BIPOC Academics Matter: Diversity in Academia Is Long Overdue

Last Updated on: 9th February 2022, 01:47 pm

We at Beyond PhD Coaching firmly believe that diversifying academia is both necessary and important – and well past overdue.  There’s no denying that higher education equals more power in society.  This power has been unequally distributed for centuries because graduate schools have been exclusionary – both by intent and by structure.  We have a history of pretending that everyone has equal access to education in the United States, but most of us know by now that this is untrue.  The time for denial is over.

Why is it important that people of color have an increased voice in our nation’s academic institutions?  The answers should be obvious to all of us, but here are some thoughts.

Research

First, there’s research.  With few Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other people of color reviewing manuscripts for publication, insensitive, even racist, studies can be published in the name of “science” without question. (Philippe Rushton’s 1989 study linking genetically driven social behavior characteristics of people with African descent to the spread of AIDS is but one egregious example.)  

Beyond overt racism, though, there’s also the question of what is studied and why.  Different people bring different research interests for all to consider. Note that this is not about benevolently offering equal research time to “BIPOC interests.”  Research initiated by diverse populations benefits everyone, and we need to stop pretending that majority-White academia has been objectively studying anything.

Teaching

Second, our classroom leadership needs to be inclusive.  If we want minority students to feel welcome and empowered, we need minority professors in the classroom. Old white guys have been at this for a long time. It’s time to change the mix and show students that faculty members come in all colors, sexes, and races.  And it’s time for all professors to examine our practices of inclusion. How do we treat students differently, based on their race and background? We can start checking our condescension, our favoritism, our expectations, and our level of attention, as a beginning–doing serious antiracism work is a must. But even more useful is the ceding of power.

Administration

Third, the composition of the administration in colleges and universities must also change. It is administrators who set the direction for schools, find funding, and make the big-picture decisions. Without diverse perspectives, administrators simply repeat worn patterns, allocating resources where they have always been allocated.  Again, this is not about benevolence, it’s about improving academia. How much better would our universities function if the needs of various communities were taken into account when setting mission statements and approving agendas? As it is now, the needs of White, middle- and upper-class people have almost exclusively been considered.

Inclusivity

Fourth, we in academia need to look around at every meeting we attend and the composition of every classroom and see a room reflective of all cultures. Why? Because universities should be the leaders of inclusivity and at the forefront of change. 

Final Thoughts

Addressing the demands of the Black Lives Matters movement is hundreds of years overdue, and academics should have led the way to change long ago. At this point, it is our responsibility as academics to at least catch up to the popular movement and commit to making academic leadership diverse.

As we continue the conversation about diversifying academia, let’s look at some work from prominent members of the academy who’ve been looking into the issue for years:

• Jacqueline Leonard, Ph.D., of the University of Wyoming: Achieving Diversity in Academia: A Dream Deferred?
• Frank Tuitt, Ed.D. of the University of Denver  Black Faculty in the Academy: Narratives for Negotiating Identity and Achieving Career Success and Making Excellence Inclusive (video interview)
• Orlando Taylor, Ph.D. Fielding Graduate University  Diversifying the Faculty
• Donna J. Nelson, Ph.D. University of Oklahoma Representation of Native Americans in US Science and Engineering Faculty
• Anthony Lising Antonio, Ph.D. Stanford University Faculty of Color Reconsidered: Reassessing Contributions to Scholarship
• April Dawn Harter, LCSW, founder of the Racism Recovery Center

This is just a very small sample of articles and authors related to diversifying academia.  Please share with us any particularly useful books, articles, video interviews, podcasts, etc. you’ve found on the topic!