Today is #ShutDownAcademia #ShutDownSTEM #Strike4BlackLives Day. A day for White and nonBlack persons of color to take time to reflect on racist ideas, activities, and environments in their institutions that have and continue to perpetuate racism against Black students, faculty, and staff in the academy. It also is a day and time for Black students, faculty, and staff to attend to their own needs. Take rest. Reflect. The point is that today is not to be a day that is business as usual.
Business as usual for me as a Black academic is a day fuller than a full day should be. It’s a day that is met with a subconscious voice that tells me to maximize every moment of the day because I have to work twice as hard to get half as much. Maybe you have heard that before. It’s a day that is met with trying to raise the bar for myself and students to be more than the status quo, but in that request my day is met with the subtle and sometimes obvious micro and macroaggressions towards my approach as a professor, scientist, mentor, that is a Black professor, Black scientist, Black mentor, and oh is Black. That often feels like the only way in which I am seen and, in some rooms, meetings, or spaces, this feeling is met with a rejection of my ideas by White and nonBlack colleagues or worse a rejection of my existence.
Business as usual for me as a Black academic is a day that teaches me that I not only have to work harder but work smarter because somehow all of my peers (especially those that are White) have figured out how to be productive at a level that I can chase but somehow can’t seem to reach. And then I learn that it’s because we’re not on the same playing field to begin with. Yes, we may have the same position but not the same resources, access, or opportunities. And we certainly don’t experience the same unconscious biases that may make me go through a painful rejection of a quality paper that is equivalent to the bar of a peers who’s work gets published on the first submission and is not held to the same scrutiny.
Business as usual for me as a Black academic is dealing with my own frustrations and mental health in response to systemic racism and the daily grind of being in toxic environments, while also dealing with those of the other Black academics in institutions all across this nation. Whenever I have felt alone in this environment or that I was the only one going through, the day was met with a Black student who was attacked by a colleague in an inappropriate way, or a Black postdoc who had to compete beyond reason to get their advisors attention in an Ivy League environment, or even a Black Senior administrator who you would think at the highest ranks is devoid of any of these issues, but unfortunately also has had their voice minimized or silenced amongst their majority White colleagues.
Business as usual for me as a Black academic is channeling my energies and calling on my faith to get me through what the day may bring. A day that might come with blatant disrespect and unrealistic expectations from White and nonBlack students in my classroom. A day that may come with life or family issues that I need to attend to but if I dare take the day off, will that only but put me behind in my career with ever always present and pressing targets and deadlines?
Business as usual for me as a Black academic is attending yet another meeting only to find out that systemic and institutional racism run so deep that even at each stage I am blessed to advance to in my career I am constantly reminded I alone can’t fix this problem that is on the scale of a bubonic plague. And this day is one that becomes even more frustrating yet motivating when I recognize the work that must be done to change this environment for the better of the Black academics that come alongside and after me. This problem didn’t just start nor does it only impact my little sector of academic, but it’s the whole system of academia.
Business as usual for me as a Black academic is being asked to ignore what’s happening in the rest of the world and my personal life to push the agenda of this academic system forward. It’s being asked to take on the charge sometimes single handedly to turn around the lack of diversity around me without my White or nonBlack colleagues doing their part to make sure that when other Black academics come they will be fully greeted, welcomed, seen, and treated as an academic first without all of the injustices that can come with being Black in the academy.
There’s more here to unfold. There’s way more here that has happened in my countless days as a Black academic and that still happens in my day as a Black academic. Black scientist. Black student turned Black professor. But today is a day that is designed to not conduct business as usual. So, what will you do today to take time for yourself and your needs if you’re a Black academic? Or what will you learn or act on today to make things better in your academic part of the world as a White or nonBlack person or color? It’s totally up to you to choose and act. Even if that action is to conduct business as usual.
Until next time,
A Black Academic
