The Importance of Black Mentorship
By Twanna Hodge
*Without Melody Royster, this article wouldn’t be possible.
I want to acknowledge several out of many mentors and dedicate this piece to 7 Black women: Rachelle Shells, Cynthia Richards, Courtney Young, Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, and especially Kenya Flash, Tanisha Mills and Melody Royster.
It cannot be understated or even overstated the importance of Black mentorship. There is a critical need for Black mentorship at predominantly-white academic/research libraries (and other predominantly-white spaces/organizations). The mutual benefits of mentorship (for both mentor and mentee) are extolled in publications across many disciplines and industries. There has been a recent focus on cross-cultural, cross-racial, and cross-gender mentoring, including increased demand for Black mentorship centered on Black humanity, Black liberation, and thriving in academic spaces.
In the book, You are your best thing: Vulnerability, shame resilience, and the Black experience, Prenti Hemphill stated, “Healing Black trauma is one of the most worthwhile endeavors we all can undertake” (2021, pg. 52). I resonate so much with this because our pain is real and affects us. We need people who get it, live it and want to heal from it and help others do the same. Mentorship is a tool in a toolbox to help with this. Kenya Flash introduced this book to me. I am forever grateful that she did. She was so loving, compassionate, and intelligent and believed in me more than I did myself. She is one of several Black mentors I am fortunate to have. I’ll always treasure their advice, love, and authenticity, even more so to pull as I climb and continue to mentor others.
The catalyst for this piece was when I worked as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Librarian at the University of Florida Libraries during my mentoring sessions with Melody Royster, an exemplary mentor and tenured faculty librarian. I was honored to be her mentee. I wanted to share why having a Black mentor as PWI was vital to my mental, physical, and emotional health. Especially as “Faculty of color are also more likely to face barriers to their career advancement (racism, sexism, lack of information and support, absence of mentoring relationships) than their white colleagues (Brown et al., 2017; Zambrana et al., 2015) as found in (Tillman, 2018). Though my decision was questioned (my intelligence and capacity to know what I needed), I was adamant that the best person to be my official faculty mentor was Melody, one of the best choices I made in that job. We cultivated a space where we focused on our well-being, prioritized exploring our Blackness, de-centered whiteness, and interrogated what it means to dismantle white supremacy culture from Black spaces. It was a supportive and precious space when we met. Candid conversations about institutional culture, how to navigate a PWI in Florida, and centering our stories.
Even in academia, Blackness is criminalized, over surveillanced, tokenized or villainized, minority taxed, abused, subject to toxic environments and racelighting, presumed incompetent, racial battle fatigued, and so much more. We are constantly in battles and wars, even as white supremacy slowly kills us. We can’t breathe, and our days are shortened due to the racial trauma and stress we constantly endure. Anti-Blackness is built into the structure. “Racially minoritized faculty members teaching at PWIs are given very little support, viewed as inferior to white faculty, and often expected to “fix” all diversity issues on campus, and are relied heavily upon for mentoring racially minoritized students, and other institutional equity and inclusion initiatives (Garrison-Wade et al., 2012; Sulé, 2014; Tuitt et al., 2009) as found in (Wright-Mair & Marine, 2021). Institutions need to change, but as they do (or don’t), I am focusing on what I have control over, me.
Surviving in academia involves finding your supporters, allies, accomplices, agitators, and disruptors. It is identifying those with whom you risk being your true, authentic self to share your worries, anxieties, fears, and stresses with someone there to help in the necessary ways. They respect you.
I am where I am because I had Black women invest their time, energy, and hearts into me from the beginning. Ubuntu - I am because we are. They supported my first dream of being a librarian without ridicule or dismissiveness. They saw more in me than I could ever imagine. As I traversed from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; to Seattle, Washington; Salt Lake City, Utah; to St. Thomas, USVI; to Syracuse, New York; to Gainesville, Florida, and finally to Maryland as a full-time residential Ph.D. student my community grew, I became a mentor, and I found myself. Someone once said, go where you are wanted.
For those prospective mentees (seeking mentors), be conscious of who you are asking, be specific about your needs and wants in a mentoring relationship, and be communicative and responsive as agreed upon. For those current or prospective mentors, know your boundaries, review Katrina Spencer’s The Comprehensive Guide to Resisting Overcommitment, and choose carefully, but know that your presence always matters. Here’s a reminder for Black women in the academy, A Love Letter to Black Women in the Academy by Tia Sherèe Gaynor.
Our resistance was/is our presence.
ReferenceS
Burke, T., & Brown, B. (Eds.). (2021). You are your best thing: Vulnerability, shame resilience, and the Black experience. Random House.
Tillman, L. C. (2018). Achieving Racial Equity in Higher Education: The Case for Mentoring Faculty of Color. Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 120(14), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811812001401
Wright-Mair, R., & Marine, S. B. (2021). The impact of relationships on the experiences of racially minoritized LGBTQ+ faculty in higher education. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, No Pagination Specified-No Pagination Specified. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000373
Resources
The Comprehensive Guide to Resisting Overcommitment: Reclaim your agency in the workplace by Katrina Spencer: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ddVBPk25fhtLT-Wt_YCJnD3F7SpNPgvOWaeH26K_EoI/edit
Kendrick, K. D., & Damasco, I. T. (2019, Fall). Low morale in ethnic and racial minority academic librarians: An experiential study. Library Trends, 68(2), 174-212. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2019.0036
Mentorship in the Black Community: What Companies Need to Know https://medium.com/tribute-mentorship-redefined/mentorship-in-the-black-community-what-companies-need-to-know-9cc61feecdfc
BCALA Mentorship Program: The Level Up Program leverages Black empowerment, efficiency, and to foster a positive mentee experience. Find a Certified BCALA Mentor We invite prospective mentees to browse bios and select a trained mentor. Sign up to receive instructions here. Become a Certified BCALA Mentor Be a part of developing Black library leaders.
TWANNA HODGE
is a Ph.D. student in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She holds a BA in Humanities from the University of the Virgin Islands and a Master's in Library and Information Science from the University of Washington. Her research includes the mental health literacy and mental health information-seeking needs of BIPOC Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museum (GLAM) employees and LIS students; health information-seeking behavior of Afro-Caribbean immigrants; cultural humility in LIS education and librarianship; Afro-Caribbean immigrants' ethnic identity formation and experiences in GLAM, Afro-Caribbean students and professional experiences in LIS and the retention of Black students in LIS programs. She is an Afro-Caribbean woman, 1st generation college student, anime and manga fan, and avid fanfiction reader, and she was born and raised on St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands.