Trapped between justified anger and being the strong Black woman: Black college women coping with racial battle fatigue at historically and predominantly White institutions |
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| Authors: | Nicola A Corbin William A Smith J Roberto Garcia |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Communication, Weber State University, Ogden, UT, USA;2. Department of Education, Culture, &3. Society and The Ethnic Studies Program, University of Utah, Salt Lake, UT, USA;4. Teacher Education Department, Weber State University, Ogden, UT, USA |
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| Abstract: | Using the unique form of a composite counterstory culled from the experiences of 13 Black women at historically and predominantly White colleges and universities in a Western U.S. state, this paper explores the psychological tensions and silencing Black college women face as they navigate social constructions of their selfhood under a White gaze. This study centers these Black women’s voices through a tradition of storytelling and examines the ways they try to carve their own place by often engaging liberating, yet repressive, historically constructed STRONGBLACKWOMAN imagery to counteract equally silencing Angry Black Woman imagery. The historically and predominantly White institutional spaces within which these women study, live, and play exacerbate this tension, propelling them to model and rely upon stereotypically ‘positive’ representations of Black womanhood to deal with the pain of microaggressions. Altogether, these factors create instances of enhanced racial battle fatigue. |
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| Keywords: | black college women gendered-racial microaggressions racial battle fatigue angry black woman strong black woman misogynoir |
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