Diversity Language as System Maintenance

What is it about?

This theoretical essay explores the ways predominantly White institutions (PWIs) “speak” about race and diversity as providing frameworks through which the campus racial environment is perceived and enacted. The major premise is that diversity language functions to conceal operations of systemic racism on campuses, producing inaction and/or “cosmetic” action that does not threaten whiteness as a position of privilege and power. White racial comfort goes unchallenged, with White students, faculty, and staff not having to recognize their complicity in campus racism or engage with racism or themselves as raced persons in a critical way. Longstanding policies and practices that secure whiteness at the expense of students of color go unchanged, as diversity language easily fits within existing organizational frameworks.

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Why is it important?

After examining the various psychological and organizational mechanisms by which diversity language works to maintain universities as “White spaces”, we explore alternative languages that can highlight operations of racism that diversity language conceals and thus provide more critical frameworks to guide anti-racist action. We conclude by sharing the implications of alternative languages for practitioners and institutions and suggest future paths for researching the effects of diversity language and ways to produce recognizable change.