Anti-Racism/BIPOC Best Practices

Best Practices for Inclusive Programming

Racism pervades all aspects of society and academia is no exception. Therefore, promoting and practicing anti-racism is important in order to dismantle White supremacy. Anti-racism goes beyond awareness and understanding of systemic racism and the racial inequities in higher education. Anti-racism is action-oriented and involves actively changing the policies, behaviors, and beliefs that perpetuate racist ideas and outcomes. Anti-racism involves actively dismantling White supremacy. Anti-racist actions we can take in our programs for BIPOC scholars include:

• Name how systemic racism impacts career and professional development for BIPOC trainees (e.g., racial bias in hiring, racial bias in salary negotiation, "invisible tax" of additional DEI-related service burdens in many professions, etc.)

• Emphasize the strengths and assets of BIPOC communities and avoid deficit discourse

• Sponsor and collaborate with your multicultural center and BIPOC affinity groups to provide programs specifically tailored to help BIPOC scholars with their professional and career development needs

• Include role models of successful BIPOC scholars in career panels, alumni networking events, etc. while also being mindful not to create additional service burdens for such role models

• Create a brave environment for inter-group dialogue about racism. In such discussions, create community guidelines for discussion. See the General Best Practices section of the guide for links to community guideline examples and inter-group dialogue resources.

• Acknowledge that BIPOC trainees face unique challenges:

  • Experiencing race-based harassment, discrimination, bias incidents, stereotyping, and/or microaggressions

  • Experiencing isolating climates at Historically White Institutions (HWI's)

  • Additional burdens of doing diversity work on campus and the emotional labor associated with such work

  • Experiencing identity and stereotype threats

  • Lack of mentors from similar racial backgrounds, especially at HWI's

Online Resources

• Equity in Graduate Education Resource Center

• Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN) Resource Library

• White Supremacy Culture attributes and antidotes

• General anti-racism resources

  1. Scaffolded anti-racism resources

  2. General anti-racism resources

  3. Anti-Racism Bookshelf

  4. Anti-racism resources recordings by Gladstone, in collaboration with GeorgiaTech, UW, UT Austin #AmplifiedSTEM

  5. Anti-racism resources page at Rackham Graduate School

  6. Dismantling Anti-Blackness Culture: Anti-Racist Resources for Academia resource from Tufts University

  7. Racial Equity Tools

  8. Institutionalized racism syllabus

  9. UC Berkeley Diversity Planning Toolkits and Resources

• Resources for BIPOC trainees

  1. The Mental Health Coalition BIPOC Mental Health Resources

  2. Tufts University Resources for BIPOC

  3. Gustavus Adolphus College - Resources for BIPOC Students, Anti-Racism Materials, and Activist Self-Care

  4. Black, Indigenous and People of Color Mental Health and Wellness Resource List

  5. Harvard BIPOC Resources for Self-Care

• STEM-specific Resources

  1. Shut Down STEM

  2. UC Davis STEM Faculty Resource Guide - For Faculty Starting to Learn about Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Anti Racism

  3. Exploration in Diversifying Engineering Faculty Initiative (EDEFI) Resources

Suggested Readings

• Gildersleeve, R. E., Croom, N. N., & Vasquez, P. L. (2011). “Am I going crazy?!”: A critical race analysis of doctoral education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 44(1), 93–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2011.539472

• Kezar, A., & Posselt, J. (Eds.). (2019). Higher Education Administration for Social Justice and Equity: Critical Perspectives for Leadership. Routledge.

• Leonardo, Z. & Porter, R.K. (2010). Pedagogy of fear: toward a Fanonian theory of 'safety' in race dialogue. Race and Ethnicity Education, 13(2), 139-157. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2010.482898

• Lovitts, B. E., & Nelson, C. (2000). The hidden crisis in graduate education: Attrition from Ph. D. programs. Academe, 86(6), 44. https://doi.org/10.2307/40251951.

• Metivier, K. (2020). Envisioning Higher Education as Antiracist. Inside Higher Ed.

• Patton, Lori & Bondi, Stephanie. (2015). Nice White men or social justice allies?: Using critical race theory to examine how White male faculty and administrators engage in ally work. Race Ethnicity and Education 18:4, pp. 488–514.

• Posselt, J. R. (2018). Rigor and support in racialized learning environments: The case of graduate education. New Directions for Higher Education, 181, 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20271

• Posselt, J. R. (2020). Equity in Science: Representation, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change in Graduate Education. Stanford University Press.

• Slay, K., Reyes, K., & Posselt, J. (2019). Bait and Switch: Representation, Climate, and Tensions of Diversity Work in Graduate Education. The Review of Higher Education, 42, 255-286.

Created by Estely Carranza | University of California, Davis