Diversify Faculties, But How?

Image from and available at Inside Higher Ed

The protests that have occurred on college campuses this semester have included demands that institutional leaders take steps to create environments that are more sensitive to the needs of students from various racial and ethnic backgrounds.  In recent weeks, some of these demands have grown in number and complexity; some to the point of making students the targets of criticism if not derision.  One demand, however, seem consistent from one institution to the next – that faculty reach particular racial percentages within a specified period of time.  The University of Louisville’s President made such a commitment in the wake of an ethnic offense of his own making.  Similarly Brown announced recently that it would double the number of its faculty from previously underrepresented groups by the 2024-25 academic year.  Such commitments are laudable and other higher education institutions likely will make similar pledges if they have not already done so.  Yet, I am left to wonder from where are eligible faculty candidates to fill all of these new opportunities supposed to come given the historically short supply of qualified candidates.

The National Council for Educational Statistics reports that African Americans represent only 7.4 percent of the PhD’s awarded in 2010.  That number is only slightly better than the previous 10 years, when African Americans represented only 6.6 percent of awarded PhD’s.  The news is similar for Hispanics and Latinos who account for 5.8 percent of awarded PhD’s in 2010, which is only slightly better than the 4.7 percent figure from the previous decade ago.  These percentages remained essentially flat despite the fact that, according to the NCES, “the number of doctor's degrees awarded increased by 60 percent for Hispanic students and by 47 percent for Black students” from 2000 to 2010.

I think it is admirable that universities are committed to reaching particular percentages of black or Hispanic faculty by certain dates, but it seems to me that they all are going to be beating the same bushes to find only a few eligible candidates.  In responding to student demands to diversify faculties, some institutions have highlighted the problem of the so-called leaky pipeline of minority students from undergraduate to graduate school.  That is, many of these students do not contemplate academic careers as undergraduates and thus do not pursue post-baccalaureate education.  Some colleges and universities have made promises to try to fix the leaky pipeline, but that ignores a more fundamental problem of getting minority students to college in the first place.

In my home state of Illinois, blacks and African Americans are 17.5 percent of the school-aged student population while Hispanics and Latinos are 25.1 percent.  In the meantime, the University of Illinois, the state’s flagship public university, reports  that out of its current overall student population, 4.9 percent are African American while 8.1 percent Hispanic.  Admittedly this is not an according to Hoyle scientific statistical analysis, but I think it suggests a larger yet relevant issue, namely students need to succeed academically in their K-through-12 education in order to matriculate in and graduate from college before they can begin a graduate school program or contemplate a career as an academic scholar.

Colleges and universities are going to have to start facing some harsh realities about where future academics come from if they are serious about diversifying their faculties.  A more holistic approach that includes improving K-through-12 education that involves institutions of higher education is needed, otherwise any efforts toward faculty diversification will be little more than window-dressing that helps none of the populations colleges are trying to serve.

Super Bowl 2014: Sometimes a Mexican Has to Bet on Black

I have written before about the presence of Mexican-descent players in the NFL, particularly at the quarterback position. Just yesterday I learned that two members of the Broncos offensive line, Louis Vazquez and Manny Ramirez, part of an offense that is arguably the best in football, are of Mexican ancestry. Here in my hometown of Chicago, we have Roberto Garza, a Pro-Bowl center who is the child of Mexican immigrants, who has played here for years. This is a remarkable progression of Mexican-descent football players moving up in size from kickers, to quarterbacks, to being some of the biggest and toughest guys on the field. I think this sets a great precedent for young Latinos, showing them that they can be involved in the game at any level, at any position. Unlike last Superbowl where Mexicans weren't even invited to be part of the ads, even one where you think they would be prominently featured, given its focus on agriculture in the United States.

While my Mexican roots play prominently in my identity and how I view the world, I have other allegiances that motivate me as well. As someone with darker skin, I have found myself the recipient of discrimination and stereotypes based merely on my physical appearance. From being stopped by the police, searched multiple times by Homeland Security agents when traveling, being questioned about where I am from despite being U.S.-born, and being told how well I speak my native language English,  I have come to realize that dividing people by race is fundamental to American culture. And while Latinos like myself are sometimes treated as a distinct race, I believe that in our country it still really comes down to Black or White. As W.E.B. DuBois, the famed, Harvard educated, African American sociologist stated, "the problem of the color line," is the one that characterizes the United States. Striving for racial justice for all people, not just Mexicans or Latinos, then, can take the front seat in my worldview.

