A first-of-its-kind compelling exploration of what it means to be a Black woman in higher education. Black women are heading to college in record numbers, and more and more Black women are teaching in higher education. But increasing numbers in college don't guarantee our safety there. Willpower and grit may improve achievement for Black people in school, but they don't secure our belonging. In fact, the very structure of higher education ensures that we're treated as guests, outsiders to the institutional family--outnumbered and unwelcome. Dr. Jasmine Harris shares her own experiences attempting to be a Vassar girl and reckoning with a lack of legacy and agency. Moving beyond the "data points", Dr. Harris examines the day-to-day impacts on Black women as individuals, the longer-term consequences to our professional lives, and the generational costs to our entire families. "I want to arm as many Black girls and women as I can with the knowledge about these spaces that I lacked," says Dr. Harris. "By laying bare my own traumas, and those of Black women before me, I am providing them the tools to protect themselves, with an understanding of how deliberately many institutions will try to undercut them." Trial and error has been required of Black students to navigate systems of discrimination and disadvantage. But this book now offers useful support, illuminating the community of Black women dealing with similar issues. The author's story is not unusual, nor are her interactions anomalies. Black Women, Ivory Tower explores why.
Dr. Jasmine L. Harris is associate professor of African American Studies and coordinator of the African American Studies Program in the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Texas, San Antonio. A rising voice in the study of Black lives in the US, Dr. Harris's research and teaching focus on the experiences of Black people in predominantly white schools, specifically the social, physical, and economic impacts of their presence there. She has been published in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Women's Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy.
Chapter 1: A Meager Inheritance Chapter 2: The Power of a Story Chapter 3: The Disappearance of Black Teachers Chapter 4: Racing Chapter 5: The Performance of Belonging Chapter 6: Body Work Chapter 7: Class Matters Chapter 8: Benediction Acknowledgments Endnotes
"In what is at once a cautionary tale and an inspiring story of survival and lifelong healing, Harris courageously disrupts the respectability politics that silence Black women and girls. In so doing, she gifts her readers with a clear-eyed, beautifully written critique of white supremacy, sexism, and class inequality in academia. This powerful and insightful book is a love letter to Black students and scholars, past and present." ----Crystal M. Fleming, professor of sociology at SUNY Stony Brook, and author of Rise Up! How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy "Dr. Harris makes a valuable contribution to literature that critiques the meritocracy myth. I recognized many facets of my own journey through the academy, and I think many other Black scholars will too. For those unfamiliar with what it means to be a Black woman in the academy, this is an essential book." ----Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, cosmologist, physicist, and author of The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred "In this deeply personal and powerfully political book, Dr. Jasmine L. Harris writes movingly about the desire to belong in organizations premised on racial and gender exclusion, and America's long history of denying equal educational opportunity to Black people. Dr. Harris's journey shows the personal toll that America's separate and unequal educational system can inflict on successful Black Americans." ----Victor Ray, F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology and African American Studies, University of Iowa; nonresident fellow in governance studies, The Brookings Institution
