Transforming Campus Racial Climates: Examining Discourses Around Student Experiences of Racial Violence and Institutional (In)Action

Recent student protests highlight the institutional neglect of students of color and helped to shape a national discourse on racism in higher education. This study uses critical discourse analysis to examine discourses of campus racial climate that surround a student-led speak-out at a university in the Pacific Northwest. Based on analyses of 38 public texts, the findings illustrate how discourses of campus racial climate move along a continuum of racist, nonracist. and antiracist discourse. It further discusses this movement along three dimensions involving the degree to which the voices of students of color are centered, the way racism is understood, and the emphasis on institutional agency and responsibility. We argue that antiracist discourse, which employs a progressive racism-conscious ideology, is necessary for guiding institutional action.