Pearls before swine: an Nkwaethnographic exploration of the language and labor of Black women scholars

Within the modern era, Black women have been positioned as silent laborers unworthy of just compensation for their work. This positioning reflects broader western formations that thrive on Black women depicted as takers rather than contributors to society even when they are experts and professionals in their fields. Still, the navigation and understanding of the value of Black women’s intellectual labor has yet to be explored for the way it is digitally mediated and languaged through storytelling.This nkwaethnographic study reveals how the co-authors navigate suspicions about our legitimate contributions towards co-constructed community knowledges within the white-dominated contexts in which we find ourselves. Our thematic analysis revealed that our personal, cultural and professional language expertise allowed us to leverage various linguistic modalities to bear witness to one another’s realities, invite community in lieu of isolation, and dare to emerge as authentic cultural beings across time and space.