BROAD Magazine, Issue 88, February 2016: Living in Color

BROAD A Digital Media Movement

living in color

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FEBRUARY 2016 | ISSUE 88

88

issue

topics SEPT ­­— MEDIA OCT — A-SEXUALITY NOV — FOOD

OUR STORY

DEC — CONSUMERISM JAN — MENTAL HEALTH

BROAD media is an alternative media source founded on the principle that no experience or identity is illegitimate. We aim to embrace all identities, empower all stories, and engage people of all beliefs in constructive dialogue about the topics that really matter. Unlike mainstream media, BROAD does not censor or limit the kinds of expression it publishes.

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FEB — LIVING IN COLOR MAR — THE ISSUE APR — ENVIRONMENT

YOUR STORY

MAY — EDUCATION

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JUN — POLITICS 2

our army Mandy Keelor

Curtis Main

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Senior Editor-in-Chief, Creative Director

Founder & Advisor

Editor-in-Chief

Nikki Busch

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Photography Editor

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Website Content Editor, Gannon Scholars Coordinator

Keesha Moliere

Jessica Burstrem

Kimani Rose Goheen

Website Content Editor

Website Director

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Connor Tomaka

Lauren DeLapa

Magazine Section Editor

Webstie Blooger, Magazine & Website Chicago Correspondent Copy Editor 3

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contents

February 2016 | Living in Color

COLUMNS Archives in Action - (6)

Loyola University, Mucuba, Mizzou Solidarity

Nancy Freeman

Punctuation Marks - (22)

On Media Representation, White Privilege, and Allyship

ARTICLES Claiming Agency in Higher Education - (14) Violet Gallardo We Don’t Have That Privilege - (18) Cherise Charleswell The Interpretation Amalgamation - (30) Lubna Baig How Many? - (36) Hannah Goheen I Didn’t Know I Wasn’t White - (40) Monika Gaiser Cam Newton: Just a Game? - (44) Romell Harris Ollarvia

Pictured: Alexis O’Connor Photo Credit: Nikki Busch

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C.M.E

SECTIONS (not) buying it (25) - Nivea’s “Re-Civilize Yourself” Ad (35) - “You’re Wrong, Google” Ad

words are useless (16) -Radiance Drew Haynes

screen/play

message me

(34) - Pariah

(28) - What is the color line?

WLA (re)Animated

(46) - What is intersectionality?

(47) - Carol Mosley Braun

quote corner (23) - Michael Jackson (49) - Stokley Carmichael

search this (37)

broadside

(42) James Baldwin

liberation leaders

(9) - Lately Kimani Rose (17) - Sunsets Talyah Puri (24) - Colors Kimani Rose (29) - Hope Talyah Puri (38) - STL Nikki Busch (45) - Untitled Talyah Puri (48) - Untitled Kimani Rose

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Visiting Organization

BLACK CULTURAL CENTER

The Black Cultural Center was created out of the realization that all people are created equal. It serves as a safe haven for distinct cultures and social realities that deserve attention, acceptance, and appreciation. This student-run organization has been established to embrace the many cultures that have come from the African Diaspora. We strive to promote unity in the Black community, encourage positive change in the Black community, and educate all on the rich, unique culture of our people.

For more information and upcoming events, check out http://lucbcc. wix.com/loyolabcc

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BROADside

Kimani Rose “I am a black man, and I am afraid” I’ve heard that a lot lately.

“I don’t want to be another hashtag.”

I’ve heard this more, it seems.

Lately, I’ve been seeing those you look like me, maybe sound like me, like the same things as me, die in the middle of the street.

It seems like, I’m the only one who knows they have a heart like me, brain like me, emotions like me.

Family like me, friends like me, loves and hates and losses like me.

But, lately, that doesn’t seem to make me human anymore.

I wonder if, lately, anyone thinks, “wow, that could be me.”

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Column

Archives in Action History, Records, Feminism, and Social Justice

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO, MUCUBA, & MIZZOU SOLIDARITY

PHOTO CREDIT: Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-loyola-students-solidarity-protest-met-20151112-story.html

Nancy Freeman

Much of this column is reprinted from a blog post “Loyola University Chicago, MuCuba, and Mizzou Solidarity” by WLA Graduate Assistant Ellen Bushong.

they stay the same.”

The concept that history is often cyclical is apparent in several common phrases. “History repeats itself.” Then, there is what I consider pessimistic, “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And my favorite that encompasses history and life in general, “the more things change, the more

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I watched history loop around last fall. On November 12, 2015, Loyola University Chicago students held a demonstration in solidarity with protesters at the University of Missouri. The resignation of the former President of the University of Missouri, Tim Wolfe, and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, elicited a renewed national fervor for eliminating systems of intolerance perpetuated

by university administrations. Loyola’s own protest mirrored similar demonstrations by sympathetic student bodies across the country and aimed to address problems with diversity prevalent on Loyola’s campus. Protests at other institutions also voiced discontent with less than desirable responses to racial insensitivities by university administrators.

Recent protests at the University of Missouri and Loyola University Chicago, as well as the national Black Lives Matter movement, led me to think about the similarities between the demands of the student body now, and those of black Mundelein College students in the years following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Mundelein College, an all-women’s Catholic liberal arts college founded by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVMs) in 1929, proved a progressive stage for the discussion of race and diversity on college campuses in its time. Black Mundelein students effectively mobilized to promote administrative and academic diversity for the black community at the college, resulting in the creation of university programming, committees, and departments that addressed the concerns of black Mundelein students. Mundelein College affiliated with Loyola University Chicago in 1991.

The Mundelein College United Black Association, shortened to “MuCuba,” was a student organization founded by black Mundelein students that emerged in the later 1960’s, but gained significant visibility in the early 1970s. MuCuba strove to create a unified black presence on Mundelein’s campus and worked in many forms to achieve this goal. Throughout its history, MuCuba hosted panels, fashion shows, and an annual celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. that attracted numerous attendees within the Mundelein community as well as interested Chicagoans. MuCuba students advocated for safe spaces to voice their ideas and hold forums for

(ABOVE) “Anne Ida Gannon Letter,” Folder F.8.13.a.

Mundelein College Collection.Women and Leadership Archives

(BELOW) “MuCuba Members.” 1970 Yearbook, page 18. Mundelein College Collection.

In a forum held on May 15, 1970, MuCuba students presented the Mundelein community and administration a list of demands that addressed the institutionalized racism they saw and experienced as women of color on a largely white campus. MuCuba students gave the president of Mundelein, Sr. Ann Ida Gannon, BVM, and university administrators a 10 day deadline to respond. The urgency exhibited by these students exemplified their belief that the administration must hold themselves both personally and professionally accountable for the livelihood of its black student body.

