STRATIFIED BLACKNESS: EXAMINING THE INTERETHNIC DYNAMICS BETWEEN BLACK CARIBBEAN-BORN AND BLACK U.S.-BORN WOMEN FACULTY IN THE U.S. ACADEMY

This study focuses on Black diasporic women faculty’s framings of themselves and their experiences and roles in the U.S. academy, as well as the dynamics among Afro-Caribbean women faculty, Black Caribbean American women faculty, and African American women faculty, bringing to light the ways in which whiteness has sub/un/consciously mediated their relationships. Using Intersectionality as a framework and Critical Narrative Inquiry (i.e., blurring biographical and arts-informed narrative inquiry) as a methodological approach, 14 found poems, highlighting various resonant portions of collaborators’ stories, were included as findings. Seven perceptions that Black diasporic women faculty hold of each other were also identified: a) perceived as similar and bonded, b) perceived as allies, c) perceived as under immense pressure, d) perceived as wounded by racism, e) perceived as appropriately cautious, f) perceived as wise, and g) perceived as “willing to dance”. Additionally, three natures of whiteness, namely its devious, systemic, and selective natures, lurking in the academy and shaping the dynamic