Race has come to be a big part of the narrative of this Superbowl with the interview that Richard Sherman gave after the Seattle Seahawks won the NFC Championship. First, there was this:

Actually, Latinos were slighted, because they were first on the scene when Spanish speaking media gave Sherman a lengthier, yet similar interview moments before the Andrews segment:

Twitter immediately erupted with racist views about the interview:

People were so put off by the fact that a Black man would behave with such bravado, that they vowed to root for the Broncos, and cited the clean cut and well-mannered Peyton Manning as a reason for doing so. This obviously set up a narrative of Black vs. White, "thuggish" behavior vs. being appropriate and polite.

Manning certainly is likeable:

But, people seem to forget that football is an aggressive, adrenaline-filled, violent and competitive sport, and even good old well-mannered Southern-folk have inappropriate temper tantrums:

I have to wonder if it just isn't that shocking for a White quarterback to berate a Black offensive linemen.

Other elite black athletes from violent, aggressive, and competitive supports have also become notorious because of their behavior:

We tolerate it to an extent, but when it crosses a perceived line, such as potentially threatening a White woman (Erin Andrews), or calling into question inconsistencies in U.S. policies, we rush to silence these points of view:

  

This despite the legitimacy of these views and the well-thought out ways in which they are articulated.

 

So, while I didn't have a strong vested interest in the outcome of the game initially, I think from a racial justice perspective (if it has to be racial-and I didn't say it did, but others do), this Mexican is betting on Black. Go Seahawks. 

Besides, who would trust a guy like this?

Obama, School Discipline, Demanding the Back Door No More

This summer I had the privilege of teaching a course for our university’s summer bridge program. This program aims to help entering freshman successfully make the transition to college by spending six weeks prior to the start of the academic year taking workshops on writing, reading, study skills, and personal well being. The students also enroll in a tuition-free academic course for credit. Students receive the help of tutors, peer mentors, program staff and faculty during their time with us.

Students ultimately enroll on a voluntary basis, although they are recruited from a pool of students who did not place at the college level in either math or reading on their placement exams. Many of the students who are identified as candidates for the summer program come from Chicago Public Schools, which is roughly 90% Black and Latino, with a majority of students receiving free or reduced lunch, an indicator of poverty. While our urban high school system has made some improvements in recent years, increasing graduation and college-going rates, a significant number of CPS graduates still arrive to college not fully prepared to engage in college-level work. The students themselves are motivated and hardworking, but they are often simultaneously working to deal with numerous challenges that are personal, familial, cultural, and societal. All of these combined make doing well in school quite hard. This is fairly typical of most large urban school districts-I’ve lived and worked in schools in New York City, Boston, and Oakland, and the story is similar across them all. 

While these deeply engrained patterns across many locales suggest that something systematic and structural is happening that prevents young people from getting the academic preparation they require to successfully attend college, the cultural narrative to which we hold on as Americans is individualistic. If someone is not doing well in school, the responsibility rests squarely on his or her shoulders. Sometimes, when we are in a generous mood, we will lay blame on the individual skills of parents or the individual dedication or intelligence of teachers. Rarely do we acknowledge broader patterns and societal problems such as the unequal funding of schools that makes teachers’ jobs harder, the lack of job opportunities in certain neighborhoods that force parents to send their children to school hungry, or the disproportionate policing and incarceration of certain groups that ultimately change how families look and what they can accomplish. And the looming cloud that hovers above all of this is race, as it is largely Blacks and Latinos who are affected by limited resources and chances.

During my summer bridge class, which was an Introduction to Latino Studies, I introduced the idea that social policies, capitalism, and international politics have a lot to do with who migrates to the U.S. and how they fare once here. If we as a nation had economic interests, like bananas, in a Latin American country such as Guatemala, we might protect those interests with military force, which in turn would destabilize a country by damaging infrastructure and also affecting work opportunities. This would lead people to leave the country to a place with more stability and opportunity, such as the U.S. Depending upon how these already damaged individuals were received by the U.S., either as legal migrants or refugees, or as undocumented individuals without legal status, would be how they fared once here.

Given that these were freshman, I stepped away from this large political and historical discussion for a moment. I tried to make an analogy to show how structural issues affect individual behavior. I turned to the issue of dropouts among Latinos in this class where 13 of the 14 students were Latino. My hope was to connect them to the idea of structuralism more directly. I noted how many Chicago Public Schools high schools have metal detectors, armed security guards or police, and very strict disciplinary policies. I asked the students whether these felt welcoming or whether in some ways those policies and practices could even encourage dropout rather than discourage disruptive behavior. After all, who would want to be in a place so unwelcoming, so prison-like? Better to be at home or on the street, where you could feel free. I brought my point home by arguing that education should be liberating and that it was ironic that schools could be so limiting. I then told them that I hoped college could be a place where they could regain a sense of freedom through learning. Inspiring, I thought.

