When Institutions Fail, Black Women Build New Worlds

Author: (1) Tiffany N. Younger, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA (tyounger@hunter.cuny.edu). Author: Author: (1) Tiffany N. Younger, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA (tyounger@hunter.cuny.edu). Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction Abstract and 1 Introduction 2. Early Life 2. Early Life 3. Whiteness as an Institution 3. Whiteness as an Institution 4. The Triple Threat 4. The Triple Threat 5. The Academic Plantation Field 5. The Academic Plantation Field 6. The Future Is Black Women 6. The Future Is Black Women 7. Imagination as a Tool 7. Imagination as a Tool 8. Imagination through Research 8. Imagination through Research 9. Imagination through Play 9. Imagination through Play 10. Collaboration as Imagination 10. Collaboration as Imagination 11. Conclusions and References 11. Conclusions and References 6. The Future Is Black Women If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.—Audre Lorde (1982) If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.—Audre Lorde (1982) If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.—Audre Lorde (1982) If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive. As I enter this new chapter of my life as an emerging scholar, I have entered the stage of “radical acceptance”. Burton et al. (2020) state that radical acceptance teaches that although an individual will not choose to have a particular issue or circumstance, resisting or fighting situations that cannot be changed intensifies emotional suffering. Radical acceptance does not approve of the situation but makes clear what the individual has power over and what the individual does not have power over, allowing for a clear, healthy strategy to cope and live to emerge. While I do not agree with the lack of response institutionally to the violence against Black women, I acknowledge it is happening, and I have no control over it. I can only control myself. I have radically accepted that despite what institutions claim, administrators’ role within academia is to protect the institution, not the students or faculty, and Black girls and women will be the least protected. Radically accepting these truths but not approving of them has been freeing. It has also allowed me to see my accomplices who hold these administrative roles and shield me from the harm of institutional violence. There is hope. There are administrators doing the most they can with the power they have. I have access to wise mentors who serve in academic and administrative roles and have held me with grace, protected me, and held me accountable. It is imperative to know that in the historical and current institutional landscape, our mere existence as Black women is perceived as a flawed policy. We were not meant to survive the conditions of racial–settler colonialism despite our ancestors’ significant contributions to building the foundation of the economy, and many of these institutions’ whiteness will not protect us. Even with our significant contributions, we find ourselves excluded from epistemological and ontological frameworks and forced to participate in institutional practices that exploit, extract, and co-opt our talents for the benefit of whiteness as power often does. Our strength lies in our Blackness and our womanhood, recognizing that we construct and create against power rather than operate alongside it. Given the interlocking systems and structures that exist, there is an urgent need for creation, imagination, and dreaming. Simply deconstructing power is not enough; we must intentionally construct the futures we envision toward liberation. As Rodgers (2017) posits, Black women’s historical roles as foremothers and valuable knowledge producers within the women’s liberation movement have been erased. The current institutional oppression serves as both a barrier and distraction, rooted in fabricated narratives that produce tangible inequities. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY 4.0 DEED license. This paper is available on arxiv under CC BY 4.0 DEED license. available on arxiv