Making Black Lives Matter in academia: A Black feminist call for collective action against anti-blackness in the academy

Abstract

In this article, as have many Black women scholars in the past, we again call for collective action against anti-blackness and White supremacy in the academy. Drawing from black feminist theory, we discuss the long history of Black women academics' activism against anti-black racism and introduce the current movement: Black Lives Matter (BLM). Although BLM is often construed as resisting anti-black violence outside the academy, it is also relevant for within the academy wherein anti-blackness is likely to be manifested as disdain, disregard, and disgust for Black faculty and students. We discuss some of the ways in which anti-blackness and liberal White supremacy are manifested in the lives of Black faculty and students, and propose that non-Black allies have key roles to play in resisting them. Like second-hand cigarette smoke that harms everyone in proximity, anti-blackness and White supremacy harm us all, and a shared movement is needed to dismantle them.