Walking in Acid Rain: Black Women Faculty, Microaggressions, and Coping Strategies in the Third Space

Black women attempt to thrive behind enemy lines, resisting several forms of misogynoir in higher education. The everyday insults, or microaggressions, are emblematic of the hostile environment that many Black women faculty face. In this context, the third space is a safe haven that can serve as a site for healing. Therefore, this chapter has two purposes. First, it will examine the microaggression phenomena using Bhabha’s (1994) Third Space Theory. I used Krippendorff’s qualitative content analysis to examine 429 pages of Black women faculty’s comments. With n = 82 Black women faculty, a few notable commonalities emerged with six substantiated emergent themes. Given that constant stress yields stress-related illness, the second purpose is to offer health-affirming solutions. Often, stress and anxiety are treated with prescription drugs, which have toxic side effects. Instead, Eye Movement Desensitizing and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an alternative solution to help Black women make health-affirming choices.