Hegemonic Forces

Abstract

Like so many Black female academics, the author's career path through the university system has been impeded by racism. Despite its claims to promote diversity, historically white higher educational institutions inevitably reflect the attitudes of the culture at large. Indeed, these universities and colleges are whiter than the American population. After years of hegemonic inequalities in job opportunities, wealth, health, housing, and education, many Black people are filtered out. The presence of full-time Black faculty members in higher education is undermined by the numbers themselves. The paucity of Black faculty in higher education makes them a smaller minority on campus than off. Even though predominately white college and university campuses are often considered bastions of liberalism, Black female academics continue to have justifiable apprehensions about professional recognition, promotion, and inclusion in the academy. The focus of this chapter, then, is to examine the systemic conditions that create, for Black women academics in particular, a path with tripwires shaped by hegemony.