Quoted: Research shows graduation rates fall for students of color when they’re forced to pursue their collegiate education in a hostile environment.
“That struggle has been true on every campus I’ve been on as a student and a professor,” said Gloria Ladson-Billings, a professor in curriculum and education at UW-Madison, who has also been at the University of Washington, Stanford University, and Santa Clara University. “It’s not always overt racism, either. They tend to be what is identified now as ‘micro-aggression’ or what is called ‘1,000 tiny cuts.’ Constantly little things. It’s constantly seeing the inequitable ways things play out on campus. That’s a frustration the students are facing.”
“I just hate to see students come out of the university as survivors rather than thrivers,” she said. “But that is the reality.”