A Response to White Fragility
MICHELE D. SMITH AND MAIA NIGUEL MOORE
Though the number of diverse faculty is growing (Walesby, 2013), whether or not university structures, policies, and procedures have grown in parallel to support them is questionable. Faculty of color remain vulnerable to continued tokenization (Ortega-Liston & Soto, 2014) and salary disparities in comparison to white faculty. There have been significant accomplishments in the education of Blacks since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision more than 60 years ago that ended legal segregation of schools. However, disturbing trends point to the continuing underrepresentation, marginalization, and in some cases reversal of accomplishments in the education of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States.
This is especially true for Black women in higher education (Abdul-Raheem, 2016; Dade, Tartakov, Hargrave, & Leigh, 2016; Shillingford & Butler, 2012). Many Black female faculty in academe report experiencing feelings related to alienation, confusion, and marginalization due to being both Black and woman (Abdul-Raheem, 2016; Shillingford, 2012). Dade et al. (2016) describe being a Black woman in the academy as a “burden” that intersects both race and gender within a system that has been built to privilege white men. As a result, underrepresented faculty members may feel only symbolically hired, stigmatized, or out of place in the academy (Thompson & Dey, 1998). Sometimes a single person of color represents “diversity.” The result is that in many predominantly and historically white institutions (PWIs), Black faculty are still treated in stereotypic and racist ways (Frazier, 2011).
Consequently, this chapter will explore the experiences of Black women working in higher education through expanding Joe Feagin’s (2013) “white racial frame” to include Robin Di Angelo’s (2011) concept of white fragility. Specifically, the purpose of this chapter is to provide a thorough discussion of current literature that examines many of the unique challenges that Black women in academia face, including addressing white fragility, challenging whiteness as a construct, providing corrective feedback on racist behavior, white privilege, and racial arrogance. We will then conclude the chapter by providing examples of how Black feminist thought can be used to empower Black women working in the academy to help address these challenges through the acquisition of knowledge, finding sisterhood, and developing and maintaining a strong definition of self.
Faculty of color often believe tenure is required in order to be viewed as an equal by their peers (Abdul-Raheem, 2016). The desire to earn tenure to feel valued is problematic when investigating many of the environments Black female faculty must navigate to earn tenure. Black women in academe often face additional barriers and challenges in higher education compared to their colleagues (Agyepong, 2011; Shillingford & Butler, 2012). Fewer faculty of color are in associate professor ranks; they are often paid less and are unable to persist in the professoriate for lack of success in tenure and journal review processes (Smith, Turner, Osei-Kofi, & Richards, 2004). In 2006, 31% of female faculty earned tenure compared to 69% of men, and 24% of full professors were women compared to 76% of men (The American Association of University Professors, 2006). In a study examining promotion and race in higher education, it was found that 10 of 43 minority faculty who applied for tenure were denied, while 100% of white faculty were approved (Abdul-Raheem, 2016).
Factors that may impact earning tenure include experiences with isolation; course overload; excessive committee work; racial, gender, and language biases; and minimal guidance or mentoring relating to promotion, tenure, and reappointment (Harvey, 1994; Jayakuma, Howard, Allen, & Han, 2009; Johnson & Pichon, 2007; Laden & Hagedorn, 2000). More often than documented, Black women faculty function under routine racially hostile conditions that exist both in society and in the “ivory towers” of academia. In fact, Lynn and Adams (2002) contend that the educational establishment is a key arena “where the impact of racism is felt most” (87).
Joe Feagin (2013) coined the white racial frame (WRF) to examine systemic racism as a structure that has been maintained and propagated by whites and accepted by people of color. Feagin argues that WRF is broadly encompassing and deeply held within U.S. cultural norms, shaping behaviors through stereotypes, images, and racialized understandings that facilitate in maintaining systems of privilege and oppression (Feagin, 2013). Whiteness is a construct that preserves systems of racism by making whiteness itself a nonracialized norm, which in juxtaposition places persons of color as racialized others who live outside of the norm (Di Angelo, 2011).
