The Impact of Building Black Communities at Predominately White Institutions

• In Event: Praxis for Racial Justice: Undergraduates as Activists and Engaged Scholars

Abstract

My praxis project identified ways that the Black Student Union (BSU) fostered a community of Black people within a predominantly white liberal arts university and how such community building efforts impacted the Black students involved. The goal was to not only document the impact of the BSU’s community building work, but to improve the impact of this work into the future . As a result of racial discrimination, racial bias, microaggressions, and the experience of being away from the Black communities in which they were raised, Black students at my university actively seek out community among other Black students. However, for some Black students, being among people who have the same racial identity is not enough to feel a complete sense of belonging because of the many other identities they hold. My own entrance into a PWI in 2020 left me feeling isolated and longing to make connections with other Black students through my university’s BSU. But the BSU’s labor in racial justice organizing work and campus-wide events leave little time for fostering community among the Black students involved in the BSU. Recognizing this, the executive board members of the BSU decided to explicitly focus on doing more to bring Black students together in community. This paper examines this shift in focus and the resulting impacts of such a shift.
To conduct this research I utilized practitioner inquiry methodologies. I collected data in the form of interviews and field notes. Then I analyzed the data through concepts of interdependency and difference (Lorde, 1984) as well as homeplace (hooks, 1990) in connection to the idea of counter-space from critical race theory (Shirazi, 2019; Yosso, & Lopez, 2010). In my analysis, I identified and categorized the actions and interactions of participants, in particular looking at what participants were doing or saying to one another that indicate a connection that is deeper as a result of BSU community building efforts. These indicators were also informed by interview data about participants’ experiences in BSU as well as their ideas of community and community building. In particular and to better understand how the BSU should engage in community building, I examined specifically what actions and practices contributed to their community building experiences. My findings focus on 1) the role of difference in the building of community, 2) what kind of place BSU is (counterspace, homeplace, or something different), and 3) how community is defined by individuals and how the efforts of the BSU impact the relationships between members of the BSU and the fostering of a greater community among Black people on campus.

References

Shirazi, R. (2019). “Somewhere we can breathe”: Diasporic counterspaces of education as sites of epistemological possibility. Comparative Education Review, 63(4), 480-501.

Yosso, T., & Lopez, C. B. (2010). Counterspaces in a hostile place. In L. Patton (Ed.), Culture centers in higher education: Perspectives on identity, theory, and practice (pp. 83–104). Stylus.

Author

• Mia Davis, Clark University