Navigating a Predominantly White Institution: The Experiences of Three Black Women

(From left) Candace Cross, Kylee Roberts and April Carroll host the podcast Kinks inwhich they discuss what it means to be a black woman at a PWI, predominantly white institution. (Photo courtesy of Kinks)

Kylee Roberts and Candace Cross, both seniors at Ithaca College, sit on a couch while discussing what they’re going to talk about in the next episode of their podcast, Kinks. The third host, April Carroll, also an IC senior, can’t make it to the planning session since she’s sick. All three identify as black women — the theme for their podcast.

Streamed on Spotify and iTunes as a part of the on-campus media outlet Passion Project, the podcast explores what it means to be a black woman at a predominantly white institution (PWI). So far they’ve discussed topics such as hair, cultural appropriation and their college experiences.

“It was definitely one of those things where I was aware this school was predominantly white, but I felt like all colleges were like that so I didn’t really think about… I knew I was going to be a marginalized person… once you’re in it, it’s completely different,” Cross said during their first episode, KINKS: To All The First Year Black Girls.

Roberts and Cross sit down to record an episode with another on-campus podcast, Loosely Defined. (Photo by Alyssa Curtis)

Roberts came up with the idea of creating a podcast as an outlet to have fun and express herself uniquely. She sees this as a method to continue the conversation after experiencing the POC (People of Color) at IC movement that occurred during her first year in college.

“Over the past three years, being at IC, it was important to have an outlet to talk about being at a PWI and being a woman of color because I feel like I never got any sort of feedback or anything after everything happened with the POC at IC movement and our past president not being here anymore,” said Roberts.

After multiple racial incidents occurred during the fall semester of 2015, such as a racially biased themed party and racial remarks made by alumni, POC at IC coordinated walk-outs and called for the resignation of former President, Tom Rochon.

When Roberts stayed in Ithaca for the summer, she put the plan into action.

"I reached out to both Candace and April because they are both very smart black women. I was like ‘let’s do this’ and they are outspoken women at that,” said Roberts.

Roberts and Cross sit down to discuss the topic of their next episode. (Photo by Alyssa Curtis)

The podcast has allowed the women to not only express their struggles and experiences of being part of a marginalized group, but also find community members who understand — people with whom they hadn’t necessarily connected before.

“I feel like you know who some of the black girls on campus are but I don’t think we’ve ever gotten in a room and talk about the stuff that we go through here,” said Cross. “[I’ve built] a lot of different connections that I didn’t think would actually be built. I had this idea that our podcast wouldn’t give me that… people would be too shy to actually come up and speak to me but it’s actually the opposite which is really cool.”

As of 2017 enrollment, 72.95% of all IC undergraduate students identify as white, with only 201 students identifying as black women, according to the Ithaca College Office of Analytics and Institutional Research.

The podcast hosts weren't surrounded by as many people of color during their first few years at IC as current first-year black women will be. The college experienced an increase this fall in the enrollment of people of color. The class of 2022 is comprised of nearly 25% ALANA students (Asian-American, Latino, African-American and Native American).

Roberts, Cross and Carroll hope to help younger black females on campus, and even at other PWI’s, to navigate what it means to be a part of a marginalized group on a campus.

“I just think of it as, 'freshman year me would have appreciated this and hearing this conversation so that’s kind of my mission is to let go of that isolation that some of us feel on this campus and kind of bring us together through certain shared experiences,” said Cross. “Not all of our experiences are going to be the same but there are just certain things that we can relate to at the end of the day and I think that’s what’s been really important and my goal."