Gannon acted swiftly in response to the demands.

According to a letter Gannon wrote a day after the presentation of the demands, the president expressed a hope that Mundelein would fulfill the demands in a manner that could satisfy the protesters and institute a response that had lasting influence for years to come. She wrote, “your demands indicate that you trust us to respond and I expect us to respond to that trust.” On May 19th, Gannon scheduled a day long assembly of an ad hoc committee to discuss the demands of the black students. Within the deadline, Gannon presented a lengthy response to the demands and recommendations for their effective implementation on Mundelein’s campus. Many of those recommendations became official programs and departments implemented the next semester.

productive discussions of race and diversity on Mundelein College’s campus. Significantly, the association also fought for the inclusion of a Black Studies program into Mundelein’s curriculum to address historically oppressive practices and policies toward black Americans in the United States.

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(ABOVE) “Demands” Folder F.8.13.a. Mundelein College Collection. Women and Leadership Archives

The demands and subsequent compromises resulted in the creation and eventual implementation of Mundelein College’s Black Studies program with a faculty interviewed and evaluated by black students. Beginning the fall semester of 1970, the new program aligned with MuCuba’s efforts to create a unified black on-campus culture. Creation of the Black Studies department at Mundelein also displayed an acknowledgement by the faculty that greater attention to problems of diversity on Mundelein’s campus was needed in order to begin to eradicate racism. A Human Relations Committee composed of faculty, administration, college staff, and students also emerged as a result of the ad hoc committee assembly held on May 19th.

The Committee developed programming to aid the Mundelein community in recognizing personal prejudice and to help students, faculty, and administration better understand the experiences of black students. Furthermore, the demands resulted in a Black Scholarship Fund and a Black Scholarship Fund Committee that raised and dispensed funds for black students that wished to attend Mundelein. .

ERICKSON

Both of the student bodies, LoyolaCEIILI University Chicago’s Visiting Editor now and Mundelein’s in the 1970s, articulated similarIssue goals83 and used comparable strategies to affect change on their campuses.

Like MuCuba, Loyola University Chicago student protesters presented the Interim President John P. Pelissero with a list of concerns as they related to the experience of students of color on campus. Pelissero stated that university leaders “will collaborate to advance this campus conversation” and discuss the concerns. http://luc.edu/president/stories/archive/movingloyolaforward.shtml

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Similarities between Loyola’s recent racial protest and the actions of past Mundelein students are unmistakable. Both groups of students, past and present, expressed frustration and unhappiness with the culture of racial intolerance they saw at their institutions. Each set of protesters presented demands to university administration with the expectation of campus leadership listening to their concerns and responding with appropriate action.

Mundelein’s successful protest resulted in the creation of programs that endeavored to ease racial tensions and promote thoughtful dialogue about diversity issues on their campus.

Loyola’s future is uncertain at this point, although Interim President Pelissero recently wrote of progress in many areas of the student’s demands from last fall. One area of progress is a new website launched by Dr. Winifred Williams and Dr. Christopher Manning, created to draw attention to the diversity issue on Loyola’s campus as well as provide support and resources for how to get involved. The web url is http://luc. edu/diversityandinclusion. http://luc.edu/diversityandinclusion/about/ messagefromtheinterimpresident/

I come back to history repeating itself. When I first heard about the Loyola protest, I immediately thought of Mundelein and McCuba. I had a tremendous sense of déjà vu, that history is repeating itself. Historians talk about historical context: placing an event squarely in its time period, with all the moods, events, and conditions of that particular time. The mood, events, and conditions from 1970 are incredibly similar

to 2015, as in the method by which students are attempting change.

A wish of mine is to reassemble all the protestors to tell them about McCuba and the 1970 demands. I’d show them the documents so they could study, conclude, and form ideas.

“Look,” I envision myself saying. “Look at what happened in 1970 at Mundelein. See the similarities, the results, and the change that occurred. Look, learn, and listen from those who went before you. Make your way fully aware of the past.” Then, I’d stand back and wait to see what happened.

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Article Living in Color

#LATINASCHOLAR:

CLAIMING AGENCY IN HIGHER EDUCATION Violet Gallardo

when we reach out, all people can see are youth of color asking for handouts, rather than someone trying to grasp onto a better life

I clench my jaw and hold my tongue in efforts to maintain my composure. My lips stretch upward to lift the apples of my cheeks. Ripened and flushed from frustration, I wonder, how much longer must I keep this up? Five more semesters. “Just get your degree and go” is what I always tell myself to feel reassured. I’ve accepted that I have to play this “game” in order to navigate in spaces where I traditionally don’t belong in. In each of my courses, I am usually the youngest and only self-identified Latina. More than usual, I am prompted and treated as if I am the ambassador for Latinx people.

through Austin to Oak Park, one can see how better opportunities are just an arm's reach away. However, when we reach out, all people can see are youth of color asking for handouts, rather than someone trying to grasp onto a better life. But if a college recruiter can acknowledge that I am “very articulate for a young girl from my type of neighborhood”, then maybe I could get a helping hand.

Being the first in my family to go to college, and now pursue a Master's degree, was beyond my mother's expectations. I thrived within my undergraduate studies as I grappled with culture shock and independence at 18 years old. A majority of my peers were emotionally and financially supported by their families: a privilege I did not have. I knew that I had nothing to lose and needed to learn this new academic culture in order to survive. I swallowed my shame, asked questions and seeked out resources that should have been prepared for me as I went away for school. Granted, I only lived 20 minutes away from my campus, but during that ride, the North Avenue bus revealed the reality of gentrification. From Humboldt Park,

I was fortunate enough to find my strength and support systems to help me throughout my undergraduate career. I claimed my agency as a student leader and strived to help other students of color who were just as lost as I was when I began. I really created a home and wanted to give back as much as I could to my institution. They provided me with tools

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to elevate my consciousness and ultimately transform my life.

My scholarship and leadership on campus allowed me to share these tools with others, as well. Upon my last semester of undergrad, I decided to go to graduate school to earn my Master’s in Social Work and in Women's Studies and Gender Studies. I naively anticipated that the next chapter of my life would go over more smoothly with the training I had within the past four years.

myself that outside of the community we created ourselves, our identities ultimately stratify us. Being a functional loca, I can normally deal with stress and put on a good poker face to make sure others know I’m not struggling. This time, I did not have the strength to carry on.

I was always younger, of lower economic status, and color.

Those three aspects of my identiry were branded on my forehead

The transition from college to going back home and enrolling into a new institution was a painful experience. I didn’t get accepted to any of the many assistantships or internships that my mentors told me I would be excellent for.

