African American faculty continuous experience acts of institutional and systemic racism regardless to their social economic status and educational backgrounds. Consequences of cultural racism are that minorities are encouraged to turn their back on their own culture and to become absorbed by the majority culture (Scott, 2007). The researcher conducted qualitative phenomenological research the viewpoints of colorism, institutional, systemic, and anti-Black racism in higher education. The use of cultural racism theory in the paper helped create Cultural Racism Theory was applied as a theoretical lens to capture the lived experiences of African American professors. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the viewpoints of African American professors' narratives on institutional and systemic racism in higher education through the lens of cultural racism theory. The common themes emerging from this research is service overload, racial bias, mental fatigue, promotion bias, white privilege mindset, and continuation of colorism played major roles in tenure and promotion in higher education of African American professors in higher education. This qualitative study used the phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of systemic and institutional racism among African American professors' higher education and the direct or indirect influence tenure and retention. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]