Financial Aid as Whiteness as Property: Implications for Research and Practice

Devon L. Graves

The Journal of Higher Education, 2025, vol. 96, issue 6, 936-958

Abstract: In this article, I demonstrate how financial aid is a valued property of whiteness. Utilizing critical race theory, critical race policy analysis, and whiteness as property, I examine how financial aid has historically and continues to be valued and protected as a benefit for white people. I apply characteristics of property expectations and the function of exclusion to the history of financial aid and contemporary federal student aid processes to demonstrate how federal policy laid the groundwork for a financial aid process that continues to impede People of Color. I rely upon the examples of the GI Bill, aid applications, income verification, and satisfactory academic progress policies to illustrate where and how racist inequities exist within the financial aid process. I conclude the article with implications for applying a critical race perspective to research, policy, and practice with the goal of recognizing how racism influences financial aid administration.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00221546.2024.2422759

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