White Man's Habitus: A Case Study

One month, the family is struggling to pay for groceries and rent, the next they are all living in mansion, driving expensive cars, and eating at expensive restaurants. In White households, the expectancy to go through many stages of school and earn various degrees in order to achieve this level of living is more standard. “The percentage of associates degrees attained increased by a small amount over bachelors degrees attained by Blacks in the academic year of 2000-2001. In all of the masters degrees acquired, Blacks were accountable for 8%, and a small portion of first professional and doctoral degrees, only accounting for 7% and 5% of those. Whites were said to have obtained the highest number of degrees,” (Hoffman, 2204: 1). It is our goal to use our research to prove this point.

Companies and educational institutions greatly benefit from the guidelines of affirmative action because they profit from the different ideas, work styles, and contributions unique to each diverse individual. As quoted in Paul Connors’s compilation, Affirmative Action, President of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, addresses the importance of a diverse educational system by stating, “The experience of arriving on a campus to live and study with classmates from a diverse range of backgrounds is essential to students' training for this new world, nurturing in them an instinct to reach out instead of clinging to the comforts of what seems natural or familiar” (12-13). A statement by Southeastern Oklahoma State University further supports the idea that success in modern day society stems from diversity saying, “Our country is strong because of the rich diversity of our culture, not in spite of it” (Affirmative Action).

Is whiteness only a matter of skin pigmentation? Nyack (2007) questions what would happen if we were to see whiteness as more of an organizing principle. Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS), she explains, provides a radically different way to think about race and challenge whiteness as the universal norm. If, additionally, we think of whiteness as a social construct that includes white culture, ideology, racialization, experiences and emotions, we can understand that CWS “focuses on problematizing the normality of hegemonic whiteness which has allowed whites to deflect, ignore or dismiss their role, racialization and privilege in race dynamics”

Caucasian students as well as those that come from upper-class families, tend to be overrepresented (Kim, Y. K., & Sax, L. J. (2009), whereas people of color, in this case, immigrants, compose 5% of the immigrants that obtain a college degree (Williams, S. , & Ferrari, J. (2015). Those from the upper-class families seek the assistance of faculty and professors,

Chavella T. Pittman, research the conversations African Americans were having with the counterparts Carcusicans faculty members in a predominantly white university in his research he found there was a underrepresentation and distribution of African American with only 4.9%of tenuretrack

When I started this phenomenal journey of researching, African-American professionals in higher education, I never realized that indeed there was truth in the obstacles, restrictions and biases in their way that must be overcome. In this research paper we will highlight and discuss some of the reasons that African- American professionals faces in higher education and some of the resources, that can be used to dismantle the indifferences. The progress has been slow in the academic arena for African-Americans in higher education. It has being over two decades from 1980 to 2003 African Americans make up only 4.3% of full time faculty in Americans universities and since 2003 it as only gone up by 1.2%. Progression toward a goal to dismantle obstacles to academe life for African- American professionals is the only way to winning the battle in education (Schwarz et al 2010).

Faculty Development Today, “the lack of URM [underrepresented minority] promotion in academic medicine might be the result of bias, specifically the stereotype that minorities are inferior” (Nivet el al. 492). The first step in promoting diversification in the medical field is diversifying medical school faculties and administrations, but with these biases, stereotypes, and ethnic rankings, medical schools aren’t able to establish the range of cultures necessary for minority success in medicine. With fewer minority faculty members being acquired or retained, one leads to the conclusion that racial biases, segregation, and elitism still exist in medical schools, and these faculties continue to pursue the wants and needs of the majority and tend to dismiss the problem of diversity in the medical field. As mentioned in the article found in the Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, “In 2006, the percentage of full professors who were white was 84%; the percentage of full professors who were URMs was 4.2%” (Nivet el al. 492). Tenured

In some workplaces in the United States, there appears to be a lack of diversity amongst employees. Although it might not be intentional, an example of this can be seen in college campuses. “While the numbers of undergraduate and graduate students of color on college campuses have risen over the years, the growth in the numbers of faculty of color has lagged far behind” (Antonio, 2003; Villalpando & Delgado Bernal, as cited in Jayakumar, Howard, Allen, and Han, 2009). Having a more diverse faculty and staff would increase the sense of connection among others, as well as decrease the amount of privilege certain groups have over others. Employees would be able to see things from different types of perspectives, rather than one point of view. According to Nancy Cantor, a former college administrative officer in Michigan, "Diversity really is intellectual and social diversity, and that is what interdisciplinarity does.

William Apess was a Native American Methodist minister from Massachusetts with a voice that wanted to be heard. He was one of the first to call out racism against people of color and its ties to Christianity, as he was a very reglious man. Being that he was religious, he didn't see how there could be love from God and Christ but such bitter racism against Native Americans and slaves. His paper sermon "An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man", expresses his animosity and confusion towards the colonist, also known as the white people. William showed how hypocritical and unholy these colonist actually were, and this sermon opens your eyes more than ever before.

On 12/12/2015 at 22:28 hours, while on DWI patrol, I observed a white male matching the description of a male who fled on an officer just prior to my pedestrian stop. I activated my overhead lights and sirens and conducted a pedestrian stop at the intersection of Good Intent and First Ave.

First, the possible causes for this lack of diversity must be shown as to expose this structure of privilege here at Southwestern. One factor that plays a major role in the hiring of racial minorities especially at positions thought of as very professional, which professors fall under is how society defines professionalism. The way we visual the word professional in American society is very stigmatized and obviously benefits the dominant group. Most of the time we picture a white male body in a suit with short, straight hair and is well groomed. None of these indicators point to a minority body as being professional. This becomes a form of colorblind racism where the inequality of racial minorities is contributed to things that are not racial

A few of the leading universities are making a concerted effort to increase faculty diversity. One of the big names striving to make a difference is Yale. The university

The fight for Civil Rights in the United States has had a long history of influencing college admissions decisions, especially at selective colleges and universities. Considering a large racial preference in college admissions in the decades immediately following the Civil Rights Act was acknowledged as important to remedying more than two centuries of racial discrimination. In today’s world, it is generally accepted that having racially and ethnically diverse college campuses is desirable, but the question is how to achieve that objective fairly. Because attaining a college degree is a crucial element in achieving economic mobility, the time has come for class-based preference to become the accepted way to ensure that America’s colleges are lending opportunity to our most vulnerable citizens.

America is known to be the land of equal opportunities. However in “How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs” Rivera shows us how it is those from affluent backgrounds who actually have success in landing elite jobs. Rivera claims the job hiring process for higher paying jobs is unequal and influenced solely by one’s economic status which also explains how it is that the higher class stays at the top of the latter while most of the lower class remain stagnant. Although in the book Rivera focuses on institution’s bias towards one's socioeconomic background when hiring, I believe it is actually much more than just class that is taken into consideration. Based off of Rivera’s findings and outside readings, bias in hiring decisions at top tier institutions extend to other sociological factors such as race and gender. In what follows, I discuss

In 2006, Neil Gross and sociologist Solon Simmons conducted a survey to look at the “diverse” ideology of university professors. Writing in an op-ed 10 years later for the LA Times, he wrote “ At the time of our study, a fifth of all American adults described themselves as liberal. Simmons and I found that about half of the faculty did.” Gross went on to write, “only 14% of professors in our survey identified as Republican. Academia isn’t teeming with radicals, but it is one of the