Settler Simultaneity and Anti-Indigenous Racism at Land-Grant Universities

Moments of performative racial consciousness, however urgent and necessary, often fail to reckon with long-standing demands against injustice from communities of color. In the case of Indigenous Peoples in higher education, these demands frequently include an end to derogatory mascots and racialized campus violence. This article attends to those issues by merging and extending settler-colonial theory and racialized organization theory to examine how the logics of Indigenous elimination and dispossession permeate higher education. With a specific focus on land-grant universities, I argue that racialized organizations are embedded in institutional fields and that both operate within a broader settler-colonial project. I introduce the concept of settler simultaneity to further historicize the study of racialized organizations and uncover how they target persons, collectives, and ideas that pose obstacles to settler goals of subordination, extraction, and profiteering both locally and globally. I look to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a case study that illustrates how these logics work across time and conclude by considering how critical engagement with the logics of elimination can help us to better understand, and hold accountable, the policies and programs of racialized organizations in other areas of social life.

Automated summary

This article examines the demands of Indigenous Peoples in higher education by merging settler-colonial theory and racialized organization theory, exploring how the logics of Indigenous elimination and dispossession permeate the field. Focusing on land-grant universities, it argues that racialized organizations are embedded within institutional fields and introduces the concept of settler simultaneity to historicize the study of racialized organizations. The article highlights the importance of critical engagement in understanding and holding accountable the policies and programs of racialized organizations in various aspects of social life.