Free Write Summary with Quotes about “Access And Equity For African American Students In Higher Education: A Critical Race Historical Analysis Of Policy Efforts”

            The article “Access And Equity For African American Students In Higher Education: A Critical Race Historical Analysis Of Policy Efforts” applies a very different view of analyzing policies about racial equality. The authors apply a theory called Critical Race Theory (CRT), which states that “racism is a normal part of American life, often lacking the ability to be distinctively recognized, and thus is difficult to eliminate or address” and “rejects the notion of a ‘colorblind’ society, [as] colorblindness leads to misconceptions concerning racial fairness in institutions [and] tends to address only the most blatant forms of inequality and disadvantage [while] hiding the commonplace and more covert forms of racism” (Harper 390). The authors state that throughout history, policies to promote racial fairness have only been partially successful, and are constantly under attack by others. Critical Race Theory gives rise to the evasion of racial fairness policies such as “funding inequities for public institutions that annually offer college opportunity to more than a quarter million African American students” (Harper 410). This evasion of policy and general attacking of racial fairness policies as being unfair themselves lead to a serious unfairness in the opportunities of those of different races, especially in higher education. The equality of opportunities amongst races is ideally nonexistent with current policies, but this is not the case due to the Critical Race Theory analysis that states the circumnavigation of these policies is rampant and expected, and that a lack of policy analysis that is currently happening causes racial inequity in higher education to be a real issue.

Harper, Shaun R., Lori D. Patton, and Ontario S. Wooden. "Access And Equity For African American Students In Higher Education: A Critical Race Historical Analysis Of Policy Efforts." Journal Of Higher Education 80.4 (2009): 389-414. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.