A student in the front row seemed to be taking what I was saying in and then shared an epiphany she had while I was talking. “You know you’re right. They don’t have metal detectors or guards here.” “Exactly,” I said, thinking that I had helped facilitate that connection for her, but then she continued. “That is really crazy. How can they just allow us to wander around here without checking us?” An interesting piece of our cultural narrative of meritocracy, “you get what you deserve,” is that at the end of the day, we all believe it, even if we are on the receiving end of inequality.

Yesterday, President Obama gave a speech on disciplinary policies in schools. He emphasized that zero-tolerance policies, the use of police, and expulsions and suspensions are not effective means to deal with student misbehavior. He then called for approaches to discipline that are more in line with what is needed in schools, that would restore a sense of justice and fairness for students. I agree that when student behavior is problematic that it should be dealt with in this constructive way; however, I disagree with the premise that a primary focus of schools should remain about behavioral discipline and control. Keeping the focus of schools on exerting power, even soft power, over students does little to create schools that are places for true growth, learning, and enlightenment.  This will not create a space where inequalities that exist outside the school can be addressed.

When I was studying social work in California I did my internship at a special public school in Oakland for children identified as having behavioral problems. In my social work classes I was learning about the power of providing unconditional positive regard to clients, about redressing disparities in resources, and about using my knowledge and skills as a way of giving power to others. One day, a young African American boy who was nine years old refused to sit in his chair after feeling that a teacher had treated him unfairly. While I don’t remember the details, I do remember feeling that perhaps he was overlooked for whatever recognition he initially wanted. In a span of less than five minutes, two special education teachers, three master’s level social workers, and the principal were called into the room, all because he would not sit down. Once the principal arrived, he shouted at her, probably used an expletive or two, which I can’t remember for sure, but at no point did he threaten harm or raise a hand or object toward anyone. The principal had a two-way radio and commanded that her secretary call the police. Literally within seconds, a police officer arrived, barked some orders at this nine-year old, twisted his arm behind his back and handcuffed him to a chair. 

I remember being fairly new at this time and standing by feeling inept as an intern during this whole incident. In our social worker meeting later that day I mustered the courage to say that what I saw was not right that it just foretold the life that this young black person would have in West Oakland; that the behavior did not justify that type of force. We were social workers, after all, who should have been working against such an injustice. I was met with some sheepish stares, but the ultimate response from my supervisor, was that sometimes these things just happened this way.

I think my worry about the fanfare around Obama’s speech and the accompanying paper that was put out by the Department of Education and Secretary Arne Duncan, is that it takes for granted that behavioral problems in school “just happen” as a regular occurrence. They don’t rethink the stresses such as poverty, joblessness, homelessness and racism that might contribute to behavior problems. The paper and the speech really just say, “don’t be so harsh.”

An area for hope is that when you really engage students and offer them an understanding and caring environment with plenty of resources, you can remove all of the metal detectors and security guards and have no problems at all. As a matter of fact, with the right types of resources you can overcome huge challenges. Our summer bridge program does just that as it has retention and graduation rates that beat our averages for our general student body. And this is not only true at our school. Likely, it would not be only true for college students either. After all, our students were once CPS students, and treating them more human and with more respect, along with providing them a great education helps them achieve great things.

The Not So Friendly (Racial) Skies of Mexico

Vicente Guerrero

I recently spent 8 days in the city of Oaxaca in Mexico. The time off gave me some time to recharge my batteries, but also to think about some of the issues related to education, society, culture, and identity that I care about in my personal and professional life. In the next few posts I plan to explore some of the experiences I had and place them in the larger context of the Latino/Mexican experience of ethnic identity, race, socioeconomic class, and access to resources. My own study in the social sciences was really motivated by this type of exploration and connecting of the personal to larger society, a process that famed sociologist C. Wright Mills called engaging with the “sociological imagination.”

Here I will start with race. This topic jumped to the forefront because days before my family was scheduled to return to the United States news about our airline, AeroMexico, grabbed the headlines. AeroMexico hired the advertising firm Catatonia (the irony of their name being so close to catatonic, or in a paralyzed stupor, is not lost here) to construct a new publicity campaign. The firm put out a call for actors and brazenly stated that “nadie moreno” (no dark-skinned people) should apply. The ad further stated that the applicants should have a “Polanco look,” referring to an upscale and mostly White neighborhood in Mexico City. AeroMexico had the sense to distance itself from the comments by stating that it had nothing to do with the content of the call, and it soon thereafter apologized, regardless of their responsibility in creating the ad.

