On many college campuses, Black students navigate racial stress without spaces designed to help them heal from it. However, when those spaces do exist, Black students say they can be transformative.
Racial Healing Spaces
Black students make up about 13% of college enrollment in the United States, while Black faculty account for only about 7% of full-time professors, creating a significant gap between the number of Black students and faculty.
For many Black students, racial healing — the process of repairing the emotional and psychological harm caused by racism, restoring a sense of wholeness, and finding spaces where their identities are affirmed without explanation — is not built into campus life. Instead, it is something they must actively seek out.
Spaces of Vulnerability and Respect
A prominent space for racial healing at Rutgers University-Newark lived within courses offered through its social justice-centered Honors Living-Learning Community, according to alumni Madison Rae Pitts and Shaylah White.
Both students entered the program as juniors after transferring and said it offered two courses they describe as “intentional and impactful.”
“What made that space so impactful was the balance between vulnerability and respect,” Pitts says. “I didn’t feel like I had to defend my experiences or dilute them to make others feel comfortable.”
Healing Through Culture and Connection
While some students at Rutgers found healing in academic spaces, Travis Miles found it socially through men’s basketball and participation in a student organization.
As a member of the Black Professionals Network, Miles saw his culture represented in different ways, which fostered his experience of racial healing.
Healing in Historically Black Spaces
Jayla Hill, a 2025 graduate of Delaware State University, says attending an HBCU deepened her existing experience of Black racial healing.
The norm at college was being surrounded by Black students who exuded excellence and embraced Black identities naturally, which meant Hill never felt the need to explain her own identity.
Original reporting: The Washington Informer — read the source article.
