Black Women, Ivory Tower, Jasmine L. Harris
Black Women, Ivory Tower, Jasmine L. Harris
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Black Women, Ivory Tower
Revealing the Lies of White Supremacy in American Education

Author: Jasmine L. Harris

Narrator: Karen Chilton

Unabridged: 7 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 01/16/2024


Synopsis

Black women are heading to college in record numbers, and more and more Black women are teaching in higher education. But these statistics don’t guarantee our safety there.

Willpower and grit may improve achievement for Black people in school, but they don’t secure our belonging. In fact, the very structure of higher education ensures that we’re treated as guests, outsiders to the institutional family—outnumbered and unwelcome.

In this compelling exploration of what it means to be a Black woman pursuing higher education, Dr. Jasmine L. Harris moves beyond the “data points” to examine the day-to-day impacts of racism in education on Black women as individuals, the longer-term consequences to our personal and professional lives, and the generational costs to our entire families.

“I want to arm as many Black girls and women as I can with the knowledge about these spaces that I lacked,” says Dr. Harris. “By laying bare my own traumas, and those of Black women before me, I am providing them the tools to protect themselves, with an understanding of how deliberately many institutions will try to undercut them.”

Trial and error have been required of Black students to navigate systems of discrimination and disadvantage. But this book now offers useful support, illuminating the community of Black women dealing with similar issues. The author’s story is not unusual, nor are her interactions anomalies. Black Women, Ivory Tower explores why.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Griffin on February 10, 2024

Black Women, Ivory Tower discusses the racism, classism, and sexism Black women face in academia. Examining academia through an intersectional lens, Jasmine L. Harris tells her story of growing up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, then graduating college at Vassar University, and eventually completing......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on April 03, 2025

This was a great book. It is well written with hard facts, stories from Harris’ life and those who are in her family, and powerful analysis of structural, everyday racism. This book highlights what makes black women feel as though they don’t belong in these spaces of higher education. It is heartbre......more

Goodreads review by Kylene on October 14, 2024

I have read many books over the years on systemic racism and have learned a lot from many of them. I did not get that feeling from this one. Instead, I often felt that the author did not like white people at all or at least felt that we could not be good friends or ally's. It seemed that the message......more

Goodreads review by Maggie on December 02, 2024

As a former student of Dr. Harris, I was eager to read her book, as her role as an educator transformed my personal intellectual journey. Harris details her experience as both a student and educator navigating PWI Higher Ed, an experience that is deeply personal to her. Black Women, Ivory Tower is a......more

Goodreads review by Reader on May 28, 2024

Although I respect the authors’ story, her wisdom and attempt to “warn” BW about the dangers of Ivy colleges, I had to stop reading in the middle. The tone of the book seems like a form of self victimization by the author continuing on with how the colleges seem to have so many negative effects on h......more