‘I just want to get my degree and leave’: psychosocial experiences of black male students navigating a historically white South African university

ABSTRACT

Literature abounds with Black male students’ accounts of racialised and gendered experiences at university, especially at historically white institutions (HWI). This research is typically geospatially located in the Global North with sparse attention paid to Black men’s experiences at HWIs in the Global South. We therefore explored Black male students’ psychosocial experiences at a South African historically white campus. Our qualitative study, informed by critical race theory (CRT), co-cultural theory (CCT) and microaggression theory (MAT) used a case study design in which focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with 20 Black male students. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically. Findings indicate students’ race-gendered microagressions that included stereotyping, criminalisation, and racial profiling. which impact negatively on students. Participants also shared positive experiences about the institution which included well-aligned administrative processes, quality of education and funding opportunities. Implications for institutional transformation in higher education are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical race theory
• black men
• university students
• race
• gender

Introduction

Interpersonal and institutional racism and sexism remain some of the biggest challenges globally and in South Africa (SA). The psychosocial and material aftermath of Apartheid policies still dominate the lives of all South Africans, with Black people still disproportionately bearing the brunt of systematic disenfranchisement. Furthermore, the higher education (HE) sector, like all other sectors, is still structurally plagued by its Apartheid legacy (Bozalek and Boughey 2012). However, since the transition to democracy in 1994, SA has addressed many past social inequalities. Despite extensive institutional and national restructuring, racial and gendered discrimination remain entrenched, persistent and pernicious in institutions including the HE sector.

Historically, research on gendered experiences justifiably focussed on women’s experiences since they bear the brunt of at least double oppression and are most frequently the survivors of chronic gender based violence, globally. In the last decade feminist scholars have recognised that masculinities are important to engage with to think about and disrupt gendered and heteronormative hegemony (Ratele 2017). Furthermore, scholars have increasingly engaged intersectionality to explore the interconnected nature of inequalities in the context of race and gender, with foci on the Black male experience (Smith, Hung, and Franklin 2011).

Black men are socially marginalised because of their racial-gendered status (Brooms 2018). They carry this burden as they navigate society at large, but also at historically white universities. However, Black men are constantly in the process of developing protective navigational techniques for applying coping strategies but that also leave them emotionally and physically drained (William, Smith, and Jeremy 2011). The literature overwhelmingly reports Black men’s negative experiences at university, but some literature is emerging that explores Black men’s co-existing positive experiences at university (Tichakawunda 2021).

Black male college student experiences are underexplored in South African HE. We therefore explored the experiences of Black male students at a specific historically white institution (HWI). South African literature suggests that this cohort of students cannot claim institutions ‘as their own due to the fact that whatever progress these HWIs might have made, there is still a perception that the institutional culture of the HWIs remains unchanged’ (Soudien 2008, 48).

However, unlike numerous studies that address Black men’s experiences in HE as an entirely negative experience, we wanted to understand how Black men navigate negative institutional dynamics without ignoring their positive experiences.

Theoretical foundations

We adopted Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an overarching framework for this study on a macro level in order to focus on structural arrangements of power dynamics in the university as a microcosm of society. The main tenets of CRT are the normality and everydayness of race and racism, counter-storytelling, challenging dominant ideology, interest convergence, commitment to social justice and whiteness as property (Dixson and Rousseau 2005). We acknowledge that individuals engage differently with issues of racial and gender discrimination and differ in the coping strategies they use. We therefore supplemented CRT with aspects of microaggression theory (MAT) and co-cultural theory (CCT) so that we could also focus on racial impacts on individuals at a micro-level within a CRT framework (Bell et al. 2015; Smith, Hung, and Franklin 2011).

CRT is a flexible, social constructionist framework that acknowledges that we live in a racist society and that the ‘everydayness’ thereof is not always visible in direct racially loaded acts and behaviours, but rather in subtle, overtly and more complex nuances of racism referred to as micro-aggressions (Hylton 2010). This reality can be challenging for most individuals that operate in systems where cultural groups have to coexist. Therefore, CCT and microaggression theory (MAT) combined, can illuminate the dynamics between racial groups who coexist in social spaces and have to negotiate their racial and cultural identities within structural power dynamics.

The assumptions informing CCT are (1) co-cultural group members share a similar positioning that renders them marginalised within society, and (2) co-cultural group members adopt communication orientations in their everyday interactions with in-group and dominant group members in order to navigate the dominant culture and achieve any measure of success.