All my friends branched away and a lonely tension began to build. Finally, my mind began to ease by the end of the summer when I landed a paid internship at a non-for-profit that related to my academics. However, I became increasingly anxious after my second week of my new internship and classes. In both spaces, I was always younger, of lower economic status, and color. Those three aspects of my identity were branded on my forehead. Between micro-aggression and pretentious small talk, I was quickly beginning to realize that I would never be able to feel safe in these spaces.

I was fired from that internship within the first month after a few mistakes I made and ultimately not being a “good fit” there. During my time there, I anticipated to work handson, developing helpful programs and engaging with clients.

Instead, I did thirty hours of eye-straining paperwork and frequently answered one of my supervisor’s favorite questions; “is this ghetto to you?” Each morning, my legs would grow numb while climbing the stairs out of the Red Line as I took deep breaths to hold back my tears before entering the office. The morning I was fired, I was incredibly devastated but felt free. I have always worked very hard to maintain integrity and this was the first time I have ever been fired and deeply internalized my failure. I was out of work for an entire month and hit a downward spiral.

I have been working and going to school every year since I was 16. It was important for me to have economic flexibility and working taught me responsibility at a young age. Now, having only grad school to focus on did not help the situation. I’ve taken a few graduate courses in the past and knew that the students were much older and established than other emerging adults. I was excited to be challenged at an institution that made other academics smile and say “wow, that’s a really good school.” However, class discussion with my predominantly privileged classmates feels like a giant circle jerk of academic masturbators who feel like they are god's gift to marginalized people. I endure white women feel the need to talk about their short service trip to Mexico and now is an expert in “Latin American Culture.” It feels like it's a competition to out “serve” another classmate about their day saving some poor person of color. Bonus points if they have more intersectionally marginalized identities to add on.

I would sit and cringe each time someone would say,“the low income (insert here)” and go into detail about their helplessness, all while not realizing I am no different than the people they are talking about. I recently came across this quote on social media that resonated with the frustration I endure within these spaces. “Expecting marginalized peoples to disregard their own emotions to calmly educate you is the epitome of entitlement.”- (Unknown). I often stay quiet because I fear becoming that “fiery Latina” for counter-arguing inappropriate statements that occur more than a few times per class. I don’t feel like I am respected compared to my peers because I look like the clients they study to help and “save” one day.

I’ve come to this realization, and after having much support/ positive feedback from my Facebook friends, after posting that quote and revealing how stressful graduate school is for me.

My friends were either shocked that I would admit to being quiet, some suggesting it's my job to stand up and represent, and other reminding them that it's not an ambassador for the Latinx community.

Yes, it is a proud responsibility to be a graduate student from Humboldt Park, but I also need to make self-care as a priority. The ignorant instances I endure in class are uncomfortable and distracting to my learning, but it will persist if I am complicit. But with that, I can also choose my battles as well.

A former mentor of mine once told me, “las mujeres de la isla crear olas.” In English, the quote translates to: women from the island create waves. Their voices and presence permeate the spaces they enter and that can be very intimidating. I’ve floated in the low tide for too long and have to embrace my potential that has always resided in me. I’ve come too far to give up now and I want to show others that even amongst your biggest storms you can overcome.

I was constantly depressed and was excessively high or drunk just to get through each day. I would stay days at a time bound to my bed because I was too ashamed and anxious to confront others who casually asked me “how are you?” Mental health has always been an issue that I have acknowledged since I was seven years old. Internalizing failure and pain, but never anger, were the ways you just deal with things. I saw all my friends all around me who got apartments, new cars, and exciting jobs. I blamed myself for just not working hard enough and really believed I had the same opportunities they did. As wonderful and loving my friends are, I had to remind

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Words Are Useless

RADIANCE Drew Haynes

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BROADside

Sunsets Talyah Puri

Like sunsets. I want to be like sunsets To you How beautiful How perfect But so far away Colors mixing in the sky Like a painter’s brush, Mixing colors on a palette Or flowing through water.

Let me be Like a sunset to you Don’t let My distance fool you Because every night, Before its finally dark, I’ll kiss your skin With the colors.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Nikki Busch PICTURED: Alexis O’Connor

Article Living in Color

WE DON’T HAVE THAT PRIVILEGE: A DISCUSSION ON THE INTERSECTION OF RACE, ETHNICITY, & GENDER AND GLOBAL TRAVEL A Piece by Cherise Charleswell

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The Implosion

or sexually available just because you are a black woman, which is an unfortunate reality. Even worse is that the system of heteronormative, white-supremacist patriarchy is so ingrained in post-colonial societies, that people in the Global South take part in upholding white supremacy, cater to white travelers, and actively take part in anti-blackness. Blackness is the polar opposite of whiteness, and all other people of color with these need to uphold white supremacy and practice anti-blackness in some form.

I am a travel enthusiast. It is my passion, and each trip to a new destination, only fuels my desire to journey to a new city or country, experience different landscapes, sample different cultural cuisines, become fascinated by different customs, and lay my eyes on structures-- man made and those naturally found on mother earth-- that I have read about in the pages of history books, geography books and magazines, and even literature books. In short, I have an extreme case of wanderlust, but I also have what I will refer to as “wonderlust”.

Further, “black women / women of color” travel advisories are not only sent out for international travel. On that particular discussion thread, I shared a personal story about how I had to warn a sista-friend about her upcoming business trip, which included renting a place to stay in the affluent city of Agoura Hills, California. I explained that I know many (myself included) who experienced racism in some form while in that city, whether it was being ignored or refused service, or showing up for a job interview and witnessing the shock on the faces of all of the women--mostly blondes, all white--who obviously didn’t expect you to be black based on your CV. Then, there was the time that I was leaving a friend’s home and found the “no niggers wanted” note on my car. Apparently, my friend had removed similar notes from my car on previous trips and could never figure out which neighbor was leaving them.

While wanderlust is often defined as “a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about”, or in a less than flattery way as, “to wander about without definite destination; move hither and thither at random, especially over a wide area”; I look at wonderlust as having “a strong desire to travel and go to locales that you have always wondered about”. It is about being an inquisitive traveler; one who doesn’t like to stay at all-inclusive resorts because doing so would not allow you to experience a new locale. It is this wonderlust that fueled my desire to build camaraderie with other travelers, and join communities where discussions about traveling are had, and tips are shared. I recently had a horrific experience while traveling to Bali, and that is when the connections that I have made through these travel communities became invaluable.

