Beyond In/Visible Tokens: Complicating Narratives of Blackness and Belonging at an Oceanic University

Abstract

This photo essay incorporates a creative visual ethnic studies approach to express Black students' experiences, understanding, and concerns on oceanic Blackness and belonging at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. The students, from Hawaiʻi and the continental United States, share their thoughts on how the university and island provide possibilities for oceanic ways of thinking about Blackness that render them invisible, visible, safe, threatened, complicated, and whole on campus and in Hawaiʻi. These visual vignettes reflect how students negotiate with their presence on a campus with few Black students, staff, and faculty, where they feel a lack of connection in nearly all locations on campus yet strive to develop a sense of belonging through interpersonal relations and possibilities.