Reexamining racism, sexism, and identity taxation in the academy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Amid the 2020 COVID pandemic and officer-involved deaths of numerous Black Americans, US colleges and universities stated commitments to improve ethnoracial diversity and address structural racism. This type of diversity-related work, which fell mostly upon faculty of colour, was not new, however. In 1994, Padilla coined the term “cultural taxation” to describe the disproportionate labour faculty of colour are expected to perform. Hirshfield and Joseph expanded on this work by developing the term “identity taxation” to emphasize labour performed by faculty from marginalized groups because of their intersectional identities. Scholarship about these concepts has since proliferated. This special issue brings together a diverse group of scholars studying these topics to spark much needed structural change through providing: 1) additional terminology describing nuances of identity taxation; 2) empirical insights about identity taxation for groups not previously examined; and 3) recommendations for resistance and advocacy to change inequitable practices.