Fighting Racism and Hate: A Case Study of Black Graduate Students’ Perceptions of a University President’s Responses to Racialized Incidents

This qualitative, single case study examined Black graduate students’ perceptions of a university president’s responses to racialized incidents and how these perceptions inform Black graduate students’ larger contextual understanding of campus racial climate. Guided by Hurtado et al.’s (2012) Multi-Contextual Model for Diverse Learning Environments, the research questions were: What are Black graduate students’ perceptions of a university president’s responses to racialized incidents at a PWI? How do Black graduate students’ perceptions of a university president’s responses to racialized incidents inform their larger contextual understanding of campus racial climate at a PWI? Data was analyzed on an institutional-level through institutional documents, president statements, and one, 60 minute interview with 4 staff members and on an individual-level through a demographic survey and two, 60-90 minute interviews with 12 Black graduate students from a large, predominantly White institution in the Mid-Atlantic, the University of Maryland. The findings were displayed through narrative summaries. As a result of the president’s responses to racialized incidents, Black graduate students felt othered, marginalized, and silenced. Findings demonstrated the lack of institutional response strategies that the president of University of Maryland used to address racialized incidents. Overall, participants viewed the president’s responses to racialized incidents as being untimely, inadequate, and inappropriate. Almost all students and staff participants shared that the president’s responses to racialized incidents through campus statements used non-performative and anti-Blackness rhetoric. Black graduate students reported that the president’s responses, from their vantage point, lacked action-oriented language, next steps, and strategies to assist them during the aftermath of the incidents. The findings from this study underscored a direct connection between the president’s responses to racialized incidents and how Black graduate students at one campus perceive racial climate as being negative. This further illustrates the significance of the role of the presidency when addressing issues of race and racism, and how their responses have the power to disrupt or harm both the personal lived experiences of individuals and the broader campus racial climate for Black graduate students. Several implications for practice and recommendations for theory and future research are offered