Intersectional Warrior: Battling the Onslaught of Layered Microaggressions in the Academy

• In Event: 16.027 - Educators Queering Academia: Critical Memoirs

Abstract

Objectives
In today’s so-called “post-racial society,” the recruitment of faculty and students of color is often identified as a highly regarded and universal commitment. However, for many faculty and students of color who find themselves in the small minority at predominantly white institutions (PWI), the institutional quest for enhancing diversity is both a blessing and a curse. PWIs of higher education across the country continue to struggle with building diversity at both the faculty and student levels.

Perspectives
Respectively, the benefits of diverse learning environments have long been discussed in the higher education research literature (Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pedersen, and Allen, 1999; Milem and Hakuta, 2000; Hurtado, Alvarez, Guillermo-Wann, Cuellar, and Arellano, 2012). Still, the negative experiences encountered by non-white individuals or groups entering PWIs are being well documented (Cooper and Stevens, 2002; Turner, Gonzalez and Chock, 2004; Turner, Gonzalez and Wood, 2008). According to a recent article by Kerry Ann Rockquemore (2016), President of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, institutions must move beyond recruitment and critically examine their retention processes and retention problems to promote long-term change.

Methods, techniques, modes of inquiry
This research qualitatively explores the layered story of myself as a tenure-track Black Gay male academic employed at a predominantly white institution within a predominantly white community. Through reporting and analyzing the narrative accounts of my experiences as a faculty/researcher, and through reflective inquiry, connections to the field are drawn.

Data Sources
Examining the literature on diversity in higher education and research of faculty of color—specifically Black males grounds this research. Through a series of vignettes (critical incidents), I share my lived experiences and explore and critically examine ways to authentically address bolstering institutional diversity on multiple levels.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions:
Unfortunately, when most people advocate for diversity they tend to advocate for skin-color or racial diversity. However, we must then ask ourselves is a commitment to recruiting diverse individuals a passive process or a surface level diversity (SLD) endeavor? My recommendation to educators at PWIs is to make space for dialogue in both pedagogy and curriculum that can mediate more deeply understanding the lives of colleagues, students—the hopes and dreams they share—so as to authentically validate their experiences and invest in their current and future academic achievement and success. This will require shifting personal understanding and the privileges and access that have historically benefited being part of a white majority.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
Diversity is about genuine engagement, is layered and requires continuous work, but as long as we remember that there is always more to diverse human beings than what can ever be seen on the surface, and SLD reproduces the status quo of white supremacy and dysfunctional academic communities, we will find ways to authentically and sustainably diversify higher education for the benefit of us all.

Author

• Darrell C. Hucks, Keene State College