University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Faculty Publications Instruction and Teacher Education, Department of 6-1-2015 Expanding Intersectionality: Fictive Kinship Networks as Supports for the Educational Aspirations of Black Women Daniella Ann Cook University of South Carolina - Columbia, [email protected] Tiffany J. Williams Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/edcs_facpub Part of the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Publication Info Published in The Western Journal of Black Studies, Volume 39, Issue 2, 2015, pages 157-166. © The eW stern Journal of Black Studies, 2015, Washington State University Cook, D. A., Williams, J. T. (2015). Expanding Intersectionality: Fictive Kinship Networks as Supports for the Educational Aspirations of Black Women. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 39(2), 157-166. This Article is brought to you by the Instruction and Teacher Education, Department of at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Expanding Intersectionality: Fictive Kinship Networks as Supports for the Educational Aspirations of Black Women D aniella Ann Cook - University of South Carolina Tiffany W illiams-M iami University Abstract In this article, we use the concepts o f fictive kinship networks (Cook, 2011; Fordham, 1996; Stack, 1974) and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) to explore the deeply embedded attitudes found in certain religious doctrine about the value o f education for Black females and how these beliefs shape the educational aspirations o f Black females. Especially for Black women from more conservative, religious backgrounds, we identify fictive kinship networks as important to creating the vital emotional, spiritual and intellectual spaces necessary to imagine and explore educational possibilities. As an important protective factor, a fundamental function offictive kin relationships is the nurturing and embracing o f black women s intellect. Expanding Intersectionality: graduate students. As Jay, Packer-Williams and Jackson I am not wrong. Wrong is not my name. (2010) observe, “Given the relative push to diversify the My name is my own my own my own academy, institutions seem to be diligently attempting and I can’t tell you who the hell set things up like this to increase their numbers of faculty of color without but 1 can tell you that from now on my resistance attending to the hostile environments we are invited my simple and daily and nightly self-determination to enter” (p. 103). Arguably, the hostility directed at may very well cost you your life females of color, and females in general in the broader June Jordan Poem About My Rights American society, begins much earlier. Scholars have been writing, speaking and raising our awareness of As iron sharpens iron, so one [wofman sharpens another. the cradle to grave epidemic of violence for females Proverbs 27:17 (Cohen, 2014; Crenshaw, 1991; West, 2004,2003,1999; Hall, 1983). If we understand violence as both symbolic The final stanza of Jordan’s Poem About My Rights and material, it is incumbent upon us to strategize about echoes the sentiments and stance of many African the ways in which black women in higher education American females in higher education - both faculty and are often subjected to hostile work contexts and the Daniella Ann Cook is an assistant professor Tiffany J. Williams is a native o f New Orleans, Louisiana. She S dflfN - in the Department o f Instruction & Teacher studied as an undergraduate at Southern Nazarene University Education at the University of South and earned her Masters in Education from the University o f Carolina. Her interdisciplinary research Tulsa in Oklahoma. She is currently a 2nd year PhD. student and concentrates on understanding how teaching assistant in the Department o f Educational Leadership class, race and power affect the everyday at Miami University. She is the Graduate Student Chairperson ■ L schooling lives o f students, teachers and of the Educational Leadership Graduate Student Council and communities traditionally underserved by Graduate Student Representative for the American Educational public education across diverse contexts. Studies Association. The Western Journal o f Black Studies, Vol. 39, No. 2, 2015 157 impacts of these daily microaggressions. To be clear, tive research due in large part to my attraction to the we are not making the claim or comparison that being power of story and storytelling to highlight nuances, physically assaulted (e.g. cold-cocked) is equivalent to emphasize complexity and expose neglected truths. As being harassed in the day-to-day work in a university a literary genre, creative non-fiction includes personal classroom. These claims are counterproductive and essays, memoir, nature writing, cultural criticism, liter­ meaningless in helping understand the daily macro ary journalism, and travel writing. Using creative non­ and micro aggressions in the lives of black females. fiction in my teaching and research enabled a means to Rather, in this article, we are interested in deepening center the modes of knowledge production by people the analysis of how conflicting narratives around what of color (Cook, 2013). So, for the final assignment, it means to be black and female and educated informs students were prompted to create a compelling race and pushes our understanding of the necessary work of story from an event, conversation, or moment from their black women scholars. experience. To compose their final narratives for the In this article, we explore the deeply embedded course, students were instructed to draw upon document attitudes and beliefs about the value of education for analysis, research, and critical reflection. In addition, Black females and how these beliefs shape the edu­ students used their personal recollections, memories cational outcomes of black girls. We both come from and artifacts (e.g. journals) as background and historical southern, Christian, black households yet our radi­ context to inform the writing of the race story. The final cally different experiences in these contexts highlight part of the assignment was a reflexive analysis of their the diversity within black communities. Grounded in narrative that connected the story to relevant readings our analysis of these experiences, we argue that these and insights from the class. As a graduate student in the early narratives about the value of education for black course, Williams’ final assignment serves as the point females have significant impact on recruiting and retain­ of analysis for this article. ing black female faculty. In expanding the articulation What follows is a concise review of key concepts of intersectionality to account for religion and faith in - Active kinship and intersectionality-which shape the conjunction with race, class and gender, this article is analysis. Then we discuss the implications of this work structured around the dialogue about Williams’ expe­ for recruiting, retaining and receiving tenure faculty riences that she created as part of a narrative writing of color. assignment as a student in Cook’s graduate course on Race, Research and Narrative. Conceptual Framework Before presenting the method of constructing the narrative and the narrative itself, we want to provide Our work is heavily informed by black liberation theol­ a brief overview of the genesis of the course and the ogy (e.g. James H. Cone (1969, 1984), Katie Cannon culminating assignment. Designed and taught by Cook (1995), black educational philosophy (e.g. Asa Hilliard in the fall of 2011, the course - Race, Research & Nar­ (1995); Theresa Perry (2003); black feminist theory rative- explored relationships between life and narra­ (e.g. Patricia Hill Collins, 1999; bell hooks, 1984, tive. Using creative non-fiction texts such as Henrietta 1989, 2000); and Critical Race Theory (e.g. Kimberle Skloot’s (2010) The Immortal Life o f Henrietta Lacks Crenshaw, 1991; Derrick Bell, 2009). The collective and Dave Eggers (2009) Zeitoun coupled with various of these theoretical traditions converge around not only peer reviewed articles on narrative, theory and experi­ understanding race and racism in American society with ence, the course engaged with narrative as a method­ clear attention to the effects on black people but the ological and theoretical approach to inquiry. The aims ways in which black people have not been bound intel­ of the class were to help students understand how we lectually and spiritually by hegemonic constructions of make meaning of our individual and collective experi­ their blackness. For instance, emerging from the black ences and the stories we tell about those experiences, power movement, black liberation theology squarely how these experiences infonn the choices we make, how centered liberation within Christian theology (see Cone, we understand history, and explain (co)existing hierar­ 1969, 1984). Cone (1980), the main architect of black chies (e.g. social, political, religious, economic). The liberation theology, aptly notes, “When the meaning use of interdisciplinary scholarship was an important of the Christian faith is derived from the bottom and context for deepening the conversation about challenges not from the top of those on the socioeconomic ladder, confronting schooling and education. from people who are engaged in the fight for justice As a professor and scholar,