Consequently, whiteness also functions as a social location that places whites in closer proximity to structural advantages (Di Angelo, 2011). White privilege is a corollary to the concept of whiteness. McIntosh (1988) argues that white privilege is like “an invisible package of unearned assets” that white people can use to their advantage—and are conditioned to not acknowledge (109). Jayakumar et al. (2009) write that white privilege within higher education institutions is the translation of whiteness as the normative standard into “systematic advantages afforded to the dominant racial group” (555). Though the use of privilege by whites may be unintentionally oppressive, it nevertheless perpetuates inequitable power dynamics and social conditions (McIntosh, 1988). Thus, a white person will attribute markers of difference to a person who is unlike her (e.g., skin color, hair texture) rather than conceiving that she is different. The white person sets herself as the norm, which creates an un-like, unequal other (Leonardo, 2013).
Robin Di Angelo (2011) defines white fragility as “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable for Whites, triggering a range of defensive moves” (55). Examples of defensive moves include fear, anger, guilt, avoidance, and silence. These behaviors ultimately restore in what Di Angelo refers to as “white racial equilibrium” (2). These responses help to restore feelings of comfort and privilege.
Whiteness accrues privilege and status; gets itself surrounded by protective pillows of resources and/or benefits of the doubt this is how Whiteness repels gossip and voyeurism and instead demands dignity. Whites are rarely without these protective pillows, and when they are, it is usually temporary and by choice. This insulated environment of racial privilege builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress. (Di Angelo, 2011, 55)
When this insulated environment is interrupted with conversations about race, responses are triggered as a result of a lack of “racial stamina” (Di Angelo, 2011, 56). As we further examine the ways in which some Black female faculty are impacted by whiteness and white fragility in the academy, we will refer to the following instances in which levels of racial stress can increase among white faculty (Di Angelo, 2011):
•Challenging whiteness and objectivity: Others challenge white racial norms by sharing their racial views.
•Corrective feedback on racist behavior: Receiving feedback that behavior was influenced by racist ideology or had a racist impact on a person of color.
•Challenging individualism and addressing white privilege: Receiving feedback that challenges individualism and addresses how whites benefit from the oppression of people of color.
•Challenges with authority: The responses of whites to a person of color in an authoritative position.
Many Black women in the academy feel they represent an Affirmative Action quota because their institution views diversity as a mandate and not as an asset. The lack of value some institutions place on diversity can cause Black female faculty to be viewed as a racialized other who is invisible and out of place (Agyepong, 2011; Dade et al., 2016). Some Black women experience what Witherspoon-Arnold, Crawford, and Muhammad (2016) refer to as “entrapment.” Entrapment is characterized by Black female faculty being faced with various negative and limiting stereotypes about their abilities, leadership, and the expectation that they will behave “nicely” when faced with discrimination or else be perceived as “angry” (23). Howard-Baptiste and Harris (2014) argue, “[a]s racial and gender hierarchies are historically embedded and culturally rooted in stereotypical notions and representations of Black women, such is often transferred to Black female faculty causing a misunderstanding about them” (12). For example, a Black female faculty shared,
No matter how many successes we experience as Black women, it is hard to escape the “imposter syndrome.” In our country … all Black folks are doomed to be intellectually inferior to all white folks. Thus, the last image that many Americans would have of an African American woman is that of an intellectual, an academic, a college president, a person of the academy. (Cole, 1997)
Due to some of the images in popular culture that portray Black women as angry, many Black female faculty are fearful to be expressive about their encounters with discrimination to avoid offending their white colleagues and fulfilling debilitating stereotypes.
Sharing direct experiences with white faculty about discrimination can also increase racial stress among whites. Labeling a Black female faculty as angry is an example of what Di Angelo (2011) would call a defensive move. That is, to avoid feeling racial stress and emotions that might accompany a conversation about discrimination, it becomes preferable to blame and label a Black female colleague as angry (Di Angelo, 2011; Johnson, 2006). This approach to addressing discrimination that many Black women in higher education encounter causes some white faculty to view challenges that Black women experience as not indicative of a larger systemic issue within the institution and society at large, but rather a characteristic of Black women, their ability, and their work ethic (Agyepong, 2011). To that end, Black women in the academy also often feel pressure to outperform their white male and female colleagues in order to dispel stereotyped images of Black women (Agyepong, 2011; Howard-Baptiste & Harris, 2014).
