Affirmations of Black Being: Explicating the Potentialities of Self-Love in Higher Education

Wilson Kwamogi Okello and Katrina A. Calhoun

The Journal of Higher Education, 2025, vol. 96, issue 5, 705-728

Abstract: Research has chronicled the experiences of Black students transitioning into college and best practices for supporting Black students as they move through the collegiate context. The collegiate context is nested in white supremacy, and a microcosm of white culture. Thus, this study is rooted in the assumption that racism experienced within college is a reflection of its permanence, and sets the stage for the importance of examining Black students’ sense of self-love. In this paper, we utilize critical frameworks to examine how seven Black students conceptualize self-love within anti-Black environments. An analysis of testimonies and interviews generated by participants produced several considerations on the praxis of self-love in and beyond the educational context. Specifically, findings point to the ways Black students conceptualize self-love as affirmations of the Black being, manifesting as presence, knowing, feeling, seeing, doing, and regard.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00221546.2024.2362558

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