The resiliency of black graduate students at predominantly white institutions

Abstract

Being a graduate student is challenging due to the new knowledge and practices one must learn to become a professional in their chosen area of study. However, being a Black graduate student at a predominantly White institution (PWI) increases these challenges due to the mismatch between the Black student's community cultural wealth and the cultural capital valued by PWI colleges and universities (Adsitt, 2017). Historically, higher education has been not very welcoming to Black students; Black students are visible in advertisements for sporting events for football or basketball, or if a race issue arises on campus (Steele, 1989). White culture's publications and memorabilia often promote pictures of White students with a few minority students to illustrate they understand diversity from a cultural race perspective. This discordance is one of the key reasons why I, as a Black graduate student, often question whether I am intelligent and durable enough for acceptance and to complete a Ph.D. My own experiences as a graduate student, along with personal life challenges and my resiliency to press forward, birthed this research topic. This study explores the resiliency of Black graduate students at PWIs in correlation to the equity and diversity issues they confront and their personal life experiences within the institutions' broader social and cultural contexts. It highlights issues of overlapping racism, inequality, and the power culture of Whiteness as it pertains to the inclusion of minority students in PWIs. I present various elements of the resiliency rooted within Black graduate students of the past 200 years, examining historical court cases that illustrated the racism and inequality the students confronted, thereby fueling their need to be resilient to obtain educational access in America. Traditionally, resiliency demonstrates one's ability to overcome a challenge or traumatic event in life, such as 9/11 or recovering from an illness such as cancer; however, this research factors in the challenge of being Black, explicitly being a successful Black graduate student at a PWI. Utilizing Yosso's (2005) Cultural Wealth Model for this study gives a critical lens into how Black graduate students persist through higher education and fuel their resiliency. Yosso designed this model to capture the talents, strengths, and experiences Black graduate students bring with them to their college environment. I interviewed nine Black graduate students via Zoom Video Conferencing. The participants attended universities in various regions of the United States: five participants in the Midwest; one each in the Northern, Eastern, and Southern Regions; and two in the West. Several essential findings came from the study. For instance, the six cultural capitals can work independently sometimes, or all of them can work at once, simultaneously, without a moment's notice. The Black graduate students featured in this study showed that just because one person may have a positive experience from aspirational capital or navigational capital, another may have negative results. Nevertheless, this study highlights the ups and downs within the Black graduate student's life, that we can be resilient by valuing who we are from a cultural and intellectual perspective. It amplifies the narrative that predominately White institutions needs to respect and value our cultural wealth and cultural knowledge equally to their own!