Date of Award
Spring 2008
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Chubbuck, Sharon
Second Advisor
Pink, William
Third Advisor
Arndt, Leah
Abstract
Author James Baldwin (1955) once said that being White means never having to think about it. Although people of color are aware of being constantly compared to Whites, many White people do not believe that racism affects them. Whiteness studies is an attempt to think critically about how White skin preference has operated systematically, structurally, and sometimes unconsciously as a dominant force in America-and indeed in global-society and culture (Jay, 2005). Unexamined feelings of White superiority still exist today, because White is considered the norm (Frankenberg, 1993). Being White creates a lens through which everything else is compared. Many White people believe that anything that is not White is the "other'' or something less or inferior than being White (Frankenberg, 1993). A recognition that race matters and that racist attitudes often both emanate from and are perpetuated by feelings of superiority on the part of Whites may be helpful in eliminating racism and this study illuminates the impact that colleges and universities and particularly their leaders may have in this endeavor...