…they want me to remember
their memories
and I keep on remembering mine.
—Lucille Clifton1
My essay is composed of five memories and a reflection. These memories illustrate my experience of the second shift, and echoes those of many other Black women in Communication Studies (see #BlackInTheIvory and #CommunicationSoWhite2): the misogynoir working twice as hard to earn half as much.3 My essay is in the form of memories, told as stories, because my own healing from overexposure to anti-Blackness in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) has been through story sharing.
1
One of the first papers I wrote as a graduate student that I was proud of was composed in the form of a letter. I was inspired by the lyrical, experimental writing of bell hooks, Patricia Williams, and other Black feminist thinkers. It was the...
