Experiences in Leadership
In “‘Our Leaders Are Just We Ourself’: Black WomenCollege Student Leaders’ Experiences With Oppression and Sources of Nourishment on a Predominantly White College Campus,” Andrea D. Domingue explored the experiences of Black women in leadership positions at predominantly white colleges. Though using two existing frameworks— Black Feminist Theory and Historical Traditions of Black Women’s Leadership— Domingue was able to analyze her participant’s experiences and advocate for a new theoretical approach to discussing leadership on college campuses (455). Black Feminist Theory offered a challenge to “long-standing notions of objectivity and androcentrism in research epistemology and methodology,” allowing Domingue to center Black women and their experiences as “a minoritized social identity group in terms of race and gender” as they navigated their college campuses (455). Historical Traditions of Black Women’s Leadership made it possible to position the experiences of Black women college leaders within a larger historical narrative of Black women leadership.
This article serves my project by making it possible to analyze the probable experiences of Casseye Milton and other Black women leaders on Colorado College’s campus in the 1990s. Through applying the framework presented in this article, it is possible to better understand the common absence of Black women leaders in student government photos, yearbook staff photos, and organizations that were not related to racial identity. While some Black women do appear as members of leadership-oriented groups in CC’s yearbooks, such as Rochelle Mason of the Leisure Program Committee (1994), many Black women are not presented as leaders in the archival materials from the decade.
Domingue’s study revealed that Black women experienced leadership on predominantly white campuses— that is campuses where more than 50% of the population is white— in the following ways: “(1) Community as Motivation to Lead, (2) Entry to College Leadership, (3) Interpersonal Interactions with Oppression, (4) Responses to Interpersonal Interactions with Oppression, and (5) Nurturing Black Women College Students’ Leadership” (459). For the purposes of this article, however, Domingue focused on Interpersonal Interactions with Oppression and Nurturing Black Women College Students’ Leadership. With this minimized focal point, Domingue was able to explore both the harmful experiences faced by Black women leaders as well as the moments in their lives that made it possible for them to continue.
“It’s been difficult being a black person at a predominately white institution. In any capacity that you have to serve or just be in that space is just a challenge.”
(Nicky, doctoral student)
In the course of her article, Domingue reveals that Black women leaders were forced to directly confront racial oppression in the following forms: “Stereotyping, Microaggressions, Racialized and Gendered Self-Presentation Expectations, and Voicing and Silencing” (461). Through these forms of oppression, Black women’s experiences as leaders were complicated by the actions of their peers. In addition to having to confront the struggles of college leadership, they were tasked with confronting white supremacy as well. Many of these forms of oppression influenced or directly led to others. For example, when faced with The Angry Black Woman stereotype, Black women leaders might try to avoid it by altering their behavior/dress (461). This particular stereotype also has the potential to result in silencing, where Black women leaders no longer feel comfortable expressing their needs, which can sometimes result in them leaving their leadership positions. Other stereotypes, such as the Black Mama, which requires Black women leaders to perform the role of the disciplinarian or the nurturer, and the Strong Black women, which requires the performance of apathy/unaffectedness in the face of racial abuse, can also restrict Black women’s ability to function as leaders by penalizing instances in which they act like themselves (462).
“The presence of black women faculty and educational leaders on campus provided an important visibility of black women’s leadership on campus as individuals and through the courses they taught.”
Domingue, 466
While acting as leaders on their college campuses, Black women also received “nourishment” that it made it possible for them to continue in their positions of leadership (465). Through “Mothering, Teachers and Educational Leaders, Historical Recognition of Black Women’s Leadership, Women- and People of Color-Centered Networks, Mentoring, and White Allyship,” Black women were able to garner the inspiration and support that is necessary for one who is in a leadership position (465). The existence of other Black women in leadership positions both historically and in the contemporary moment served as a source of support for Black women, who were able to understand their experiences as a part of a larger experience being had by Black women leaders. Many of the sources of nourishment utilized by Black women college leaders descended directly from strategies and systems that were used to survive the harsh conditions of slavery. Through connecting with their collective history, Black women were able to persevere and maintain their positions as Black women college leaders.
Works Cited
Domingue, Andrea D. “‘Our Leaders Are Just We Ourself’: Black Women College Student Leaders’ Experiences With Oppression and Sources of Nourishment on a Predominantly White College Campus” Equity & Excellence in Education, vol. 48 no. 3, p. 454-472, 2015 DOI: 10.1080/10665684.2015.1056713
