Diversity without integration? Racialization and spaces of exclusion in international higher education

Abstract

In predominantly white universities in the United States, international students are frequently exposed to racism, xenophobia, and other forms of exclusion. This ethnographic research examines how students from China’s Pearl River Delta negotiate a predominantly white Midwestern university in an era of reenergized racism and nationalism. It reveals the persistence of the ideology of whiteness and culture-based exclusion, which not only racialize foreign students of color, but also engage with this student population to perpetuate white supremacy. It also highlights race as a transnational construct, where China’s state ideology of anti-Blackness and Han ethnocentrism powerfully push Chinese students to isolate from Black and Asian American communities.

Keywords:

• Race
• exclusion
• transnationalism of higher education
• China
• US

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Reports about Arab slave trade traced it back to Tang Dynasty and the slave trade became more popular in Song Dynasty. Black slaves were brought to Asia by Persian and Arab merchants, and the slaves could “fetch three taels of gold or its equivalent in scented woods per head on the Chinese market”. See P Wheatley (1959). Geographic Notes on Some Commodities Involved in Sung Maritime Trade. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol 32, No. 2 (186).

2 The McKinsey standard refers to Chinese families with a yearly household income between RMB 75,000-280,000 ($11,500-43,000) as middle class with some inflation adjustment (McKinsey Quarterly, 2013). The middle class are considered active consumers of luxury goods, with more than one-third of their income spent on high-end bags, shoes, watches, and jewelry.

3 Lakeside University is a pseudonym,

4 Statistics from World Population Review. Accessed August 21, 2019.

5 All names are pseudonyms.

6 The year in college refers to students’ status in the academic year of 2018-2019.