Black Deaf leaders in higher education (HE) occupy a unique marginalized space, navigating both racial discrimination and systemic barriers related to their bicultural identity. The intersection of anti-Blackness in accessibility services and the absence of culturally relevant interpreting services amplifies the challenges faced by these Black Deaf faculty and leaders. This underscores the necessity for Black Deaf leaders to continuously confront ableist comments and stereotypes in an educational system that often dehumanize their specific needs or requests–while White interpreters and colleagues fail to fully comprehend or address the nuances of Black Deaf experiences in and outside of classroom or workplace environments.
Anti-Blackness and Its Impacts in Higher Education
Anti-Blackness is deeply embedded in the history and structure of HE. For Black Deaf leaders, this manifests not only in overt acts of discrimination but also in more insidious, messy forms of exclusion than their white Deaf counterparts. W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness (Du Bois, 1903) explicitly describes the psychological and mental burden that Black Deaf leaders carry, as they must constantly navigate the conflicting expectations of their cultural and Deaf identities in predominantly white institutions (PWIs), particularly within hegemonic spaces.
As Richard Wright (1940) noted, being Black in America often comes with an emotional and mental toll, and this is compounded for Black Deaf leaders across the campus communities where anti-Blackness is prevalent and underaddressed. Black Deaf leaders in HE face a unique dilemma as they work to dismantle both ableism and audism while navigating the cultural and linguistic tensions between Deaf and mainstream society. Using approaches like the Deaf Acculturation Scale (DAS), which measures acculturation across Deaf culture and mainstream society in areas such as cultural identification and language competence, Black Deaf leaders must balance promoting intersectional equity in accessibility for Black Deaf students while ensuring the preservation of multicultural Deaf cultural experiences. Through advocacy, education, and policy reform, they work toward creating inclusive environments that honor both Deaf cultures, while acknowledging thier dynamics of oppression, and racial diversity, resolving the conflicts between these identities to foster transformative systemic change.
The Lack of Culturally Relevant Interpreting Services
One of the most significant barriers Black Deaf leaders face is the lack of culturally relevant interpreting in HE settings. The majority of interpreters under Registry Interpreter of the Deaf (RID) in the field are White, and the interpreting services provided by white hearing counterparts are often culturally irrelevant for the Black Deaf humans in the ivory tower. Carolyn McCaskill and Glenn Anderson (2009) have documented how Black Deaf people are frequently misunderstood or misrepresented by interpreters who lack the intercultural communication competence necessary to accurately translate and articulate in a way that respects both their racial and Deaf identities. This leads to an intentional act of linguistic and cultural erasure, where the nuances of Black Deaf communication are completely lost in translation.
Culturally relevant interpreting goes beyond word-for-word translation; it involves the ability to fully understand and convey an individual’s communication style, including cultural references, body language, and facial expressions unique to their identity. As emphasized in So You Want to Be an Interpreter? by Ross, Humphrey, Clark, and Featherstone (2020), effective interpreting requires interpreters to navigate both the linguistic and cultural nuances of the communities they serve. Lindsay Dunn (2018) points out that without culturally competent interpreters, Black Deaf leaders are often disadvantaged in academic settings, having to “translate” their own experiences for both hearing audiences and the interpreters meant to facilitate their communication. This creates an additional burden for Black Deaf leaders, undermining their ability to fully participate in professional environments.
The Role of Black Deaf Leadership in Higher Education
Despite the challenges Black Deaf leaders face in higher education, they have made significant strides in advocating for equity, both for themselves and for future generations of Black Deaf scholars. These leaders play a pivotal role in advancing inclusive academic policies that address the intersection of race and deafness in academia. A select few have been instrumental in establishing substantive resources and pathways that recruit and encourage Black hearing students and faculty while advocating for the inclusion of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Black ASL in interpreting programs (McCaskill & Anderson, 2009). Furthermore, the insights from From White Deaf People’s Adversity to Black Deaf Gain (Moges-Riedel (2020) highlight the unique contributions of Black Deaf individuals in reframing adversity into a narrative of empowerment and cultural resilience. However, as noted by Silverman (1983), much like Black leaders of the Reconstruction Era who struggled to achieve visibility and acknowledgment, contemporary Black Deaf leaders continue to challenge the systemic invisibility that hinders their progress. Through continued advocacy, these leaders are pushing for more recognition and support in academic spaces, ensuring that their contributions are no longer overlooked.
