Manufactured “Mismatch”
| Author | Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill,Victor St. John |
| Date | 01 April 2017 |
| Published date | 01 April 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2153368716688741 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Race and Justice
2017, Vol. 7(2) 110-126
Manufactured “Mismatch”:
ª The Author(s) 2017
Reprints and permission:
Cultural Incongruence and
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DOI: 10.1177/2153368716688741
Black Experience in the
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Academy
Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill1
and Victor St. John1
Abstract
Studies bear out that African Americans are drastically underrepresented in crimin-
ology and criminal justice doctoral programs and that, once admitted, they have
lower-than-average rates of completion. On average, throughout their careers,
African Americans are less likely to secure positions in the most prestigious programs;
publish in the most highly regarded journals; or receive tenure, promotion, and
compensation commensurate with their European American colleagues. One expla-
nation is that the academy espouses ideals that disadvantage those from a Black
cultural background. Through auto-ethnographic narratives, this article explores the
ways in which criminology and criminal justice have adopted and reinforced a pro-
fessional culture that may be incongruent with that of most Black academics.
Borrowing from the tenets of critical race theory, we examine the ways in which the
field imposes criteria for success counter to the cultural orientation of many African
Americans. Finally, we argue the need for field-wide self-assessment and proactive
measures to increase receptiveness to, and inclusion of, scholars who bring broader
methodological and cultural lenses to both the academic discipline and the practical
administration of justice.
Keywords
cultural incongruence, critical race theory, criminological theories, academia, Black
culture, Black academics
1 CUNY Graduate Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA
Corresponding Author:
Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, CUNY Graduate Center/John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 W. 59 Street,
Suite 631, Haaren Hall, New York, NY 10019, USA.
Email: kblount-hill@jjay.cuny.edu
Blount-Hill and St. John
111
The impact of cultural differentiation between individuals and their environs has been
a subject of import for many decades, spanning the gamut of academic disciplines and
situational contexts (in social work, Seelman & Walls, 2010; nursing, Hulme, 2010;
schooling, Hill & Torres, 2010; concerning immigration, Hwang & Wood, 2009).
Considering the myriad cultural subgroups that one might belong to, in the United
States, race is among the most important. An individual’s race has broad-reaching
impacts on their experience with the world and their interpretation of it (Whittler,
Calantone, & Young, 2001).
Perhaps the most basic experiences for American adults come from working.
Workplaces themselves exhibit a discernible culture (Mihalache & Albu, 2016). Prior
research confirms that organizations develop standard practices for handling socially
relevant constructs, including the sensitive subject of race (Collins & Barnes, 2014).
Beyond specific workplaces, professional spheres have a culture of their own
(Schalkwyk, Leibowitz, Herman, & Farmer, 2015). When cultural conflict occurs—
that is, where professional and organizational norms clash with individual expecta-
tions—the individual is forced to negotiate competing demands.
To this day, some maintain that Blacks are ill-suited to intellectual fields, mis-
matched. We propose a different potential answer. Instead, perhaps the mismatch
between Blacks and academia may be explained by the cultural incongruence of
Black values with the expectations of academia. The discomfort arising from a sense
of disjuncture is likely to impact scholarly performance, manufacturing “mismatch”
that would not otherwise exist.
In this article, we present autoethnographic case studies of two Black individuals’
experiences with the professional culture of criminal justice academia. We explore
instances of incongruence, using critical race theory (CRT) as a theoretical frame.
Exploring incongruence, of course, requires a conceptualization of the two value
systems in view and where they may conflict. Thus, this article is organized as fol-
lows: We present a conceptualization of Black culture, differentiated from broader
American culture in four critical ways—skepticism toward societal structures and
institutions, high religiosity, high value for relational intimacy, and embrace of col-
lectivist ethic. We then describe the values rewarded in the criminal justice academic
profession and how these may clash with those of Black culture. We present auto-
ethnography as a critical race methodology and explain its appropriateness in studying
incongruence in the academy. Finally, we examine incongruence through two sub-
jects’ eyes.
