Equity is Not Pervasive Enough: Why Black Collegiates Are Leaving Colleges and Universities at Alarming Rates
Header Image Credit: Monica Kast/Lexington Herald-Leader/AP (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/11/university-kentucky-racial-slur-attack/Source)
Written by Brikitta Hairston
For all offenses, for every crime against humanity, there is no perfect victim. More impossibly, bias-related incidents and gender-based crimes at colleges and universities face a lower threshold of reporting and justice than in the Courts.
That makes it impossible for a victim to check all the proverbial boxes and be seen as completely unworthy of the wrongdoings against them. This reality becomes more dangerous when it is shown that the collegiate ages are the prime years for prevention and intervention, but only if the behavior is addressed accordingly.
Black students are leaving university before graduating at alarming rates. The Lumina Foundation did a national poll revealing that Black students have lower collegiate completion rates than any other race or ethnicity.
While 46 percent of the general population has an associate's degree or higher, 34 percent of Black Americans have an associate's degree. The numbers are glaringly disproportionate to what we know and have seen from Black talent and academia. All the numbers do is tell us that there is a gross disparity in the collegiate environment when it comes to victimization for Black students than those of any other race and ethnicity.
READ MORE: Black learners aren't staying in college. A new poll shows why.
Title IX of the Education Amendments from 1972 is a Federal Civil Rights Law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program that receives federal funds. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program that receives federal funds.
I specialize in Title IX and Title VI for students, faculty and staff as a Civil Rights Investigator. In this role, I see firsthand where the collegiate educational system fails Black students on the front lines.
I carry out most of my work in the student space investigating student complaints – as universities will often partner with their HR departments and do warm handoffs of employee-to-employee complaints – which has allowed me to see the unfortunate dismissive culture around formally addressing bias-related incidents.
This culture creates a huge deterrence to reporting and supplements “the dark figure of crime”, a term coined by the criminology field, which describes the lack of officials’ awareness of the true volume of incidents potentially attributed to unreported cases. In simpler terms, it may not be that bias-related incidents have decreased, it could be that there are just fewer reports.
We only know what we know: Every student attending college and university receives mandated federal training on Title IX, which does receive reports of all bias-related incidents, even if they do not rise to the level of a policy violation. The training informs students of what is required to accept a formal complaint and thus conduct a formal investigation that would result in disciplinary action and sanction for a responding party.
To be considered a policy violation, the bias-related incident must meet the “SPOO standard” in Title IX: Severe, Pervasive and Objectively Offensive. In the eyes of Title IX: If a person’s complaint does not meet all three criteria, their incident does not qualify as an official policy violation.
To meet the standard, the act is weighed against what a “Reasonable Person” would determine an incident to be. This makes for an incalculable gap in bias incidents toward Black students that receive proper sanctions for the impacting party, or the person who has impacted the student. Of course with students knowing what is considered worthy of a formal response, they are very well less likely to report their own incidents.
I find issues, particularly with the “pervasive” standard, in determining what bias incidents have violated the policy, and Title IX law.
It is not equitable in any way: To be pervasive, it must be more than one isolated incident; it could be twice, it could be 10 times, and the “reasonable person” must be able to determine how many counts would meet the standard. What is pervasive, say, to a gender-based incident, is not equal to a biased incident towards a Black student.
I have seen gender-based incidents receive formal investigations and stronger sanctions than incidents where slurs are hurled at a Black student or racial epithets are repeatedly used. It is not equitable to weigh these incidents against the same standard, because what is pervasive to one race is categorically and historically proven to be unequal to that of Black Americans.
What is objectively offensive is incredulously unequal to incidents towards Black Americans, against that of other races, because the bias and prejudice toward the Black race have never been, and never will be, comparable.
We see this in the statistics – it is a fact that while 15 percent of other races say they feel discriminated against, 20 percent of Black students feel discriminated against and unsafe in less diverse populations in higher education (Lumina Foundation). Thus, it is a miscalculation of our Department of Education to weigh our experiences equally against others, and not equitably as they should be. Because what is severe for us, in some cases, is unsurvivable for other races.
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We have seen this reality play out in the media just recently. At the University of Kentucky, a Black Residence Hall employee was repeatedly verbally attacked by a white student who to this day has given no apology to the student and was not required to by U Kentucky’s Title IX office.
As a Title IX practitioner, I know there is a formal resolution called an “Impact Statement” and policy coaching, where the impacted party has the chance to express how they were impacted and the responding party is required to receive a policy coaching meeting where they, too, respond to the impacted party.
Kylah Spring was just a freshman when this occurred in November 2022, only her third month as a college freshman. It is no wonder that Black students are up against massive barriers to equity in their education. It is my humble opinion that without the incident being captured on video, the response and uprisings would not have been so widespread, nor would the statement from the University of Kentucky.
Where we all must pay careful attention, moreover, is to Spring’s statement, reported by CBS News: “I wanted to make sure I acted appropriately so that I could keep my job because the script could have been flipped at any time if I had retaliated.”
Imagine that? We have heard this before, whether from our parents or in our Black communities, that even in the face of maltreatment and disdain, we should consider how our reaction to being victimized would be perceived. This is surely not equal for the impacting party, nor is it equitable because I am willing to bet years off my career that if they thought of how their biased and racist behavior would be received, they wouldn’t do it. But of course, it is not ever taught what it is like to be in a Black person’s shoes, only how to feign miseducation, if and when they are caught.
When it comes to finding a sign of progress on this issue, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) programming was the golden light in a tunnel of darkness after a long while. Unfortunately, even the presence of DEIB practices and programs to foster more welcoming and safe environments for Black students are now being called into question.
The governing body meant to protect colleges and universities that correctly took charge and built out the funding and personnel for DEIB programs has made no substantial act toward individuals who have sued colleges and universities for pioneering these programs. Again leaving Black students up against centuries of oppression, with no tangible response from the sole powers equipped to make a clear, strong stand against the exclusion of Black students. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a fact sheet in response to the uptick in lawsuits and OCR complaints against educational programs for fostering DEIB practices.
While the fact sheet does affirm that DEIB practices are constitutional, and not in violation of Title VI, it does not give educational programs the guidance that they need to address the complaints, nor does it rebuke the attempts at dismantling programs meant to create inclusive environments. What that does, on its face, is breed the impression that the false complaints made in bad faith will not receive reprimand or repercussions.
If the rights of Black Americans are not protected, our Black students that embark on their educational careers will face challenges that have unknown impediments. It is my strong and unfortunate belief that if the experiences of Black students are not amended, we will see the negative effects for the next generation.
In a world where we already have to be twice as much, twice as good and work twice as hard – not having safe spaces to matriculate and complete our collegiate degrees will further delay our ability to correct the impacts of racial inequity. It is already determined that bias-related incidents towards us are not pervasive enough – to that, I say the efforts to protect and promote our advancement in society are not pervasive enough either.
Brikitta Hairston (she/her), is an investigative victimologist, and graduate of the University of Iowa with a B.A. in English and an M.S. in Criminal Justice. Her words are in OffColour Magazine, Radish Media, Carefree Mag, Better to Speak, and Giddy Magazine.