Recently, I found myself scrolling through posts on one particular travel group’s Facebook page, and one posts made the wonderlust-filled feminist and social justice activist in me pause. It was an unexpected post, and I was so excited to see it. I quickly clicked the link to the thread, allowing me to see more comments. The original post was made by a woman of color who simply asked a question about whether there were suggestions for blogs that catered to women of color and their experiences with dealing with racism while traveling; shortly afterwards the thread exploded. This person made it clear that her concern was that the group was not inclusive, and certainly not opened to discussions about all of the various aspects of travel. I sat up and continued to read the comments. I noted that the administrator of the group had banned the woman who created the post, and noticed that other women of color who also choose to speak out were removed. I learned of even more who were booted through other travel groups while seeing their individual posts on my own timeline.

I decided that I had to join this discussion and offer some much needed insight, as well as anecdotal stories for those who believed that concerns about race and ethnicity were inappropriate for a travel forum. In other words, a lesson about interesectionality was needed. I shared with the group that I was a black woman, and black women along with other women of color, simply do not have the privilege to not think about race when we travel. We have to think about issues of safety or whether we would be subjected to some form of racism, regardless of how minor they may seem, such as a business owner being unwilling to serve you, or having someone throw your change on a counter just so they can avoid touching you and come in contact with your “offensive” skin. It includes having to deal with automatically being viewed as a sex worker

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Recently, Airbnb, a platform that provides an affordable alternative to lodging while traveling and allows users to rent rooms or full use of a property rather than staying at a hotel, has also recently come under fire for issues of underlying racism that makes it difficult for some people of color, again often black people, to be able to secure a rental.

Again, these were things that the white women in the group, who are the overwhelming majority, never had to cope with or consider. There privilege blinded them to the fact that all women’s experiences are not universal. Also, their white privilege allowed them to have the audacity to state that the entire post and discussion was not travel-related, and inappropriate. One even stated that it would be best in “some kind of feminist group”. There comments and the systematic way that some women of color were being removed from the group made it clear that (1) women of color were not really welcomed, (2) the group was not a safe space for all women travelers, and (3) despite the fact that many were seasoned travelers, they had much to learn about respecting other cultures, people, and viewpoints.

But this was a textbook example of what privilege is: not having to think about or cope with a situation or circumstance, or deeming it as insignificant and unimportant because it does not impact your life. As I watched the group began to implode, I was reminded of this comment that I shared on my personal page just a few weeks before:

When people ask me how is it that some people can be so well traveled, yet seem so naive and

ignorant of the world around them, particularly social disparities? I tell them that it is because they choose to travel not to observe, and certainly not to learn; and frankly they are privileged, so they do not have to.

I quickly noted and found myself disgusted by the response of many of the women in the group due to their inability or unwillingness to simply check their privilege. They were offended by the initial posters statement that they were clueless, white girls, however their responses that the topic was inappropriate, and even those that were more positive yet admitted that they never experienced or were aware of the concerns that women of color were sharing, confirmed that they were indeed clueless. By their own admission, they had NO clue that any of this was occurring. Unfortunately, they were in a rush to respond, rather than read, understand, listen,

assert themselves over peoples of color. However, I did note a comment by one of the few women who seemed to understand what being an ally meant. She defended the women of color for sharing our stories and concerns, suggested that a place for such discussions be made in the group, and addressed the woman who attempted to use Dr. King’s words to silence us by sharing this more fitting quote: “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”.

Connotation, Language: What White Supremacy Sounds & Look Likes

In later discussions, I found it interested that other traveling women of color begun to come forward to openly speak about the things that they found offensive in that particular group and in other travel forums, but choose to remain silent. Cultural appropriation was certainly one of the things that many stated just made them cringe.

Black (/blak/)

Of the very darkest color owing to the absence of or complete absorption of light;

the opposite of white

Deeply stained with dirt

Of any human group having dark-colored skin, especially of African or Australian Aboriginal ancestry

(Of a period of time or situation) characterized by tragic or disastrous events; causing despair or pessimism

(Of a person’s state of mind) full of gloom or misery; very depressed

(Of humor) presenting tragic or harrowing situations in comic terms:

Full of anger or hatred

Very evil or wicked

White (/(h)wīt/)

Of the color of milk or fresh snow, due to the reflection of most wavelengths of visible light; the opposite of black Belonging to or denoting a human group having light-colored skin (chiefly used of peoples of Europe an extraction) (Of glass) transparent; colorless

*Oxford Dictionaries Definition and learn, and never once consider the fact that clueless = ignorant. When one is ignorant about a subject, they should not attempt to take up space and lead discussions on the issue.

They are simply not the experts. Attempting to debate people about their lived experiences makes no logical sense, but that is what was occurring.

And what does that look like?

It is looks like white women donning cultural clothing styles that are Asian, African, etc. in origin, and posting the photos with strange captions such as “geisha girl,” “Bollywood beauty”, “my African safari look”. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that tourism industries often encourage this appropriation, and the use of traditional or cultural style and aesthetics as some kind of costume.

Shortly after I saw the nauseating “colorblind” comments and an attempt to share a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, I decided to join the mass exodus outside of the group.

Obviously, these women were not interested in listening, too comfortable in their positions of privilege, and being able to

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It also looks like poverty tourism and exploitative

Certainly, there is a need to address global poverty and economic inequality. However, overcoming these problems is going to require more than short-term volunteer work, internships, or paid tours that promises that some of the proceeds will go towards the wretch people that you get to go spend time with, which all uphold the narrative of the white savior. volunteerism. Whether or not you are aware of it, you may have been privy to the images of poverty tourism and exploitative volunteerism. You know the ones where a young, beautiful, and benevolent white woman is seated smiling and encircled by dirty, poor, black, brown, etc. faces? If you have not seen the photos, you may have heard the stories that these women and men share when they arrive back to their more affluent countries of origin, and speak about their experiences helping the poor, all while never considering any of the historic events and modern-day policies that keep certain areas impoverished.

They spend no time for reflecting on these issues, instead their resumes are updated and they feel confident in speaking as experts about “those people”.

What does it sound like?

There is a clear dichotomy in which people of color and / or those from the Global South are referred to in comparison to people from the Global North, particularly white people.

This dichotomy is similar to the distasteful way in which the word black is defined in a negative way, in comparison to the word white, or it has a negative connotation such as black lie

vs. white lie, or someone being the black sheep of the family, rather than the category of white-collar (less heinous) crime.

In terms of travel or migration, there is a lexicon that exists that again upholds white supremacy in that it is hierarchal in nature.

It is a lexicon that continues to refer to the “invaders” of Native American and other indigenous lands as “settlers” or “explorers”. This lexicon also continues to use the word “expats” when referring to a group of people who have migrated from their place of origin or upbringing, while referring to others, people of color from the Global South, as “migrants” or “immigrants”.

