Chairing as Self-Care: Strategies for Combatting the Cultural Identity Taxation Trap for Black Women Chairs

Introduction

Leaving a tenured position in Women and Gender Studies to become chair of Africana Studies at a sister campus within the same university system was part of my self-care praxis. When I say this to my colleagues and friends in academia, I often get curious looks and questions as it is hard for many to believe that becoming a chair of the department at a different campus would be anything but more stressful and challenging. This has indeed been my experience as I have just completed my first year in this position and with this essay, I would like to offer some insights about how I have been successful in this role thus far while making progress on my professional goals and maintaining a solid self-care practice.

I entered into the professoriate after having spent three years in secondary education and seven years in university administration. Since I didn't follow the traditional route to faculty, I entered academia with a type of fearlessness that allowed me to be my authentic self at all times because I knew if things did not work out as a professor, I would land on my feet and go back to either K-12 teaching or student affairs administration. While other faculty, who came directly from graduate school, felt it prudent to not speak up about departmental workload issues or racial micro-aggressions for fear of retaliation, I never felt the need to hide how I felt about an issue that was affecting my work performance or my health. In fact, when my health took a turn in 2013 and I had to take medical leave right before the start of the spring term, I became even more adamant about speaking up for myself. I explain in my essay, "Reclaiming Our Time: Women of Color and Radical Self-Care in the Academy" (co-authored with Jennifer Yee): "When my health was compromised and the toxic work environment became intolerable, I made changes. Moving into this new position [as chair of Africana Studies at a new campus] was one of those changes."¹

The Cultural Identity Taxation Trap

The unacknowledged realities of racism and sexism within academia create a "revolving door" for Black women faculty that follows an all-too-familiar pattern. Black women enter the academy as tokenized hires by white leadership (Black women initially feel welcomed, needed, and happy). Then, the reality of racism rears its head in the form of racial micro-aggression and repeated injury when Black women try to work within the established university structure to effect change. Next comes the denial of racism where a Black woman faculty member is ignored or tasked with fixing the problem by herself often with little support from other men and women of color. Finally, Black women experience retaliation by being labeled as "problems" who "don't fit," or the issue is treated as a "miscommunication" instead of as a substantive race and/or gender problem within the university. It is usually after retaliation that Black women exit the university and either try again at a different institution or leave the profession altogether.²

In my situation, I left after I made several requests to transfer to African American Studies where I felt I would be better situated professionally. My former department went into receivership. The dean's office appointed an outside chair and the department faculty lost the ability to develop their own schedule or review personnel files because of the inability to get along well enough to function in the best interests of students. I eventually became ill because of high levels of stress brought on by this toxic work environment. The irony of all of this was that as the lone woman of color in the department and the first woman of color to be tenured and promoted in Women and Gender Studies at this institution, I pretty much got along with everyone. What was intolerable to me was the fact that since I was the lone woman...