The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Cost of Leading While Black

May 03, 2022

Sean M. Decatur, President, Kenyon College writes: Ihave been asked over the years by well-intentioned white acquaintances whether I see myself as a college president or a Black college president. My racial identity, like all aspects of my experience, is not something from which I can (or would want to) separate. It informs the way I see the world, the way I teach, the way I lead. But the question itself inverts the reality of the lived experience of Black Americans. I know, and my colleagues know, that I will be seen as a Black president, regardless of how I define or describe myself.

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