Racism & bias in academia might be understood a lot faster if we just put a single tenured white faculty / white trainee / white grad student in a room full of Black grad students, trainees & faculty & just spoke our minds unfiltered about academia for a hot minute.

Instead, the reality is often that we are "the only one" (the only Black or Brown person or one of few) in the room and and anything we say about DEI is seen as threatening, the wrong tone, etc. So much of our conversations about race are spent centering whiteness & "allies."

White & white passing ppl in academia: Do you know how much we dilute our messages before they reach you? Do you know that many of us already factor in your retaliation, defensiveness, bias and our message is MUCH more palatable than the version we share in all Black spaces?

I'll know allies are serious when I see people looking to be the only white/white passing person in a room full of Black people with the intention of not getting a watered down answer for what is seriously wrong with our institutions.

The disparate realities for students of culture (Black & Brown students), their intersecting identities & other marginalized communities in academia vs some of our white and white passing peers is really, really wild. At times it feels like we really live in different worlds.