Performing Anti-racism: Universities Respond to Anti-Black Violence

• Author: Ishara Casellas Connors,Henrika McCoy
• DOI: 10.1177/21533687221101787
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Date: 01 July 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Performing Anti-racism:

Universities Respond to

Anti-Black Violence

Ishara Casellas Connors

1

and Henrika McCoy

2

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEI) are communities nestled within and a part of the

local, regional, and national contexts. Increasingly, college and university presidents

have begun to comment on local and national events, particularly as these events

make their way onto campuses. This study examines 99 presidential statements

from both public and private institutions, disseminated in the week following the

2020 murder of George Floyd. Using critical race discourse analysis (CRDA), the f‌ind-

ings consider how institutional discourse constructs a histor y of advancing racial

equity, leverages institutional mission and values, includes institutional and personal

calls to action, and the intersecting use and exclusion of explicitly racialized discourse.

Despite institutions discussing race and racism, they frequently construct these topics

and their attendant needs as external to the institutions. These f‌indings expand the

exploration into institutional discourse in response to racialized incidents on campus

and beyond. How institutions use these opportunities to move beyond performative

rhetoric towards action and institutional change represents a signif‌icant opportunity

to transform colleges and universities in ways that support racially minoritized com-

munities both on and off-campus.

Keywords

criminological theories, critical race theory, critical race discourse analysis, anti-

Bblackness, Black Lives Matter, higher education discourse

1

Bush School of Government and Public Administration, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

2

Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Ishara Casellas Connors, Bush School of Government and Public Administration, Texas A&M University,

4220 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77983, USA.

Email: icasellasconnors@tamu.edu

Article

Race and Justice

2022, Vol. 12(3) 588-613

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/21533687221101787

journals.sagepub.com/home/raj

Higher education institutions (HEI) are place-based, campuses, embedded in distinct

regional and national political contexts (Kobayashi et al., 2014). This embeddedness

demands that institutions engage in national conversations and, in so doing, construct

narratives of institutional identity in relation to the public landscape. Their responses

manifest as institutional statements: public responses to pressing social issues.

Recently, across the U.S. and globally, the intersection of student activism, national

political turmoil, and increased use of technology to disseminate responses has

increased this form of institutional discourse; communication by senior administration

regarding local and national political events (McNaughtan et al., 2019). Focused on

racial equity and higher education, the rising level of institutional comment, in

response to national political topics, has sparked scholarship which captures the

sentiments of institutional rhetoric related to specif‌ic political events (Andrade &

Lundberg, 2022; George Mwangi et al., 2019; Hypolite & Stewart, 2019; Stein,

2018). Considering the presidential election, DACA, and racialized incidents on

campus, the existing literature is augmented historical analysis, such as the work of

Cole (2015) looking at presidential speeches in the 1960s. This research expands

the knowledge base by illuminating the discourse of diversity, equity, and inclusion

(DEI) within statements responding to anti-Black violence. It also highlights the unex-

amined role of racialized organizations and place-making as frameworks to critically

examine the construction of place and inclusion through institutional responses to

national political issues.

One such national political dialogue is #BlackLivesMatter (BLM). Throughout

2013 and 2014, BLM gained prevalence following the murders of Trayvon Martin

and Michael Brown, foregrounding the state-sanctioned violence facing the everyday

lives of Black people (Taylor, 2016). Considering the implication of BLM across

HEIs, Haynes et al. (2019) note, “it is apparent that #BLM is perhaps the most signif‌i-

cant social movement shaping the current racial context of U.S. higher education”

(p. 1,068). The protests and advocacy across HEIs signif‌icantly shaped public and

institutional discourse related to goals of DEI (Dache, 2019; Hailu & Sarubbi, 2019;

Patton & Njoku, 2019). BLM regained prominence nationally on campuses following

the May 30, 2020 murder of George Floyd. The continued violence against Black

people catalyzed another global wave of discourse around policing, systemic

racism, and anti-racism. In the wake of national dialog, and pushed by students,

staff, faculty, alumni, and communities calling for an institutional response, college

and university presidents

1

quickly joined the conversation (Schmalz, 2020).

Institutional statements were distributed via e-mail, posted on institution websites,

and shared on social media platforms to codify institutional positions. Ultimately,

these statements constructed narratives of place—who is included and excluded

from the institutions (Hoffman & Mitchell, 2016).

In response to the call of prior scholarship regarding presidential discourse

(McNaughtan et al., 2019), this research utilizes critical analysis frameworks to con-

sider the discourses of race and place constructed through presidential communications

in response to national political events. Specif‌ically how theories of racialized organi-

zations (Ray, 2019) inform our understanding of institutional discourse surrounding

Casellas Connors and McCoy 589