I write you from the Sunken Place

Abstract

Peel popularized the “Sunken Place'' in his 2017 social commentary and film thriller Get Out. This qualitative study utilizes Black Liberation Research Methodology to examine the experiences of Black educators who are Chief Diversity Officers. We present our analysis in a narrative grounded in participant accounts, entitled I write you from the Sunken Place. In an act of bearing witness, our fictional letter draws links between Get Out’s central characters, Andre Hayworth and Chris Washington, and the study’s two participants, to illuminate how the Sunken Place symbolizes what doing racial justice work at predominantly white institutions looks and feels like for Black educators, whether they are CDOs or not. The article closes with a discussion of the implications for this research to support Black educators who advance racial justice in pursuit of their own liberation in and beyond the Ivory Tower.