Consistent with CRT and CCT, this study sought to centralise Black male students’ experiences about their journeys at a specific South African HWI.

Literature review

Much literature about the experiences of Black male students emanates from the Global North, with little systematic research that includes Black male students’ university experiences from the Global South. Not only is these students’ educational adjustment important but their psychosocial adjustment to the institution is crucial too. Psychosocial adjustment might include emotional well-being, motivation, as well as the student’s perception of the extent to which he is made to feel welcome at the institution (Mesidor and Sly 2016).

Literature suggests that Black students in HE are exposed to relentless and pernicious incidences of racial discrimination, especially at HWIs (McCoy 2014). Black male students, in particular, struggle to survive academically, as well as emotionally, while battling against racism (Brooms 2018). They are constantly confronted with negative stereotypes and must excel academically despite racially discriminatory treatment by certain academic and support staff, other students and members of the broader community. Furthermore, Black males are criminalised and placed under increased surveillance by the community, local police officers and campus security, on and off campus (Nadal et al. 2015). Based on these experiences, Black male students at HWIs present with psychological stress responses like frustration, anger, anxiety and sometimes hopelessness (Carter et al. 2017).

Numerous studies illuminate the psychosocial impact of racial microaggressions Black men experience in HE spaces (Smith, Allen, and Danley 2007; Smith, Hung, and Franklin 2011). Studies also examine the racial disparities and cultural barriers that contribute to low mental health service utilisation and access to quality care amongst Black students (Neighbors et al. 2007). More recently, some literature has importantly focused on positive Black experiences in white HE institutions. Cooper and Hawkins (2016) suggest a number of institutional factors that continue to Black students’ belonging. Firstly, representation matters. Black students benefit from seeing and working with Black lecturers. The most important institutional actors, and these are not exclusively Black, are those lecturers and sports coaches who are supportive and accessible. Tichavakunda (Tichakawunda 2021) argues strongly for and shows the value of Black spaces for creating Black joy which, in turn, contributes significantly to Black students’ positive experiences of belonging on White campuses.

While there is a strong literature that suggests that HE environments, especially historically white university environments, are hostile toward Black males (Harper 2009), more recent literature is starting to insert counternarratives about Black students’ experiences on historically White campuses. This literature does not negate or undermine the fact that Black students’ have negative racialised experiences. Instead, they counter deficit narratives and also show that Black students can find joy and belonging on white campuses and what the institutional factors are that contribute to Black students’ joy. This is an important and necessary step for policy initiatives in HE. Sue et al. (2019) proposed initiatives like finding a support group, engaging in a buddy system or seeking advice and support from understanding professionals which are suggestions that resonate with research that focuses on positive student experiences.

In this study we argue that Black male students navigate HWIs along circuitous paths strewn with racially and gender induced psychological and material stressors to reach their aspirations of academic success. We also highlight some positive student experiences that give insight into institutional support strategies.

Research methodology

Research context

This research took place at a historically white South African university situated in a town that is well-known for its wine industry and its top public research university. The town, like the rest of SA, is plagued by deep inequality which is still deeply racialised. The university had strong ties with the Apartheid regime. The idea of ‘separate development’ that led to Apartheid policies was formulated at this university, where most of the Apartheid ministers were trained. This university is not only perceived as the birthplace of Apartheid, but it also served as an incubator for discrimination, stereotyping and racism (Odendaal 2012, 1–4). During Apartheid and in contemporary times the university has also produced Black and white racial and social justice activists. Since 1994 there have been numerous policy changes at this institution which enabled more Black staff and students, as well as a Black vice rector,¹ to take up positions at this institution. Access, however, has not eradicated experiences of discrimination and racialised institutional cultures. The scourge of racism at the institution is ongoing and has recently led to a formal investigation that was launched by the rector when a Black student woke up in his residence room and noticed that a white male student was urinating on his laptop and other belongings.² The investigation led by the respected Judge Khampepe produced the Khampepe report which highlighted specific forms of racism and recommendations related to race, language and institutional culture (Khampepe 2022). While Black and white students and staff³ mostly condemned the act of urination and the urinating student was expelled from the university, thoughts about the nature of institutional cultural change remain contentious.

