Not MY Intersectionality Examining Epistemic Violence for Black Women in Higher Education
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Abstract
Although Black women’s college participation rates have increased, it has not led to corresponding increases in graduation rates. Through the evolution of intersectionality as a methodology, theory, and framework, this paper examines the epistemological socialization of Black women in historically white institutions (HWIs), examining what this can tell us about Black women’s higher education experiences. Additionally, analyzing how Black women’s intersections affect the legitimacy and illegitimacy of knowledge production in an evolving system of neoliberal globalization. Its objective is to go beyond superficial understandings of the systemic oppression of Black women to uncover the epistemological implications of intersectionality, which renders some invisible intellectually and socially while cultivating others. Thus, this paper builds on current scholarship on how Black women have contextualized their unique higher education experiences through an analysis of Afro-Pessimism, sociology of absences and emergences, and critiques of intersectionality to locate Black women’s experiences with epistemic violence and imagine beyond. In the end, seeking to explore how Black women can embrace a new epistemic resistance by rejecting intersectionality.
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References
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Ahmed, S. 2012. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1131d2g
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Barlow, M. 2016. Addressing Shortcomings in Afro-Pessimism. Inquiries Journal, 8(09). http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1435/addressing-shortcomings-in-afro-pessimism.
Bennett, P. R., & Lutz, A. 2009. How African American is the net black advantage? Differences in college attendance among immigrant blacks, native blacks, and whites. Sociology of Education, 82, 70–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/003804070908200104
Collins, P. H. 2019. Intersectionality as critical social theory. In Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478007098
Cooper, B. C. 2017. Beyond respectability: The intellectual thought of race women. University of Illinois Press. https://doi.org/10.5406/illinois/9780252040993.001.0001
Crenshaw, K. 1990. Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stan. L. Rev., 43, 1241. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Dawson, M. 2017. Student activism against the neocolonial, neoliberal university: Exploring a sociology of absences, emergences, and hidden fires. Counter futures, 4, 53-84. https://doi.org/10.26686/cf.v4i0.6405
Donnell, Patrick. 2020. Ontology, Experience, and Social Death: On Frank Wilderson’s Afropessimism. APA Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience.
Douglass, P.D. (2018). Black Feminist Theory for the Dead and Dying. Theory & Event 21(1), 106-123. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/685972.
Dumas, M. J. 2018. Beginning and ending with Black suffering: A meditation on and against racial justice in education. In Toward What Justice? (pp. 29-45). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351240932-3
Gayles, J. 2022, August 17. Does Anyone See Us? Disposability of Black Women Faculty in the Academy. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. https://www.diverseeducation.com/opinion/article/15295726/does-anyone-see-us-disposability-of-black-women-faculty-in-the-academy.
Goldman, A. I. 2010. Why Social Epistemology Is Real Epistemology. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577477.003.0001
Greyerbiehl, L., & Mitchell, D., Jr. 2014. An Intersectional Social Capital Analysis Of The
Influence Of Historically Black Sororities On African American Women’s College Experiences At A Predominantly White Institution. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 7(4), 282-294. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037605
Harper, S., & Hurtado, S. 2007. Nine themes in campus racial climates and implications for institutional transformation. In S. Harper & L. Patton (Eds.), Responding to the realities of race on campus (pp. 7–24). Jossey-Bass. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.254
Harper, S. R., Patton, L. D., & Wooden, O. S. 2009. Access and equity for African American students in higher education: A critical race historical analysis of policy efforts. Journal of Higher Education, 80, 389–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2009.11779022
Haynes, C., Joseph, N. M., Patton, L. D., Stewart, S., & Allen, E. L. 2020. Toward an understanding of intersectionality methodology: A 30-year literature synthesis of Black women’s experiences in higher education. Review of Educational Research, 90(6), 751-787. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654320946822
Holt-Middleton, T., Hunt-Khabir, K., Monterio S., Royal, M., Alexander, T., Moore, Z., Martin, H., Marutle, P., & Hadley., X. 2017. Towards a Black Feminist Manifesto for Colorado State University. Colorado State University Department of Ethnic & Women’s Studies.
Home | Fair Fight. 10 April 2022. Fair Fight. https://fairfight.com/.
Jackson, L. R. 1998. The influence of both race and gender on the experiences of African American college women. Review of Higher Education, 21, 359–375. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.1998.0009
Khabir, K. 2018. Black + Woman in Brazil: The Search for Inclusion and Representation | SOE Publications. Uwi.edu. https://www.mona.uwi.edu/soe/publications/jedic/article/490.
King, D. K. 1988. Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a Black feminist ideology. Signs, 14(1, Autumn 1988), 42–72. https://doi.org/10.1086/494491
MAKERS. 2020. Kimberlé Crenshaw | The 2020 MAKERS Conference [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSTf89pLcl0.
