This was a brilliant read, I have read vast amounts of cultural commentary surrounding the US higher educational system from the viewpoints of predominately alumni students within my age group and the affects it had on their long term career trajectory and financial status. And in more recent years the call to end tuition fees via US millennial students often speaking out via coveted platforms such as YouTube e.g Dave Ramsey, The Financial Diet et al. The disparity that exists for students from ethnic backgrounds was apparent within US institutions and seemingly unashamed for doing so (internal structure). I cannot get into this right now, but what I will say, is that whilst under the Jim Crow law African-American students attending HBU’s (Historical Black Institutions) received high attainment levels, and faired better than their white counter-parts at an academic level despite all the obvious obstacles, they were married at a rate of 80%, created their own businesses and generational wealth e.g. Black Wall Street, cosmetic brands, agricultural brands to name a few.
When delving into the UK higher educational system (external structure), there does appear to be a disingenuous treatment to students from selective ethnic minority backgrounds wishing to study within the UK – the often negative perceptions, connotations and beliefs often without merit surrounding them. Accessing housing, educational pathways, coveted institutions, funding and job post academia. Equally home based students from same said backgrounds are treated somewhat marginally better but are worse off at attainment level in comparison to their those students who have travelled to study from the same or similar background. There also seems to be as I believe having once been a home based student from an ethnic background, a self fulfilling prophesy that the academic arena does not recognise, value or consider the perspective, contributions or considerations from this group. The ‘visible – invisible’, so the pedagogy leaning towards the sense of belonging comes into play here now more than ever, and I do believe intuitions are trying to address this issue sensitively.
It will come as no surprise that as this issue is being overly analysed by appropriate academics other issues of inequality will manifest, so I think its best to recognise that we will never completely eradicate all racial injustice/discrimination that exists for student populations within an academic setting, because structurally it does not serve a capitalist model within a democratic society. But what can be re-moulded is the language used by external stake holders e.g. media, specialist niche groups in society when referring to such groups as all peoples are equal and are deserving of respect no matter what.