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BOOK EXCERPT
"Declining by Degrees"
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From "TALKING THE TALK: RHETORIC AND REALITY FOR STUDENTS OF COLOR"
by Heather D. Wathington
... Unfortunately, the gap between rhetoric - what we all say about our educational aspirations for all students - and reality - limited, even declining, opportunity for students of color�has never been wider. Certainly, this hypocrisy has been pointed out many times by renowned contemporary scholars, such as Manning Marable and Cornel West, and even going as far back as W. E. B. DuBois. The rhetoric masks the plight of students of color and hampers our ability to act to achieve equity and reach American democratic ideals. Whether higher education can go beyond talking the talk and actually start walking the walk is the great unanswered question of our time.
Conversations about the civic purpose of higher education have always reflected our high aspirations. Thomas Jefferson believed that the virtues of higher learning were vital to the preservation of a free and democratic society. Today's educators echo Jefferson in their mission statements and public pronouncements, emphasizing the vital link between higher learning and democracy. Yet, most of higher education has lost touch with the mobilizing power of Jefferson's values. As they respond to the challenges they face - the revolution in technology, the transnational dynamics of globalization, escalating costs - too many campus officials have ignored or abandoned the larger democratic purposes of higher education, especially its role in building pluralistic communities.
Inequality of educational opportunity continues to affect students of color profoundly; it always has done devastating economic and social damage to communities of color. Mired in racial discrimination and fear for much of the twentieth century, colleges have neglected or underserved racial and ethnic minorities, contributing to the stark under-representation and dramatic underperformance of people of color in higher education. On any list of the populations that higher education has historically served and educated, students of color are at or near the bottom. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 17.4 percent of African Americans and 11.1 percent of Latinos hold bachelor's degrees, compared to 21.5 percent of the White population. We hear their plaintive voices through revealing stories and statistics, but most acutely, we hear the collective voices of communities of color who bear witness to higher education's shortcomings. The stark realities facing residents in many of these communities - poorly funded, underperforming schools; inadequate health care; chronic unemployment and poverty - all represent a missed opportunity, an unfulfilled promise of higher education. Ironically, the unmet needs of communities of color also raise the question of whether higher education has even done right by the students it has served. After all, if advantaged students and graduates can remain indifferent to the struggles of the poor and people of color, can higher education really claim to foster ethical and democratic values�or has it failed to serve us all? ...
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MEET ADRIANA, JASON, MATT & BRITNEY
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