Decolonizing global travel communities

The implosion of this women’s travel group is another example of the fact that the global travel community continues to function under the system of heteronormative, white-supremacist, patriarchy. Thus, they are spaces that need to be decolonized. Privilege, both race and gender-based, must be addressed. Institutions, such as poverty tourism, should be addressed or given closer scrutiny, and open and honest dialogue should be supported, not suppressed.

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Still, there seems to be a plethora of travel groups and communities being created, and many of them are geared towards a niche market of people who have been excluded, or whose interests and concerns have been drowned out by the mainstream. Thus, I encourage you to travel and explore the various communities. I am sure that you would find one that is right for you.

Cherise Charleswell Cherise is a Biocultural anthropologist, womanist independent scholar, poet, writer, author, activist, and on-air radio personality. She is the Chair of The Hampton Institutes: A Working Class Think Tank’s Women’s Issues Department, Senior Chair of the National Women’s Studies Association Social Justice Task Force, Advisory Chair of the National Women’s Studies Association Graduate Caucus, creator, host, and producer of Wombanist Views Radio; as well as Segment Producer and Co-host of Feminist Magazine 90.7FM on Pacifica Radio.

Cherise is the author of Real Talk Tips & Laugh-OutLoud Suggestions for the Morally Challenged and The People Who Love Them, and Co-editor of Walking In The Feminine: A Stepping Into Our Shoes Anthology.

Her work has appeared in various publications, including: Interviewing the Caribbean,WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, AWID Young Feminist Wire, For Harriet, Kalyani , Truth Out, Our Voices, Rewind & Come Again,Role Reboot, Bluestockings Magazine, Black Women Unchecked, BROAD Magazine,Natural Woman Magazine, Kamoy Magazine, and more.

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Quote Corner

Michael jackson I'm a black American, I am proud of my race.

I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride and dignity.

The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation.

If you enter this world knowing you are lovedand you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.

LET US DREAM OF TOMORROW WHERE WE CAN TRULY LOVE FROM THE SOUL, AND KNOW LOVE AS THE ULTIMATE TRUTH AT THE HEART OF ALL CREATION.

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BROADside

Colors Kimani Rose

Dearly beloved, are you listening? i can’t remember a time where my heart wasn’t calling for you. stuck in the space between insane and insecure i don’t know what my normal is anymore and i don’t know where to find it. stop me if I’m wrong, but is it okay that i see five hundred colors in your eyes and only three in the sunrise?

I guess I’ve finally found more comfort in green, gold, grey, honeyed brown, than i have, in pink, orange, red.

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(Not) Buying It

NIvea's

"re-civilize yourself"

Overview: In Nivea’s 2011 campaign for their new brand of shaving cream, an advertisement was released of a black man shedding what appears to be a more raggedy, “savage” mask and tossing it away, in preference for a cleaner, more Euro-centric appearance. The mask the model is holding appears to resemble the stereotypic Afro characteristic of

African-Americans fighting for civil rights in the ‘60s and ‘70s, perhaps even calling to mind champions of the Black Power Movement, who the ad implies are “un-civilized” and in need of more refinement. Nivea received intense backlash for their campaign and quickly retracted the ad, but the remnants are far from forgotten.

WHAT ABOUT THE MASK IN THE MODEL’S HAND IMPLIES THAT HE DOESN’T “LOOK LIKE HE GIVES A DAMN?” WHY IS THE MODEL A MORE CIVILIZED VERSION THAN THE MASK, AND WHAT DO THESE DIFFERENCES MEAN/SHOW US ABOUT THE SOCIETY IN WHICH WE LIVE? WHAT KIND OF IMPACT WOULD THIS AD HAVE IF THE MODEL WAS WHITE AND NOT BLACK? WHAT EFFECT WOULD IT HAVE UPON YOU AS A VIEWER? HOW WOULD IT CHANGE THE MESSAGE OF THE AD? 25

Column Punctuation Marks To Finish a Conversation, First You Have to Start One...

ON MEDIA REPRESENTATION, WHITE PRIVILEGE, AND ALLYSHIP C.M.E had to live through, purely because of the color of my skin.

One moment of such realization came just a few weeks ago, when a group of fellow BROAD writers and I got together to meet about this issue of the magazine. First, though, we watched a movie- a filmed performance of Whoopi Goldberg’s first Broadway comedy show, back in 1985. One of the many humorous and moving character portraits Goldberg performed was the character of a small girl who liked to wear a white t-shirt on her head, to cover her natural hair. The little girl character pretended this was her ‘beautiful’ long blonde hair, like that of the girls and women she saw on television every day. Because she never saw black girls and women like her and her mother represented on TV, the little girl felt that she wasn’t beautiful. She was ashamed of the way she looked, of her hair and her dark skin.

As a white woman, it is not my place to speak on the experience of living Life in Color, an experience I will never share. I will never know what it is to be judged for the color of my skin. I will never know the weight of racism and racialized violence that people of color have to live with and fear every single day. I will never know what it is to look at the media and not see my race represented. In fact, as a white woman, I benefit from institutionalized racism every single day, whether I want to or not, and it is my responsibility to be aware of that, to be repulsed by that, and to do what I can to dismantle it.

One of the most important things an ally to any marginalized group can do is to simply shut up and listen. Listen to and respect the experiences of people who do live with the kind of marginalization that you, as an ally, never will. But

one of the most important things an ally to any marginalized group can do is to simply shut up and listen.

Goldberg’s portrayal was so truly childlike and innocent and funny, it truly began to feel like a child was speaking to the audience, full of equal shyness, sadness, and joyful excitement. Seeing this sketch made me think a lot. Of course, growing up as a little white girl, I had never had the weight of feeling like there was nobody out there who looked like me. I had plenty of television characters and Disney Princesses and celebrities who were white to look up to if I wished.

it is also so important to call out the instances of racism and prejudice you do see, and make it clear that that is not okay. It’s important to me that I recognize the experiences that I never

In the sketch, Whoopi’s child character surveys the live audience and declares that there’s no one on TV who looks

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anything like the people in front of her there. She wonders, “who do those people on TV look like, anyway?” Of course, as a little white girl with braces and glasses and baby fat, I didn’t exactly feel represented by beautiful, thin, makeup-wearing girls on TV. But I could pretend. I could see myself, and I didn’t have to feel invisible and ignored in the way that the little girl in Whoopi’s sketch did. I didn’t have to feel shame about my hair and pretend it was different with a t-shirt on my head. Still, I felt so sad that so many children did and do grow up feeling ashamed and unseen like that little girl character.

I talked to that person about what she said on Facebook, and I hope she’ll think about it just a little harder before she thinks it’s okay to say those things again. I hope she’ll remember how much it meant to her to get to be a princess, when she was a little white girl. I hope she’ll see that every little girl deserves to feel that way, regardless of the color of her skin.

