Imperialistic reclamation of higher education diversity initiatives through semantic co-option and concession

ABSTRACT

Affirmative Action in higher education exemplifies interest convergence, and beyond this, interest divergence and imperialistic reclamation. Diversity initiatives, such as the Inclusive Excellence initiative, have adopted key strategies and reasoning developed in Affirmative Action Supreme Court cases. This paper shows how semantic concessions and co-options within Supreme Court cases and in Inclusive Excellence scholarship have moved the focus of higher education diversity programs from access for Students of Color to educational benefits for white students. I show how current diversity initiatives are based on false premises with legal precedent. I frame these semantic concessions and co-options within imperialistic reclamation and discuss the implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• inclusive excellence
• affirmative action
• interest convergence
• imperialistic reclamation
• semantic concession
• semantic co-option

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Juan Garibay, OiYan Poon, and my anonymous reviewers for their support and thoughtful feedback on earlier versions of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.