Toward a Global Understanding of Black Colleges: Defining Diaspora, Describing Stratification, and Disrupting Hegemony

Abstract

“Men make their own history,

but they do not make it just as they please;

they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves

but under circumstances directly encountered,

given and transmitted from the past.”

–Karl Marx

Over one dozen books have been written about historically black colleges and universities over the last 15 years. However, not one of the volumes published addresses this cohort of institutions from a global dimension. Each of the books ignores the reality that there are institutions of higher education populated by persons of African descent scattered around the globe. Equally, the emergent literature is silent on issues of racial stratification; consequently, treating black colleges as homogenous monoliths. This quiesance ignores the important tension of racial oppression/white supremacy, social stratification, and the persistent hegemony of power in societies with black populations. In this commencing chapter, there are two primary explorations: (1) the particularities of race and identity in black colleges in the United States, and (2) the nexus between race and culture in black colleges outside of the United States. In order to properly contextualize this diorama, it is imperative to examine the meaning of diaspora, the realities of racial stratification, and the ways in which hegemony can be unsettled and usurped.

Citation

Brown, M.C. and Dancy, T.E. (2017), "Toward a Global Understanding of Black Colleges: Defining Diaspora, Describing Stratification, and Disrupting Hegemony", Brown, M.C. and Dancy, T.E. (Ed.) Black Colleges Across the Diaspora: Global Perspectives on Race and Stratification in Postsecondary Education (Advances in Education in Diverse Communities, Vol. 14), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-358X20160000014001