Researching what I believe to be exclusionary practices in higher education against
African Americans has compelled me to approach this subject, in part, historically.
Although I realize that a historical chronology of any subject is often deceptive, as with
any writer, I am tempted to interpret events to fit my reality. However, my interest goes
far beyond the matter of setting a historical record straight. I am far more interested in
investigating reasons why there seem to be structural barriers erected against African
Americans in higher education. For many, the answer is simple. They say that it is racism,
pure and simple. However, I propose to show that it is more than racism. I contend that
higher education is the source and disseminator of the theoretical concept of race and
consequently of racism. I contend that once a theoretical concept, such as "race," has been
socially and educationally constructed, all questions henceforth can be designed and
narrowed down to a perpetually tautological construct called knowledge.
In this dissertation, 1 will refer, metaphorically, to the concept of "race" as being
an incurably malignant pathological paradigm that has been nurtured in higher education
and passed on as knowledge. Based on this pathological paradigm, I will explore how
higher education has portrayed African Americans as an inferior paradigmatic archetype. / Graduation date: 1999
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33535 |
| Date | 05 April 1999 |
| Creators | Powell, William N. |
| Contributors | Suzuki, Warren N. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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