St. Olaf College has a problem retaining Black women.
With the resignation of the Dance Department’s Arneshia Williams earlier last month, it’s incredibly clear that not only are Black women faculty members unwelcome here, but also that Black, queer and women students who commonly turn to Black women in times of need have no place to go to find comfort, support, and respite from the day-to-day happenings of campus. Seeing that it goes without saying how important Black women are to society at large, it baffles me that St. Olaf will put in the effort to get Black women on campus and then let that effort fall away when it comes to keeping them.
It should not be the case that Black women are finding better offers off-campus when their students need them here on campus. While I wish so deeply to know that there was the consistent presence of a Black woman in faculty, staff, or other positions on campus, I can’t put that “Black tax” on them to such a high degree. Larry J. Walker and Robert T. Palmer define the Black tax as the psychological stressor put on Black people as they understand the ways white people can navigate Blackness. Virgina Gewin takes this a step further in an academic context to describe it as the stressors put on Black faculty and staff when in predominantly white spaces — like St. Olaf — where they are asked to complete work that is “uncompensated, unacknowledged, and unrewarded”. This extends to the toll it takes on Black faculty to support Black students that are also experiencing racism in their classroom and dorm spaces.
In an email to the Taylor Center’s Jessica Cameron upon hearing of her departure from last February, I wrote that: “The energy and joy you brought to the Taylor Center will be greatly missed. But I will not guilt you into trying to stay.” Those words, along with the rest of the email, were incredibly difficult to write. How could I fully tell Jessica, and subsequently all the other Black women who have gone, that the immense frustration I feel could not be let out in a healthy manner. That the only way I could let that rage take hold is by begging them to stay, to keep supporting us, and to allow us the space of their unique experience.
The reality is that I could not tell Jessica that. Neither can I tell that to Michelle Gibbs, or Lisa Moore, or Wenie Lado, or Arneisha Williams — all Black women who have impacted my life in one way or another while I’ve been on this campus.
Personally, St. Olaf is the first predominantly white institution (PWI) that I’ve attended. I come from a diverse high school community that nurtured me to become the student I am today. Very few white professors here have done that and I have been forced to save myself from the trauma of white supremacy by sticking to those that have continued the trend of nurturing my learning mind. I’m a senior now, and almost every single year since I’ve arrived at St. Olaf in the fall of 2019, a Black woman has left this school.
St. Olaf, I don’t expect you to listen to me but this is especially for white students — you have also impacted these Black women’s reasons for leaving. Do better.
Mariam Prater is an English and political science major.
