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Structural Oppression of African Americans in Higher Education

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Structural Oppression of African Americans in Higher Education AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATIONOF William N. Powell for the degree of Doctorof Philosophy in Education presented on April 5 1999. Title: Structural Oppressionof African Americans in Higher Education. Redacted for Privacy Abstract approved: Warren N. uzuki Researching what I believe to be exclusionary practicesin higher education against African Americans has compelled me to approachthis subject, in part, historically. Although I realize that a historical chronology of anysubject is often deceptive, as with any writer, I am tempted tointerpret events to fit my reality. However, myinterest goes far beyond the matter of setting ahistorical record straight.I am far more interested in investigating reasons why there seem to bestructural barriers erected against African Americans in higher education. For many, the answeris simple. They say that it is racism, pure and simple. However,I propose to show that it is more than racism.I contend that higher education is the source and disseminatorof the theoretical concept of raceand consequently of racism. I contend that once atheoretical concept, such as "race," has been socially and educationally constructed, allquestions henceforth can be designed and narrowed down to a perpetually tautological constructcalled knowledge. In this dissertation, 1 will refer,metaphorically, to the concept of "race" asbeing higher education an incurably malignantpathological paradigm that has been nurtured in and passed on as knowledge. Based onthis pathological paradigm, I willexplore how higher education has portrayed AfricanAmericans as an inferior paradigmaticarchetype. © by William N. Powell April 5, 1999 All Rights Reserved Structural Oppression of African Americans in Higher Education by William N. Powell A DISSERTATION submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education Presented April 5, 1999 Commencement June 1999 Doctor of Philosophy dissertation of William N. Powellpresented on April 5, 1999. APPROVED: Redacted for Privacy Major Professor, representingEducjion Redacted for Privacy Director of the School of Education Redacted for Privacy Dean of GraduatI chool I understand that my dissertation will become partof the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature belowauthorizes release of my dissertation to any reader upon request. Redacted for Privacy William N. Powell, Author TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1 Prelude 1 The Oppressors' Language 4 The Oppressors' Use of Statistics to Conceal and Misrepresent 8 Notes 13 CHAPTER II HISTORICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE 14 The Pathological Retention of 'Race' Concepts in Higher Education 14 The So-Called Origin of 'Race Pathology' 23 The Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century: Race Pathology in the New World 30 The Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century: The Legacy and Impact of Plato's Innate Differences on Biological Determination 34 The Nineteenth to the Twentieth Century: The Eugenic Transformation of Race 38 The Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century: The Theory of IQ and Its Impact on Higher Education 45 The Twenty-First Century and Beyond: The Ultimate Pathological Impediment to Higher Education in the Shape of a Bell 51 Notes 64 CHAPTER III PATHOLOGICAL METHODS 66 Introducing the Development of Past Pathological Theories 66 The Pathological Myth about African Americans in Higher Education 67 African Americans' Mis-Education in Colleges and Universities 71 African Americans' Vulnerability in Higher Education: The Standardized Test 82 The Oppressors' Pathological Need to Teach and Disseminate Mythologically False African American History in Higher Education 89 The Pathologizing of an African American Archetypal Hero 95 Notes 101 TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page CHAPTER IV DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 102 The Oppressors as Gatekeeper 102 Affirmative Action: The Oppressors' Most Profound Nightmare 105 Doublespeak: The Oppressors' Newest Weapon 117 Preferential Treatment 120 Quotas 124 Merit 127 Qualification 129 The Oppressors' Outside Supporters 130 Affirmative Action: Success or Failure? 136 Affirmative Action's Ambiguous Numbers 142 EPILOG MY REPORT TO THE ACADEMY 148 REFERENCES 153 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Staff by Ethnicity, Fall 1993 10 2. Master's Degree Conferred by Racial Group, 1976-77 to 1990-91 145 Structural Oppression of African Americans in Higher Education CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Prelude In 1933, Carl Woodson' wrote the following words: The so-called modern education, with all its defects .. .does others so much more good than it does [African Americans], because it has beenworked out in conknnity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker peoPles. For example, the philosophy and ethics resulting from our educational system have justified slavery, peonage, segregation, and lynching. The oppressor has the right to exploit, to handicap, and to kill the oppressed.[African Americans] daily educated in the tenets of such a religion of the strong have accepted the status of the weak as divinely ordained, and during the last three generations of their nominal freedom they have done practically nothing to change it.Their pouting and resolutions indulged in by a few of the race have been of little avail (xxxii). Woodson's statement raises the question about education and its impact upon the African American's psyche. His contention is that oppressors have used their power by teaching their way of seeing the world. The oppressors would say that this is only normal. The question is, have the oppressors' epistemological paradigms in higher education, as structured, oppressed African Americans? One way to examine and possibly answer this question is from a historical point of view. Unarguably, history is written from the oppressors' points ofview. While compiling "A Bibliography of the Publications and Manuscripts of R. G. Collingwood," the Oxford philosopher and historian, in 1985 with Donald S. Taylor, I could not help but note the following: "If history's purpose is to become acquainted with things as they actually happened. .then it is certainly an illusion" (8). Later, in the same work, Collingwood 2 spoke about the ways in which the act of writing history incorporates what should or should not be told. He called this "scissors-an4paste history" (54). Oppressors as educators act in the same way. In order to perpetuate their cultural paradigms, they "cut and paste" only those "facts" that will consolidate and perpetuate their existing power structures. Common sense should tell us that oppressors necessarily select their "facts" and interpret them to their advantage. Although they use what they call "empirical evidence" to support their "facts," it is foolish to suspect that so-called empirical evidence was not written to support their belief in their superiority. For the oppressors to "logically" justify their hegemonic belief system, they must invent a scapegoat. Without a scapegoat, there is no way to heighten their self-grandeur. x According to Thomas Szasz in his book The Myth of Mental Illness, because the oppressors are "unable to admit ignorance andhelplessness" they are forced to seek refuge in scapegoat explanations. "The specific identities of the scapegoats are legion: witches, women, Jews, Negroes, the mentally ill, and so forth. All scapegoattheories postulate that if only the offending person, race, illness, or what-not could be dominated, subjugated, or eliminated, all manner of problems would be solved"(186-187). Another point of view, however, shows that the oppressors' "facts" do not exist until the oppressors, as educators, have selected and interpreted them. When I was a younger professor, I naively believed that higher education would allow me to assert, reinterpret and inform my attentive audience(s) about realities that had not been given a fair hearing in the past. I introduced my students to voicesthat had never been heard or read in the classroom, challenged the precepts of the oppressors and exhibited my distrust and disbelief in the oppressors' literature and essays. In time I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I was treading on "thin ice." My role, I was told, was to /- adhere to and accept the oppressors' doctrines--nothing else had credence. Over the years I dutifully acquiesced. 3 When affirmative action was introduced a few years after I began my teaching career, my naivete increased. I, like so many others, believed that the oppressors had finally decided to come to their senses and set aside their exclusionary practices by lowering their structural barriers.I also believed that my isolation within the institution would now be over, and that there would be others to soon identify with. Once they arrived I felt that we could attack the dominant paradigm that had so wantonly suppressed and oppressed our hidden genius. I looked forward to discussing and debating points of view with people who had similar experiences to mine. However, it never came to pass. The system of higher education never did fully open its doors to African Americans. Ironically, as I will explain more fully in a later chapter, there are proportionately the same number ofAfrican American professors in white universities and colleges today as there were when I started teaching in 1968. Woodson's prophetic words that I quoted earlier started to haunt me over the years. He went on to say (somewhat tragically) that "No systematic effort toward change has been possible, for, taught the same economics, history,
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