A qualitative case study examined professor and student perceptions regarding how professors use communication to build their classroom credibility and the influence of the professor's race in the establishment of credibility. The research design reflects the vantage point of an African-American female researcher acknowledging and incorporating her "outsider within" status into the conceptual framework and the data analysis. Subjects were 28 student volunteers and a purposeful sample of 6 professors at a large predominantly white four-year research institution in the northwest. Data consisted of non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and open-ended questionnaires. The validity and reliability issues associated with being an "outsider within" who chooses to study the phenomenon of university classroom dynamics while using professor race as an integral dimension of the study are taken into account. At the completion of the study, one question tends to prevail above all others for the African-American female "outsider within" academia--"Do you think that being black introduced bias into your study?" Implications of what that question could mean when asked by the general public as well as when it is asked within the academic research community are explored. Contains 70 references and 4 notes. (RS)