Gregory Pardlo featured in Rutgers Today's "Professionally Black" series in celebration of Black History Month

Professionals and practitioners from around the university were invited by Rutgers Today to share their experiences as Black professionals: the highs, lows, most impactful lessons and their advice to the next generation. 

Here is what Gregory Pardlo, Institute Campus Codirector at Rutgers University–Camden had to say:

Gregory Pardlo Jr.

Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing, Rutgers–Camden
Co-Director of the Camden Branch of the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice

Why did you choose this profession/industry? 
Growing up, I had no intention of becoming a university professor. There were plenty of insightful and piercing minds in my life, but I knew very few Black people who had gotten a college degree. When I graduated from high school, like my peers, I was terrified of student loan debt and dismissed college as something beyond my birthright. Eventually, in my mid-twenties, I decided that working unfulfilling jobs was for me already a kind of indenture, and if I was going to be indentured anyway, I may as well mortgage my future to academia where I could enjoy a life of the mind and maybe even create opportunities for others. It wasn’t martyrdom, it was strategic survival. 

What type of community needs to surround a Black professional? 
I think things go downhill when we try to set terms for the kinds of people we’ll allow to pass within our orbits. That said, I’m currently on leave serving as visiting faculty at NYU Abu Dhabi. Of course, there’s antiblackness everywhere, but being away from home reminds me how heavy a weight we carry every day being Black in America. The weight of race is so constant that I’m most aware of it when a little of it is lifted from my shoulders. I’m not asking for utopia, but if we could exist in communities that acknowledge the chronic and pervasive effects of racism, I think that would be a good start.