White campus activities professionals navigating diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts: A critical whiteness perspective

Abstract

Guided by critical perspectives on race and whiteness, this qualitative study explores how White campus activities professionals navigate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in relation to their privileged racial identity. Using a phenomenological approach, the findings reveal a common thread of white comfort and solidarity within campus activities at both the individual and institutional levels. Furthermore, this study offers recommendations for how White professionals can move beyond white comfort by integrating theories and perspectives of critical whiteness into their daily practice in campus activities. In doing so, White professionals can begin to disrupt normative actions, behaviors, and attitudes of whiteness within themselves, their teams, and institutions.