University Memorials and Symbols of White Supremacy: Black Students’ Counternarratives

ABSTRACT

Universities across the globe continue to reckon with memorialization and symbolism tied to racist histories. In this paper, the author uses Critical Race methodology to examine how 23 Black undergraduate students at the University of Cincinnati interpret and experience one such symbol—the namesake of an enslaver—memorialized throughout campus. The enslaver, Charles McMicken, bequeathed money for what would become the University of Cincinnati explicitly for the “education of White boys and girls.” The author begins with the assumption that the namesake is a symbol of White supremacy. Using Critical Race Theory, the author analyzes 1) to what extent this symbol shapes students’ campus experiences and 2) the mechanisms by which students’ learned of the racist histories behind the symbol. The data presented demonstrates how counternarratives surrounding this symbol were shared and how the concept of racial realism—the belief that racism is permanent—might be useful in understanding how Black students are not completely demoralized by such symbols.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• qualitative inquiry
• black education
• race

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I received permission from the institution’s IRB office to use its name as long as I took measures to protect student identities.

2. A historically White institution of education’s symbols, practices, and traditions were largely designed for and by White people (see, Allen et al., 1991).

3. Combs et al. (2016) work centering upon “reminders of white racial dominance” (p. 345) served as the inspiration for my phrase “university symbols of White supremacy.”

4. Their Black Cultural Center is called the African American Cultural and Resource Center.

5. This organization is a Black affinity group akin to a Black Student Union.

6. A group of eight Black undergraduates that led activism following the murder of Samuel DuBose.