Dear Black Student Affairs Professionals and College Administrators, Let’s Talk.
Dear Black Student Affairs Professionals and Administrators,
We are living in scary times. Times when emotions, wants, needs are all in conflict. We are in a pandemic that continues to shift how we live and create every day. A pandemic that is disproportionately killing Black people. A roaring pandemic as we fight against police brutality. This is not normal. Most of us don’t know what to feel — angry, disappointed, hopeless, frustrated or even numb with fear. We don’t know where to direct our generational rage or how to let joy seep into our reality — a reality already dampened with misery. We are here. Hoping to have a miraculous turnaround on our campuses, however, that turnaround is not coming. We must deal with what’s in front of us. We must be bold, righteous and willing to risk and lose. We must be radically honest and radically together.
As a Black disabled fat queer non-binary femme human, I want to help start a critical conversation within in Student Affairs and the greater higher education community. I chose to do this by exploring positions and hierarchy. Remember, none of these hierarchies serve us, AND this is currently where we are.
If you are a Black Upper Level Administrator at your institution, please do not fall for the tricks of white supremacy. You’ve spent years pleasing white people to get to the position you are in, and whiteness knows you will do whatever it takes to keep what you got, even if that means stomping on the backs of Black folks beneath you. Whiteness will make you feel powerful and strong, specifically, during times of unrest. Whiteness will come to you for all discussions and decisions regarding difference — Blackness, queerness and transness, ableism, classism and policies regarding undocumented peoples. Before you know it, you are responsible to everyone and everything with very little resources and no parachute — you will be the fall person when things don’t work out. Whiteness is both strategic and easily read. It understands the system we live in, and how to use the system to keep Black people in isolation, in silence and in a continuous fight among each other. Whiteness will center you in ways that feels good but is wholly deceitful and murderous. Whiteness understands you as one of their greatest creations.
Remember, it is your responsibility to create more room for Black folks on your campus to take up space and directly contribute to bettering the lives of all Black folks on campus. Protect Black Midlevel Professionals and New Professionals who are loud around Black liberation. Move away from the colonized thinking around relationships and boundaries. You need to have intimate relationships with Black folks all around campus, no matter the title. Protect the Black risk-takers and truth-tellers who most often happen to be Black women and Black queer and trans folks. They are the ones who create more space for you to move in your current position. Remember they’re risking and losing for all Black folks, including you! Make friends with the Black risk-takers and truth-tellers. Be in communication with them at all times. Love them, affirm them and leverage their risk with your assumed power. Remember why you do what you do!
If you are a Black Midlevel Professional, you probably feel trapped and fearful of everything and everyone. You have no agency, however, you are expected to carry out the dehumanizing policies and procedures of the institution. Remember that you have choices. You can be bold. If you’re seeking justice and equity, your life requires you to be radically honest — so be radically honest with yourselves. Be transparent with your colleagues and the folks you supervise. Take care of your Black supervisees. Remember, you do have small pockets of decision making under your discretion. Routinely, offer days off to your (Black) supervisees, check-in as often as you can and protect their labor and energy in this time — when additional tasks are expected to get done with less, say “no” on their behalf. Remember to school new professionals on the workings of campus politics — who’s in relationship with who, names of known racist and anti-Black colleagues, organizations to be in community with and help fill in gaps around Black liberation…or be willing to learn from new professionals on Black liberation.
Moreover, we’re the group who’s most likely to be involved in professional organizations. Pay attention to those organizations that move in counterproductive ways. They make the bare minimum seem urgent and worthy of celebration. They glorify the importance of community that is clearly not intended for everyone. They will make money decisions over people decisions all day long. And liberation is nary a goal.
If you are a New Black Professional, continue to push the old heads — the ones who no longer know what’s best for Black people. However, remember the system of oppression is alive and thriving within higher education. Remember those barriers and challenges that make your life difficult to live are still present in the higher education structure. Get to know the system intimately, and let that influence the ways you push the Black folks who have not evolved their personal politic around Black lives. Bring your full selves everywhere — staff meetings, appointments with students, committees and taskforces and on your social media accounts. Be loud, and be strategic! Take time to unpack your undergraduate experience, and make sense of the ways oppression shaped your collegiate experience. Reflecting on your experiences will help you be a stronger risk-taker and truth-teller once you start your new position. And don’t get me wrong, many Midlevel and Upper level Administrators need to do this reflection activity as well.
Questions to think about-
What made you choose higher education as a career path? Think critically and thoroughly.
Have you ever experienced a social justice training without the presence of white people? What is the impact?
Who are your Black mentors? What is their personal politic? How do they treat Black women, Black femmes, Black queer and trans folks?
How do you engage Black femmetors? (radical Black queer and trans folks who risk on behalf of all Black lives)
Imagine us all living and moving in alignment. Imagine trusting Black folks at dynamic intersections more than the white people we idolize. Imagine we call a meeting to talk about the state of affairs in student affairs and the greater higher education community. Imagine Black cishet folks listening to Black queer humans — Black queer women, Black non-binary people, Black trans women and all the queerness inside, outside and around these labels. Imagine us fighting for the most vulnerable folks within our community. Imagine us centering our most vulnerable students in our work. Imagine us not hiding behind words like scholars, Black excellence and representation. Imagine us fighting this system together.
Let’s have a community conversation. Who wants to help organize this Black ass meeting? What resources are you willing to contribute to the effort? White people if you’re reading, in what ways are you willing to risk and lose to make this conversation happen? Comment below.
And it’s by time, we as a community, acknowledge the labor and living of Black queer, trans and non-binary people which includes Black women!
Bio:
Cody Charles is the author of Black People! To Love Black Queer and Trans Folxs You Must Reckon with the Intimacy of the Violence you Commit, Black Joy, We Deserve It, The Night The Moonlight Caught My Eye: Not a Review but a Testimony on the Film Moonlight, The Higher Education Graduation Speech You Deserve, 24 Pieces of College Advice for Students of Marginalized Identities From People Who Have Been There, Student Affairs is a Sham, 19 Types of Higher Education Professionals, 10 Common Things Well-Intentioned Allies Do That Are Actually Counterproductive, A Letter to Black Greeks Who Happen to be Black and Queer; Black Joy, We Deserve It, 13 Radical Interview Questions to Incorporate Into Your Campus Hiring Process, Enter At Your Own Risk: Getting (Radically) Honest About Residence Life And Its Affects on Wellness and What Growing Up Black And Poor Taught Me About Resiliency. Join them for more conversation on Twitter @_codykeith_, Facebook (Follow Cody Charles) and on Instagram @_codykeith_. Please visit their blog, Reclaiming Anger, to learn more about them.
