emerging practices / edited by Hannah Oliha-Donaldson.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020025042 (print) | LCCN 2020025043 (ebook) | ISBN
9780367210120 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367210144 (paperback) | ISBN
9780429264825 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: College environment--United States. | Minority college
students--United States. | Minority college teachers--United States. |
Discrimination in higher education--United States. | Educational
equalization--United Staets.
Classification: LCC LB2324 .C658 2021 (print) | LCC LB2324 (ebook) | DDC
378.1/982--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025042
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020025043
ISBN: 978-0-367-21012-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-21014-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-26482-5 (ebk)
Typeset in New Baskerville
by SPi Global, India
Contents
Preface viii
Hannah Oliha-Donaldson
Part I: Introduction 1
1 Contesting Marginality and Traditions of Silence: Resisting
Diversity’s Failures and Assumed Centers, and Setting the Course
for Change 3
Hannah Oliha-Donaldson
2 A Genealogy of “Diversity”: From the 1960s to Problematic
Diversity Agendas and Contemporary Activism 15
Hannah Oliha-Donaldson
3 Dismantling the Trifecta of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
The Illusion of Heterogeneity 34
Tina M. Harris
Part II: Interpersonal Context: Critical Conversations 57
4 Scholar-Mothers Navigating Maternal Microaggressions
in the Academy: “You Should Be Home Snuggling Your Baby” 59
Lisa S. Kaler, Leah N. Fulton, Zer Vang, and Michael J. Stebleton
vi CONTENTS
5 Managing the Classroom as a Military Veteran and Graduate
Instructor: “Please Don’t Call Me By My First Name” 79
Dianna N. Watkins-Dickerson
Part III: Organizational Context: Pedagogical Limitations and
Opportunities 95
6 Pedagogical Failures: Challenging Assumed Centers and Engendering
Community Through Personal and Pedagogical Reflexivity 97
Meggie Mapes
7 Envisioning Equity and Inclusion Through Art 108
Audra Buck-Coleman and Rashawn Ray
Part IV: Organizational Context: Becoming a Diversity Worker,
Planning for Change, and Crafting Pathways Forward 125
8 Muslim Students Combatting Institutional Inertia with
Participatory-Action Research 127
Saugher Nojan
9 BIPOC Students Using Polyvocal Narratives, Co-Witnessing,
and Spectral Engagement: “Seen" But Not Heard 141
Meshell Sturgis, Brian J. Evans, Anjuli Brekke,
Andrea Delgado, and Erin Lee
10 Becoming Professors of Equity at San Diego State University:
Reflecting on Professional Seminars on Implicit Biases and
Microaggressions 159
Yea-Wen Chen, Feion Villodas, Felicia Black, Sureshi Jayawardene,
Roberto Hernandez, Daniel L. Reinholz, and Thierry Devos
Part V: Organizational Context: Dealing with Organizational
Culture and Climate 171
11 Experiencing Symbolic and Linguistic Violence at Predominately
White Institutions as Student and Professor 173
Angela N. Gist-Mackey
CONTENTS vii
12 Accented Others, Women, and Immigrants: A Conversation
about Institutional Stalling and Dismissal 188
Anne C. Dotter and Cécile Accilien
Part VI: Community and Structural Challenges: Managing the
Effects of Social Tensions 201
13 ‘The Blackface Incident’: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
under Fire at a Southern Women’s College 203
Jade C. Huell and Crystal U. Davis
14 The Ripple Effect of Bias, Hate, and Activism: A Nation
in Crisis, a Campus in Turmoil, and Pathways Forward 219
Cherese F. Fine, Kendra D. Stewart-Tillman,
DeOnte T. Brown, and Jerad E. Green
Part VII: Conclusion 239
15 Dealing with the Past and Preparing for “Diversity’s” Future:
“Wicked” Problems and Multilevel Solutions for Higher Education 241
Hannah Oliha-Donaldson
Editor 258
Contributors 259
Index 265
Preface
Hannah Oliha-Donaldson
I remember the day the idea for this book was conceived. It had been
emerging at the periphery of my mind for years, but I never quite took hold
of it. I knew I was confused about the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion
(DEI) issues in higher education and by ongoing challenges in a suppos-
edly “post-racial” and gender-affirming epoch. I was struck, over and over