We are two Black women, classified as ‘coloured’ by our Apartheid history. We both work in this institution, Claudia as a student support professional for 18 years and Ronelle as a professor of Psychology who supervised Claudia’s doctoral studies. Ronelle has been at the institution for 21 years. Both of us experience personal and institutional racism directly but also vicariously, through our work with colleagues and students (Carolissen 2022.). Claudia, in particular, often sees Black students who consult student counselling services as a direct or indirect result of their experiences of racism. It is this experience that motivated her to explore the underexplored area of Black male students’ experiences and to work with Ronelle whose expertise (and experience) equipped her to supervise this work. Even though we both experience racism at the institution and are able to identify with student experiences, we also acknowledge that we are older than students and in more powerful positions in the institution than the research participants in this study. Claudia constantly had to reflect on her own positionality in the institution and in relation to participants when engaging with them, recognising that her own racialised and gendered experiences are different from students’, given different axes of intersectionality.

Research approach and sampling process

Considering the historical, cultural, and social context of the research problem, a qualitative research approach was used (Denzin and Lincoln 2013). The main purpose of this research was to explore and understand the everyday experiences of Black male students at a specific HWI and to identify their psychosocial support needs at university.

This study used purposive sampling which relies on selecting information-rich interviews with participants who could illuminate the area being researched (Hamilton 2020). Given this context, 20 Black male students were identified and invited to participate in the study. They were recruited based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) self-identify as male and Black; (2) participants located on the main campus; and (3) participate voluntarily in the research. The sample included undergraduate and post-graduate students from different faculties and departments. They emanated from 5 of the 9 South African provinces and 3 neighbouring countries of Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Namibia (see Table 1). This programmatic and geographical diversity allowed for rich data to be collected.

Table 1. Demographic information of participants.

Participant	Background	Year
Participant1: Seth	Kwazulu Natal (Township)	3rd
Participant 2: Tiyani	Kwazulu Natal (Township)	4th
Participant 3: Kgalalelo	Kwazulu Natal (Ulundi)	3rd
Participant 4: Siphelo	Eastern Cape (Dutywa)	2nd
Participant 5: Malefo	Eastern Cape (East London)	4th
Participant 6: Asemhale	Mpumalanga	1st
Participant 7: Lonwabo	Zimbabwe (Masvingo)	3rd
Participant 8: Sikhano	Namibia (Ondangwa)	5th
Participant 9: Thsinako	Kwazulu Natal (Township)	3rd
Participant 10: Mtshwepe	Limpopo (Polokwane)	5th
Participant 11: Thando	Gauteng (Tembisa)	2nd
Participant 12: Thego	Gauteng (Tembisa)	2nd
Participant 13: Bulani	Eastern Cape (Molteno)	2nd
Participant 14: Siswhe	Lesotho (Maseru)	4th
Participant 15: Bongwani	Eastern Cape (Utsolo)	3rd
Participant 16: Mhakheta	Limpopo (Polokwane)	4th
Participant 17: Masego	Eastern Cape (Township)	4th
Participant 18: Khubayi	Limpopo (Polokwane)	1st
Participant 19: Johomah	Kwazulu Natal (Township)	4th
Participant 20: Phumzele	East London (Township)	3rd

Data collection and analysis

Data collection took place in two phases. The first phase consisted of focus group interviews. Twenty participants were randomly divided into five groups of four participants each. Follow-up individual interviews took place with 10 participants who were quiet in the focus groups but who participated non-verbally with gestures such as head nodding. The individual interviews, therefore, served as a sharing opportunity for these 10 participants who did not share their experiences during the focus groups, either due to time constraints or because some of them potentially felt more at ease in an individual setting instead of a group setting. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Data were analysed drawing on reflexive thematic analysis. This includes reference to processes of coding and theme development within the context of the centrality of researcher subjectivity. The ultimate goal, therefore, was to ‘identify patterns in data, to describe and interpret those patterns, and/or to provide a theoretically informed interpretation of them’ (Braun and Clarke 2021, 43). During this process we furthermore followed Saldana’s (2016) coding guidelines. This involved reading and re-reading transcripts, then identifying meaning units and then codes. Themes were interpreted through the theoretical lenses identified earlier. Emblematic participant quotes to illustrate various themes were included in this article.

Ethical considerations

Ethical clearance was granted by the Stellenbosch University Ethics Committee in 2017 (REC-2017–0300). All the information generated was managed confidentially. Participants were informed and assured of confidentially. Pseudonyms were used to protect the identities of participants.

Results and discussion

Participants’ experiences at the institution were challenging, but some of them also shared positive experiences. Positive experiences include quality of education, financial assistance, accessible lecturers and slow but positive progress in terms of institutional transformation. Significant themes about negative experiences that emerged from interview data are captured in four themes as: (1) hyper-awareness of race; (2) stereotyping and microaggressions; (3) psychological costs of racial-profiling and microaggressions; and (4) coping strategies.

