Structural acuity: Black women undergraduate students in cross-racial intergroup dialogues.

Abstract

Although Black women have been participants in intergroup dialogue and similar social justice education efforts, they have yet to be the focus of an empirical, intergroup dialogue analysis. Therefore, we used Black feminist theory and feminist critical discourse analysis in this qualitative study to examine 13 Black women undergraduates' perceptions of their experiences in cross-racial intergroup dialogue courses. We found that they perceive cross-racial intergroup dialogue (IGD) as perpetuating the structural, intersectional oppression they face across various societal contexts outside the classroom. We labeled this perspective structural acuity because it highlights structural fault lines hamstringing comparable social justice endeavors. This finding, we posit, implicates social justice education initiatives reliant on dialogue, raising questions regarding: (a) how they serve Black women and (b) the expectation that Black women withstand additional oppression to educate socially dominant groups.