“We Are Not Victims”: Unmasking Black Queer and Trans* Student Activism at HBCUs

HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES and Universities (HBCUs) have been among the chief curators of what is considered “black” across the entire black diaspora. It can be argued that these distinct institutions have fashioned and (re)imagined what blackness is and has been across several generations. But there is a tension that exists. What type(s) of blackness have HBCUs endorsed and upheld since their establishments? Each of us (Steve, Ramon, Christopher, Jennifer, and Amon) have asked ourselves this question as we consider these schools, their students, and ponder how they can respond to the needs of their diverse student populations. HBCUs have been critiqued for their embodiment of conservative ideals that have manifested in the form of traditions and the enacting of policies that affect students who do not necessarily “fit” or perform in manners that they feel their students should. As a result, HBCUs have overtly and covertly engaged in the historical and contemporary silencing of their queer and trans* students, faculty, administrators, and their alumni as well. Furthermore, as Ruby Nell Sales so eloquently asserts, black queerand trans* individuals have always attended, graduated, led, and taught at these schools (Sales, 2011). The presence of queer and trans* folx at HBCUs is not a new phenomenon; rather, HBCUs and the ways that diverse queer and trans* identities have manifested on these campuses has been shrouded in silence and unfair erasure. Today, the question is, “How have queer and trans* HBCU students continued to (re)claim their scholarly homes?” As they have been in the past, queer and trans* HBCU students are at the forefront of ensuring that HBCUs remain among the sites for the social justice movements that have propelled the American societal context forward.