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Resistance in the Classroom towards Oppression Related Topics: A Review of the Literature
Andrea Crespo
University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract
The population of racially diverse students attending higher education in the United States is
continuously increasing. With this increase, issues are present regarding the resistance of students
towards learning about and talking about oppression-related course content. This literature review
will inform the reader with the controversy by the issue and whether there is a relation between
racism and/ or prejudice and students’ resistance to oppression related content, give information
on what methods are used to help with a resistance if it exists, give information on whether or not
resistance to learning oppression-related material can be avoided or eliminated, and lastly, provide
information on racism on campus and if experienced how it is dealt with.

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Resistance in the Classroom towards Oppression Related Topics: A Review of the Literature
With the constantly increasing population of ethnically diverse people in the United States,
the demand for a quality higher education for the people is clearly evident. With this demand for
a higher quality education, issues are present regarding students’ resistance towards oppression
related material affecting their overall understanding and mastery of the content being taught in a
certain course. Such a resistance is thought to be brought upon because of racism. It is the fear of
being perceived as racist or refusal to believe oneself or ones family/ancestors as being racist that
can cause there to be resistance to talking about or learning about oppression related topics for
white students. Students of color fear of talking about such topics because they deem to be
“accepted by whites,” (Tatum, 2004, p. 397) and don’t want to stand out. If such a resistance arises
to such topics, it is possible for professors have difficulty trying to get students to fully integrate
themselves into the coursework and understand and master certain material if the students refuse
to listen and learn about oppression material.
After much research and many studies, ways have been found for this resistance to be dealt
with and made less common. There are ways that professors themselves can make it easier on their
students to not fear about talking about oppression related topics as well as the professors
themselves teaching in a way in which is less “anti-discriminatory.” There are also identity
development theories students can use to deal with this oppression and can be used to better
assimilate them into the classroom setting and talking about these topics. However, the methods
of which are used to help with this resistance are not without controversy, as concerns arise as to
the negatives of using such methods to help with resistance. It is with this controversy that the
following four questions are need to be addressed:

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1. Is there a correlation between racism and/ or prejudice and a student’s resistance to
oppression-related course content?
2. What are some of the racial identity development theories used in regards to
students that show resistance towards oppression related topics, and how do these
theories affect the students?
3. Can instances of student resistance to oppression-related course content be avoided
and/or eliminated?
4. Are American college students impacted by racism on campus and in the classroom
and if so what actions do they take in relation to this?
The following review on literature will: provide information regarding resistance from
students towards oppression related topics such as racism, examine the impact racism has on
students examine the black and white racial identity development theories, and discuss what can
be done and implemented to eliminate student resistance to oppression-related course content.
Is there a correlation between racism and/ or prejudice and a student’s resistance to
oppression-related course content?
It is important to know the correlation between racism and/ or prejudice and a student’s
resistance to oppression-related course content in order to examine ways in which to reduce a
student’s resistance to oppression related topics if such a resistance exists. As stated in her
academic article, “Talking about Race, Learning about Racism,” Beverly Daniel Tatum (1992); a
highly renowned college professor who has researched the topic of resistance in classrooms
towards oppression related topics, states that racism is a “system of advantage based on race” and
that prejudice is a “preconceived judgment or opinion, often based on limited information.” (pg.1).
These two terms, racism and prejudice, are very abundant among our nation, and because racism

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and prejudice are inherent in our world, they stick with people from childhood to their grown up
years. Previous research from the article, “The Relationship Between Black
Racial Identity and Academic Achievement in Urban Setting,” states that “racially discriminatory
experiences” can influence a student academically. This affecting the way a student can react and
discuss content if it is related to oppressive content (Harper, 2007, p. 233).
Tatum (1992) states in her paper that growing up with racism and prejudice in our
environment as children, that as children we cannot take blame for taking in what we were taught
and believing it to be true. But, as we grow older, it is our responsibility to realize that certain
information we were taught we were misinformed about, and we need to gather the information
ourselves (p.8). Tatum (1992) also states that although many students may be interested in learning
more about such topics, “they are often most interested in hearing other people talk about it, afraid
to break the taboo themselves, and that “white children quickly become aware that their questions
about race raise adult anxiety, and as a result, they learn not to ask the questions.” With the issue
of students being resistant to learning about these oppression-related topics, it is necessary to be
informed on what some of the racial identity development theories are and how these theories can
affect students that use them.
What are some of the racial identity development theories used in regards to students that
show resistance towards oppression related topics, and how do these theories affect the
students?
Racial identity development theories are theories that are taught by some professors to their
students to help reduce the resistance of learning oppression related material. There are stages of
racial identity development that all students go through in some sort of from. Students go through
these racial identity developments as "a process of moving from internalized racism to a position

