Black students’ narratives of diversity and inclusion initiatives and the campus racial climate: An interest-convergence analysis.

Lewis, Kaleea R.; Shah, Payal P.

This qualitative study examines how Black undergraduate students attending a predominately White institution (PWI) assess and interpret their university’s diversity and inclusion initiatives given their everyday experiences with campus-based racism. Using critical race theory (CRT) this article illuminates how Black students at a PWI interpret their university’s implementation of diversity and inclusion initiatives. The article illustrates how the students interpreted the rationale behind the university’s implementation of the diversity and inclusion initiatives, questioned who benefits from the implementation of the initiatives, and called attention to how the ineffectiveness of the PWIs initiatives impacted their sense of belonging. By employing the concept of interest-convergence as an analytical tool, this article used the students’ narratives to illustrate what happens when initiatives aimed at promoting a more equitable and inclusive campus racial climate converge with the interests of an institution that centers Whiteness. The findings from this study illustrate the ways in which White supremacy undergirds the university’s implementation of its diversity and inclusion initiatives and the reality it creates for Black students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

College Students; Diversity; Narratives; Students; Black People; Educational Measures; Racial and Ethnic Attitudes; Racial and Ethnic Differences; Racism; Test Construction; Adulthood (18 yrs & older); Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs); Male; Female

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 2021, Vol 14, Issue 2, p189

1938-8926

Journal

10.1037/dhe0000147