Hyper-awareness of race

When students transition into HE they have to engage with diverse cultures and practices as well as racialisation and this usually includes how they are socially and racially positioned by others. Some participants in the study reflected their hyper-awareness of race from their first day on campus. Siphelo and Malefo highlight their hyper-awareness of the presence of so many white people on campus and with that, a sudden awareness of their own ‘Blackness’:

So that’s the first thing I recognised when I got here. I was like, ‘What? There’s a lot of white people everywhere’.

(Siphelo)

Suddenly you become aware of your Blackness. You’re like ‘I am Black’ when I get here. Because it’s something I’ve never experienced. Although I’ve moved around a lot as a child to different areas, but I’ve never ever been conscious of the fact that, yes, you’re Black.

(Malefo)

This awareness can be a challenging reality, especially for Black male students entering HWIs as racialised and gendered beings. Like Sethu and Asemhale, study participants became aware of the racialised and gendered discrimination that their presence evoked:

Let us say you walk into … not just the university, the surrounding shops … people start acting funny when you are in their space.

(Sethu)

Throughout your everyday experience you’re not even conscious of the fact that you are Black until you are in those spaces that certain things happen around you and then you’re like, oh okay, yes, it’s because I’m a Black man. I think that’s the extent to which it burdens me. You would walk around feeling normal until someone does those sorts of things that you see, oh, okay, they only do these things because I’m a Black man.

(Asemhale)

These accounts imply that racialised ideologies of Apartheid still define racialised identities in contemporary SA. The impact is that individuals first notice ‘race’ and then think, feel, and act according to their reading of the social context. Participants’ accounts furthermore indicate that they feel like a burden and an inconvenience to others in these spaces and that contributes to them experiencing a lack of belonging. CRT suggests that these realities are based on the premise of race, and whiteness in particular, as a deeply ingrained ideology within society. Malefo describes the conflict when being hyper-visible and invisible on campus while Lonwabo suggests an initial vigilance from others and his hyper-awareness of it when he walks into a supermarket:

You’re suddenly very aware of your Blackness and you tend to in a way just feel invisible in a certain way … Although you stand out, you feel invisible in the same space.

(Malefo)

You can’t just walk in. When I was at home, and I walked into Spar (a supermarket), it would be chill. But here someone will definitely give off the energy that I have noticed that you’re here and it does make me sort of uneasy and it is irritating but I’ll act like it’s nothing. Then they’ll just smile it off, which is very irritating.

(Lonwabo)

These experiences indicate participants’ acceptance and their internalisation of the social construction of space-allocation which imply that the spaces that they navigate on campus and in the town are ‘owned’ or ‘belong’ to white people. Harris’s (1993) analysis of the CRT tenet of whiteness as property as white people’s right to ‘use and enjoyment’ and the ‘right to exclude’, resonates with participants feelings of being denied access to ‘white’ spaces. Asemhale comments on how his unwantedness in spaces, silences him, lest his presence and accent cause offence:

You get here and you feel it, you feel Black. You as a being and you as a person, you’re even afraid to talk now because you’re scared of what people are gonna say about your accent and everything. It silences you. It silences you and I think from the first day I felt like I was silenced.

(Asemhale)

The centrality of race and racism became a reality for most of the participants when they came to this university, because most of them come from predominantly Black communities and schools. Sethu describes how he felt racism and inferiority:

I wasn’t, honestly speaking, I wasn’t aware of these things. I never knew racism existed when I came here. I had no clue what … All these terms, white supremacy and all that, I never knew what those things were. So, I’ve started learning when they were happening to me. Why are these people treating me like this? I started questioning myself. Okay, what’s going on? They make you feel like … You know you’re Black, but you don’t feel that you’re Black. So when you come into this space, they make you feel that you’re Black, that you are less than others.

(Sethu)

Racial hyper-awareness by some Black men in a historically white space creates conflicting experiences of hyper-visibility. To be seen as Black and male, illuminated their race-gender intersectionality that may furthermore feed into others’ subjective stereotyping and prejudices against Black men. Some participants mentioned how their presence in social spaces is greeted with distrust and discomfort. Lonwabo and Tiyani highlight their felt rejection when entering a restaurant:

So, when you go to a restaurant, it would always be one of those, they first stare at you, like who are you? Are you supposed to be here?

