Surviving and Thriving as a Black Professional
In this first entry of The Work, I share some tips from my own experiences as a Black woman committed to the work of uplifting Black scholarship, scholars, and livelihoods for the benefit of all.
In this first entry of The Work, I share some tips from my own experiences as a Black woman committed to the work of uplifting Black scholarship, scholars, and livelihoods for the benefit of all in the midst of a hostile professional environment.
My experience as the only person of color in my department at one of my prior institutions brought me to appreciate the tenacity it takes and the toll paid by my predecessors to be a Black professional in a workplace that was long invested in my presumed failure and inadequacy. From conversation with Black colleagues and friends, it is one that I know is far from unique. Those experiences took a toll on my psyche and, had I stayed longer, would likely have contributed to my early death—a fate that has befallen far too many of my academic foremothers and sisters (including Claudia Tate, Nellie McKay, Barbara Christian, Lovalerie King, Thea Hunter, and Cheryl Wall). Given that Black women and Black men each comprise less than 3% of academic faculty, these losses are devastating not only for the immediate community of loved ones, but for the profession overall.
I understand part of my role as a living Black scholar to be carrying forward the work of my Black intellectual forebears. I must protect my peace in order to do that. I share here some other principles that have been useful to me.
· The workplace is not a plantation; you can leave. Even when I didn’t get the job or fellowship to which I had applied, it was a great encouragement to see what else was out there and to at least feel a sense of control.
· Peers outside of your institution can be your lifeline. Checking in with others for advice and accounts of their experiences can expose inequities that do not present themselves as such, as is the case with racial gaslighting.
· It’s not about you; the grief you are getting is often about others and how they see you through a naturalized belief called white supremacy that equates Blackness with innate inferiority. Know that even if you are presumed incompetent by your immediate non-Black colleagues, your true audience and peers are out there.
· Get clear on your purpose. You are more than your job. Black people would not have survived enslavement had they fully embraced the exploitative logic of capitalism that would have the measure of one’s life be the work one does for others and the money one accrues. You deserve not only to eke out a living, but to thrive in abundance.
Your voice is valuable and necessary. You are uniquely gifted in ways that some may struggle to recognize. You have nothing to prove, for as writer and intellectual James Baldwin says, the ticket has already been paid multiple times over by Black people who, despite unimaginable obstacles, insisted upon persisting. And still, we rise.