In the Face of Critical Race Theory Attempted Bans: Holding and Decoding the Stories of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Faculty

• In Event: Encrypted Storytelling in Fugitive Learning Spaces: Disseminating Educational Research When Your Pedagogy Is Secret

Abstract

Due to the frequent threats to Critical Race Theory (CRT) researchers, instructors, and mentors have faced with regard to CRT bans, we decided to investigate the subject of microaggressions and Racial Battle Fatigue. Our core study questions were about how CRT professors are experiencing, negotiating, and minimizing racial microaggressions (Pierce, 1980) as a result of the proposed ban on CRT. As attacks on CRT become more common, we must evaluate not just the physical, mental, and spiritual toll that racism exacts on Faculty of Color, but also how they are surviving and fighting against these narratives in order to maintain their emotional and intellectual well-being. Specifically focusing on the impacts of Racial Battle Fatigue and racial microaggressions in Academia. Racism has been shown to have detrimental consequences, including an increased risk of anxiety and depression (LaVeist et al., 2014), sleeplessness and restlessness (Hickens et al., 2013), cardiac arrest (Lukachko et al., 2014), and a shorter life expectancy (Umberson, 2017). It is important to understand the stories and experiences of faculty who are often the fugitive spaces for BIPOC students. The professors completely recognized their experience while also acknowledging that we, the researchers, are young CRT academics. The dynamic of diverse experiences resulted not only in the reliving of harrowing experiences but also in recommendations and tactics for us, the researchers. We draw on the five tenets of CRT (Solorzano & Villalpando, 1998; Stephanic & Delagado, 2000) to explore the data and understand our coded and decoded experiences in fugitive spaces.

In our interviews, we discovered that the vast majority of collaborators are subjected to microaggressions that affect both their personal and professional life. Racial attacks occurred in almost every aspect of academic life, including research, teaching, and service. We had stories of agony and delight, loss and triumph, online horror and support. Although racial microaggressions were somewhat widespread in academia prior to the attempted ban, collaborators agreed that the severity and frequency of microaggressions changed in the aftermath of Trump's executive order. As a result, all of the collaborators claimed mental health issues as a result of the attempted ban, such as anxiety, depression, tiredness, lethargy, and stress. Our study was available to anybody who identified as a CRT researcher, we interviewed both BIPOC and White academics. We opted not to classify or decode the experiences of white individuals who participated in the study due to the privilege woven throughout their narratives. We used our position as young scholars to learn with and from researchers who have had to continually interact in fugitive places. BIPOC researchers emphasized the significance of their work as a form of healing and activism, but also as a source that has highlighted hatred and racism. Fugitive spaces enable coding and decoding, in our instance, serving as a type of warning and/or reality check while also holding and bringing to light harm that is being done. There is also importance in intergeneration fugitive spaces in academia that foster and nurture wellness.

Authors

• Marlene Sulema Palomar, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author

• Abraham Salvador-Jones, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author