Making a Difference: University Students of Color Speak Out / Edition 1

by Julia Lesage, Abby L. Ferber, Debbie Storrs, Donna Wong

Overview

Students of color relate their first-hand experiences with educational systems and campus living conditions. Their narratives provide an insider perspective useful to anyone working on diversity issues who is trying to improve institutional culture and policy. The book is a user-friendly guide. The first section focuses on the voices of students of color and draws on the power of personal narratives to reveal alternate perspectives that illuminate and contest the dominant cultures often hidden beliefs about race, culture, institutional goals and power. Following the narratives, contextualizing essays and a lengthy appendix provide further valuable resources and concrete tools, such as websites, lists of associations, a bibliography, and videography of autobiographical videos by people of color. This book should be read by faculty members and students (both white and non-white), parents of college students, college administrators, and executives and administrators of other institutions and businesses. The contextualizing essays following the student narratives are written by academics and student affairs professionals who draw links between issues of institutional access, recruitment and retention of students and faculty of color, curriculum changes, teaching strategies—especially for teaching whiteness and racial identity formation, campus climate, and the relation between an individual institution's history of dealing with race to developments in public policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742500808
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	05/28/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.66(w) x 9.18(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Julia Lesage is associate professor for the English department at the University of Oregon. Abby L. Ferber is associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Debbie Storrs is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Idaho. Donna Wong is the coordinator of academic support services for the Office of Mulitcultural Programs at Emory University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface: Genesis of This Project Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Introduction: Conceptualizing Diversity Part 4 University Students of Color in Their Own Voices Chapter 5 School, Language and Identity Chapter 6 Hopes and Coalitions and the Realities of Campus Life Chapter 7 Reframing the Educational Process and the Community as a Whole Part 8 Race and Ethnic Relations in Higher Education Chapter 9 The Tellers, the Tales, and the Audience: Narratives by Students of Color Chapter 10 Diversity in Higher Education Nationwide Chapter 11 A Historical Look at Students of Color at the University of Oregon Chapter 12 Hate Crimes, White Backlash, and Teaching About Whiteness Part 13 Conclusion: This is Only the Beginning Chapter 14 Appendix: Checklist Method for Measuring Diversity Chapter 15 Resources Chapter 17 Index

Editorial Reviews

Especially at a time of increased racial profiling and a massive government assault on hard-won civil liberties, Making A Difference raises important issues for the future of democratic social life, including the question of whether or not we are to have one at all. Making A Difference is a profoundly moving collection of personal narratives that intersect with numerous social justice agendas, creating a vital nexus of collective social activism—a praxis—so important today in the midst of capital's grinding attack on the public sphere. Provocatively unpacking the ideological nature of the dominant culture's 'commonsense' language about race and racial differentiation, Making a Difference offers a powerful critique of educational institutions and workplaces throughout the United States. These first-hand accounts of the lived experiences of students of color provide crucial lessons for white readers who have been culpably inactive in anti-racist struggles but who are willing to enter the dialogical spaces of this book. Everyone who reads this book will benefit in important ways, if only to share this critical pedagogical tool with others.

Peter McLaren

The Lesage et al book offers perspective on how higher education is, and is not, countering effectively the obstacles to a truly antiracist educational setting and system.

Miltidiversity: Myers Book Commentary - Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights

[This book] is an easy, good and necessary read for undergraduates, graduates, staff, and faculty and will serve as a valuable desktop reference to be used to model and build future research. It is one of the few books that effectively combines white privilege with the ideas and life experiences of people of color.

Journal of Higher Education

Race remains an American obsession. Despite our continuing discomfort with it, and our ongoing pronouncements of its timely demise, it remains the American dilemma. Fortunately Julia Lesage, Abby L. Ferber, Debbie Storrs, and Donna Wong have produced a volume which confronts the consequences of race by presenting the voices of students of color. This book challenges theories, complicates assumptions, and ends silences as it gives voice to a remarkable group of students who poignantly describe their experiences on one university campus. Making a Difference is a must-read for all of those who, regardless of color or culture, are dedicated to creating a campus environment that truly respects diversity.

Prof. Quintard Taylor

What does it feel like to be a minority student in a predominantly white university in a predominantly white state? This question is eloquently answered by the students of colour whose testimonies are at the heart of this book. Making a Difference is an important contribution to literature in this area.

Race Relations Abstracts

The Lesage et al book offers perspective on how higher education is, and is not, countering effectively the obstacles to a truly antiracist educational setting and system.

Miltidiversity: Myers Book Commentary

The Lesage et al book offers perspective on how higher education is, and is not, countering effectively the obstacles to a truly antiracist educational setting and system.

Miltidiversity: Myers Book Commentary

Based on a video titled made with students of color at the University of Oregon, this volume presents a collection of personal narratives exploring the students' experiences of race. Themes addressed are school, language, and identity; reframing the educational process; hate crimes, white backlash, and teaching about whiteness; and other topics. Includes a checklist method of evaluating diversity in an institution. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

What does it feel like to be a minority student in a predominantly white university in a predominantly white state? This question is eloquently answered by the students of colour whose testimonies are at the heart of this book. Making a Difference is an important contribution to literature in this area.

Sage Race Relations Abstracts