Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen in the Academy

Abstract

This was one of the hardest book chapters that I have ever had to write in my life. This is not because writing is a difficult task or because what I want to say does not come easily. Instead, it is because of the immense emotions that come from thinking through the journey of being a Black male in the academy. While I understand that the academy traditionally refers to higher education alone, I am using my lived experiences to expand the definition of the academy to encompass the journey through education that one experiences throughout life, including preschool, primary, middle school, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate education. The academy also includes the formal and informal academy of life that has always been juxtaposed and intertwined with my journey. For me, the two are inseparable. Thus, I will begin talking about my journey not as an academic exercise but as a story. It is not just any story, but my story of how I journeyed from the high chair to higher education and beyond as a Black male in the academy.