Journal of College & University Student Housing "Housing While Black" Theme Issue - 11

Letter from the Editors
LETTER
FROM THE EDITORS
LaFarin Meriwether
University of North Carolina
Greensboro
Chandra Myrick
University of Tennessee,
Knoxville
When we began this journey to share the experiences of Black housing professionals, it
came with an indescribable weight of getting it right. This project would allow and give
permission to non-Black people to access the triumphs and trauma of working as a Black
professional in campus housing. All of this started with a series of conference presentations
on " Housing While Black, " which allowed us to share best practices, from the
mouths of Black professionals, with our colleagues on how they could provide support,
challenge, and environments that allow Black professionals to thrive.
There was a lot going on in 2016. You could not turn the channel or visit a social
media app without being subjected to headlines about acts of violence against Black men
and women in the United States. The feelings and emotions were raw and real and led us
to frequent conversations about the challenges of being Black in our country and Black in
our workplace. " If we were feeling this way, surely other Black professionals were feeling
the same. " We decided it was imperative to invite others to engage in dialogue about this
topic as both an outlet and educational opportunity to increase the understanding and
support needed for Black staff in the campus housing profession.
When the call went out for guest editors for a special issue of The Journal of College
and University Student Housing, we both felt the need to expand the conversations that had
started in 2016 and proposed a special issue focused on all things " Housing While Black. "
Our goal was to seek stories and scholarship that provide a comprehensive examination
of what it means to be a Black student or staff member living, working, or both living and
working in residential communities on all types of college and university campuses. As
our profession seeks to enhance diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts, it is imperative to
learn about different experiences and analyze data that can inform our approach to truly
create inclusive living and working environments for Black people.
As two Black scholar practitioners, we recognize the absence of Black voices in the
academy all too well. It goes beyond being Black and writing about Black experiences. We
set out to bring a community of scholars together to share their work. In the process of
doing that, several things became abundantly clear. Whereas there was a lot of interest and
we wanted to include all who submitted ideas and abstracts, only a few articles actually
had the kind of data or had engaged in the kind of research required for Journal submission.
This led to some really hard conversations about who and what topics to choose. We
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Journal of College & University Student Housing "Housing While Black" Theme Issue

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