We, too, are academia: Demanding a seat at the table

Abstract

AbstractThis personal, reflexive, ethnographic essay is written in the tradition of Black feminist anthropological and sociological women thinkers who call‐to‐the‐table1 educational systems and academic disciplines to name experiences and harms, center marginalized voices, and offer visions for transformation. I share two tales about having, or not, a seat at the table in the figurative and literal sense. I incorporate Langston Hughes's poem, I, Too, an exposé about the irony of Black erasure in the America, to emphasize my statement about Black women's (in)visibility in academia.2 Throughout my essay, I offer endnotes to substantiate claims about Black women's rightful, yet oftentimes undervalued and sometimes abused, place in academia.3 I argue that we must demand a seat at academia's decision‐making tables until a transformed space is actualized—because we, too, are academia.