Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3 - 65

Freedom Dreaming
At their best, residence halls can be emancipatory and transformative
spaces where student cultures, lived experiences, and aspirations
are embraced; at their worst, they can become environments where
racist policies, staff and student invalidations, and microaggressions
foster isolation and replicate external racist and colonizing structures.
Microaggressions. Microaggressions and microinvalidations (Minikel-Lacocque,
2013; Smith et al., 2007; Solórzano et al., 2002; Yosso et al., 2009) regarding who belongs
and who does not has damaging consequences for BIPOC students in residence
halls.
First, the perception of racial microaggressions often causes students of color to view
the residence hall negatively. Second, the racial microaggressions are often emotionally
costly for a student of color, requiring them to expend mental energy and resources.
Third, the administration's actions, staff, and policies are a key factor in how students
of color experience the residence halls, as well as the overall campus environment. The
cumulative impact of these experiences contributes to students of color often feeling like
outsiders in the university. (Harwood et al., 2012, p. 169)
This feeling of being an outsider is intensified for Latinx students through racial microaggressions
that are specifically directed at them. As Sue and colleagues (2007)
concluded, this aggression is manifested in microinsults (subtle and disparaging commentary
about one's racial identity), microassaults (verbal and nonverbal attacks with
the intent to demean), and microinvalidations (dismissal and disregard for the experiences
of Black, Indigenous, People of Color)-and it occurs on both the interpersonal
and institutional level (Yosso et al., 2009).
Residential Experiences of Latinx Students
As the realities of Latinx students are not monolithic, not every Latinx-identified student,
White or otherwise, has the same residential experience. Racism in residential
spaces is interpreted and experienced differently based on the individual; although race
is a socially constructed concept, not a biological one (Blackburn, 1998), phenotypes
and socioeconomic class play a role in how racism is experienced. Light-skinned Latinx
students and those who identify as White Latinx withstand interpersonal racism differently
based on skin color, hair texture, and other phenotypical features that allegedly
demonstrate race, as well as their ability to benefit from Whiteness.
The intersection of socioeconomic class and race is compelling, as " money can
Whiten Latina/os in the eyes of many Americans, but it takes much higher incomes for
Latina/os with darker phenotypical features to report that other Americans generally
perceive of them as White " (Vargas, 2015, p. 130). Latinx students who are perceived to
be White by White students and can afford college housing options with better amenities
would then have a different interaction with racism than those who are phenotypically
viewed by the social construction of race because they would be considered Latinx.
Prevailing data on the realities of racism for Latinx students are parallel to those
described by Black male resident assistants and BIPOC students in residence halls.
62 The Journal of College and University Student Housing

Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3