Nash, Jennifer C. 2019. “Black feminism reimagined.” Black Feminism Reimagined. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002253
The Condition of Education 2020. 19 May 2020. Ed.gov; National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020144.
Nikki. 9 November 2020. Black Women Are Tired of Being Asked to Save America. Medium; An Injustice! https://aninjusticemag.com/black-women-are-tired-of-being-asked-to-save-america-73761d676032.
Patton, L. D. 2016. Disrupting Postsecondary Prose: Toward a Critical Race Theory of Higher Education . Urban Education, Vol 51(3), 315-342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915602542
Rovai, A., Gallien Jr., L., & Wighting, M. 2005. Cultural and interpersonal factors affecting African American academic performance in higher education: A review and synthesis of the research literature. Journal of Negro Education, 74, 359–370.
Settles, I. H. 2006. Use of an intersectional framework to understand Black women’s racial and gender identities. Sex Roles, 54, 589–598. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9029-8
Santos, B. D. S. 2014. Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge.
Santos, B. D. S. 2006. The rise of the global left: The world social forum and beyond (Vol. 1, No. 84277-84803). Zed Books. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350223516
Santos, B. D. S. 2001. Nuestra America: Reinventing A Subaltern Paradigm of Recognition and Redistribution, 54 Rutgers L. Rev, 1049, 1054-55.
Squire, D., Williams, B. C., & Tuitt, F. (2018). Plantation politics and neoliberal racism in higher education: A framework for reconstructing anti-racist institutions. Teachers College Record, 120(14), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811812001412
Stewart, D. L. 2008. Being all of me: Black students negotiating multiple identities. Journal of Higher Education, 79, 183–207. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhe.2008.0007
TED. 2016. The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2009. Current Population Survey, March 2008 Supplement. Web reference.
Watt, S. K. 2003. Come to the river: Using spirituality to cope, resist, and develop identity. New Directions for Student Services, 2003, 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.105
Walkington, L. 2017. How far have we really come? Black women faculty and graduate students’ experiences in higher education. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 39, 51- 65. https://doi.org/10.55671/0160-4341.1022
Wilderson III, Frank B. 2020. Afropessimism. Liveright Publishing.
Wilderson III, F., Hartman, S., Martinot, S., Sexton, J., & Spillers, H. 2017. Afro-Pessimism: An Introduction. Racked & Dispatched.
Winkle-Wagner, R. 2009. The unchosen me: Race, gender, and identity among Black women in college. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. https://doi.org/10.1353/book.3502
Winkle-Wagner, R. 2015. Having their lives narrowed down? The state of Black women’s college success. Review of Educational Research, 85(2), 171–204. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654314551065
Ahmed, S. 2012. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1131d2g
Allen, W., Epps, E., & Haniff, N. (Eds.). 1991. College in Black and White: African American Students In Predominantly White And In Historically Black Public Universities. SUNY Press.
Barlow, M. 2016. Addressing Shortcomings in Afro-Pessimism. Inquiries Journal, 8(09). http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1435/addressing-shortcomings-in-afro-pessimism.
Bennett, P. R., & Lutz, A. 2009. How African American is the net black advantage? Differences in college attendance among immigrant blacks, native blacks, and whites. Sociology of Education, 82, 70–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/003804070908200104
Collins, P. H. 2019. Intersectionality as critical social theory. In Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478007098
Cooper, B. C. 2017. Beyond respectability: The intellectual thought of race women. University of Illinois Press. https://doi.org/10.5406/illinois/9780252040993.001.0001
Crenshaw, K. 1990. Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stan. L. Rev., 43, 1241. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Dawson, M. 2017. Student activism against the neocolonial, neoliberal university: Exploring a sociology of absences, emergences, and hidden fires. Counter futures, 4, 53-84. https://doi.org/10.26686/cf.v4i0.6405
Donnell, Patrick. 2020. Ontology, Experience, and Social Death: On Frank Wilderson’s Afropessimism. APA Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience.
Douglass, P.D. (2018). Black Feminist Theory for the Dead and Dying. Theory & Event 21(1), 106-123. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/685972.
Dumas, M. J. 2018. Beginning and ending with Black suffering: A meditation on and against racial justice in education. In Toward What Justice? (pp. 29-45). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351240932-3
Gayles, J. 2022, August 17. Does Anyone See Us? Disposability of Black Women Faculty in the Academy. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. https://www.diverseeducation.com/opinion/article/15295726/does-anyone-see-us-disposability-of-black-women-faculty-in-the-academy.
