Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 1 - 20

The Impact of White Supremacy
evaluation of an intervention to improve the problem of practice illuminated in Cycle 1.
The intervention was evaluated through 10 semi-structured interviews with student
affairs practitioners. Participants in Cycle 2 were from one large public university,
representing a cross section of student affairs roles, and held varied levels of positionality
within organizational structures. Throughout the data analysis and results
sections that follow, pseudonyms were not used, a strategy intended as a form of
resistance to the lure of individualism, a characteristic of White supremacy (Okun,
2021). As DiAngelo (2015) maintains,
The ideology of individualism is a story line that creates, communicates, reproduces,
and reinforces the concept that each of us is a unique individual and that our group
memberships, such as race, class, or gender, are irrelevant to our opportunities. ( p. 9)
Cycle 1: Data Collection and Analysis
Semi-structured interviews were conducted using purposeful and snowball sampling
(Stringer, 1996), and participants were asked to describe the conditions that support
and hinder their workplace learning. During the interviews, they completed a sorting
activity in which they were asked to sort the characteristics of White supremacy cultural
norms and their antidotes into categories of most helpful or least helpful to their
learning. The norms were described but not labeled in the sorting activity.
The interviews were transcribed and coded using process codes (Saldaña, 2016).
Codes were defined and described in a codebook, and pattern codes were then used to
clarify themes. Initial process codes and notes from the sorting activity are reflected in
Table 2 (see page 18).
Cycle 1: Results
Two thematic statements emerged from the Cycle 1 data analysis: (1) Hierarchical routines,
perfectionism, defensive routines, expectations to be more and do more, and
learning one right way hinder learning in the workplace. (2) The ability to ask questions,
collaborate, bounce ideas off colleagues, and experiment with new information
support workplace learning. Participants consistently identified the characteristics of
White supremacy cultural norms as being the least helpful to their learning, and the
antidotes-the choice of something different-as being the most helpful. The results
from the sorting activity are reflected in Table 3 (see page 19).
All 11 participants identified defensiveness as negatively impacting their learning.
One described a defensive routine in a story about engaging in a conversation about
the use of the phrase " grandfathered in " ; when they noted that the phrase was racist,
their colleague became defensive.
They immediately just started like getting an angry tone and saying, " well, I guess I'll
never just say anything again. Like I can't say anything anymore. Everyone's gonna get
offended. I'm not offended by it. " Um, and then they shut down.
As the participant described, defensive routines stymie the learning potential inherent
in feedback.
Volume 50, No. 1 * 2023 17

Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 1