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of empowerment based on a positively affirmed sense of racial identity (Tatum, 2004, p. 3).” The
racial identity developments that different racial groups experiences, such as Caucasians compared
to African Americans, go through are different. Caucasians go through what is known as White
Racial Identity Development, a model gathered by Janet Helms in 1950. Whereas African
Americans and most people of color races go through the Black Identity Development, a model
put together by William Cross.
In the Black Racial Identity development theory, there are five stages that students go
through this process encounter. The five stages according to the academic journal by Cardozo
(2006), are Preencounter, Encounter, Immersion/Emersion, Internalization, and Internalization-
Commitment. Although there are five stages, some students may only go through certain stages
and skip other stages, as well as return to a certain stage more than once during their time of racial
identity development. The White Racial Identity Development theory has 6 stages, being Contact,
Disintegration, Reintegration, Pseudo-Independent, Immersion/Emersion, and Autonomy (Tatum,
2004, p. 13).
Professors in higher education institutions like to use these theories with their students in
an effort to teach them about the different stages that they will go through in an effort to be better
assimilated into society with a antiracist mentality. Many professors believe that helping their
students go through these processes will better aid them, and few research has showed there to be
any negatives towards using such theories. However, a study called “Reducing Student Prejudice
in Diversity-Infused Core Psychology Classes,” it is shown that although using these methods can
“decrease prejudice and stereotypes and to increase awareness, positive attitudes, and compassion
toward minority groups, (Hussey, Fleck & Warner, 2010, p.3)” once students actually leave the
classroom setting where they are learning these theories, and are put in “natural settings” where

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they need to apply these theories, they are faced with much difficulty and can backtrack multiple
steps in the developmental process, making them have to continuously repeat a step until they can
overcome situations in which they are faced with situations involving racism, some never
completing the entire process. And if these methods do not work, the same study above states that
maybe “less direct methods of prejudice may be needed for these individuals, such as positive
intergroup contact (p. 2).” With these theories readily available to teach, the question arises to
whether instances of such resistances to oppression related material content can be avoided or
eliminated.
Can instances of student resistance to oppression-related course content be avoided and/or
eliminated?
Many professors believe that with the use of racial identity developments as explained
above can completely eliminate instances of student resistance to oppression-related course
content. Studies have shown much success with the use of these theories eliminating this resistance
for some students completely. As shown in her study, Beverly Daniel Tatum (1992) gives excerpts
of interviews with her students in a course where the racial identity theories were applied. One of
the students who was interviewed states that before the class with Tatum she “had begun to become
actively resistant to racism” but after taking the class with Tatum and using the White Racial
Identity Development Theory, she was “now trying to educate myself (p. 21).” This interview
shows that it is possible to eliminate and avoid resistance to oppression-related course content. It
is also shown through the results of a study called “Racial Discrimination and Racial Socialization
as Predictors of African American Adolescents’ Racial Identity Development Using Latent
Transition Analysis,” (2012) that reduction of resistance “over time among Black and Latino”
decreased.

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However, there are also studies that provide research that avoidance and elimination of
resistance to oppression related material is not always possible for everyone. In her research paper,
Raising Male Privilege Awareness and Reducing Sexism: An Evaluation of Diversity Courses,
Case (2007) states that the results of her study of elimination of resistance towards oppression
related content courses, that between a course where oppression related material content was
involved and another class where such content wasn’t included that the differences in the opinion
of the students toward the end of the courses “was not significantly different (p.1).” Case’s research
even showed that male students are not as easily affected by such courses and there is not a high
level of change in their resistance attitudes at all (p. 2).
Are American college students impacted by racism on campus and in the classroom and if
so what actions do they take in relation to this?
It is believed that the resistance to oppression-related content that might occur amongst
college students is related to past personal experiences of racism. Figure 1 demonstrates the data
from an unscientific online survey conducted by the author to see how many college students have
ever seen or personally experienced any form of racism on their campus. This survey was
conducted at the University of Texas at El Paso campus, where sixty-three randomly selected
participants from the UTEP campus were asked if they had any personal experiences with either
seeing or experiencing racism on campus. The results of the survey displayed that about 10% or 6
people had not seen or experienced any form of racism on campus. On the other hand, about 90%
or 57 people stated that they had either seen or personally experienced racism on campus (see
Figure 1):
Figure 1. A graph showing survey response to the question: “Have you ever either seen or
personally experienced racism on campus?”

