Hypervisibility and Invisibility: Black Women’s Experiences with Gendered Racial Microaggressions on a White Campus

Abstract

This study focuses on the gendered racial microaggressions that Black undergraduate women experience while attending a historically predominately white university. Expanding from the racial microaggression literature, gendered racial microaggressions demonstrate how race is gendered and how gender is racialized for Black women. Because Black women experience dual oppression, the microaggressions they receive should be examined from an intersectional perspective. My study helps fill in the gaps of literature by taking an intersectional perspective to explore and center Black college women’s experiences with gendered racism by examining the gendered racial microaggressions they experience within the classroom and in general areas on campus. This study took a qualitative approach to uncover Black women’s experiences with microaggressions at a white university. I interviewed 25 Black undergraduate women who attended a flagship university in the Midwest. Gendered racial microaggressions showed up in themes of hypervisibility within classroom settings and invisibility in general spaces on campus. Within classroom settings, Black undergraduate women’s race and gender were seen as hypervisible and were microaggressed by white classmates and white faculty. On the contrary, in general spaces on campus, Black women were ignored or excluded from conversations with white students. Both invisibility and hypervisibility speak of Black women’s marginalization. Their experiences demonstrate the ways that both sexist and racist ideas about Black women and their abilities contribute to their marginalization, invalidation, and erasure on campus.