Gender studies

Racism

Sociology

Archaeology

Pedagogy

Multicultural education

Gene

Philosophy

Political science

Geography

Framing (construction)

Critical race theory

Chemistry

White supremacy

Space (punctuation)

Linguistics

Racialization

Multiculturalism

Curriculum

Biochemistry

White (mutation)

Race (biology)

American Behavioral Scientist

In this paper, we examine the academy as a specific case of the racialization of space, arguing that most colleges and universities in the United States are in fact historically white colleges and universities (HWCUs). To uncover this reality, we first describe the dual relationship between space and race and racism. Using this theoretical framing, we demonstrate how seemingly “race neutral” components of most American universities (i.e., the history, demography, curriculum, climate, and sets of symbols and traditions) embody, signify, and reproduce whiteness and white supremacy. After examining the racial reality of HWCUs, we offer several suggestions for making HWCUs into truly universalistic, multicultural spaces.

Historically White Colleges and Universities: The Unbearable Whiteness of (Most) Colleges and Universities in America