Historically, Black female faculty have reported being excluded from professional development opportunities that many white faculty take for granted, such as attending conferences, being asked to participate in research, and even receiving timely evaluations on their performance; this leaves many Black women in the academy feeling hopeless, marginalized, and alienated (Shillingford & Butler, 2012). Segregation is a primary factor that inculcates white fragility and creates an environment in higher education conducive for white faculty to dismiss their Black female colleagues (Di Angelo, 2011). The presence of modern segregation between whites and Blacks manifests both in how whites experience the world and in what they learn about race and diversity (Di Angelo, 2011).
Because we live in a world that is dominated by whiteness, very little accurate information is shared within white communities about issues related to racial difference (Di Angelo, 2011). In fact, many whites are taught to not feel loss over the lack of presence of Blacks in their lives (Di Angelo, 2011). More disheartening, the absence of Blacks often creates a framework for the criteria of what is perceived to be a “good neighborhood” (Di Angelo, 2011). Good schools and good neighborhoods then become “coded” language for “white” (Di Angelo, 2011; Johnson & Shapiro, 2003). Contemporary examples of segregation are integral factors to consider when conceptualizing white fragility and the invisibility of Black women in academe, as many colleges and universities are microcosms of the values and norms that govern our society, and in many cases, uphold whiteness (Bertrand-Jones, Wilder, Lampkin, 2013; Fisher & Houseworth, 2012).
For most Black women in the academy, providing white faculty with corrective feedback about racist behavior is far from an option (Agyepong, 2011; Shallcross, & Butler, 2012). Many Black female faculty members fear possible consequences associated with confronting racism and racist behaviors experienced in the academy (Agyepong, 2011; Shallcross & Butler 2012). Others feel that efforts used toward confrontation are futile and often fall onto deaf ears.
An example is illustrated by a Black full professor who shared an experience she had with a group of students:
I learned later that prejudgments about my abilities had been conveyed to them by several senior scholars, particularly those who had opposed my hiring. My reaction was to first recognize the racism that was virtually explicit in their behavior. They would not have treated a white professor in this manner. They had not been accustomed to having a Black professor and their negative reaction was bolstered by the attitudes of some senior professors. I recognized this as a “no-win” situation and decided it useless to say anything and not to teach the introductory anthropology course again. (Smedly & Hutchinson, 2012, 58)
An assistant professor shared similar feelings:
After each session, I was sickened and disheartened by the reality and nature of racism and prejudice in the university. I was comforted by the resilience of my colleagues but troubled by the lack of ownership and accountability on the part of the university administration. Yet I was left feeling as though there was nothing I could do. Who would listen to me? And if I were heard what price would I have to pay? (Dade et al., 2015, 142)
Because many whites have become accustomed to a certain level of racial comfort, receiving feedback about racist behaviors can lead to an increase in racial stress (Di Angelo, 2011). “When racial discomfort arises, whites typically blame the person or event that triggered the discomfort. This blame results in a socially-sanctioned array of counter-moves against the perceived source of the discomfort” (Di Angelo, 2011, 61).
White fragility is rooted in the philosophies found throughout various colleges and universities and shared and perpetuated among its faculty. The rise of post-racial liberalism and the concept of universalism were formally introduced in the late 1970s (Wise, 2010). Universalism and what is now referred to as colorblindness essentially argues that there is no race outside of the human race (Di Angelo, 2011; Wise, 2010). Because whites view their perceptions as objective, some whites view their experiences and perspectives as universal norms for all humans (Di Angelo, 2011; Johnson, 2006). The idea of universalism becomes problematic when white faculty apply this philosophy to race because it does not take into consideration the unique experiences of Black women and assumes that Black female faculty share the same experiences as their white counterparts.
