We dare not forget the enduring effects of racism. We dare not focus on poverty without focussing on racism as its root cause. We dare not attempt to build a 'normal society' without addressing the outrage and pain of entrenched racial inequality ‘(Swartz, 2016, p.68).
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Race-related challenges are some of the biggest challenges of societies around the world. Within the South African context, it is no different. As discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, the impact of most of the Apartheid policies is still ‘real’ for most Black SA’s who still experience and feel the depth and extent to which these apartheid laws still affect their lives. Apartheid has intergenerational consequences, where dispossession of land, for example, has left material and psychological consequences. Furthermore, because of SAs Apartheid history, the HE sector, like all other sectors, is still plagued by its apartheid legacy as discussed in the previous chapters. However, since the transition to democracy, SA has addressed many social inequalities of the past. Yet, even though an intense process of restructuring at institutional as well as national levels were put in place since 1994, what is alarming though, is that race and racism are still one of biggest challenges, especially in the HE sector.
As discussed in Chapter 3, the literature suggests that Black students in HE are exposed to relentless incidences of racial discrimination, as part of their everyday experiences, especially at HWIs. The findings in various HE studies suggest that Black students, especially Black male students, struggle to survive academically while battling against racism. Additionally, Black male students at HWIs are constantly confronted with negative stereotypes about their intellect and must excel academically despite racially biased and racially insensitive treatments by certain lecturers, staff members, students as well as members of the broader community. Furthermore, Black males are criminalized and placed under increased surveillance by community, local police officers and campus security, on and off campus. Based
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on these experiences and treatments, Black students at HWIs present with psychological stress responses like frustration, anger, resentment, anxiety, helplessness, and hopelessness. There are unanimous agreement in the literature that the HE environment, especially the historically white campus environment, is more hostile toward Black males than other groups (Harper, 2014; Harper & Griffin, 2011; James, 2012; Smith, et al., 2002; Smith et al., 2007; Solórzano, 2001; Steele & Aronson, 1995; Wood, 2013; Wood & Palmer, 2013).
I, therefore, concur, that Black male students at HWIs might find themselves between two extreme realities, on the one hand the psychological stressors they have to endure, as opposed to their hopes and aspirations of academic success and a brighter future for themselves and their families. Against this backdrop, I will now discuss the theoretical foundations of this study based on the overview of the literature as well as the context of SAs contemporary and historical past.
4.2 THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF THIS STUDY
Different theoretical frameworks are used to explore the experiences of Black students in HE. Research in the field of education and psychology that focusses on access, success, retention and social integration tend to draw from properties of certain theories. The theoretical frameworks that are usually drawn on are John Ogbu’s cultural-ecological theory, Bourdieu's theory of social and cultural capital of the dominant classes and Yosso’s cultural wealth theory which includes aspirational and familial capital that marginalised students draw from to succeed in HE. Additional theoretical frameworks are Tinto’s integration theory and Ungar’s resilience theory (Kiguwa, 2014; Siyengo, 2015).
However, for the last two decades, CRT has become an increasingly valuable toolkit for researchers seeking to critically explore educational opportunities, institutional climates and the experiences of marginalized groups in HE. Dixon and Rousseau (2005) commended this shift and note that race was ‘under-theorized as a topic of research inquiry’ in education. In the same vein Ledesma and Calderon (2015) underscores Dixon and Rousseau’s observation and mention that CRT
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researchers in education have long understood the urgency behind the need to theorize race and racial discrimination.
Against this backdrop, I decided to employ a critical paradigm that uses a historical- contextual approach to explain and understand the experiences of black African male students at a specific HWI, for this study. To separate these students’ voices from our country’s political-historical past will be inauthentic and irresponsible. Hence my decision to use CRT as the overarching theoretical framework for this study. CRT serves therefore as framework on macro level and focusses on the structural arrangements of power and racialisation dynamics within a specific context.
Yet, individuals engage differently with issues of race and racial discrimination and there are usually distinct patterns in individual experiences and their coping strategies. Hence my decision to additionally draw from some of the defining properties of micro-aggression theory (MAT) and co-cultural theory (CCT) that focus on the impact of racially charged treatments on individuals, on a micro-level. This study, therefore, draws on the defining properties of CRT, MAT and CCT as captured in Figure 4.1 below.
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Figure 4.1. Structural out-lay of theoretical foundation
4.2.1 Critical race theory (CRT)
CRT came to the fore in the mid-1970s when Black scholars in the United States of America realised that the civil rights movement of the 1960s had stagnated and the need for alternative and critical interrogation and explanations for the continuing presence of racism in society, became a reality. By attempting to understand the racialized nature of society, its general mission seeks to analyse, deconstruct, and transform for the better the relationship between race and power. CRT, therefore, aims to generate societal, institutional and individual transformation while it draws from diverse disciplines such as education, sociology,
MICRO-AGGRESSION THEORY