Advise and Consent
by yfnsp
It was right after my thesis was accepted that my graduate advisor took ill and was hospitalized, so I was assigned a new advisor to help me prepare for the oral exam. Dr. Brownlee was a senior fellow at the nearby Institute for the Study of Curative Equity, but she had been Dean of the Sociology Department here at New Dominion University and, in fact, had developed the Black Studies program in which I was enrolled. So I was both pleased and a little intimidated to meet her.
"Come in." Her voice responded to my knock in a deep, rich contralto. As I entered she looked up and said, "You must be Wayne Wanley." Not hard to guess; after all, I'm one of only a handful of white guys on campus.
"Yes, Dr. Brownley. Thank you for seeing me." I was a little intimidated. She was seated behind her desk, large, colorful, and imposing, her dark skin glowing with vitality and her big, expressive eyes sparkling with intelligence. As impressive as she was at first sight, my awe of her only grew the longer I was in her presence.
I was also flattered that she had already read my dissertation. She told me not only that she had enjoyed the read, but also that she found my thesis intriguing. After some small talk, she began asking really good questions, which I think I handled very well. She seemed satisfied at any rate, and by the end of our meeting we were getting along like old friends. Well, almost.
"I really want to thank you for stepping in to advise me, Dr. Brownlee," I said as we were wrapping up.
"Call me Adele, please," she said, getting up to shake my hand.
"Thanks, Adele," I said gratefully, looking into her large, penetrating eyes as she gripped my proffered hand.
She stepped from behind her desk as if to escort me to the door but, with my hand still in her firm grasp, she said, "If you have a few more minutes, I'm curious to know more about you." She nodded toward the couch and I took a seat there, happy that she was interested in me on a personal level.
"Sure, Adele. What would you like to know?" I smiled. I probably looked as eager as I felt.
She sat down beside me, her large, rotund derriere taking up literally all of her half of the divan. "Well, for starters, what led a white boy to go into Black Studies and, in particular, to do your research in sexual stereotyping?"
"Well, I grew up in a kind of activist family. My grandparents marched with MLK, but our history goes a lot further back. My father's family were abolitionists, and my mother's ancestors were slave holders in Maryland who freed their slaves before the Civil War. So I've always been interested in the history of slavery and its legacy in terms of race relations."
"Is that why you chose to attend an historically black university?" she prompted, "And why NDU in particular?"
"Yes and no..." I said, a little self-consciously. "I was considering a couple of HBCUs because I thought their Black Studies programs would be more extensive, but the truth is I came here because my girlfriend did."
"Oh?" she said, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.
"Yeah... well, Susan split up with me when we were still in high school. She applied here because that's where her new boyfriend was going and I knew their relationship wouldn't last. I was right about that, but we never got back together.
"What happened to her?"
"She dropped out and I lost touch with her. After Eric, she started dating a basketball player... well, not just one... anyway, she got into a lot of partying and I was focused on my studies, so we drifted apart."
"Was she dating black men exclusively?"
"Yes," I said, looking into Adele's penetrating eyes. "We talked about that a couple of times - we were still on friendly terms - and she used to laugh and say 'Once you go Black you can never go back.' "
"I've heard that before!" She chuckled in deep musical tones. "Is that what led to your thesis topic?"
"Yes. Well, pretty much. My interest in that particular aspect started in my sophomore year. I ran into Susan at an off-campus party. She was pretty drunk, and she told me a bunch of wild stuff about the guys she'd been dating, and it just sounded so fantastical. So I started looking into the myths and stereotypes, you know. And I found a whole subculture with online communities obsessed with 'BBC' and 'BNWO' and such." I smiled at her. "It really was fascinating!" It was a little arousing to be talking about these things, things that I myself had become caught up in to some extent, with her, a mature black woman of power and authority. I was definitely attracted to her, even if she was forty years my senior.
"So that explains your thesis," she said, returning my smile.
"Right!" I said, feeling encouraged.
"I'm curious... if you don't mind my getting a little personal, do you have any direct experience with the topic?... Have you dated any black women, for example?"
I blushed a little. "Well I really haven't dated very much since Susan... I went out with a couple of women here on campus, but nothing long term."
"So, you really don't have direct experience." She grimaced slightly as if she didn't like the way that sounded. "That is to say, your research is primarily in the literature, correct?"