In recent years, television has gotten much, much more diverse and inclusive, but there’s still a long way to go before everyone feels represented, feels beautiful, feels that their story is being told. Especially lately, with the controversy surrounding the Oscars awards show failing to nominate any actors of color for the second year in a row, this problem of media representation of people of color has been a very present discussion, and it is an important one. If I want to be an ally, I should be reading and sharing and thinking about this discussion, but I should not be derailing the conversation or speaking over people of color who feel the impact of this lack of representation every day. That should be my attitude towards the very real racialized violence and institutional racism that we cannot look away from- to listen, to learn, and to support in the effort to dismantle these systems. To be an ally, as best I can.

as a little white girl with braces and glasses and baby fat, I didn’t exactly feel represented...but I could pretend

When I logged onto Facebook the other day to see a piece of artwork depicting several of the Disney Princess characters as beautiful black women, my thoughts immediately turned to the little girl from Whoopi’s sketch, and how much it would have meant to her and girls like her, to get to see themselves as princesses. When I read what a white family member of mine had said about this post, I was angered and saddened to find that she was railing about how offensive and selfish she found the piece- acting like it was taking something away from her, who had grown up with a whole lineup of white princesses to dress up as, to see herself in. I couldn’t believe she couldn’t see that the artwork was commenting on the lack of representation in media such as the Disney lineup. How could she not understand that one black princess, one Chinese princess, one Native American princess, one Middle Eastern princess, in a sea of white faces, could still be so incredibly isolating for young girls of color growing up? How could she fail to see the artist’s simple desire to be represented in a story that would be just as magical, just as rich, and more so, if the princess was a woman of color?

Easy. It’s because this woman has always had white privilege, ever since she was the child watching princess movies, learning that her skin was somehow more worthy of representation than anyone else who might look different, who might come from a different background. She doesn’t understand, because she never had to wear a t-shirt on her head and pretend it was long blonde hair. I myself know that I don’t and cannot ever really understand what that’s like either. I do know that giving people of color equal representation, making it clear that their lives and experiences have value, is not taking anything away from me or from any white people, except for that privilege that we never should have had in the first place.

The person on my Facebook feed was wrong. Representation is important, and white people will never experience racism.

What we will experience is a confrontation of our privilege and what we can and should do to stand against racism and amplify POC voices- that is, if we are willing to be educated, if we allow ourselves to listen first.

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Message Me

What is the color line?

The line of colors in an art piece lol.

The defining line between black people and white people.

Isn’t it like a race thing?

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BROADside

Talyah Puri I hope I’m like art to you, I hope I make you feel something, that you’ve only ever felt, when you’re at your happiest.

When you’re at your worst, I hope you can still feel about me, how you look, only at me.

I hope I’m a work of Art in your eyes, I hope you feel something.

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Article Living in Color

THE

INTERPRTATION AMALGAMATION Lubna Baig

Men are obsessed with their dingers, their beaver bugs, their salty centipedes… I am talking about their fishing lures, the tiny little critters you use as a bait to hook them fishes…

Now, if y’all thought I was talking about something else and got offended– Well, I am sorry for you, because it’s your interpretation of words that make them offensive.

We live in a big, bad racist world. A world where people take things literally. A world where people judge a book by its cover. Or people by their color, if you please. You say one thing, but they think the other. Take it to a whole different level.

Sometimes it’s just a little misunderstanding, other times it’s a delusional escape to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a.k.a.

ISIS.

The other day my sister and I were talking about my dream wedding. Never mind the serious, monotonous tone of my last article, I am still a hopeless romantic. So anyways, I told her that for my wedding I would want the walls of the ballroom covered with two shades of pink: blush and bashful. That pink carpets should be especially laid out for my service. A pink silk bunting should be draped over anything that stands still. And the flowers– every pink flower in the U.S. of A should adorn the hall of my wedding venue. My sister bluntly said the wedding would look like a sanctuary hosed down with Pepto Bismol. I argued otherwise. Pink is my signature color, and the shades of

pink that I chose are much different, in that one is deeper than the other.

To my sister, Pink is Pepto Bismol, and the shades of blush and bashful are really just pink and pink. To me Pink represents naivety and innocence and is the perfect color as a girl embarks on a journey to womanhood. As a bride, she reflects on all the changes occurring around her during the course of the wedding ceremonies/rituals. She is that naïve pink flower thrust into the uncertain world of adulthood. I mean we are all really kids until marriage. It is really after marriage that we start taking on real adult responsibilities pertaining to house, spouse, bills, and kids.

In high school, we read The Great Gatsby and were asked to write about the symbolism of the Green light in the book. To me, the color green symbolizes things like fertility, renewal, and hope. It is also the color of money and traffic lights. In the book, Gatsby stares at the green light. Keeping in mind his maddening love for Daisy, I felt that the green light symbolized Daisy’s allure as a woman, her iconic status for Gatsby, her riches, and the general promise – GO! - that she incorporates for Gatsby (because the green traffic light signals cars to go for it, drive on). To some others, green is the color of envy, so the green light symbolized the jealousy which Gatsby felt towards Daisy’s husband, Tom. But really, it could be just that the green light is nothing but an ordinary reality apart

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from the symbolic associations connected to it – the dock needs markers. As simple as that.

What I am trying to say is simple, really. I am saying let’s keep things simple. See colors for what they are – just colors. Make the world a simpler place. Yes, I do interpret colors in my own way. And maybe, I need to stop doing that. Maybe all of us need to avoid making complicated interpretations of things.

Similarly, in the book, Native Son, there is a rat in the opening scene of the novel. The rat is described to be a large, black rodent scurrying across the protagonist’s tiny onebedroom apartment. The same rat is killed by the protagonist named Bigger and his brother Buddy. Later, unforeseen circumstances compel Bigger to kill Mary Dalton, a rich white girl who is the daughter of his employer. Ultimately, Bigger is sentenced to death. In a way, the rat in the opening scene symbolizes the protagonist, Bigger himself. Rodents like rats lack power and intelligence. They are always hiding from something, just like the protagonist who is hiding from a white society that leaves him with very little power and education. The death of the rat symbolizes powerlessness against a stronger force. In the protagonist’s case, the stronger force is white supremacy. When we pursue creatures of lesser intelligence/brute strength, like rats, they are filled with fear and their reactions to the fear are defiance and violence. Bigger mirrors the rat’s reactions to when he attempted to kill it. When he too is cornered like a rat, he is overwhelmed with fear and to a certain extent, shame. He thus lashes out with the only weapon at his disposal: violence. Both Bigger and the rat are destroyed by a stronger force.

