Unsung Heroes on Campus: Minority Veterans’ Transition Experiences by Race

ABSTRACT

This study explored the impact of race on the higher education transition experiences of three groups of male student veterans: Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and Asian. Grounded in the premise of Critical Race Theory, especially Cabrera’s Hegemonic Whiteness and Yosso’s Cultural Capital, we collected and analyzed 17 student veterans’ in-depth interviews centering the voices of the participants marginalized due to race, age, and veteran status. Findings confirm that student veterans of color face acute cultural alienation and racism on college campuses and enact various cultural capitals and strands of resiliency to cope, while also ascribing to beliefs of meritocracy and colorblindness inherited from their military service. Future research on student veterans should continue to examine the heterogeneity among student veterans, especially those located at the intersection of multiple marginalities, to provide an anti-racist portrayal of student veterans as a diverse population.

KEYWORDS:

• Minority student veterans
• cultural capital
• meritocracy
• white hegemony

Disclosure statement

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