[We continue to solicit #BLM guest posts. We pay $150 for accepted posts. 1000 words ballpark; profanity welcome. Art also welcome. Please send a draft or query/pitch to Karen at gettenure@gmail.com]
This writer chooses to remain anonymous; she shares: this post is written by a Black woman who is a PhD candidate in a History Department at an Ivy League institution.
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Black in the Ivory
Inspired by the hashtag created by Dr. Sharde M. Davis and Joy Melody Woods
Black in the Ivory
Inspired by the thread created by Sharde M. Davis and Joy Melody Woods
They wine and dine and woo you
Then you accept, arrive, and they forget you
Higher levels of excellence are an unspoken expectation
But not too much excellence
Or it will wound their white fragility
Black in the Ivory
They ignore and pretend and refuse to see
The ‘you don’t belong here,’ ‘you’re here because you’re Black’
The ‘that’s a great idea,’ now I’ll claim it for my own
The ‘oh that racist professor is from a different time’
And ‘oh, they’ve got tenure,’ so we’ll give a useless censure
Black in the Ivory
What do you mean we aren’t diverse?
Have you met all the white women?
‘Do you need help with Black hair care?’ I’m Jewish so I understand
‘The Holocaust was worse than slavery,’ is this really a competition?
Can you please gloss the bullshit so we can reach our DIAP?
Black in the Ivory
‘You don’t study Black people,’ at least not in the right way
And they must know, because their anti-Blackness told them so
You mean there were Black people before Columbus?
But surely you can’t mean Egypt, because Liz was Cleopatra
And definitely not medieval, have you seen Game of Thrones?
Black in the Ivory
It’s conference time again, so they’ll have some special panels
Where academics can perform their wokeness, insulated from our hells
They’ll curate who gets called on, no difficult questions allowed
But still our panels speak our truth, refusing to be quelled
And then they ask for part 2.0, to feel better about themselves
Black in the Ivory
Did you know our department is racist?
Why didn’t you tell me sooner?
Did we enforce a punishment?
Or just one more traumatic training?
I’ll peer pressure the other whites, can I have my gold star?
Black in the Ivory
You offer lots of courses, and tout their critical lens
But let a Black student criticize your syllabus
And see how quickly you’ll be on defense
Your work is on Black people, but how many have you supervised?
You’re fine when they’re in your books, but not in front of your eyes
Black in the Ivory
It’s time to hire more professors
And DIAP means it’s called diverse, in name though not in truth
But we’ll pit that against excellence, to make sure we get our way
And add to our ranks just one more white person
They say they know their privilege, isn’t it the thought that counts?
Black in the Ivory
We band together as BIPOC, for we are all few and far between
But then the POC speak for the B, they say they know our struggle
They say we’re in this together, but they never say our name
And then we’re forced to choose
Named, alone, and visible, or lost amongst the crowd?
Black in the Ivory
Have you seen all the protests? Change will be coming soon
Wait you don’t want symbolism? But optics are important too
Did you see my post on social? I’m woke now just like you
You say the work is just beginning? But only till Trump’s gone
Wait you mean it’s all my life? I just want my normal
Black in the Ivory
I’m beginning to see how complex it is
But can you teach me more?
It’s not as though it’s work for you
Don’t you want me to do better?
If not, no need to worry, but then the blame’s on you
Black in the Ivory
We don’t need your platitudes, and definitely not your guilt
We don’t want your check-ins, to ease your bleeding heart
We don’t want your fake committee, so you can check a box
We don’t want your protestations, that you’ll provide support
We don’t believe your tricks, because we’ve all been here before
Black in the Ivory
We the Black students will take no more, we’re done with all the waiting
Enough is enough is enough is enough, and these are our demands
Some whites are mad they couldn’t sign, and perform their allyship anew
A professor assumed we were figureheads, used for something called ‘Black-led’
And dared to use Audre to accuse us of complicity, but we are deliberate and afraid of nothing
Black in the Ivory
It doesn’t matter how many courses you’ve taken, or how many books you’ve read
It doesn’t matter what you study, or how many times you name yourself ‘ally’
It doesn’t matter how many protests you’ve been to, or how much you want to use your body
It doesn’t matter how fucking sad you are, or how woke you believe yourself to be
What matters is the anti-Blackness in your head, assuring you you’ve never done anything bad
Black in the Ivory
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