Chapter 7: Who Speaks for me?: Learning to Resist With Marginalized Statuses in the Academy

I am Black. I was born in Canada, raised in Los Angeles, and proudly claim my West Indian roots. I have a beautiful 5-year-old son. Looking back, never would I have imagined that the first bit of mentoring I would have received about having a child while also being tenure-seeking would move me into such a place of guilt, shame, and mental lassitude. I remember the day I arrived at my mentor’s office for our appointment. After being congratulated on my pregnancy, I was asked, “’How serious is your relationship with your child’s father?’ We’re in a committed relationship,” is how I responded. What followed next would eventually start me down a path of insanity. It was suggested that I set up a meeting with my dean to discuss how serious I was about my job and share that I was in a committed relationship because being Black and a single mom in a city like [name withheld] … “[would] not go over well for promotion and tenure” (Pitt, Vaughn, Shamburger-Rosseau, & Harris, 2015).