“Diversity” In The University
This article focuses on how the university reinforces institutional whiteness in curricula while appearing to maintain anti-racist goals. By studying terms like diversity and multicultural as well as the implication of a core university curriculum—or mainstream curriculum—, it becomes apparent in real-life applications of these ideas students of color are siloed in such a way that foster ethnic and racial enclaves. Chicano Studies and First Generation programs will be the points of departure for analysis of institutional whiteness, how it is and is not enforced in the university and what the outcome means for students of color. This article knowingly works in the no man’s land between the necessary argument for spaces for people of color and the idealistic miscegenation of academic material but, above all, this article argues for institutional ownership of whiteness and offers possibilities where people of all backgrounds can find representation without being othered.
Tabitha Benitez is an MA Candidate at St. John’s University.
Forms of Justice 