A Conceptualization of Black Culture
While it appears there is widespread acceptance of the existence of a culture specific
to the African American experience (Morris, 2011), the exact parameters of a dis-
tinctive Black culture are by no means universally agreed upon (Simien, 2014). Still, if
members of the Black community are acculturated to a similar set of norms, values,
and perspectives, then this set of ideas and ideals are important to understanding how
they perceive and interact with the world.
112
Race and Justice 7(2)
Black culture in the United States arose at the convergence of post-British colonial
American culture and that of diverse African ethnic groups, in reaction to the
oppressive, suppressive, and dehumanizing experience of chattel slavery. Over sub-
sequent centuries, African-descended Americans continued to build a unique culture
in response to racial discrimination, White dominance and control, eventually
incorporating Blacks not descended from American slaves and evolving through
cooption by commercial interests and non-Black ethnics both in the United States and
internationally. This culture may be distinguished by skepticism toward society and its
institutions, religiosity, a search for intimacy, and collectivism.
The primary point of divergence from a common American experience has been
Blacks’ persistent encounter with racial discrimination. Racial discrimination con-
sists of “a dominant group’s actions that differentially and negatively impact sub-
ordinate racial/ethnic groups” (Jones & Green, 2016, p. 61). Black culture is anchored
in the history of racial discrimination, and its distinguishing component may be a set
of cultural coping mechanisms to counteract systemic prejudice and devaluation, real
and perceived. Unnever and Gabbidon (2011) argue that, for African Americans,
racial socialization consists of acclimation to Black culture, preparing for the expe-
rience of racial bias, adopting a defensive distrust of other groups, and learning racial
pride. To be sure, experiences of racial discrimination increase the likelihood that
individuals will engage in antisocial behaviors in reaction to frustration with their
marginalized status (Cohen, 1955; Jones & Green, 2016). Nevertheless, racial
socialization eases coping with discriminatory experiences, reducing chances of
acting out in through crime (Isom, 2016).
While buffering against the negative effects of racial discrimination, racial
socialization tends to reinforce Blacks’ largely negative assessments of the criminal
justice system (Unnever & Gabbidon, 2015). Distrust of the criminal justice system is
a gradual process, beginning with what Bottoms and Tankebe (2012) have referred to
as “legitimacy deficits” (p. 163) and augmenting into full legitimacy crisis. Legiti-
macy crisis occurs when an authority figure’s claims of entitlement to the exercise of
power are ignored, disbelieved, or disputed. Legitimacy crisis in the justice system
may lead to distrust of other White-associated institutions, such as schools (Isom,
2016). Black culture, therefore, may be skeptical of status quo societal arrangements
and majority presumptions about how the world operates and how it ought to.
Others have asserted the central role of religion in Black culture. As Stennis,
Purnell, Perkins, and Fischle (2015) note, “the Black church has been the refuge for
many who have faced emotional, economic, social, civic, psychological, physical and
spiritual oppression” (p. 334). African Americans, as a group, are significantly reli-
gious by several measures, including subjective religiosity and both nonorganizational
and organized religious involvement (Hays, 2015). A 2009 Pew Research survey
reported that “African-Americans stand out as the most religiously committed racial
or ethnic group in the nation” (Sahgal & Smith, 2009, p. 1). Religion was important to
a substantial majority of Black respondents, and for more than three quarters of them,
that religion was Christianity. “Christian values” shape the worldview even of those
who do not regularly attend religious services. Religiously unaffiliated Blacks
Blount-Hill and St. John
113
reported praying nearly as much as religiously active ones and being about as certain
of the existence of God.
Interpersonally, studies have suggested that Black people tend to prefer more
intimate versus transactional or situation-based relationships. Social support networks
have been noted as a very important feature in Black life (Levine, Taylor, Nguyen,
Chatters, & Himle, 2015). A survey of predominantly Black males in New York City
found an average of daily contact with six neighbors, half reporting never having had a
conflict with a neighbor, and approximately three fourths reporting helping a neighbor
within the last week (Delgado, Blount-Hill, Mandala, & Butts, 2015)....
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