(Lonwabo)

You get the whispers. If you walk into a restaurant, you get people looking at you and they come in towards each other and they look at you again. And then it makes me feel so self-conscious. What are you seeing? What is your perception of me?

(Tiyani)

Despite extensive economic, social, and political changes in post-Apartheid SA, racial segregation and entitlement to space continues. Alexander (2007) notes that these practices and entitlements are anchored in SA’s historic Apartheid laws of formal segregation. These quotes provide striking examples of how groups use space to maintain division and distance. This social arrangement aligns with CRT’s tenet that depicts the experience of racism as an everyday lived experience and whiteness as the dominant ideology, especially for Black men in historically white institutions. Subtle and direct stereotyping and microaggressions are central to their experiences.

Microagressions

Racial microaggressions can be defined as ‘the everyday slights, insults, putdowns, invalidations, and offensive behaviours that people of colour experience in daily interactions” with white people (Sue et al. 2019). Huber and Solarzano (2014) distinguish macroagressions from microagressions. They argue that unlike the interpersonal nature of microaggressions, macroaggressions are institutional and systemic racisms entrenched in policies and they target groups of people as opposed to individuals. It is important to make this distinction but we also contend that individuals are targeted because they represent groups, so micro- and macroaggressions are not mutually exclusive. Most participants in this study confirm experiences of microaggressions in the form of the questioning of their intellectual abilities and undue scrutiny by police and security guards. Participants furthermore shared their experiences of exclusion during formal activities and being perceived as threatening in public spaces.

The university where this study was conducted is in a university town, thus enabling students to move freely between the institution and the town. Casual strolls by many Black male students in these surroundings are often greeted by white fear and feelings of unease because of their presence. Sethu provides a clear example of a micro aggression and its impact:

It was just a stupid comment, but then it does stick. I’m walking behind these two Afrikaans (white) guys, right behind them. So I was speed walking because I was going from one residence to another residence. So they got such a big fright ’cause I was speed walking and then they turned, and then they laughed about it and I was like, ‘Yoh, relax guys’, and they were like, ‘Oh, yes man, sure. We didn’t see you and also it’s because you’re Black’. So statements such as this, what does that have to do with anything, that I’m speed walking? So if it was anyone else, wouldn’t you have jumped maybe?

(Sethu)

Research indicated that these experiences of discrimination, prejudice, and microaggressions that many Black men are confronted with at HWIs, as part of their everyday experiences, is a global phenomenon (Swartz et al. 2018). Not only do these experiences make them feel like a ‘burden’ in these spaces but they also leave them feeling uncomfortable about themselves and create feelings of self-doubt in many Black men that impacts their self-esteem negatively. Mtshepe clearly illustrates his annoyance and discomfort with himself:

And also sometimes … Like in a queue, they’re just standing there, when you get there and all of a sudden now there’s this discomfort that, oh, let me protect my bag. So it’s also those unspoken things, but through their actions you see, it’s like why are you being uncomfortable? Is it now because I am a Black man and you expect a certain misconception of who I am? ’Cause we don’t even know each other. So sometimes it kind of, it comes across as a burden that, oh, I’m a Black man in a white space, and you’re made to feel a bit uncomfortable about yourself even.

(Mtshwepe)

Being perceived as a criminal is one of the most frequently reported microaggressions experienced by many Black male students at HWIs (Smith, Hung, and Franklin 2011). In order to reduce the fear of Black men in historically white spaces, some White people usually eliminate the perceived threat of danger by activating increased Black misandry, surveillance and restrictions. Thus, local police and security guards on campus are often deployed to control and watch Black men in these spaces (Otuyelu, Graham, and Kennedy 2016). Kgalalelo and Sethu describe their humiliating experiences of surveillance:

It is like when you walk around the street there, everyone just looks at you. And again, walking around at night here, it’s very annoying ’cause cops would be driving around, and they will stop you and start searching you … .in front of other white students.

(Kgalalelo)

We were just sitting there on the tarred road in front of our residence and just talking. This security guard comes up in a car, he tells us not to sit outside because he won’t be able to distinguish us from criminals. We were like, ‘How do you differentiate between a civilian and a criminal that you won’t be able to distinguish between criminals and us?’

(Sethu)

Mtshwepe agrees by adding:

Yes, so that’s where you feel like you have a target on your back. And it literally feels like you are being watched. So it feels like you have a target on your back.

