Paying Professional Taxes for Promotion and Tenure: The Costs of Justice Work for Black Faculty

Abstract

This article examines the costs faculty pay to gain status and security in the academy. Academics receive salaries for their work, but also “pay taxes” in order to maintain a positive trajectory toward the ultimate “prize”—promotion and tenure (PT). The psychology of narrative method is used to examine the articulation of the PT process for two Black faculty in educational leadership. Findings offer that the taxes assessed are: credibility tax, leading edge tax, group status tax, and retaliation tax. Narratives culminate in a discussion of the academic labor costs and racial battle fatigue of justice work for Black faculty.