The barriers for Black doctoral students are a long-term higher education issue that needs to be addressed and considered seriously as an academic pipeline issue. Anti-Blackness in higher education admissions and curriculum not only harms educational democracy but directly affects the limited number of Black doctoral students. Black doctoral students are often "the only" in their programs and may contend with microaggressions in addition to their wages not meeting their basic needs. Faculty mentors can employ critically reflexive (co-)mentoring to develop meaningful relationships with Black doctoral students. Faculty mentors can improve the retention and graduation of Black doctoral students by validating them.