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These results cannot be compared to the U.S. population as a whole, however, the results of this
small sample may show that students on college campuses have either seen or personally
experienced racism on campus. And as shown in a model in the paper, “Racial Discrimination and
Racial Socialization as Predictors of African American Adolescents’ Racial Identity Development
Using Latent Transition Analysis,” called the Nigresence model “posits that an encounter with
racism or racial discrimination may trigger the exploration of racial identity (Seaton, Yip, Morgan-
Lopez & Sellers, 2012, p. 2).
Students that experience racism on campus all take different kinds of action in relation to
this racism. Some students that experience racism on campus consciously chose to do nothing
about the situation, as shown in an interview conducted by the author with a Caucasian college
student who was also a participant in the previous survey discussed above. The student, Angela
Wheeler, states that she had seen racism on campus many times before amongst her close group
of friends but states that she felt that calling someone out on being racist was such a sore topic that
she refused to bring it up for fear of being wrongly judged by her close group of friends. It is also
57 people (90 %)
6 people
(10 %)
Have you ever seen or experienced any form
of racism on campus?
Yes
No

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stated in Case’s (2007) paper, “Raising Male Privilege Awareness and Reducing Sexism: An
Evaluation of Diversity Courses,” that some students have extremely traumatic past experiences
with racism that when they have to go through theories such as the black racial identity theory in
order to take action in relation to racism, that they have a lot of difficulty because they don’t want
to have to relive such horrible experiences, so they choose to ignore situations (p.7).
Although some students chose to take no action in regards to racism on campus other
students do the opposite. Laura Brown, an African American, and another student that had
participated in the survey, was interviewed and asked how she took action and dealt with in relation
to racism on campus. Her response to this question was:
When I experience racism I try and understand that other people were raised differently
and that they might have been raised in a way in which they were misinformed and believe
certain stereotypes to be true. I try to deal with it by politely confronting the person about
what exactly they did and how it might be perceived by others and how it affects me and
hurts me. I feel that if people don’t confront the problem themselves and don’t try to
understand why someone might have acted or said something in a racist manner, then it
might keep building up inside and cause them to be extremely angry (Personal
Communication, March 23rd,2013).
This excerpt from the interview with Laura Brown and the previous from Angela Wheeler’s
interview show the different approaches that student’s take in relation to experiencing racism on
campus.
Conclusion
With the continuously growing population of racially diverse citizens in the United States
also grows the need for these citizens to gain a quality higher education. Along with the increase

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of racial variety of students on college campuses, the controversy of issue of resistance of students
to learning and talking about oppression-related course content arises. Controversy on this issue,
although minimal, still exists. Whether or not racism and/ or prejudice is correlated to a student’s
resistance to learning and talking about oppression-related content is debatable. The effects of the
racial identity development theories on students that use them have been shown with research to
mainly be positive, however, some research states that using these development theories can prove
to be difficult for certain individuals. Whether or not such a resistance can be eliminated or avoided
is proven to be controversial as some students have an easier time dealing with the situation than
others. As evidence show racism appears to be present on college campuses, the way in which
students take action in relation to such racism can be different for everyone. Future research is
needed to better explain and examine the resistance and the controversy behind it.

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References
Cardozo, K. M. (2006). On Teaching: When History Hurts: Racial Identity Development in the
American Studies Classroom. American Studies (00263079), 47(3/4), 167-192.
Case, K. A. (2007). Raising male privilege awarness and reducing sexism: An evaluation of
diversity courses . Psychology of Women Quarterly,
Harper, B. E. (2007). The Relationship Between Black Racial Identity and Academic Achievement
in Urban Settings. Theory Into Practice, 46(3), 230-238. doi:10.1080/14241270701402231
Hussey, H. D., Fleck, B. K. B., & Warner, R. M. (2010). Reducing student prejudice in diversity-
infused core psychology classes. College Teaching,
Seaton, E. K., Yip, T., Morgan-Lopez, A., & Sellers, R. M. (2012). Racial Discrimination and
Racial Socialization as Predictors of African American Adolescents' Racial Identity
Development Using Latent Transition Analysis. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 448-
458. doi:10.1037/a0025328
Tatum, B. D. (1992). Talking about race, learning about racism: The application of racial identity
development theory in the classroom. ProQuest Psychology Journalas,
Tatum, B.D. (2004). Family Life and School Experience: Factors in the Racial Identity
Development of Black Youth in White Communities. Journal Of Social Issues, 60(1), 117-
135. doi:10.1111/j.0022-4537.2004.00102.x