The Ivory Tower is and can often be a lonely place for faculty of
color. Social injustices run deep and are entrenched within
academia. Faculty of color (FOC), more specifically Black and
Hispanic, often lament about the `Black/Brown' tax that frequently
takes its toll both personally and professionally, and pushes them
out of the academy. Similar to trends in P?12 settings, educators
of color in postsecondary contexts represent less than 10% of the
profession. In essence, we are an anomaly and the implications of
this are clear and dire, as evidenced by persistent achievement,
access, and expectation gaps within the academy. Scholars of color
(SOC), at all stages, but particularly during doctoral training,
frequently struggle to not just survive, but to thrive, in the
academy. Too many fail to earn their doctoral degree, with many
wearing the All But Dissertation (ABD) as a badge of honor.
Although ABD is not a degree, many scholars of color receive
inadequate mentoring, often substandard in comparison to the
hand?holding White students receive, which leaves far too many
doctoral students of color lost, bewildered, angry, indignant, and
defeated. This righteous indignation is justified, but excused away
using the myth of meritocracy and colorblind notions of success;
followed by a myriad of problems steeped with victim blaming, as
noted in the classic Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of
Race and Class for Women in Academia (Gutierrez y Muhs, Niemann,
Gonzalez, & Harris, 2012). The aforementioned work was not the
first treatise on higher education and how the non?status quo,
along with those grappling with oppression and double standards,
experience the profession called higher education. Moreover, The
Chilly Climate (Sandler, Silverberg, & Hall, 1996) report,
which focused on females, was also telling, but not enough was
addressed and disclosed about females of color, until version two.
But these issues do not stop with females of color, but instead,
extend to all faculty of color. R.A.C.E. Mentoring, a social media
Facebook group, with several subgroups (see Figures 1 and 2) was
created by Donna Y. Ford, Michelle Trotman Scott, and Malik S.
Henfield in 2013, to tackle the numerous thorny and contentious
issues and challenges in higher education. We began by
intentionally attending to the needs of students enrolled at mostly
White universities, as well as those who attended historically
Black colleges and universities, while keeping the unique nuances
and challenges of each setting in mind. We wanted scholars of color
to thrive in both. Fondly and affectionately called RM, our charge
and challenge is to affirm the dignity and worth of scholars of
color. Additionally, we recognize that there are scholars outside
of academe, and their contributions as well to impact and affect
change for Black and Brown people inside and outside of academe
need to be acknowledged. These scholars are community organizers,
activists, P?12 teachers, and families. It truly takes a village...
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