New Research Published on Whiteness & Fraternity Men

After an extended period of data collection, dissemination, and publishing am finally able to share this research in print. “Post(racial)-Malone: (Un)conscious Habits of White Iverson” is finally available in advanced publication form in the Oracle: The Research Journal of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors. This is co-authored with my former SIU Edwardsville undergraduate research assistant (James Beverly) and long-time colleague Dr. Brian Joyce (The George Washington University).

This study interrogated the gender performativity of protest masculinity in a multi-institutional study of white male-identified fraternity men. Participants expressed sentiments of dispossession, postracial attitudes, and performed cultural appropriation. Participants appropriated Black culture because they considered this synonymous with their own lack of power and privilege, which they believe has been dispossessed. Implications are provided to suggest how campus-based professionals can further disrupt the (un) conscious habits of whiteness in fraternity men and forms of white supremacy through collaborative programming and campus-wide efforts.

This is my best research in years since my seminal study “White Boy Wasted” in 2015. In this article, I couple multiple theories together and I weave the symbolism of artist Post-Malone and his song White Iverson. This research completes another trilogy related to exploring the postracial attitudes of white college men in higher education. The first was “Peter Pan is White Boy Wasted: The Wanderlust of College Men in Protest in my edited book Student Activism in the Academy: Its Struggles and Promise. The second was “Angry White Men on Campus: Theoretical Perspectives and Recommended Responses” in Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs.