A loophole of retreat? Predominately White institutions as paradoxical spaces for high achieving African American women

Abstract

High achieving Black female students attending predominately-White institutions (PWIs) are stereotyped as being strong willed and celebrated for their resilience. On the surface, these narratives seem to compliment African American students for doing well. However, strong-Black-woman depictions trivialize the racism and sexism these women experience. Utilizing Black feminist geographic theory, I argue that colleges and universities can be “paradoxical spaces” for academically successful Black women: The sense of accomplishment that comes from performing at peak levels often gets undercut by the marginalization these women face on campus. Qualitative, open-ended interviews of 20 participants attending a large Midwestern PWI demonstrate that high achieving African American women relish the intellectual challenges of their academic pursuits, yet they also deal with intense feelings of isolation and frustration.

Keywords:

• African American women
• Black feminist geography
• achievement
• paradoxical space
• higher education
• predominately-White institutions

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Like many social scientists, I recognize the subtle differences between the terms ‘African American’ and ‘Black’ and ‘Anglo-American’ and ‘White’ while admitting that I will employ these racial designations interchangeably. This choice is a practical one. Because the women I interviewed often use different descriptions when referring to racial groups, I vary my use of these terms to preserve the integrity of quotations. Secondly, ‘Black’ or ‘African American’ and ‘White’ or ‘Anglo American’ convey unambiguous messages about racial identity and, despite the arbitrariness and fluidity of race, the terms work very well for distinguishing the groups in question. Finally, these designations conform to U.S. Census definitions of race (https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/note/US/RHI625217).

2 The full report is available at the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) website: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cpb.asp.

3 Details about HBCUs comes from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) ‘fast facts’ page: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667. The PWI information comes from the chapter 2 of The Condition of Education 2018, NCES’s college enrolment rates report: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_cpb.pdf.

4 In her undergraduate thesis at Princeton University, Michelle Obama reveals that she felt like an outsider while attending college:My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‘[B]lackness’ than ever before. I have found that Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my [W]hite professors and classmates try to be towards me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with [W]hites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be [B]lack first and a student second (Robinson, 1985, p. 2).

In her recent memoir, the former first lady goes on to say that she felt frustrated because many of the White students at her alma mater seemed unable to move beyond her skin color to accept her as a peer (Obama, 2018).

5 Microaggressions on college campuses consist of the subtle everyday slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostility toward its victims and signal that these victims are not welcomed and/or do not belong on campus (Harwood et al., 2012; Sue et al., 2007: 272). Microaggressions have a cumulative effect on students that can be detrimental to their college experiences and well after graduation (Wang, Leu, and Shoda, 2011). Lewis and Neville (2015) discuss the gendered racial microaggressions to understand the psychological toll they take on those who are targeted by such attacks.

6 There are entire volumes in academic journals devoted to this topic. Take, for example, ‘The State of

Black Women’s Studies,’ a special issue of Black Women, Gender & Families 1, no. 1 (Spring 2007), ‘Meeting the Needs of African American Women,’ a special issue of New Directions for Student Services 104 (January 2003), and ‘Black Women’s Studies and the Transformation of the Academy,’ a special issue of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 35, no. 4 (Summer 2010).

7 To protect her anonymity, Jacob went by the name ‘Linda Brent’ in the autobiography, and I will henceforth refer to her by this name.

8 Most of the interviews took place in a local coffee shop, but I conducted one interview with a participant in her office because her schedule did not accommodate an off-campus meeting.

9 For instance, I was raised in a two-parent and middle-class household, and it was important for me to consider how my viewpoints regarding people who come from less privileged socioeconomic circumstances shaped my rapport with the women I interviewed.

10 Dedoose Version 6.0.19 (2016), web application for managing, analyzing, and presenting qualitative and mixed method research data . Los Angeles, CA: SocioCultural Research Consultants, LLC (www.dedoose.com). Additional details about the software are available in the Dedoose User Guide (https://www.dedoose.com/userguide).

11 Similar to process of using highlighting pens and sticky notes to ‘mark’ and ‘annotate’ portions of an interview transcript, Dedoose users place digital ‘tags’ on chunks of text. In my case, the tags represent the ‘codes’ I applied to excerpts in the transcripts.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christina S. Haynes

Christina Haynes earned a PhD from The Ohio State University in the College of Education and Human Ecology. Dr. Haynes examines the intersections of race, gender, and exemplary status among African American women. Her primary research focuses on narratives of academically successful African American women attending Predominately-White institutions (PWIs). Also, Professor Haynes does research on Michelle Obama and how she is perceived in the media as the first African American First Lady.