The incident reminded me of an experience I had teaching graduate students in a study abroad course in Mexico. The course I co-taught focused on adolescent development and the adaptation of immigrant students, mainly Latinos, in the American school system. We had an opportunity to see some immigrant sending communities in Mexico, visit local schools, and meet with youth development workers there. This gave us a better sense of the experiences that Mexican immigrant students arrived with in the United States.

During a visiting lecture by a Mexican professor of sociology who focused on youth, one of the students asked the role that race and class played in the lives of students in Mexico. Up to that point, he focused more broadly on issues of Mexican culture, the close-knit nature of Mexican families, gender relations, and the adherence to traditional Catholic values. The professor, a man in his late-sixties, with snow-white hair, light hazel eyes, and a sartorial presence that would fit in at any elite university campus in the world, said that this was an interesting question, but not really relevant. He said that it was understandable that an American student would be concerned about race given our long history of racial tension stemming from slavery. Unlike the U.S., he said that Mexico abolished slavery early in its history. Mexico also had a long history of mestizaje or racial mixing, such that races in Mexico were hard to distinguish.

The same student who asked the initial question, who himself was of Mexican-descent, posed the follow-up, “In my own experience I have seen that Mexicans discrimante against other Mexicans with darker skin, and even use the derogatory term indio (Indian) to insult dark-skinned people.” The professor responded, “Well, that is not really racism. After all, how, if most Mexicans are mestizos and have indigenous ancestry, could they be racist? Classist? Perhaps. There are many poor people in Mexico. But, it would be impossible for someone with such heritage to be racist.” And the light-skinned professor ended the conversation there.

Race has been an ever-present part of Mexico’s history as writer Gregory Rodriguez documented in his book, “Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans, and Vagabonds.” The title alone evokes the complicated ancestry of Mexico’s citizens. Racial categorizations were present throughout colonial Mexico, such as indios (Indians/Indigenous people), Negros (blacks) mulattoes (those of mixed black and white heritage), mestizos (those of mixed indigenous and white heritage), criollos (those of Spanish heritage born in Mexico) and the españoles (Spaniards living in Mexico, but born in Spain). This complicated racial system of classification, not surprisingly was mapped closely to social class hierarchies. It was complicated further as many races intermarried, seen by the use of so many categories. The categorizations still exist today, but are used much less frequently as a larger Mexican identity has taken hold.

In the 1920’s, Jose Vasconcelos, a philosopher and Mexico’s first secretary of education, proclaimed the Mexican people a “cosmic race,” a race of the future, given their willingness to intermarry. He claimed that this mixture would create power, almost through a process of natural selection of the best attributes of all races and through the creation of harmony and commonality among all people. Mexico’s mestizos would thus become a model for what the whole globalized world would eventually become. An important side note is that some saw Vasconcelos as racist himself and that his ideal of a raza cosmica was just a way for him to justify the whitening of darker races.

Mexico’s unique history has allowed it to forget how race permeates its society. It abolished slavery very early in its history when Vicente Guerrero issued a decree emancipating Mexico’s slaves in 1829. Guerrero, the second president of Mexico, had African ancestry, with his father Pedro being an African Mexican. Perhaps it was Guerrero’s fervent nationalism, placing Mexico first, even before his own father who did not support Mexican independence that allows Mexicans to set aside his race. His famous quote, the motto of the Mexican state that bears his name, is “Mi patria es primero.”

Benito Juarez

Similarly, Benito Juarez ascended to the presidency, being of indigenous Zapotec heritage, but again it is his Mexican identity and nationalism that is embraced by Mexicans, with only a secondary acknowledgement of his background; and if anything, the election of these two historical Mexican heroes is used as evidence to show that Mexico is not racist. You would be hard-pressed, however, to find another Mexican president with skin as dark as these men or with similar ancestries.

My trip to Oaxaca’s airport early on a Sunday morning confirmed the relationship between race and power in Mexico. State and federal police were heavily patrolling many of the streets. I imagine that similar to the United States, that civil service jobs provide a path to upward mobility for lower income Mexicans. Notably, the overwhelming majority of the dozens of officers I saw on our taxi ride had deep bronzed hues, jet-black hair, and indigenous features that gave little evidence of racial mixing.

As we entered the terminal the smell of poorly refined gasoline receded and we rolled our luggage across the marble floors to an airport restaurant to eat breakfast. Judging from accents, I assumed many of my fellow diners to be Mexican nationals. We all ordered breakfasts that were triple the price of what you would find in Oaxaca’s center. We wore our souvenirs of hand-woven shirts and blouses accented with indigenous designs. We tapped away on our smartphones, probably recounting to friends the tour we had just taken of one of the poorest regions of Mexico. The attendant called us to board and we entered the AeroMexico plane bound for Mexico City, affirming the Polanco look of its clientele.