Jeanine says: I am a Black woman committed to equity and justice. As an activist-practitioner-scholar on postsecondary literacy and learning, I have fully committed to working towards equity and justice in my professional spaces. But as my work in this area expands, I am more compelled and convicted to do this work more intentionally in my personal space. Specifically, I feel drawn to think about equity and justice in ways that include tearing down the walls between myself and White women who are authentically engaged in their own critically reflexive practice. This is an ongoing struggle for me, but I want to move forward anyway.

Jeanine says: We started with a professional relationship that meandered into a personal relationship. We have moved from a dissertation committee member and doctoral student to just a Black girl from Philly and a White chick from Montana getting to know each other and ourselves. 

Alison says: Jeanine served on my doctoral dissertation committee, and our relationship developed out of conversations initially focused on dissertation drafts.  Jeanine encouraged me to use an authentic voice within the academic parameters of the dissertation – giving me the authority to speak plainly about my positionality as a White woman exploring issues of race, critical race theory, and whiteness.  From these conversations, we began to grow into deeper relationship and a deeper conversation. 

Jeanine says: Alison and I are engaging in authentic and raw conversations about race and injustice. We are confronting our racialized experiences as a Black woman and a White woman. We are being vulnerable and transparent about the wall between us–the mistrust that has been cemented by our ancestral trauma and blood memory. We are attempting to understand what happens on our respective sides of this wall so that we can ultimately dismantle it. We are fighting against our fears with the hope of building a true community.

Alison says: Jeanine and I have been engaging in conversations about race – about Black and White generally but also specifically about Black women and White women. We see this as a unique and unfrequented conversational space. In our experience, Black women and White women do not often engage with each other in ways that increase cultural understanding.  We’re trying to understand each other and each other’s experience of race. We’re trying to explore what a safe space looks like between White and Black women and also to highlight the insights that we can gain from having these conversations.