(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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With or without affirmative action, Black college students struggle to belong [1]
['More From Author', 'August', 'Walter Suza']
Date: 2023-08-23
“It is better to suffer in dignity than to accept segregation in humiliation.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Before the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. The Board of Education ruling, it was illegal for Black people to attend white schools. But even after the historic decision meant to increase desegregation in the United States, Black Americans continued to struggle to gain access to education and jobs meant for whites.
This is why John F. Kennedy issued an Executive Order in 1961 to empower federal contractors to desegregate places of work. Lyndon B. Johnson reinforced affirmative action with another executive order in 1965 that made it illegal for federal contractors to discriminate against Black people. Because women were also faced with inequity, LBJ amended his order in 1967 to support equal opportunity for women.
Before affirmative action in collegiate admissions died in the Supreme Court a couple of months ago, race was not a factor in college admissions in Idaho, Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Washington, California and Michigan.
Black students attending flagship institutions in these states were admitted there because they met the selection criteria. Despite the fact that affirmative action was more than just race, some made it sound like a handout to Black people. And some still believe Black students lack the intellectual capacity to attend white universities.
I am still dejected by a white father approaching me and my son during college orientation and saying something to the effect of: “This year it is easier for everyone to attend college. They use quotas.”
I understood what he meant. Several American universities waived standardized tests during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the waiver had nothing to do with my son. Neither did the white man know anything about my son, other than he looked Black.
I first heard about affirmative action in 2003 when I was a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A white friend was commenting on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, a case which emerged from the University of Michigan, that judicious consideration of race in college admission was OK.
Hearing the white man talk generated in my mind images of undeserving Black students being ushered forward into white universities. There are many in the United States today who still believe like my friend.
Black students in historically white universities will be subject to doubt. This creates pressure to prove they belong like their white peers. Pressure can be a good thing. It can propel students to excel. But pressure is also a double-edged sword. It can increase stress and anxiety.
This is what happened to me.
I graduated top of my undergraduate class, but one of the predominantly white universities accepted me into a master’s program on condition that I maintained a 3.0/4.0 grade point average (GPA). This felt to me that my previous education was not perceived as strong enough. The perceived doubt propelled me to work harder to surpass the expectation. I earned a 4.0/4.0 GPA.
I also developed an interest in plant biotechnology, which drove me to taking electives in organic chemistry to prepare for doctoral education. With a 4.0 GPA and excellent grades in O-chem, I was confident I was ready for my doctoral education. Even though my doctoral research was in the plant sciences, I took classes intended for medical students on molecular biology and biochemistry. In one of the classes, I learned about how human cells regulate their cholesterol levels.
I became fascinated with cholesterol. It did not matter that I was the only Black student in the class. What mattered to me most was that high blood cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease. I became concerned that heart disease is a leading cause of death in Blacks as well as whites. Because plants make cholesterol, I was eager to understand how plant cells control their cholesterol content. The new understanding from plants might lead to novel drugs to treat high cholesterol.
It did not matter that a couple of months earlier, a white professor asked on the first day of class whether I was in the right place. I was. And just like for my master’s education, a need to perform better than my white peers arose in me. But this time excellent grades failed to diminish the urge to prove that I belonged in academic spaces meant for whites. I am now a college professor, yet two decades later, at times I still feel the pressure to prove that I am smart. It’s exhausting.
Even though American colleges have been barred from considering race in admissions, the struggle to belong in predominantly white universities will continue for Black students.
The question for the prospective Black college student: “Is it better to attend well-funded white universities and experience humiliation? Or choose dignity by attending perniciously underfunded Historically Black Colleges and Universities and suffer the stigma of low-quality education?
That’s the catch-22 of Black education.
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