Education Commons^™

Merit In Meritocracy: Uncovering The Myth Of Exceptionality And Self-Reliance Through The Voices Of Urban Youth Of Color, David T. Lardier, Kathryn Herr, Veronica R. Barrios, Pauline Garcia-Reid, Robert Reid

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

A disproportionate number of urban youth attend underresourced and segregated schools. While tenets of the American Dream are inculcated in urban youth, a dearth of educational resources is available to help realize this dream. This qualitative study explored the narratives of urban youth (N = 85), many of whom sought to be the exceptions, embracing higher education as a pathway to successful futures, yet few identified resources that would make access to higher education possible. The capital accrued in their communities allowed them to navigate their social environment; however, it was an insufficient bridge for future success in higher education. …

Branch Rickey, Affirmative Action And 'Merit' In Baseball And Education, Evan H. Caminker

Book Chapters

When General Manager Wesley Branch Rickey broke Organized Baseball’s longstanding color barrier on October 23, 1945, by signing Jackie Robinson to a contract to play for the Montreal Royals, a minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Rickey catalyzed the movement for racial justice. Millions of people saw, heard, and read about black and white men playing side-by-side. Integrating the national pastime helped challenge segregationist norms across the land, facilitating the integration of military troops and public schools soon thereafter.

Rickey’s stirring call in his 1956 Atlanta address to judge people on their merits rather than their pigmentation still resonates …

In The Name Of Merit: Racial Violence In The Academy, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

Racial violence in the academy is enacted upon faculty of color, particularly women, in multiple disciplines. This essay attempts to both expose and suggest that everyday systemic racism has become a pervasive and normalizing feature within disciplines that continue to privilege white and Eurocentric forms of knowledge-making while devaluing others. Furthermore, attempts to challenge such supremacies are immediately countered by calls and charges of incivility. This is an essay about the costs of unmasking norms of civility as it bears upon constructions of both whiteness and meritocracy.