ABSTRACT
Institutions are ripe with historical traditions and culturally embedded practices that guide the way in which their members are taught, evaluated, and interact with each other. Despite putative orientations of inclusion, diversity, and fairness, in the United States, many predominantly and historically white and male institutions, including institutions of higher education, share a legacy of exclusion, marginalization and bias toward groups based on race, gender, and sexual orientation that remains in various forms today (Bowen and Bok 1998; London, Downey, Bolger, and Velilla 2005; London, Downey, Romero-Canyan, Rattan, and Tyson 2011). In this chapter we propose that current forms of subtly communicated marginalization can insidiously and systematically undermine the academic achievement and psychological well-being of historically marginalized students at multiple levels of education and can, in their wake, create an expectation of future bias that may psychologically restrict the motivation of individuals to pursue success in domains in which they perceive themselves to be continuing victims of marginalization.
