Beyond Metrics: Racial Identity Development as Anti-Colonial Praxis in Contested Institutional Spaces
Abstract
Amid the escalating attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, Historically Black Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HBeHSIs) represent overlooked spaces of resistance in U.S. Higher education. This study examines how faculty and administrators negotiate racial and professional identities within institutions shaped by Black liberatory traditions and exclusionary HSI policy. Guided by Bradley and Tillis’s Afro-Latinidades heuristic, we link psychosocial identity development to institutional praxis and anti-colonial resistance. Interviews with 10 BIPOC professionals reveal identity ork as collective praxis challenging essentialist narratives and affirming servingness beyond enrollment metrics. Five themes illustrate work as collective praxis challenging essentialist narratives and affirming servingness beyond enrollment metrics. Five themes illustrate strategies for sustaining equity-driven missions under racial retrenchment, calling for renewed commitments to justice-centered higher education.
Keywords:
racial identity development; faculty; race; ethnicity; higher education; emerging HSIs; and HBCU
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“HAIR-etage is a sacred sensory-rich pop museum experience celebrating beauty, legacy, and power of Black hair through art, storytelling, and wellness in spired by the Crown Act.
The CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act was created by four black women, designed to prohibit race-based hair discrimination and stop the denial of employment and educational opportunities for men and women of color based on their textured or protective hairstyles. The act is not a law in all 50 states yet, and without federal legislation, the loophole in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that protects race but not hair as a trait correlated with race will continue to allow race-based hair discrimination to be legal in public schools and the workplace.
My Crown, My Way is the heartfelt creation of a mother-daughter duo, Naheemah McMicheaux McCallop and her seven-year-old daughter, Namia McCallop. The inspiration behind the book came from their shared desire to create a space for young people to celebrate their natural beauty and cultural heritage. They wanted to tell a story that would inspire youth to recognize that they are a masterpiece—just the way God made them—and that they should never stop dreaming.” (—Naheemah McMicheaux McCallop)