While universalism is a significant factor that inoculates white fragility within the halls of the academy, individualism is a contrasting yet equally significant factor that is at the heart of white fragility. Whites are taught to view themselves as individuals opposed to being a part of a larger population (Di Angelo, 2011; Johnson, 2006). Because whites are not a member of a racialized group, they are better able to separate themselves from other whites compared to people of color (Di Angelo, 2011; Johnson, 2006), thus making it easier for whites to detach themselves from the behaviors of members from their racial group and “demand to be given the benefit of the doubt” (Di Angelo, 2011, 65).
Individualistic thinking in academe can be problematic when confronted with issues related to race. White faculty members might respond defensively as a result of not wanting to be associated with an event or group of people who are being criticized (Di Angelo, 2011, 2012). Despite the good intentions of many white faculty who would wish otherwise, white faculty, be it directly or indirectly, automatically receive certain benefits that are a result of the oppression of Black women in the academy (Howard-Baptiste & Harris, 2014). For example, Black female faculty are often viewed as authorities on Black culture, thereby placing the brunt of the responsibility of mentoring students of color on them. Black women in the academy also have had to meet increased expectations advising students overall and are often asked to take on increased service responsibilities such as sitting on committees and community involvement compared to their white counterparts. Yet, most Black women in academe are not presented with as many opportunities to collaborate with their peers on research compared with their non-Black colleagues (Howard-Baptiste & Harris, 2014).
Di Angelo (2011) asserts that the racial stamina of some whites is not strong enough to carry the burden of accepting that they participate in and benefit from white privileges that protect them from various challenges while presenting unique barriers for people of color. “Many whites believe their financial and professional successes are the result of their own efforts while ignoring the fact of white privilege” (Di Angelo, 2011, 66). Blaming Black women is an easier way for some white faculty to conceptualize the challenges Black women in higher education face because it implies that there are not issues related to white privilege that need to be addressed (Johnson, 2006). This would also suggest they are not benefitting from the inequities that their Black female colleagues are experiencing, relieving them of possible feelings of guilt and shame (Di Angelo, 2011).
The self-concept of many whites has been shaped by constant positive images of whiteness both in the media and in popular culture (Di Angelo, 2011). Conversely, negative images are regularly associated with racial others, which often results in a more entitled and racially arrogant self-concept (Di Angelo, 2011). Some whites remain misinformed about historical racism and discrimination Blacks have experienced, confusing their lack of knowledge with not agreeing (Di Angelo, 2011).
Research has documented challenges that Black women in the academy have encountered with whites who have taken exception to their position of authority as faculty members (Agyepong, 2011; Dade et al., 2015; Shallcrosss & Butler 2012). Not only have Black women in higher education encountered this type of racial arrogance from white faculty, but many Black women have also experienced similar encounters with white students (Pittman, 2010; Shallcross and Butler, 2012). We can refer to the earlier example in the chapter of the Black full professor who was challenged by her class about her approach to teaching and later discovered that some of her white colleagues played a role in instigating the confrontation.
Similarly, a study surveying 46 Black female professors found that the women experienced difficulties almost exclusively with their white male students (Pittman, 2010). Participants from the same study reported their white male students displayed behaviors that they felt were intimidating or threatening (Pittman, 2010). One of the participants from the study said,
White males will open my door to my office without knocking. … Why, again only white males, choose to just open my door. No one else just opens up my door. They’re snide, they’ll sit with their arms crossed and they doodle and they sit right up in the front[,] so that is definite passive aggressive behavior. The tone sometimes in the e-mails they send … it’s the kind of things you don’t even know how to express to other people. But you’re like, if I was a white male you wouldn’t dare write to me in that tone. (188)
The double minority status of being a Black woman places Black female faculty in a vulnerable position not only among white faculty but among white students as well.
