Challenging Racism in Higher Education: Promoting Justice

by Mark Chesler, Amanda E. Lewis, James Crowfoot

Challenging Racism in Higher Education provides conceptual frames for understanding the historic and current state of intergroup relations and institutionalized racial (and other forms of) discrimination in the U.S. society and in our colleges and universities. Subtle and overt forms of privilege and discrimination on the basis of race, gender, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, religion and physical ability are present on almost all campuses, and they seriously damage the potential for all students to learn well and for all faculty and administrators to teach and lead well. This book adopts an organizational level of analysis of these issues, integrating both micro and macro perspectives on organizational functioning and change. It concretizes these issues by presenting the voices and experiences of college students, faculty and administrators, and linking this material to research literature via interpretive analyses of people's experiences. Many examples of concrete and innovative programs are provided in the text that have been undertaken to challenge, ameliorate or reform such discrimination and approach more multicultural and equitable higher educational systems. This book is both analytic and practical in nature, and readers can use the conceptual frames, reports of informants' actual experiences, and examples of change efforts, to guide assessment and action programs on their own campuses.

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a graduate class on race and ethnicity in education, and while informative, this book was significantly drier than the other texts we read. The information covered in Challenging Racism presents a clear picture of the underrepresentation of minorities in higher education, but considering the multitude of literature on the topic, I was hoping for something with a faster pace and fresher outlook. The others present a lot of information, but I wish it had been presented in a more readable, engaging style.