Black Women’s Narratives Navigating Gendered Racism in Student Affairs

Abstract

White people, Black men, and non-Black People of Color often expect Black women to care for others, often to the detriment of Black women being able to prioritize their own needs. This feeling is even more pronounced in helping professions, such as student affairs, and is consistent with a history of expectations that Black women care for others’ needs. In this manuscript, we use Black Feminist Thought to explore racial battle fatigue and how Black women student affairs educators worked to center themselves and focus on their healing from gendered racism. We employed a narrative inquiry methodology to center participants’ stories. Findings illustrate differences between self-care and healing, the importance of community, and efforts to support future generations of Black women. Our work builds on Black Feminist Thought as a theoretical framework and contributes to the literature on the particular ways racial battle fatigue manifests and strategies for healing in the midst of navigating gendered racism.