Separate & Unequal

How Higher Education Reinforces the Intergenerational Reproduction of White Racial Privilege

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Executive Summary

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The higher education system is more and more complicit as a passive agent in the systematic reproduction of white racial privilege across generations. Separate & Unequal: How Higher Education Reinforces the Intergenerational Reproduction of White Racial Privilege analyzes enrollment trends at 4,400 postsecondary institutions by race and institutional selectivity over the past 15 years.

Key Findings

Since 1995, 82 percent of new white student enrollments have gone to the 468 most selective colleges, while enrollments for Hispanic/Latino (72%) and Black/African American students (68%) have gone to two-year and four-year open-access schools.

The selective colleges spend anywhere from two to almost five times as much on instruction per student as the open-access colleges.

More than 30 percent of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino students with a high school GPA higher than 3.5 go to community colleges compared to 22 percent of white students with the same GPA.

Even among equally qualified white, Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino students, these pathways are not only separate but they bring unequal results.

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In this report, we find that every year we continue to produce college-qualified African American and Hispanic students who don’t get college degrees.

Since 1995, 82 percent of new white enrollments have gone to the 468 most selective colleges,* while 72 percent of new Hispanic enrollment and 68 percent of new African-American enrollment have gone to the two-year open-access schools.

*For this study, we use Barron’s Education Series, College Division. 2009 Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, 2008. A shortlist of the 468 most selective colleges is available here. For a full list, please consult Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges.

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