Diversity in Black Greek Letter Organizations by Wendy Marie Laybourn Devon R. Goss

Author:Wendy Marie Laybourn, Devon R. Goss [Wendy Marie Laybourn, Devon R. Goss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781351809399
Google: YxdWDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-04-17T03:37:20+00:00

Shifting Racial Landscape on Campus

Traditionally, the Black–white experience marks the racial landscape. For instance, Charles Gallagher (1995), by engaging Peggy McIntosh’s notion of white privilege, argues that collegiate whites are regularly invited to understand “race” through the lens of white/non-white competition for campus resources, such as scholarships, admission, campus spaces, and mentoring programs. In step with predominantly white institutions, majority white campus clubs and organizations, such as Greek-letter organizations, may facilitate these racial worldviews (Hughey 2010).

Recently, sociological research has called for attention to those who might fall in between or outside the Black–white racial binary. How scholars have conceptualized the position of other racial groups in the United States has varied. Some scholars conceptualize the racial landscape as a multi-layered racial hierarchy or racial continuum wherein other racial groups may act as honorary whites, such as being seen as a model minority (Bonilla-Silva 2004) or be triangulated as a racial group that falls somewhere between the dominance of whiteness and the subordination of Blackness (Kim 1999). Other scholars point out that Asians and Latinos often engage in and hold negative stereotypical views of Blacks and instead emphasize their commonality with whites (Lee and Bean 2004; McClain et al. 2006), and whites often view Asians and Latinos as more similar to them than Blacks (Gallagher 2004). This social distancing creates what can be thought of as a Black/non-Black racial divide in the United States (Warren and Twine 1997; Yancey 2003). Finally, other scholars postulate that it appears that there are certain conditions wherein people of color instead emphasize connectedness among non-whites, particularly when faced with similar types of discrimination or social isolation (Chutuape 2016; Kaufmann 2003). This kind of connectivity among people of color suggests a white/non-white racial binary may be another way to understand the racial landscape of the United States.

The larger debates in the sociological literature around which model of racial hierarchy fits the contemporary racial landscape the best raises questions about how racial stratification manifests on the contemporary college campus. Despite university claims of the importance of diversity, students find those claims do not often materialize (Harper and Hurtado 2007). In response to unwelcoming and alienating campus climates, as well as discriminatory and racist experiences, students of color often create their own counter-spaces (Solorzano et al. 2000). Racial and ethnic-specific organizations have been shown to provide students of color the opportunity to express and develop their racial identities, provide opportunities to engage in community service activities, advocate for their ethnic communities via institutional change, and connect with other students of their racial group (Harper and Quaye 2007; Inkelas 2004; Museus 2008). Pan-ethnic, multiracial, and multicultural organizations also provide students from multiple racial backgrounds the chance to come together to develop opportunities to engage in cross-racial discussions, participate in multicultural community service activities, and lessen racial divisions on campus (McCabe 2011). These student organizations also indicate how the racial hierarchy functions on college campuses, wherein students from various racial backgrounds, despite assumptions that different racial groups may have unique or separate interests on campus, feel a sense of linked fate that draws them together (Dawson 1994).

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