Racial Evasion Policy: University Leadership Responses to Incidents of Racism in the Age of Neoliberalism

Racism and white supremacy have always existed in higher education. However, recent events have demonstrated that university leaders are utilizing neoliberal ideologies in their response to racism on campus. This is part of a higher education policy reaction process that deliberately neglects the critical importance of race and places more value on the commodification of diversity for institutional public image and racial capital. Our paper reviews racial incidents at two major research universities in the U.S. to demonstrate the responses to these incidents of racism are a form of racial evasion or racial avoidance by university presidents, chancellors, and provosts. This is due to the neoliberal influence in higher education and emboldened politically conservative forces such as boards of trustees and state legislatures that are exerting increasing influential power and decision making over matters involving the culture wars against marginalized diverse populations in the academy.