It became clear that the complexity of racial microaggressions experienced by many participants on and around this campus is influenced by the fact that perceptions of them emanate from a racialised and gendered context within which they are constantly confronted by microaggressions in the form of criminalisation, racial profiling and surveillance. Microaggressions may seem trivial but the fact that they recur repeatedly and perniciously can impact significantly on many Black men’s understanding of themselves and what their bodies do in public spaces like historically white campuses (Otuyelu, Graham, and Kennedy 2016; Sue et al. 2019).

There are, therefore, emotional consequences and psychological costs to participants’ experiences of microaggressions and being feared in public and social spaces.

Psychological costs of racial profiling and microaggressions

Thsinako, Malefo and Tiyani described how they navigated their emotions and the challenges confronting them in order to successfully complete their studies

It is very difficult and emotionally tiring … to discern, when you are discriminated against … so I just don’t react to it because … So in a lot of situations where things like this happen, it’s very difficult for me especially to tell whether this person is treating me like this because I’m a Black man or is it because generally they don’t know that what they’re doing is wrong. So, most of the time I just don’t confront it, I just let it go.

(Thsinako)

On the side of Black men, I can guarantee you, few of them survive this place. This place, I don’t know about it, it just rejects you.

(Malefo)

And I know a lot of people say you shouldn’t really care, but then when it happens, it stings you. It really stings you. So, it does feel like, it starts to feel like an inconvenience. You know what I mean? You start to feel it’s like you’re inconveniencing other people now just by being there. And yes, it’s frustrating.

(Tiyani)

It is interesting that Thsinako internalises the idea that microagressions may be the same as everyday rudeness, a perspective that Sue et al. (2019) vehemently opposes. These extracts suggest that historically white spaces produce considerable and ongoing stress, especially for many Black male students, which impact negatively on their emotional well-being. Being constantly exposed to racist-sexism and sexist-racism in the form of microaggressions is distressing and consumes valuable time and emotional energy that could be used to reach academic and career goals. Once-off incidents of micro-aggression treatments may seem harmless but being on the receiving end of repetitive and cumulative burdens of constant microaggression treatments can contribute to flattened confidence, resulting in “racial battle fatigue (Smith, Hung, and Franklin 2011). Siswhe and Thando express their hidden grief and sadness:

For me sometimes when it’s really bad, it’s really at its worst, I’ll cry just before I sleep. All by myself, cry, like [sniffs], when I wake up in the morning, everything gone, life continues.

(Siswhe)

Whenever now something happens in your life … You become numb to the pain that sometimes, for someone else, it would actually be like, this is so, I’m going through a lot. But for you it’s like [silence]. For instance, when people say, like my uncle passed away and we’re like [silence], okay, you’ll be strong. You don’t really, really, it doesn’t really register that this is painful to this person. Because you’ve dealt with this. It’s okay. You come from that, oh, male perspective, be strong, we don’t talk about, we don’t cry about things, you just soldier on basically.

(Thando)

Participants express the emotional toll that microaggressions impact. This toll is intensified by their silencing of their sadness, a burden placed by heteronormative masculinity to be strong and not show emotion. Between racism and heteronormative masculinities, the forces of institutional power leave may leave many Black men isolated and unsupported in their sadness. The amount of time and energy that many Black men spend navigating hostile environments and dealing with racial microaggressions are not only physically and emotionally draining but also jettisons hopeful dispositions toward positive racial relations and social justice. Therefore, racism and racial microaggressions operate as psycho-pollutants in public, social and academic spaces of HWIs, contributing to the overall race-related stress for many Black men in HE (Smith, Hung, and Franklin 2011).

Strategies to cope with microaggressions and macroagressions

Study participants’ strategies resonated with those identified by Sue et al. (2019). This includes ignoring the incidents, minimising the experience with humour to lighten the encounter, ignoring the racialisation altogether, or avoiding particular social and academic places. Asemhale focuses on ignoring incidents and building alliances:

The only way we are surviving now is you choose to ignore all the bullshit – mind my language – and you also suck up with the Afrikaans kids. If you wanna survive in (university town) as a Black kid, you need to bury, you need to put that ego aside, you need to forget about the racism.

(Asemhale)

Asemhale’s strategy to just ‘suck it up’ reflects a personal negotiation with his racialised positioning as central to his participation in white spaces. Asemhale and Sethu furthermore shared racially charged encounters but chose not to address them because of fear of harsh punishment given their racial and gender identities:

Sometimes you just wanna confront the situation, but sometimes you just wanna … conserve my energy. Sometimes you’re stressed out to be dealing with stresses like you being expelled from res ’cause you fought with someone and stuff like that. I think there’s nothing worse than stopping yourself from reacting, because you live under that fear that because of the colour of my skin I’m gonna get a harsh punishment.

