The Black Woman Chair in a Burning Building

The Black Woman Chair in a Burning Building Michelle R. Dunlap (bio) The phrase you have to be twice as good and work twice as hard (for sadly 1/2 the pay) is twice as real for Black women. —Candice Cook Simqmons, Attorney/Managing Member at the Cook Law Group, PLLC1 Recent literature has pointed to a finding that there is a tendency to place women in leadership roles such as college president, dean, CEO, and even the highest-ranking political positions during precarious times, rather than proactively. The incentive for placing a woman in the leadership role during an escalating failure often is out of a desperate attempt to try something different.2 When further failure then happens due to the precariousness of the situation, a man is placed back in the position, essentially playing the savior role.3 This phenomenon has been termed "the glass cliff," and has tended to be studied and normed on White women leaders, which would be expected given the rarity of putting Black women in such roles.4 Given the United States's history of enslavement, Jim Crow, redlining, and other racist practices against African Americans, the suggestion is made in this article that if White women are being pushed off glass cliffs, then Black women, when engaged in leadership roles, find that we have been invited to the highest leadership chairs at the table when a figurative building is already burning down. Historical Context Over the centuries, many voluntary minority groups have come to the United States, wide-eyed, looking for a better life, fleeing lands of violence, and/or [End Page 153] seeking refuge. But, for African American people, the vast majority of us are descendants of generations of enslaved people, that is, involuntary minorities. However, many of our White counterparts do not understand what four hundred years of enslavement does to humans and their descendants. Many do not understand what it means to come to this land considered less than animals; ripped from the womb of their lands and the arms of their mothers, fathers, and siblings; beaten, exploited, raped, trafficked, sold, bought, lynched, even as little children and teens—with versions of this continuing through preschool to the prison pipeline and human sex trafficking, even to this day. In spite of the challenges experienced for the past four hundred years, involuntarily immigrated African peoples and their descendants have developed a plethora of strategies for trying to survive white supremacy and the horrible conditions it continues to engender. Some of the necessary adaptations have included adopting a strong work ethic and employing brilliant creativity, resourcefulness, and frequent caregiving of others to ensure the survival of the family and culture. Cultural Styles and Survival Strategies Many of the extremely good and most notable things about Black women—things that we engender that have assisted in our survival—are the same things that can prematurely kill us if we aren't careful. Within our historical context, our strength, resourcefulness, and generosity have for generations assisted us in our survival. Further, Black women have tended to exhibit strength, resourcefulness, and generous caregiving of Black and mainstream America's children over the centuries—all of which has aided in our own culture's survival as well as that of mainstream society. All three of these attributes are wonderful things about us, and without them, African American people would have disappeared four hundred years ago. However, in spite of our apparent strength, these same inner resources and adaptations to enslavement and its aftermath to this day, if constantly overly engaged, can make us sick, or even kill us. Our Strength In 1851, Sojourner Truth spoke to the strength of, yet lack of protection for, Black women. Likewise, in 1937, Zora Neale Hurston spoke of the strength of Black women when she said that Black women "are the mules of the world" where the poor choices, troubles, exploitations, and responsibilities of White people eventually end up being a burden for Black women to carry: "So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have...