ABSTRACT
Higher education executives often contact the research center I founded and direct at the University of Pennsylvania to conduct assessments of their campus racial climates. Most often, requests for our services come after there has been some sort of uprising at their institutions-students
are protesting, a fraternity makes national news for hosting a blackface party, campus police officers are caught on camera harassing a person of color, and other racial incidents for which the institution has garnered widespread media attention. In other words, leaders respond by consulting us after an eruption, catastrophe, or publicly embarrassing incident occurs. To be sure, this is not what I would characterize as racially responsive leadership. I define racially responsive leadership in the next section. I then offer five explanations for why so few postsecondary leaders exercise this form of leadership. The chapter concludes with an explication of benefits for professionals who lead in racially responsive ways.