(Asemhale)

For me it’s always that thing of every time I have to do something, or I have to talk, if I’m in your situation I feel like I really wanna tell this guy what I think. But then you start fearing that if I get punished, I’m probably gonna get punished badly. Then you start thinking that you’re gonna go through all these hearings, all these disciplinary hearings and you’re gonna receive a harsh punishment. So, it’s like in a way the system implicitly silences you. You know, you feel silenced, and you can’t be comfortable in your skin.

(Sethu)

These responses reflect a non-confrontational approach where some participants would rather opt for ways to avoid confrontation (Camara and Orbe 2010). They also calculate the potential or preferred outcome of their reaction before applying a communicative strategy. The reason for this positioning stems from the double burden that many Black men carry in society, that of being Black and male. Robinson-Perez (2021, 15) concurs that when Black men are overwhelmed by micro-aggressions ‘the need to censor and restrain their reactions due to a fear of retaliation associated with negative stereotypes of Black men’ arises. Based on this many Black men are constantly stereotyped as criminals and because of their fear of harsh punishment, they rather remain silent. Thego clearly understands and internalises the social construction of his identity as a Black male who will receive harsh punishment if he transgresses:

I just laugh about it and then I leave, but then it takes time to really sink in, when I’m like, oh, that was actually so disrespectful, that was so ignorant. If I had internalised it at that time, I think probably I would have had a different reaction. But also in a way it kind of helps ’cause I mean, you don’t wanna get yourself, now it’s assault, you’re in trouble with the university. I also think about all of those things, imagine charges of assault within the university property and now you’re faced with charges, get arrested. I think of all that.

(Thego)

Constant self-questioning and efforts to avoid racial – gender stereotypes and microaggressions are part of Black males’ race – gendered experience, and are very common (Smith, Yosso, and Solórzano 2007). Furthermore, although anger suppression may have worked best for most participants in this study, the physiological and psychological impact of suppression of emotions can be costly over time. Just as many participants choose a non-confrontational strategy, the rationalisation that is framed within CCT and proposed by Bell et al. (2015) was employed by many participants. Rationalisation is a fitting strategy that provides an alternative explanation or justification for different forms of verbal or nonverbal communicative injustices. The effect is that it allows participants to downplay the serious nature of unjust treatment and it also allows an alternative explanation for discrimination in the first place. This coping strategy assists participants like Johoma to deal with discrimination experienced on and around campus:

I’ve come and learn to not only understand but also to appreciate everyone’s story and their background. To take into consideration that white people don’t just come onto campus and say we hate every Black person. Some of them have been taught to, not necessarily their parents that says, hate Black, hate Black, but how they see their parents and their family relate to Black people, then they just inherently think it is fine, that is the right thing to do, and that’s all they know.

(Johoma)

Most of the participants are aware of the wilful ignorance of most of their white counterparts and usually acknowledge that the best strategy is to pardon their counterparts’ behaviour because that requires less physical and emotional energy. The strategy that Siphelo employed was to try to fit in by adopting behaviours that resonated well with white people. To assimilate is, therefore, a strategy he applied:

I don’t know how to deal with all of this … I try to act normal. ‘Hi, how are you? Cool’. I feel like, the thing that we’ve … once we become palatable to white people, you speak English better and you speak Afrikaans to certain white people, it makes it easier for them to trust you.

(Siphelo)

From a psychological point of view, to ignore or just walk away from racial microaggressions might not be an emotionally healthy strategy for participants in the long term. Although, at least for the purpose of meaning-making, it serves them best in the moment and frees them to walk away from the situation. However, participants’ coping mechanisms enacted through silence and avoidance and even rationalisation might contribute to not only further alienation but also to reinforcing the dominant racial and cultural ideology that invalidates participants’ academic citizenship. Sue et al. (2019) suggests that a solution to these challenges of potentially reinscribing racist institutional cultures, is to disarm microaggression treatments as a direct means of dealing with microaggression. This involves either stopping or deflecting the actions or comments by clearly expressing disagreement, or challenging what was said or done, or by pointing out the harmful impact of the treatment.

Self-reliance and reliance on inner strength in order for them to move forward and survive the system, is a pertinent coping strategy that most participants applied. Kgalalelo and Tiyani shared how these racially loaded experiences tire them mentally and physically and sometimes it is just the idea of graduating successfully that keeps them going:

I decided to just ignore it. I don’t even … I don’t care anymore. You can call me whatever you want, just … I don’t care. I just want to get my degree and leave, that’s all I want.

