Dr. Jameca CooperForensic Psychology Consultant, Emergence Psychological Services · Board Certified Counseling Psychologist and Forensic Psychology Consultant

20 January 2024

19 Jan 2024 · 1 min

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1:01

In this impassioned spoken commentary, the speaker reacts with anger to the suicide of Dr. Antoinette Candia Bailey, using the tragedy to highlight pervasive systemic injustices faced by Black women in academia. The speaker outlines how Black women are burdened with disproportionate service, mentoring, and committee responsibilities, receive lower evaluations, and are stereotyped as aggressive or hostile when they advocate for themselves. A central claim is that Dr. Bailey was denied medical leave for severe depression and anxiety—a denial the speaker asserts would not occur for white women—illustrating a racialized expectation that Black women must always appear strong and cannot be perceived as weak or ill. The commentary serves as a critique of institutional racism and the mental health neglect of Black female scholars.

Chapters

The suicide of Dr. Antoinette Candia Bailey has me hot. I mean hot like pissed hot because it should not have happened. And I know full well that it happens a lot to Black women in the academy because I used to be in the academy. And this is how it all goes down, right? You have more service expectations. You got to do more, mentor more, be on more committees. Your evaluations are often less because of course students and your peers see you as different, aggressive, hostile, just because you're speaking up for yourself. Everything is different. You're seen as an outsider and your views and your values are sometimes seen as different, which is okay because we come from a different culture. But in her case, she was denied medical leave and she said she had severe depression and anxiety. She was denied leave to treat her medical condition. This never happens to white women because they can be weak and sick, but Black women, we always gotta be strong.