Nguyen 1 Amanda Nguyen, Olivia, Group 11, August 28, 2013

Inequality in the Institution Inequality in institutions has long been prevalent in society, but reasons for its prevalence have only been theorized to explain its occurrence. In Laura Rendons, From the Barrio to the Academy: Revelations of a Mexican American Scholarship Girl, she explains minority underachievement as a consequence to minoritys cultural assimilation because they experience alienation in higher education. In bell hooks personal accounts in, Introduction: Teaching to Transgress, she explains how pedagogy has a major factor in how students perceive their capabilities, if it is limited or infinite. Theorists who explain these phenomenon in the system such as in Douglas Masseys, The Puzzle of Minority Underachievement, and Joe Feagins, The Continuing Significance of Racism: U.S. Colleges and Universities, explains occurrences of inequality, similar to what Rendon and hook experienced, through theories that explain stress, and racism in higher education. The authors themes encompassed the wide range of inequality in higher education which caused many of the inequalities in the greater society. Masseys and Feagins theories offer an explanation of hooks and Rendons personal barriers through stereotype threat, critical theory, and campus climate. One of the forms of inequality at the educational level is stereotype threat which brought barriers to minorities such as feelings of inadequacy in universities. Stereotype threat explains the unnecessary stress that comes with minorities being characterized rigidly as incapable in a predominantly white community. According to Rendon, not conforming to ones stereotype is a threat to the social order of white dominance because not assimilating to white culture and stereotypes are rebellious to the nature of these white institutions. Teachers, counselors, and

Nguyen 2 coaches contribute explicit or implicit beliefs about the students capabilities merely because stereotypes are so embedded in our society. The preconception of these students discourage them from feeling anything other than how they have been treated, for example, if a student is often given low expectations, the student has no other goal than to meet those expectations. According to Massey, Groups are prone to underperform academically because of an unconscious fear of living up to negative stereotypes about their groups intellectual capacity (Massey 19). The teachers put these barriers on students which closes them off from possibility of what they could be and puts them into the century old categories of how they have always been perceived. In Rendons piece she says she feels she was not recognized as having academic potential compared to her classmates, and that the only way she could express equivalent success to her white peers would be if her teachers expressed sincere belief in her capabilities. Many nonminority students will commonly not encounter this obstacle, which affirms the disparity of struggle between the minority and dominant groups. The negative effects of stereotype theory explains the underachievement of minorities due to discouragement from white society, as well as the obedient and authoritative characteristics of the institution felt by Rendon. The educational system also has issues concerning inequality in their institution in other forms such as critical theory. Inequality in its many forms has been a long part of minority history such as critical theory which barriers minorities by alienation. Rendons feelings of exclusion and inequality are revealed at college, and highlight the culture that affirms that higher education is for the wealthy white man because resources and educational preference has historically been given to them. To connect to Rendons personal experience, Massey says critical theory is differential educational outcomes in terms of specific institutional arrangements that reproduces inequality. (Massey

Nguyen 3 20). In other words, the concept of critical theory is determined by the pedagogy used by the educational system, which alters the results of an either exclusive or inclusive campus. Any effort by Rendons teachers to encourage better performance was near obsolete, which produces alienation in Rendons educational experience, because an obvious preference to a race was seen through this alienation of minorities. Rendons experience of an education without acknowledgment to support her endeavors provides evidence of pedagogy determining the disparity of the students by revealing who are the praised students versus who are the unvalued students. Alienation and struggles for these students provided that minorities had no options and that they would not be accepted into the exclusiveness that a prestigious university would give a white student. Critical theory explains why people see dominance in higher education and in result society which causes multiple effects in universities who foster the leaders of tomorrow, and sets the tone for years to come on how we treat diversity. The hierarchy undermines the identity of minorities by making the students feel unwelcome and alienated, as felt by Rendon. Theories such as critical theory and stereotype threat aid in explaining hooks and Rendons education experience, including the formation of campus climate. Campus climate contains many consequences in students academic performance such as students limitation of their capabilities in their education. The oppression occurs due to the prejudice and power held by the majority, which then sets the campus climate. bell hooks demonstrates how campus climate had the power to affect the knowledge accessible to the students, when she demonstrates the lost zeal for knowledge following the integration of blacks and whites in the educational system. Campus climate, which is associated for hooks academic limitations, is the presence or absence of racism often expressed consciously or unconsciously through the faculty, students, and resources on campus. hooks speaks of her educational

Nguyen 4 experience as being a cause of alienation due to the obedience and conformity to the ideals of the educational system. The consequences of negative campus climate contracted the students abilities to think beyond facts and have a monotonous view of education. The powerful effect of campus climate explains the hostile environment hooks experienced, which affected minorities ability to continue on to higher education. According to Feagin, blatant, covert, and subtle racial barriers are reported by students and faculty of color on many predominantly white college campuses, (Feagin 43) explains the continuance of hostility and inequality on our campuses today. Campus climate helps explain hooks feelings of having to be submissive to authority. For example, hooks says she wanted to be a critical thinker, have the ability to make decisions about her intellectuality in her education, but that it could never happen because it was dangerous to change the majoritys norm of their hierarchy of power. Feagins articulation of campus climate explains the negative consequences of creating such an unwelcoming campus, in such that it leads to minority students limitations in higher education as opposed to their white peers. All these factors contribute to a general authoritative institution that can hinder minoritys capability. Campus climate also contributes to the minority students feelings of separation from their culture, which makes them lose their sense of community and support. Rendon explains her feelings of pressure to adhere to a new academic culture, all while leaving her, native culture, behind. Assimilation, the act of choosing one culture over your original culture, causes students to feel that the only way to succeed is to fit in with the new culture of academia. In response to a discriminated students personal story, Feagin concludes, When this type of reaction is encountered, it communicates to black students that they are somehow out of place, (Feagin 44). Rendons says, these hostilities that minorities encounter all over the nation are part of the punishment associated with resistance to assimilation which mirrors students responses to

Nguyen 5 such assimilation, which is alienation. Feagins analysis of campus climate concludes that, negative campus environments are one likely reason for the higher dropout rate for African American students and other students of color on campuses, (Feagin 43). Reward comes to those who are submissive to the community of scholars, (Rendon 9), but also forgets to mention that exclusion comes to students who do not give up their native culture. Minority students perseverance with the struggle to keep or abandon their culture fatigues the students to the point of low retention to graduate, and unhappiness in their environment. Feagins articulation of campus climate explains the alienation that comes with assimilation which Rendon and many others experience during their college years. Rendons account makes students and faculty aware of the plummeting educational value that is explained in Feagins campus climate. Rendons and hooks experiences portray the struggles that a common minority student in a white dominated educational institution faces, which can be explained by Masseys and Feagins theory of critical theory, stereotype threat, and campus climate. These theories explain that the history of the white students affiliations with minorities has been extremely influential in the formulation of racism in the institution. Stereotype theory, critical theory, and campus climate continue on to show how it is being exposed to minorities in schools. For this reason, hostility towards the majority of minorities in the nation has been concluded to have originated by the inequality in our institutions, which sets a hegemony expressing exclusiveness for the minoritys white peers, as experienced by Rendon and hook.