Description
The university is often regarded as a bastion of liberal democracy where equity and diversity are promoted and racism doesn’t exist. In reality, the university still excludes many people and is a site of racialization that is subtle, complex, and sophisticated. While some studies do point to the persistence of systemic barriers to equity in higher education, in-depth analyses of racism, racialization, and Indigeneity in the academy are more notable for excluding racialized and Indigenous professors.
This book is the first comprehensive, data-based study of racialized and Indigenous faculty members’ experiences in Canadian universities. Challenging the myth of equity in higher education, it brings together leading scholars who scrutinize what universities have done and question the effectiveness of their equity programs. They draw on a rich body of survey data, interviews, and analysis of universities’ stated policies to examine the experiences of racialized faculty members across Canada who – despite diversity initiatives in their respective institutions – have yet to see meaningful changes in everyday working conditions. They also make important recommendations as to how universities can address racialization and fulfill the promise of equity in higher education.
Contributor Notes
Frances Henry, FRSC, is a professor emerita of anthropology at York University.
Enakshi Dua is the director of the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University.
Carl E. James, FRSC, teaches in the Faculty of Education and in the Graduate Program in Sociology at York University.
Audrey Kobayashi, FRSC, is a professor of geography at Queen’s University, Kingston.
Peter Li, FRSC, is a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Saskatchewan.
Howard Ramos is the associate dean of research in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and a professor of sociology at Dalhousie University.
Malinda S. Smith is a professor of political science at the University of Alberta.
Editorial Reviews
The Equity Myth is a necessary book that draws on new and existing statistical and qualitative data to describe the routine reproduction of race inequities in the academy. As they undercut the prevailing image of the university as an ivory tower insulated from the rest of the social world and its ills, including colonialism and racism, the authors provide devastating evidence of the institutionalization of whiteness and the ongoing marginalization of racialized minorities and Indigenous persons in the academy.
— Canadian Journal of Political Science
[G]roundbreaking new research led by York University Professor Emeritus Frances Henry puts Canadian universities under the microscope. This new inquiry … shows that racialized and Indigenous faculty are low in numbers and even lower in terms of power, prestige and influence compared to non-racialized [white, male] counterparts within the university
— York University
The Equity Myth paints a bleak picture in which the hegemonic whiteness and patriarchy of the institution show remarkable resilience through lip service and tokenism. [...]On the other hand, it recommends possible concrete solutions[...]a must-read for anyone interested in the social sciences, in discrimination, or simply in being decent and well-informed human beings.
— Canadian Literature
The Equity Myth brings to the surface tensions that racialized faculty widely experience but seldom formally discuss in their workplaces. These include pay inequity, unequal hiring processes, a lack of visibility for racialized faculty in the professoriate, Euro-centric curricula and racial discrimination.
Until now, those tensions have been felt only in the abstract or anecdotally. Statistics Canada does not collect data on racialized minorities as part of the data it compiles on faculty and students at Canadian universities; nor do provincial governments collect such information. There has been recent change on this front from the University of Toronto and Ryerson University, both of which have announced in the past year that they would start collecting race-based data about their students. But no data exists on the effectiveness of university employment equity policies or policies against discrimination, despite their ubiquity across Canadian campuses.
— University Affairs