again, by a peculiar dialectical tension: passion for DEI exhibited by some,
and a deep-seated apathy so evident in others. It seemed there were two
universes in academia. There was the universe where we claimed to be crit-
ically inclined, democratically oriented, and socially engaged, marching to
the beat of equity in all its forms. Then there was the universe that was
actually real, where success was still determined by race, ethnicity, gender,
socioeconomic status, religion, national geographic origin, and language,
among others. There was clearly an invisible and unspoken, yet ever-pres-
ent assumed center around which those on the periphery pivoted and
maneuvered. All of these things were pictures in my mind that I looked at
over and over again for clues to answer the fundamental DEI question: how
do we move forward? How do we become the institutions we claim we are
on our websites and in mission and diversity statements? How do we move
from word, which we are very good at speaking and writing, into deed, an
area in which many, if not most, institutions struggle (Adserias, 2017)?
My questions became a whirlwind when a ricochet of events began to
take over national news, campus-wide forums, and personal dialogues in
2015. One after another, stories of prejudice on campuses across the nation
began to emerge, launching a national dialogue on diversity, equity, and
inclusion in American higher education. The tipping point came when, as
I watched the news, a video was shown of a fraternity singing a racist song
at the University of Oklahoma (McLaughlin, 2015). As a singer myself, I
PREFACE ix
know that one is often told to sing with gusto, as a demonstration of pas-
sion. These young men sang with an abundance of gusto and conviction,
“There will never be a n___ at SAE…You can hang him from a tree, but
he'll never sign with me. There will never be a n___ at SAE.” They sang this
to the tune of the innocent nursery rhyme, “If you’re happy and you know
it clap your hands.”
The image stopped me in my tracks. It wasn’t just the song they sang and
the emotions it rendered; it was the vision of “all-American,” ascriptively
white young men, in formal attire, doing the thing that students that looked
just like them assured me and others was reprehensible, prejudiced, and
beyond the scope of the twenty-first century. Every semester I heard this in
my classes from a new crop of students. Yet there I was, seeing a thing I could
not unsee. As the year progressed and incident after incident took place, the
idea at the edges of my mind took hold, and this volume was birthed.
In a season where debates over the “forgotten” or “left behind” white
American vie for air time alongside footage of and debates about police
brutality on black bodies (see Neville et al., 2016), the detainment of brown
bodies (young and old) on the U.S.–Mexico border, the ravages of misog-
yny and its performance through sexual violence directed at women, and
travel restrictions into the U.S. placed on Islamic nations, the debates are
spilling over into higher education.
Between the fall of 2016 to 2017, the Anti-Defamation League found
that white supremacist propaganda on campuses increased by 258% (Kerr,
2018). Further, there was an uptick in identity-based hate crimes across the
board. The U.S. Department of Education also found the number of
reported hate crimes on campuses across the nation increased by 25%
from 2015 to 2016 (Bauman, 2018). More than ever before, diversity poli-
cies and practices are under scrutiny, and campuses are being forced to
give an account of how they are answering the call for social justice in this
pivotal moment.
THE VISION FOR THIS VOLUME
Without a doubt, institutions are in a season of crisis that calls for focused
attention on DEI issues. By visiting websites and reviewing media, one sees
that campuses have perfected the art of rhetorically mobilizing inclusive
language, but the ruptures over the last few years illuminate the need for
answers and solutions for creating inclusive and equitable campuses, both
in word and deed. In response to this need, this text presents a collection of
narratives reflecting lived experiences in higher education. It features
failed diversity moments, the lessons they offer, and possibilities for engen-
dering change.