Black women intellectuals have long explored the private, hidden space of Black women’s consciousness, the “inside” ideas that allow Black women to cope with and, in most cases, transcend the confines of race, class, and gender oppression. How have Black women as a group found the strength to oppose our objectification as “de mule uh de world?” How do we account for the voices of resistance of Audre Lorde, Ella Surrey, Maria Stewart, Fannie Barrier Williams, and Marita Bonner? What foundation sustained Sojourner Truth so that she could ask, “aint I a woman?” The voices of these Black women are not those of victims but of survivors. Their ideas and actions suggest that not only does a self-defined, articulated Black woman’s standpoint exist, but its presence has been essential to Black women’s survival (Hill Collins, 2000). Black women’s lives are a series of negotiations that aim to reconcile the contradictions separating our own internally defined images of self as Black women with our objectification as the other. The struggle of living two lives, one for “them and one for ourselves” (Gwaltney, 1980, 240), creates a peculiar tension. Audre Lorde (1984) observes that “within this country where racial difference creates a constant, if unspoken, distortion of vision, Black women have on the one hand always been highly visible, and so, on the other hand, have been rendered invisible through the depersonalization of racism” (42). Lorde also points out that the “visibility which makes us more vulnerable” that accompanies being Black “is that which is also the source of our greatest strength” (42). This category of “Black women” makes all Black women especially visible and open to the objectification afforded Black women as a category. This group treatment renders each Black woman invisible as a fully human individual (Lorde, 1984).
Racist stereotypes of the strong, superhuman Black woman are operative myths in the minds of many white women, allowing them to ignore the extent to which Black women are likely to be victimized in this society, and the role white women may play in the maintenance and perpetuation of that victimization. Privileged feminists have largely been unable to speak to, with, and for diverse groups of women because they either do not understand fully the interrelatedness of sex, race, and class oppression or refuse to take this interrelatedness seriously (hooks, 2000). One can say that it is significantly easier for women who do not have to contend with or experience race or class oppression to focus exclusively on gender. In some respects, socialist feminists who focus on class and gender tend to sometimes dismiss race, or they make a point of acknowledging that race is important and then proceed to offer an analysis in which race is not considered (hooks, 2000).
Black feminist thought provides a keen exploration of oppression by extending beyond the limitations of traditional feminist theory to confront the interconnectedness of race, gender, and class and how these interlocking systems shape a specific and unique experience for Black women. For many, this experience is fraught with oppression, discrimination, and bias. Black feminist thought thereby conceptualizes Black women through their evolving power as agents of knowledge, a distinctive feature of Black feminist thought (Collins, 1990). The theory insists on the intentional and deliberate change of racial and cultural consciousness among individuals and emphasizes the importance for “social transformation of political and economic institutions that constitute essential ingredients for social change” (Collins, 1990, 34). Consequently, the theory is driven by its mandate that Black women become and remain knowledgeable about the world in which they live in, find sisterhood with other Black women, and create and maintain a healthy image and definition of one’s self that acknowledges her power.
For many in higher education, being knowledgeable about one’s position, field, study in academia, and even the overall political structure of the institution is critical. This is especially true for Black women in the academy. Because Black women are often discriminated against, held to higher standards, and isolated, knowledge takes on a much more significant and detrimental role to the survival and ultimate success and happiness of Black women. Knowledge about one’s social location to power and privilege also becomes critical, as many colleges and universities function as a microcosm of the larger outside world.
Patricia Hill Collins argues that “knowledge is a vitally important part of the social relations of domination and resistance” (1990, 23). Further, the objectification of Black women and the “recasting of our experiences to serve the interests of elite white men, much of the Eurocentric masculinist worldview, fosters Black women’s subordination.” (1990, 23) However, by centering the experience of Black women as a focal part of analysis, inquisition, and discussion, historical and current systems of oppression within and outside of higher education are conceptualized by more culturally and racially appropriate concepts, paradigms, and epistemologies through the lens of feminist and Afrocentric critiques. Becoming and remaining informed about ourselves, our histories, and the world around us is a powerful and liberating tool that can be used to better understand and address some of the challenges many Black women in academia face with white privilege, providing corrective feedback about racism, and challenges with authority.
Many Black women find themselves as either one of the very few Black women or the only Black woman working within their office, program, department, or in some cases, the entire university or college. For many, the isolation they experience might feel tangible, overwhelming, and impossible to overcome. However, there can be immense value in finding sisterhood. The issue of Black women being the ones who really listen to one another is an important one, particularly given the importance of voice in Black women’s lives (hooks, 2000). Audre Lorde describes the importance of voice in self-affirmation: “Of course I am afraid, because the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation, and that always seems fraught with danger” (1984, 42).
