(In)visibility to Advocacy: The Insider–Outsider Experiences of AfroLatinX Higher Education Professionals

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the racial, ethnic, linguistic, geographic, and cultural heterogeneity of LatinXs, extant educational research positions them as a monoracial, and oftentimes monolithic, group. Most research on LatinXs primarily focuses on mestizX-identified individuals. Inadvertently, the presence and experiences AfroLatinXs have largely been invisibilized. The limited research on AfroLatinXs in higher education mostly presents the experiences of students. Minimal published empirical research centers on the lived experiences of AfroLatinXs working in higher education. This study seeks to address this gap by exploring the racialized educational and professional experiences of self-identified AfroLatinX higher education professionals. Findings reveal how they experience an outsider–insider paradox that amounts to (in)visibility, lack of recognition in both Black and LatinX circles, and how language is utilized as a tool of exclusion and inclusion. Collaborators underscore how their racialized experiences motivated them to pursue a career in higher education.