Mentoring While White provides a provocative and illuminating account of the mentoring experiences of Black college and university students based on their racialized and marginalized identities. The editors bring together a diverse group of scholars to present compelling arguments pointing to what white faculty should do to reimagine mentoring.

Mentoring While White: Culturally Responsive Practices for Sustaining the Lives of Black College Students provides a provocative and illuminating account of the mentoring experiences of Black college and university students based on their racialized and marginalized identities. Bettie Ray Butler, Abiola Farinde-Wu, and Melissa Winchell bring together a diverse group of well-respected leading and emerging scholars to present new and compelling arguments pointing to what white faculty should do to reimagine mentoring that seeks to sustain the lives of Black students by way of intentionality, reciprocal love, and transformative practice. This timely and relevant text takes a solution-oriented approach in offering direct guidance, promising strategies, and key insights on how to effectively implement culturally responsive mentoring practices that aim to improve cross-racial mentor-mentee relationships and post-school outcomes for Black students in higher education. It provides clear and immediate recommendations that can inform and positively shape mentoring interactions with Black women, men, and queer undergraduate and graduate students using innovative models that draw upon critical media and antiracist frameworks. The book is a must-read for anyone who currently mentors or desires to mentor Black college and university students.

Dedications

Foreword

Christine Sleeter

Part I. Mentoring and Lived Experiences

Chapter One: Beyond Reckless Mentoring: (Re) Imagining Cross-racial Mentor-Mentee Relationships

Abiola Farinde-Wu, Melissa Winchell, and Bettie Ray Butler

Part II. Mentoring and Black College Students

Chapter Two: Faculty Mentoring Promotes Sense of Belonging for Black Students at White Colleges: Key Insights from Those Who Really Know

Terrell L. Strayhorn

Chapter Three: Let’s Work: Identifying the Challenges and Opportunities for Mentoring Across Difference

Richard J. Reddick, Delando L. Crooks, M. Yvonne Taylor, Tiffany N. Hughes, and Daniel E. Becton

Part III. Mentoring and Intersectionality

Chapter Four: Critical Race Mentoring: Theory into Practice for Supporting Black Males at Predominantly White Institutions

Horace R. Hall and Troy Harden

Chapter Five: Exploring Mentoring and Faculty Interactions of Black Women Pursuing Doctoral Degrees

Marjorie C. Shavers, Jamilyah Butler, Bettie Ray Butler, and Lisa R. Merriweather

Chapter Six: Don’t Let Them Break You Down: Mentoring Young Black Women in College

Torie Weiston-Serdan

Chapter Seven: The Rage of Whiteness and the Hinderance of Black Mentorship: A Critical Race Perspective

Cleveland Hayes and Issac M. Carter

Chapter Eight: Mentoring and Planning Transition for Black Students with Diverse Abilities in Postsecondary Education

Edwin Obilo Achola

Part IV. Anti-Racist Mentoring

Chapter Nine: Black Mentorship Against the Anti-Black Machinery of the University

Timothy J. Lensmire and Brian D. Lozenski

Chapter Ten: “I Just Really Wanted Them To See Me:” Mentoring Black Students on Days After Injustice

Alyssa Hadley Dunn

Part V. Mentoring and Social Media

Chapter Eleven: Mentoring and Social Media: Lessons Learned from R.A.C.E. Mentoring

Jemimah L. Young, Erinn F. Floyd, and Donna Y. Ford

Part VI. Mentoring In Practice

Chapter Twelve: Black Students Have the Last Word: How White Faculty Can Sustain Black Lives in the University

Mekiael Auguste, Herby B. Jolimeau, Christelle Lauture, and Melissa Winchell

About the Editors and Contributors