For Black women, the listener most able to move beyond invisibility created by objectification as the Other in order to see and hear the fully human Black woman, is another Black woman. This process of trusting one another can seem dangerous because only Black women know what it means to be a Black woman. But if we will not listen to one another, then who will? (Hill Collins, 2000). Consequently, Black women working in higher education might find comfort, support, and solace by making it a priority to actively build relationships with other Black women working in higher education with whom they can draw strength. This might include networking and building relationships with other Black women at their institution, through professional email list-serve communities, at professional development seminars, or during conferences. Regardless of how one chooses to get connected, the key is to find sisterhood.
Challenges that many Black women in the academy face, such as addressing white privilege, isolation, heightened expectations, questioned credibility, and addressing racist behaviors, can take a significant and a detrimental toll on self-image. If we are constantly treated less than, not good enough, and invisible to respect, accolades, and support, and yet hypervisible to criticism and skepticism, how do Black women in higher education keep themselves intact and remain sane? How do we find some semblance of peace and happiness while working within the confines of the ivory towers?
Given the physical limitations on Black women’s mobility, the conceptualization of self that is part of Black women’s self-definition is distinctive. Self is not defined as the increased autonomy gained by separating oneself from others. Instead, self is found in the context of family and community (Hill Collins, 2000). Poet Nikki Giovanni cautions that we should “[k]now who’s playing the music before you dance” (1971, 126). Her advice is especially germane for Black women. Giovanni suggests that Black women are the only group that derives their identity from themselves. She states: “I think it’s been rather unconscious but we measure ourselves by ourselves, and I think that’s a practice we can ill afford to lose” (144). Black women’s survival is at stake, and creating self-definitions, reflection, and independent Afrocentric feminist consciousness is an essential part of that survival.
Hill Collins states: “While self-definition speaks to the power dynamics involved in rejecting externally defined, controlling images of Back womanhood, the theme of Black women’s self-definition addresses the actual content of these self-definitions” (2000, 107). Through relationships with one another, Black women create self-valuations that challenge externally defined notions of Black womanhood. Many of the controlling images applied to Black women are actually distorted renderings of those aspects of our behavior that threaten existing power arrangements (Gilkes, 1983). Patricia Hill Collins has written that the significance of “self-valuation is illustrated through the emphasis that Black feminist thinkers place on respect. In a society in which no one is obligated to respect Black women, we have long admonished one another to have self-respect and to demand the respect of others” (1991, 107). As Black women listen to and observe direct and indirect negative messages about Black women and their ability that their colleagues, supervisors, students, and society might perpetuate, it is critical that we take care not to internalize these messages and instead develop and maintain healthy and positive images of self—definitions of self that lead to finding and living in our power.
Persistence is a fundamental requirement during the journey of Black women from silence to language to action. Black women’s persistence is fostered by the strong belief that to be Black and female is valuable and worthy of respect (Hill Collins, 2000). Actions to bring about change, whether the struggle for an Afrocentric feminist consciousness or the persistence needed for institutional transformation, empower Black women. Because our actions change the world from one in which we merely exist to one over which we have some control, they enable us to see everyday life as a process and thus amenable to change. By persisting in the journey toward self-definition, we are changed, and this change empowers us. Perhaps this is why so many Black women have managed to persist and “make a way out of no way” (Hill Collins, 2000, 113). Robin Di Angelo (2011) might argue that we see this persistence among Black women faculty who work in the confines of colleges and universities in which individualism is a luxury assigned to white faculty and universalism is a convoluted and hypocritical concept that yields to the benefit of whites but works to the detriment and sometimes to the oppression of Black women. Yet, she, her, I, we must be careful and cautious to not damage or offend the fragility of the privileged white nonracialized conscious. This is the persistence of Black women that has been so eloquently sung in songs by Black women, such as Aretha Franklin’s “A Change is Gonna’ Come” (1967), India Arie’s “I am not my Hair” (2005), Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” (2009), and Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls)” (2011). Perhaps these women knew, and know, the power of self-definition.
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