Academic Cultural Barriers

Jamiree Harrison, Deisy, Group 2, 8/19/2015

Academic and Cultural Barriers to Higher Education

Higher education is not easy to achieve. Many obstacles barricade the path to a college degree. These obstacles are referred to as barriers. Barriers can be cultural, academic, systemic, or personal obstructions that impede success. In Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks' provides a personal account of the institutional barriers faced while pursuing higher education, just as Rendón did in From the Barrio to the Academy. Douglas Massey et al. discussed how the theories of capital deficiency, stereotype threat, and critical theory serve as barriers in The Source of the River. Derald Wing Sue's barrier of micro-aggressions is discussed in

her work, Microagressions in everyday life. In When Parties Become racialized: Deconstructing Racially Themed Parties, Gina Garcia et al. elaborates on the theory that racially themed parties on college campuses are systematic and institutional barriers. Both Rendón's barriers of academic shock and student assimilation, and hooks' barrier of the structure of dominance perpetuating socioeconomic inequality are explained through Massey et al.'s barriers of capital deficiency, critical theory, and stereotype threat, Sue's depictions of the negative effects of micro-aggressions, and Garcia et al.'s barrier of racially themed parties.
Just as hooks noted that the institution structure of dominance contributed to the barriers faced by historically underrepresented students', Massey writes about how critical theory generates inequality. The structure of dominance is the system that has been used historically in order to ensure that those in power stay in power. hooks writes about how the roles of teachers shifted from those who serve students by helping them get an education to those who act as obedience-driven authority figures. She noticed this change when she moved from a segregated school to a desegregated school. Massey et al.'s Critical theory accounts for differential
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educational outcomes in terms of specific institutional arrangements that reproduce inequality.

Massey et al. states, “To put it crudely, parents of upper-class children have no interest in devoting resources to the education of lower-class children, so that poor and working-class students end up going to lousy schools to receive a lousy education to prepare them for the lousy jobs they will hold as adults.” (Massey et al., 20). This example shows in a simple manner how critical theory functions to generate socioeconomic inequality because the lousy schools that poor and working-class students have to attend are the result of not enough resources going into the educations of lower-class children. Massey et al. shows that the structure of dominance is generating a system that disadvantages historically underrepresented students. Furthermore, hooks writes, “That shift from beloved, all-black schools to white schools where black students were always seen as interlopers, as not really belonging, taught me the difference between education as the practice of freedom and education that merely strives to reinforce domination.” (hooks, 3). hooks was disadvantaged because she was not accustomed to the segregated school as the white students were. Critical Theory states that inequality is reproduced by specific institutional arrangements, such as the arrangements that hooks dealt with. In addition to the experiences in higher education due to the structure of dominance, hooks

struggled with academic shock.
Rendón feels alienated due to the unfamiliar nature of practices and assumptions that she must now encounter, and she is reminded through the micro-aggressions, noted by Sue, that she is in fact, different from her peers. Students often feel academic shock, and they are made to feel that they must assimilate due to micro-aggressions. According to Rendón, she would have to abandon her past experiences in order to assimilate and adapt to the new challenges ahead, which
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include being pre-judged in the form of micro-aggressions. Rendón writes, “I was told that I was one of the most marketable Hispanic females in the field of higher education. I sometimes wonder how I merit such praise.” (Rendón, 317). In “The Manifestation of Racial, Gender, and Sexual-Orientation Micro-aggressions”, Sue shares an anecdote about black students in a philosophy class who experienced micro-aggressions from their professor. The professor said to one of the black students in the class who was not pleased with the lack of diversity in the coursework, “Justin, I appreciate your exceptionally thoughtful and intelligent observation. You are a most articulate young man with good conceptual and analytical skills. This is the type of nonjudgmental analysis and objectivity needed for good dialogues” (Sue, 54). Although both of these comments may seem like praise on the surface, there is subtext to be discussed in the word choice used to praise these individuals. By saying that Rendón is “one of the most marketable Hispanic females in the field of higher education” may imply that she is marketable, but only for a Hispanic female. A more inclusive form of praise would be to say that Rendon is one of the most marketable people in the field of higher education. In the case of Sue's anecdote, the black student has been attempting to assimilate to the classroom that has been set up by the institution, and by the professor. Due to his attempt at assimilation, the professor praises the black student as if the professor did not expect the black student to be articulate and intelligent. The micro-aggression exhibited by the professor was most likely an unconscious racially biased remark brought about by underlying social stereotypes.
Garcia et al.'s discussion of how microaggressions in racially-themed parties have negative effects on historically underrepresented students is connected to the negative effects of Massey et al.'s barrier of stereotype threat. Garcia et al. writes about how parties, in which
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groups of people are encouraged to dress and act as a specific group of people, promote racial stereotypes.

These parties are intended to mock certain racial and ethnic groups and consist of micro-aggressions on a larger scale. Some people claim that it's all in good fun, but these stereotypes have been used to degrade and oppress people for centuries. Garcia et al writes, “Although some parties may not appear to take on a racial undertone due to ambiguous titles, many include problematic and derogatory actions and behaviors that promote negative stereotypes and send negative messages to marginalized groups.” (Garcia et al., 48). Racially-themed parties are attempting to put other groups down with micro-aggressions stemming from the stereotypes that are common to the point of being considered true by many people. A person dressing up as a stereotype makes it apparent that that person knows and acknowledges that stereotype. Massey et al.'s barrier of stereotype threat is one in which minorities are fearful of living up to stereotypes; therefore, they do everything in their power to avoid being stereotypes, and this constant attempt at breaking stereotypes effects performance. If a black person was to be fearful of the stereotype that all black people are intellectually inferior to other races, they may be scared to look dumb to the extent of rarely radiating intelligence (Massey et al., 20). What might seem to be a deficiency in intelligence is most likely rooted in

barriers that Massey et al. would call “capital deficiencies”.
The barriers of capital deficiency that Massey et al. writes about are in correllation with the struggles of Rendón and hooks. Massey et al.'s four types of capital are financial capital, social capital, cultural capital, and human capital. Human capital is all of the knowledge passed down from generation to generation. Massey et al. writes, “Under the precepts of human capital theory, parents invest in their children in the same way that entrepreneurs invest in a company,
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seeking to maximize their ultimate payoff,” (Massey et al. 18). Both hooks and Rendón underwent academic and cultural shock when they began their collegiate educations partially due to neither of their parents being able to help them navigate the path of college. This acts as a disadvantage when compared to a non-minority student whose parents have both gone to college.
There are undoubtedly barriers when it comes to achieving the goal of a college degree. Rendón and hooks have experienced these barriers first-hand as they entered college academically and culturally shocked. They worked within the barrier of the structure of dominance in order to reach their goals. Garcia et al., Massey et al., and Sue have successfully explained the barriers faced by Rendón and hooks through Massey et al.'s barriers of capital deficiencies, critical theory, and stereotype theat, Sue's depictions of the negative effects of micro-aggressions, and Garcia et al.'s barrier of racially themed parties.