| Title: |
Old Tactics in New Robes: Plantation Politics and the Continued Pervasiveness of Anti-Blackness in Higher Education |
| Language: |
English |
| Authors: |
Saran Stewart (ORCID 0000-0002-1296-5390); Kelly Schlabach; Omar Romandia; Frank Tuitt |
| Source: |
Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 2025 18(6):883-899. |
| Availability: |
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org |
| Peer Reviewed: |
Y |
| Page Count: |
17 |
| Publication Date: |
2025 |
| Document Type: |
Journal Articles; Reports - Research |
| Education Level: |
Higher Education; Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: |
Higher Education; Racism; Diversity Equity and Inclusion; Critical Race Theory; Educational Policy; Power Structure; United States History; State Legislation; Slavery; Court Litigation; Educational Legislation; Observation |
| Laws, Policies and Program Identifiers: |
Plessy v Ferguson |
| DOI: |
10.1037/dhe0000625 |
| ISSN: |
1938-8926; 1938-8934 |
| Abstract: |
Throughout cycles of interest convergence, divergence, and reclamation, there have been multilevel mobilization efforts by White political financiers to dismantle diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) efforts, especially those related to advancing racial justice in education. These intentional countermobilization efforts resemble some of the earliest forms of social control: Slave Code Acts, where southern Whites attempted to prevent enslaved Africans from gaining access to educational spaces or knowledge that would lead to their liberation. In this article, we posed the following research question: how do anti-DEIJ and anti-CRT (criticalrace theory) higher education policies and discourse relate to or act as extensions of archival Slave Code Acts as a form of imperialistic reclamation? We conducted a comparative critical policy discourse analysis to examine the relationship between the control mechanisms in the slave codes and contemporary anti-DEIJ and anti-CRT policies. Accordingly, we argue that these anti-DEIJ and anti-CRT legislative attacks are not new, rather, they reflect efforts across time to restrict access to critical knowledge and transformative higher education spaces as extensions of tactics of plantation past where lawmakers utilized Slave Code Acts to ensure anti-Blackness remained pervasive. From our analysis, we discerned five assertions demonstrating the linkages between the slave codes of British Americas and the United States and contemporary U.S. policies. Overall, we posit that policymakers utilize these tactics because of education's capacity to be a practice of freedom, threatening the pervasive vestiges of plantation politics to maintain White dominance. |
| Abstractor: |
As Provided |
| Entry Date: |
2026 |
| Accession Number: |
EJ1505694 |
| Database: |
ERIC |