Let’s not forget the color white which has come to symbolize white supremacy. It makes a rather literal and quite transparent appearance in Wright’s novel. When Mary Dalton’s bones are discovered in the furnace, Bigger attempts to flee Chicago. The color white makes a dramatic appearance, like an antihero, in the form of white snow. This snow halts Bigger’s escape plans and leads to his capture. At this point, it is safe to conclude that the snow symbolizes the white supremacy that exercises control over people like Bigger everywhere they go.

Literature loves to give symbolic associations to characters. While the symbolism of the rat is quite meaningful in the novel, I didn’t like the way Richard Wright describes the rodent – large and black. Black men especially are always portrayed as large, heavy-built, intimidating people. Even in the movie The Blind Side, one of Sandra Bullock’s friends’ remarks on her adoption of a black teenager are: “Aren’t you scared? A LARGE, BLACK BOY in the house like that?” Sandra Bullock fiercely snaps back at the friend stating; “Shame on you!”

Yes, shame on anyone who feels we are supposed to be scared of black people. Like Hello, it’s the 21st century. Isn’t it possible that there’s a reason why everyone on the planet isn’t the same? The more important question, why is the rat in question in Wright’s novel illustrated as large and black? Or the boy in The Blind Side referred to as large and black? This bothers me because I personally know black people that are either skinny or of medium build. Why couldn’t Wright paint the picture of the rodent being what it is – simply a rat, barring any adjectives associated to it?

let’s keep things simple. See colors for what they are–just colors. Make the world a simpler place.

No offense to Wright, he is a phenomenal writer and Native Son is my all-time favorite classic. Maybe it’s just us readers who need to refrain from making any symbolic associations to the rat and keep it a simple reality – a rodent nesting in the midst of a filthy, dingy apartment.

For people of India, the color white personifies peace.

And that is why a portion of the Indian flag is painted white. In the critically acclaimed movie “Paa,” renowned actor Amitabh Bacchan plays Auro, a child afflicted with progeria. For a talent show, he paints a globe of the world –white – and presents it to the judges. He wins the talent show because one of the judges thought Auro was symbolizing world peace with the presentation of a white globe. When his grandmother asks him where he got this “innovative” idea from, Auro simply confesses that he had originally forgotten the date of the talent show. He happened to see a globe in the teachers’ lounge and in haste/ panic, he took the globe and decided to paint it white. He says, furthermore, he never really thought of peace and all that crap even as he was painting it. The judges made a complex interpretation of things and awarded him with the first prize.

Poor, confused, little teenage thing never saw it coming.

I actually felt utmost sympathy for Auro in this scene.

A 13-year-old boy suffering from a rare form of aging disorder, who craves food other than the measly Khichdi (rice and lentil pudding) which he is forced to eat due to his health condition, and who is addicted to Xbox and video-gaming, cannot think of or process so much philosophy pertaining to white globes and world peace. A teenage boy does not think so much.

Period.

This reminds me of a scene in one of those Harry Potter movies. Hermione tells Harry and Ron that Cho Chang spends half her time crying because she is: 1) 2) 3)

Worried about failing her OWLs Worried about her mum getting sacked by Umbridge Conflicted over dating Harry because she still misses Cedric as they used to date.

Ron simply points out that one person cannot think so much, they would explode. Hermione then snaps back at him, bluntly stating that he (Ron) has the emotional range of a teaspoon.

The world is really a much simpler place than we think.

Colors, people, things are just what they are; a simple and

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ordinary reality. But we humans stereotype stuff. We are always over-thinking. We are always over-analyzing. And, we are always judging and labeling stuff. A black man from Minnesota playing hockey is a walking, talking stereotype. A black couple taking in a poor, homeless, white kid is like The Blind Side in reverse. A story with cats dying, fish dying, is like a very sad, little Dr. Seuss. Luke Skywalker’s blue light saber identifies him as the hero in Star Wars. Darth Vader, in all his gothic black glory and red light saber, is the bad guy.

guarantee that if I had my way, I would have written all three of them into my will within three minutes of meeting them.

Which, I suppose, is the point. Finding a date is just that easy, if you want one, so why would you turn to ISIS instead?

On that note, can someone normal and rich and below the legal drinking age fly in their father's private jet CHAPERONED and go rescue those girls from that sad little dying insurgency? Please?

Stereotyping is not limited to the West. Racism is rampant in the Indian film industry too. Especially in the South.

You see it in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu all the time.

Tamil films are so racist that villains are always typecast as large, dark-skinned, guys. But for the heroes; I repeat, for the heroes, the directors only order “Punjabi-complexioned – fair – skinned-guys – only, please.”

as a young Muslim immigrant in the west, going through an identity crisis/feeling alientated is pretty normal.

Tsk, Tsk. By doing all this, we are only complicating otherwise simple matters and fueling the fires of racism.

I get it. Daesh does some pretty darn good marketing via Twitter and SureSpot. But let’s all avoid making a complicated interpretation of things. As a young Muslim immigrant in the west, going through an identity crisis/feeling alienated is pretty normal. It’s always been this way– except now, under such circumstances, it is pretty easy to be seduced by the rhetoric spouted by supporters of ISIS.

And what is happening out there in the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria i.e. ISIS? A dying insurgency, so named by a man who proclaims himself as the Caliph of all Muslims: Abubakr Al Baghdadi. Taking this Pied Piper of Hamelin impersonator’s calls to a whole new level, an alarming number of western youth both under and over the legal age of drinking are flocking to the dangerous area of Raqqa. Willingly dancing to his tunes, they pull wool over the eyes of their own parents, siblings, and even the elite FBI/CIA/INTERPOL officials and cross into Syria right under their noses.

Instead of joining a terrorist organization, why not apply scientific principles to your life, as you struggle to find out “who you are.” I recommend the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle – You can either know who you are or where you are going, but not both. Girls! Worried about that cousin your dad is trying to set you up with, as is normal in most Muslim families? Who knows, maybe that cousin can turn out to be a real cool dude who whisks you away from your family? Think about Schrodinger’s Cat. Your potential relationship with your cousin, in the initial stages, can be thought of as both good and bad. And in the West, nobody can force you to get married to someone you don’t want to. That’s right. The Americans have laws for YOUR SAFETY!

Sorry boys! If you think you are doing a great service to Islam by opting for a career as a Jihadist, you are totes wrong!

The life in IS might seem adventurous just like the Grand Theft Auto games in your XBOX, but I swear you’ll really end up missing your XBOX more than ever!

if you think you are doing a great service to Islam by opting for a career as a Jihadist, you are totes wrong!

