Women of Color in Academia

Abstract

This chapter addresses the intersecting roles of race and gender that impact the lives of women faculty of color. The authors explore the overt and covert acts of hostility that they experienced while co-teaching a graduate-level class and challenged the racism and sexism embodied by some of their students. White fragility speaks to a state in which some White people refuse to acknowledge the systemic nature of racism from which they benefit on a daily basis, instead redirecting attention toward their feelings of discomfort when confronted with their racist behaviors. Hegemonic masculinity speaks to the ways in which some men benefit from political, social, and economic systems that legitimize patriarchy and the subordination of women. These phenomena, rooted in colonialist and imperialist histories that transnational feminism works to destabilize, viscerally affect women of color in the academy.