(Kgalalelo)

So it’s not about me anymore, it’s about them all the time … So what I basically do is just … I focus on my work because that’s basically what I’m here for. Get that degree so that I can earn that money.

(Tiyani)

Bongwani agreed with him and emphasised his focus on the legacy of a university education:

I think it’s also a matter of prioritising. We are … I can speak for myself. I’m here for a bigger reason. I’m here for my people, for generations. I can’t afford to let one sly comment throw my game off. You hear what I’m saying? So that’s how I deal with it. I’m like, bro, you’re dealing with far bigger issues than this. You’re dealing with a legacy of things. You can’t get bogged down by this thing. You have to keep going forward, keep moving.

(Bongwani)

For most Black men to be a student at a HWI is often a fulfilled dream as it serves as a potential ticket for many of them and their families out of poverty-stricken circumstances. Unfortunately, this idealistic vision starts to crumble for many as they become aware of the actual process of being a student at a HWIs. They not only need motivation but high levels of resilience to turn an adverse experience into determination to succeed against all odds. They constantly had to remind themselves why they were at this university in the first place and drew on positive experiences to inform their continuation in HE.

Black students’ positive experiences

Although most of the participants’ communicated challenging experiences at the institution, some include positive experiences. Siphelo, Sikhano and Sethu’s responses exemplify the group’s positive experiences:

So I was very excited, I was very happy that I’m at university, especially a top class university like. (name of university)

(Siphelo)

There is that recruitment bursary that you get when you come here and it’s because of that (that I came to this university). A lot of people say they are here because of the funds, not because they wanted to be here. But then in the end you tend to find out that it’s one of the best universities.

(Sikhano)

You’re like, okay, we’ve got this. But then I think like, okay, I am really lost, and then I’ll make an appointment and then go to the lecturer and then the lecturers were helpful. But of course, you need to take the step and approach them yourself.

(Sethu)

These positive experiences are seldom highlighted in the literature, except in a few instances (Cooper and Hawkins 2016; Tichakawunda 2021) that resonate with our current findings. Black students’ positive experiences are important to elicit since they provide reasons for why many Black students, in spite of expected racism and sexism, attend historically white institutions.

Conclusion

South African research that explores racial and gender discrimination at universities, focuses almost exclusively on Black women’s experiences. This study, the first of its kind at a South African university, suggests that racism and sexism also have an overwhelmingly negative impact on the everyday experiences of many Black men attending HWIs, in spite of increased access to university and institutional transformation initiatives. Furthermore, in spite of cultural sensitivity training for staff and students, racism and sexism persist. Black male students’ experiences are similar to Black women’s experiences, except that many men are routinely criminalised. The findings of this study resonate with international research on Black men’s experiences at historically white universities. It also extends scant existing research on Black male students’ positive student experiences. Unlike many international studies, students in this study acknowledged that in spite of the racism and sexism, they persist and pursue a degree at this institution since it is known for its academic excellence, some lecturers are supportive and administrative services are excellent. This is an important aspect of Black men’s experience to explore since it explains why, in spite of racism, many Black men attend historically white universities. More importantly, it may begin to interrupt a research induced deficit perspective of Black men’s experiences on campus as a singular narrative, leaving little room for the complexity of Black men’s campus experiences. The fact that research findings are mostly consistent transnationally suggests that whiteness as an ideology, is ingrained globally, and that Black male students share a burden of racism and sexism. At the same time this burden also offers opportunities for shared transnational resistance which starts with a keen understanding of the vulnerability and distress that many Black men experience, but often ignore in order to graduate. It is crucial for us to understand how many Black men find meaning in their campus experience, an area that (Black) masculinities research in higher education has just begun to explore. This may involve work on affects such as joy, love and compassion for Black men as they traverse university spaces.

For HE institutions to meaningfully transform to eradicate racism and sexism, engagements that extend beyond inclusion and equality need to be implemented. Apart from institutional policy and culture changes, these interventions would ideally focus on all staff and students rediscovering their own humanity to recognise the humanity of others. Importantly, transformational shifts also need to include the importance of affects such as humility, compassion and empathy, especially by those in positions of privilege. We must find constructive ways in which to have open and non-defensive conversations about our histories, experiences of historically marginalised students as well as the realities of continuing influences of white privilege and patriarchy in HE in order to carve out mutually desired joint futures for all.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. University president.

2. dorm.

3. faculty.