Chapter 8: I’m With You Fam: Creating Homeplace Elsewhere

In this chapter, we highlight how we have used our individual cultural background as a site for creating a sense of homeplace (hooks, 2015) for Black, Indigenous, students of color (BIPOC) at predominantly White institutions (PWI). We come from differently situated places. Atiya is a Black nonbinary femme, and midlevel professional with 5+ years of experience in student affairs mostly within the functional areas of residential life and housing. Cassaundra is a Latinx woman and new professional in student affairs with experience in multicultural affairs, and student support services.

Before I was a diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism (DEIA) scholarpractitioner in higher education and student affairs administration, I was just a Black nonbinary femme from da Bronx who ate baconeggandcheese as I rode the BX1 bus to school. My only focus was to be the first person in my family to go to college and to go to a prestigious college outside of New York. I have accomplished that, but in leaving the corner of 182nd Street and Grand Concourse a slew of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia came at me. Despite the close proximity to home via a 3+ hour bus ride, I only could afford to go home once a semester since I was low-income,earnings only extended so much. Yet despite this physical distance from home—my homeplace, I received tremendous support. Within those four years, with the support of organizations like Posse, my friends, and my mentors I was able to thrive at my undergraduate institution and go even further to obtain my master’s degree and now I am working towards my PhD For 5+ years, I have served in the functional areas of residential life, residential education, and housing. All my roles either overlapped within multicultural affairs or centralized DEI theory and praxis. Outside of higher education, I am also a DEI facilitator for various organizations and independently consult. To me, to be a DEIA “champion” is to center the epistemologies and experiences of marginalized communities.