Goldman, A. I. 2010. Why Social Epistemology Is Real Epistemology. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577477.003.0001
Greyerbiehl, L., & Mitchell, D., Jr. 2014. An Intersectional Social Capital Analysis Of The
Influence Of Historically Black Sororities On African American Women’s College Experiences At A Predominantly White Institution. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 7(4), 282-294. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037605
Harper, S., & Hurtado, S. 2007. Nine themes in campus racial climates and implications for institutional transformation. In S. Harper & L. Patton (Eds.), Responding to the realities of race on campus (pp. 7–24). Jossey-Bass. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.254
Harper, S. R., Patton, L. D., & Wooden, O. S. 2009. Access and equity for African American students in higher education: A critical race historical analysis of policy efforts. Journal of Higher Education, 80, 389–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2009.11779022
Haynes, C., Joseph, N. M., Patton, L. D., Stewart, S., & Allen, E. L. 2020. Toward an understanding of intersectionality methodology: A 30-year literature synthesis of Black women’s experiences in higher education. Review of Educational Research, 90(6), 751-787. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654320946822
Holt-Middleton, T., Hunt-Khabir, K., Monterio S., Royal, M., Alexander, T., Moore, Z., Martin, H., Marutle, P., & Hadley., X. 2017. Towards a Black Feminist Manifesto for Colorado State University. Colorado State University Department of Ethnic & Women’s Studies.
Home | Fair Fight. 10 April 2022. Fair Fight. https://fairfight.com/.
Jackson, L. R. 1998. The influence of both race and gender on the experiences of African American college women. Review of Higher Education, 21, 359–375. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.1998.0009
Khabir, K. 2018. Black + Woman in Brazil: The Search for Inclusion and Representation | SOE Publications. Uwi.edu. https://www.mona.uwi.edu/soe/publications/jedic/article/490.
King, D. K. 1988. Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a Black feminist ideology. Signs, 14(1, Autumn 1988), 42–72. https://doi.org/10.1086/494491
MAKERS. 2020. Kimberlé Crenshaw | The 2020 MAKERS Conference [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSTf89pLcl0.
Nash, Jennifer C. 2019. “Black feminism reimagined.” Black Feminism Reimagined. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002253
The Condition of Education 2020. 19 May 2020. Ed.gov; National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020144.
Nikki. 9 November 2020. Black Women Are Tired of Being Asked to Save America. Medium; An Injustice! https://aninjusticemag.com/black-women-are-tired-of-being-asked-to-save-america-73761d676032.
Patton, L. D. 2016. Disrupting Postsecondary Prose: Toward a Critical Race Theory of Higher Education . Urban Education, Vol 51(3), 315-342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915602542
Rovai, A., Gallien Jr., L., & Wighting, M. 2005. Cultural and interpersonal factors affecting African American academic performance in higher education: A review and synthesis of the research literature. Journal of Negro Education, 74, 359–370.
Settles, I. H. 2006. Use of an intersectional framework to understand Black women’s racial and gender identities. Sex Roles, 54, 589–598. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9029-8
Santos, B. D. S. 2014. Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge.
Santos, B. D. S. 2006. The rise of the global left: The world social forum and beyond (Vol. 1, No. 84277-84803). Zed Books. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350223516
Santos, B. D. S. 2001. Nuestra America: Reinventing A Subaltern Paradigm of Recognition and Redistribution, 54 Rutgers L. Rev, 1049, 1054-55.
Squire, D., Williams, B. C., & Tuitt, F. (2018). Plantation politics and neoliberal racism in higher education: A framework for reconstructing anti-racist institutions. Teachers College Record, 120(14), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811812001412
Stewart, D. L. 2008. Being all of me: Black students negotiating multiple identities. Journal of Higher Education, 79, 183–207. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhe.2008.0007
TED. 2016. The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akOe5-UsQ2o.
U.S. Census Bureau. 2009. Current Population Survey, March 2008 Supplement. Web reference.
Watt, S. K. 2003. Come to the river: Using spirituality to cope, resist, and develop identity. New Directions for Student Services, 2003, 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.105
Walkington, L. 2017. How far have we really come? Black women faculty and graduate students’ experiences in higher education. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 39, 51- 65. https://doi.org/10.55671/0160-4341.1022
Wilderson III, Frank B. 2020. Afropessimism. Liveright Publishing.
Wilderson III, F., Hartman, S., Martinot, S., Sexton, J., & Spillers, H. 2017. Afro-Pessimism: An Introduction. Racked & Dispatched.
Winkle-Wagner, R. 2009. The unchosen me: Race, gender, and identity among Black women in college. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. https://doi.org/10.1353/book.3502
Winkle-Wagner, R. 2015. Having their lives narrowed down? The state of Black women’s college success. Review of Educational Research, 85(2), 171–204. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654314551065
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Jul 3, 2023
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Not MY Intersectionality: Examining Epistemic Violence for Black Women in Higher Education. (2023). Pan-African Conversations, 1(1), 77-99. https://doi.org/10.36615/pac.v1i1.2549
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Not MY Intersectionality: Examining Epistemic Violence for Black Women in Higher Education. (2023). Pan-African Conversations, 1(1), 77-99. https://doi.org/10.36615/pac.v1i1.2549