Antar A. Tichavakunda, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Race and Higher Education, University of California Santa Barbara.               Dr. Laila McCloud’s work ( Jourian & McCloud, 2020 ) pushes me to have a more expansive view of Blackness, especially about what I take for granted in understanding Black student identity and their experiences. Continuing the push for an expansive Blackness, McCloud poses critical questions and provocations for anyone invested in higher education and/or diversity, more broadly, in her recent  piece .   “What do we believe about Black college students?” McCloud asks. She urges scholars to examine the complexity, dynamism, tensions, and beauty of Black students’ lives. Yet she offers a critical caveat. Indeed, we must seek to better understand and support Black students, but “not simply in response to the white imagination.” These fundamental provocations beckon scholars who profess to care about Black life to look inward, look to their scholarship, and