Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain

The Current Attack on Black Superwomen in Higher Education Administration

E. Hairston (Pseudonym)

Abstract

This is a letter to higher education and its administration detailing the struggles, dismissiveness, and erasure of black women administrators amid this current politically charged climate in higher education. The perspective is that of a black woman in a management position in higher education having worked her way, over seventeen years in the academy, from a department assistant to a senior director-level position in a university president’s office.  The letter outlines the specific conflicts, pains, and stress of being part of the “working class” of an institution, while also being a black woman ushered aside in this moment when policies and ideologies about diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice are again severely under attack. Special attention is given to the overall plight of black women in administration who are expected to act as “superwoman” routinely going above and beyond, while also being the first group targeted during the age of anti-DEI and the exile of minority executive leaders.  This letter also outlines the historical plight and perseverance of black women in education and administration, and the author’s specific experiences and witness to being intentionally discarded for lesser talented white peers. This letter boldly calls out the burden of being a black woman in the academy, consistently overworked and underappreciated but completely depended upon, until this climate deemed them unnecessary, inconsequential, and replaceable.