This article uses Wendy Moore’s concept of White institutional space to explain why Black people experience ostracization, microaggressions, and other forms of othering in predominantly White institutions. More than five decades since the official end of Jim Crow, Black people report Whites treating them as though they do not belong in predominantly White institutions. It is as though Black people are still integrating White spaces, even when other Black people are members in those spaces. Drawing on sociology, psychology, and education literatures and our own ethnographic research, we argue that Black people feel like they are integrating White institutional spaces because they are. White people have constructed a three-part system to protect the Whiteness of spaces as people of color struggle for increased membership in historically White institutions. The first part of the system is physical segregation, accomplished primarily through residential segregation and institutional siloing. The second part is segregation via microaggressions that ensure that only a few people of color enter White institutional space, that the few who enter are unlikely to disturb White institutional space, and any people of color who no longer consent to White normativity are quickly discovered and excised. Finally, Whites use cognitive tricks like subtyping, which define colleagues of color as special exceptions to their otherwise undesirable racial groups. Through a fictional chronicle, the authors demonstrate how White colleagues use physical separation, microaggressions, and subtyping to maintain the Whiteness of their White institutional space.
Studying Black Student Life on Campus: Toward a Theory of Black Placemaking in Higher Education