However, their efforts are often met with resistance from PWI institutions that are slow to recognize the specific needs of Black Deaf individuals. White interpreters and Deaf colleagues may express solidarity with White-centered deaf issues while failing to address the racial inequities that pervade the interpreting field and the broader educational system. bell hooks (2000) discusses how White supremacy can persist even in spaces that claim to be progressive, and this is evident in how Black Deaf leaders are treated in academic settings. Their contributions are frequently minimized or dismissed, and their calls for culturally relevant interpreting and anti-racist policies are often ignored.
Moving Toward Change: Culturally Competent Interpreting and Institutional Accountability
For HE to become more inclusive, institutions must take concrete, determined steps to address the systemic barriers faced by Black Deaf leaders. This includes implementing comprehensive power, privilege, and oppression (PPO) training for staff or freelance interpreters, inclusive excellence training for faculty and staff, developing policies that explicitly recognize the intersection of race and deafness, and hiring, or at least reaching out and teaming up with, more Black interpreters who understand the cultural and linguistic needs of Black Deaf individuals. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) plays a crucial role here, as it provides a framework for understanding how multiple systems of oppression interact to either intentionally or unintentionally marginalize Black Deaf leaders.
Furthermore, HE institutions must hold departments that provide accessibility tools and interpreting programs accountable for screening interpreters who are not only skilled in American Sign Language (ASL) but also culturally competent. This requires rethinking interpreter training to include workshops on anti-Blackness, Black ASL, and the socio-political context in which Black Deaf individuals communicate. Carolyn McCaskill and Lindsay Dunn (2018) stress that interpreters who are culturally aware are better equipped to advocate for the needs of Black Deaf individuals, thereby reducing the linguistic and cultural barriers that currently exist. In this context, the insights from both trilingual authors and interpreters, Myers and Lawyer (2024), as they believe Black Respectability Politics - Implications for ASL Interpreters are critical, as they examine how interpreters can navigate the complexities of respectability politics while fostering an inclusive classroom and workplace environment. By acknowledging the intersectionality of race and disability, institutions can implement restorative justice practices that promote healing and equity, ultimately enhancing the interpreter-deaf consumer relationship and ensuring that the voices of Black Deaf individuals are authentically represented.
Conclusion: The One Step Forward for Black Deaf Leadership
The impact of Black Deaf leaders in HE cannot be overstated, but their success is often achieved in spite of, rather than because of, the structures around them. Alarmingly, only 0.4% of Black Deaf individuals obtain terminal, medical, or juris doctor degrees in the U.S. (Garberoglio et al., 2019). To create an equitable and inclusive environment, HE institutions must recognize the specific challenges faced by Black Deaf individuals and take steps to address anti-Blackness in all its forms. This includes providing culturally relevant interpreting services that honor the full scope of Black Deaf identities and ensuring that Black Deaf leaders are not just included but empowered to shape the future of academia.
As more Black Deaf individuals rise to positions of leadership, it is critical that their experiences and insights inform broader changes within HE. By addressing anti-Blackness and improving the quality of interpreting services, institutions can begin to dismantle the systemic barriers that continue to marginalize Black Deaf leaders, paving the way for a more inclusive and just academic landscape.
References
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The Souls of Black Folk. A.C. McClurg & Co.
Dunn, L. (2018). Reckoning with Race and Deaf Identity: Toward an Inclusive Deaf Community. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.
Garberoglio, C. L., Stapleton, L. D., Palmer, J. L., Simms, L., Cawthon, S., & Sales, A. (2019). Postsecondary Achievement of Black Deaf People in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes.
hooks, b. (2000). All About Love: New Visions. William Morrow Paperbacks.
McCaskill, C., & Anderson, G. (2009). The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: Its History and Structure. Gallaudet University Press.
PPO CEUs. Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. - Education. Standards. Excellence. (2024, July 5). https://rid.org/programs/certification-maintenance/ceus/ppo-ceus/
Silverman, J. H. (1983). Making the “Invisible Man” Visible: New Light on Black Leadership in the United States [Review of Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era; Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century, by H. N. Rabinowitz, J. H. Franklin, & A. Meier]. Journal of American Ethnic History, 2(2), 93–97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27500273
Wright, R. (1940). Native Son. Harper & Brothers.
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