Being Black in the Ivory: Truth-Telling about Racism in Higher Education

When Sharde M. Davis turned to social media during the summer of racial reckoning in 2020, she meant only to share how racism against Black people affects her personally. But her hashtag, BlackintheIvory, went viral, fostering a flood of Black scholars sharing similar stories. Soon the posts were being quoted during summer institutes and workshops on social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. And in fall 2020, faculty assigned the tweets as material for course curriculum.

This curated collection of original personal narratives from Black scholars across the country seeks to continue the conversation that started with BlackintheIvory. Put together, the stories reveal how racism eats its way through higher education, how academia systemically ejects Black scholars in overt and covert ways, and how academic institutions—and their individual members—might make lasting change. While anti-Black racism in academia is a behemoth with many entry points to the conversation, this book marshals a diverse group of Black voices to bring to light what for too long has been hidden in the shadow of the ivory tower.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Release date: Feb 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9781469678276

Book preview

Part 1 Undergraduate Life

While twenty-first-century American society engages in critical debates about the utility of attending college, especially considering the hefty costs that many Americans cannot afford, the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of young adults each year decide to pursue higher education of some kind—community college, trade school, or four-year public or private university.

Access to higher education and strategies to retain all students and support them to degree completion remain pressing issues that universities, nonprofits, and the federal government attempt to address through various programs. Despite these systems of support, significant challenges remain for Black students. Published research consistently demonstrates that, from college preparation to student retention, graduation rates, and performance in postsecondary education, institutionalized racism is one of the underlying reasons for the disparity in college success between Black students and their peers. For example, violent racialized acts on campus, discrimination by instructors in the classroom, and underfunded cultural programs that facilitate belongingness for students of color are just some of the issues that mar the quality of life for a Black college student.

Even the most famous and notable public figures have a #BlackintheIvory story related to their undergraduate years. For instance, in her critically acclaimed New York Times best-selling book The Light We Carry, First Lady Michelle Obama writes about her experience as the only during her college days at Princeton University. As one can imagine, being a young Black student at an Ivy League college is daunting, partly because the percentages of Black students are so low. In these spaces, one’s Blackness is on display and can invoke insecurities, doubts, or feelings of ostracization.

This section on undergraduate life opens with a story by Jael Kerandi, a young Black woman who made university history as the first Black student body president at the University of Minnesota. During her tenure from 2020 to 2021, Kerandi enacted substantial change regarding policing at her university, thereby demonstrating the importance of student activism. Kerandi’s efforts drew national attention during the summer of racial reckoning and even inspired me to take action during a time when I was reeling about what I could do to effect change within my sphere of influence. Kerandi’s essay sits at the intersection of #BlackintheIvory and #BlackLivesMatter, serving as a powerful opening to this section. Her narrative is followed by those from other Blackademics who share stories about additional dimensions of undergraduate campus life, including life in the dormitories, socializing with peers, classroom experiences, and contending with the ways one’s Blackness intersects with other critical identities. Undergraduate years are a formidable and formative season in one’s life, and these narratives reinforce the ways in which early college experiences with institutional racism impact Black students’ subsequent education, career, and life choices.

2020 VISION

The Impact of Police Brutality through the Lens of a Student in Minneapolis

JAEL KERANDI

Lead Narrative

I am my great-grandmother’s wildest imagination

I am my grandfather’s greatest hope

I am the pride of my aunts and uncles

I am the reflection of my sisters and brothers

I am the derivative of my father’s most optimistic dreams and my mother’s whispered prayers

I was the planted seed of sacrifice from my village—and now their fruit

I hope to one day be the one the young ones look up to—

for I looked up to so many and God—I looked up to You.

When I arrived at one of the largest public, predominantly white institutions in the nation in 2017, I—like many—was proud of my acceptance to a prestigious institution. As a Black woman, my mirror was hard to find. I believed my previous efforts and discipline would be validated by future professors, classmates, and the community. The admissions materials were filled with photos of students who looked like me—students I assumed to be representative of the campus community. I was wrong. My first few months were filled with questions of identity, place, and purpose.

Black students enrolled at my institution represented around 6.3 percent of the university population (Institutional Data and Research 2020). The implications of this statistic was stark but common and (unfortunately) expected. In classrooms, non-Black students often excluded Black students from the harder work in a group project or passively took work away. Other students moved away from us in working spaces to keep from being in the same group or to seem associated with us. Professors asked questions like, Do Black people watch movies? and career advisors steered us away from the competitive opportunities in favor of something more within [our] reach. No one believed in us because no one expected us to be there. And for those of us who slipped through the cracks, we were supposed to be grateful that our merit had been validated rather than