It's Not Me, It's You: Academically Successful African American Women's Experiencing Microaggressions at Predominantly White Institutions

• In Event: Honoring Voices of Faculty of Color: Intersectional Research Perspectives

Abstract

Despite their intellectual accomplishments at PWIs, academically successful African American women experience microaggressions. Though African American women are celebrated for their abilities, Black women endure microaggressions on an everyday basis. As a result, academically successful Black women must develop their own socio-spatial practices to survive at PWIs. Specifically, high-achieving Black women employ certain “practices of survival” to cope with being in predominately-White academic spaces. In my study, I utilize Black feminist geography to explore the visceral reactions of academically successful Black women to microaggressions at PWIs. I use the narratives of these high achieving Black women to explore the ways that microaggressions are normalized at PWIs and how they develop socio-spatial practices in reaction to stereotypes of Black femininity.

Author

• Christina S. Haynes, Pennsylvania State University