Before any of you label me an infidel/heathen/idolater/ Kafir, let me tell you I am a Muslim. But I consider myself to be a pretty tolerant person and moderate at that. I have no desire to contribute to a lost cause in a dying insurgency which is ISIS. I’d rather personify an Islam which is peaceful. And I am the type of person, who, rather than complaining, tries to change things I don’t like. It’s called…wait for it….being productive.

As for all the girls who are running more like rushing to ISIS to marry the first Prince Dastan they find there, marriage is something that should be based on mutual consent not as a means to pimp out girls. Which is what Daesh is doing.

I don’t even remember when I last talked to my college roommate, I lost touch with many of my high school friends, and all those people were some of my best mates. I broke up with my first love, who I thought I would end up marrying and having 8 kids with. But then I met someone else and he turned out to be way, way better. In the midst of all that, I survived trauma, the details of which are in my previous articles. At the moment I am in the best phase of my life, relationship and career-wise. All the good things to me, didn’t happen overnight.

It takes time. You have to be… wait for it…patient.

I don’t know about you girls. But I recently started talking to three guys on Tinder, all around my age – that is, 25 -26 year old dudes. And, believe me, they were without question, the most charming and charismatic people I’ve ever met in my entire life. I don’t believe in serial dating. I’d rather be committed and faithful to one. Besides, polyandry is taboo and I don’t wanna risk becoming an outcast. Which is why I picked one and stopped talking to two of the three dudes. But I can

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And yes, ISIS is really Daesh for me. Forgive me, in the wake of recent Paris attacks, my conscience doesn’t permit me to acknowledge a name for a country that personifies an Islam which is evil. Being a Muslim myself, I simply cannot do that.

between Columbia and Philippines’. Come on, how many times have we heard a sports commentator call out the wrong team or the wrong player’s name for that matter? Does that mean the other team should have been a “co-winner?” This is just so dumb! And frankly, it’s annoying me so much!

On a serious note, ever since 9/11, proponents of Islam have argued time and again that Islam is a religion of peace.

This reminds me, while I was writing this article, People of the Shura Council who are experts in the matters of people were all like “Shhh” or “Oh my god, are you crazy?!” or Islamic jurisprudence, and all those big Imams, especially those “Nice knowing you.” Some of them were even saying something of the Sunni sect – the Tabi’ Al Tabi’in – who came after the vague about “SUVs with tinted windows running me off the Tabi’un who were direct contemporaries of the companions road.” All because I mentioned ISIS in a few lines. At first, I of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) – they are all against ISIS. thought all this was pretty hilarious. But then I started getting They say that ISIS is not a vehicle of peace, social justice, and paranoid. At one point, I actually found myself thinking, “Wait, brotherhood of man, which Islam is. (Editor’s Note: Since you is it OK for me to mention ISIS in a magazine? Should I use a agree with them, I think “they claim” sounds a little too much pseudonym? A pen name? Lil So-So sounds good?” But now, like you are questioning what they’re saying. You immediately I just want to find out if people have a real reason to be so say they’re right in the next paragraph, so changing “they claim” paranoid or if they are just being idiots, so: ISIS sucks! to the stronger “they say” only solidifies your point and leaves On an ending note, let’s no room for uncertainty.) avoid making a complicated interpretation of things. Let’s

Big Islamic clerics, the avoid making a complex ones at the top in the world interpretation of words. Let of Islamic jurisprudence, have colors be just colors. Let refused to swear allegiance Muslims be just Muslims. Let to ISIS. Who are you to align Christians be just Christians. with them? You are trying to Let black people be humans. do either of these two things Let white people be humans. really. You are dismissing all Whatever the color, let’s all the clerics and the billion try to develop a thicker skin Muslims who say you don’t maybe by spending more represent them as evil and time fishin’ where only mother corrupted by Western ways. nature can hear you bitchin.’

Or you, and people like you, Peace out! who are abiding by Baghdadi’s particular version of Islam, are telling the world to hate Islam.

Seriously, kids, what you are doing is just providing evidence to the contrary of what Islam is – that is, not a religion of peace. And frankly speaking, all this is beginning to take its toll on other Muslims in the West as you fan the flames of Islamophobia. It’s like what happened to Steve Harvey after he announced the wrong winner at Miss Universe 2016.

Racism reared its big ugly head after Steve Harvey’s gaffe. Not everyone in this world is nice. Racist people are always waiting for you to make a mistake so that they can confirm what they have always thought. Which is what happened with Steve Harvey. Which is what is happening with other Muslims in the West.

Want to eradicate Islamophobia and be all buddybuddy with those Westerners? First, remove the dirt of racism from within yourself. On that note, can everyone stop harping on about Steve Harvey? The man misread the card. He corrected himself. Oops. The End. Frankly, the whole response about Steve’s gaffe is stupid. Particularly, the comments like ‘they should have just let Miss Columbia win, or split the prize

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Screen/Play

pariah RELEASE DATE: 2011 Currently sreaming on Netflix

Overview: So rarely are there movies of black youth that aren’t somehow linked to violence or drugs. Pariah, after its premiere at Sundance, became a movie that not only starred black youth without a link to violence or drugs, but one about a queer black girl coming to terms with her identity.

Pariah is about Alike, a black girl struggling to figure out her own sexual identity, while also combating rejection form her friends and family.

BROAD Thumbs Up: This film not only has the diversity that is desperately needed in Hollywood today, but the intersectionality as well. Gone are the days of white lesbians finding their sexuality to indie music. There is something so special about seeing the problems of sexuality and rejection through a black girl’s eyes, something that is so prevalent in the black community but so rarely talked about. This film is amazing.

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(Not) Buying It

"you're wrong, google" HAVE YOU EVER FOUND YOURSELF GUILTY OF SEARCHING A RACIST QUESTION ON GOOGLE? HOW DID YOU FEEL IN THE MOMENT? HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW AFTER SEEING HOW COMMON RACIST IDEAS ARE SPREAD ON MAJOR WEBSITES LIKE GOOGLE? WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO PREVENT THESE FORMS OF INDIRECT DISCRIMINATION FROM TAKING PLACE? WOULD PROBLEMS OF THIS SORT BE BETTER SOLVED THROUGH SPOKEN COMMUNICATION, OR THROUGH PRIVATE INTERNET DISCUSSION?

Overview: In an effort to reduce the amount of indirect yet deg rading discrimination cast upon black people on the internet, an Australian anti-racism campaign has made a serious of graphics, billboards, text, and print concepts to challenge the assumptions made about black people that pervade the internet. Similar to BROAD’s “Search This” concept, the ad campaign spotlights the most frequently searched items pertaining to black people and highlights the collated statistics of racist search items from Google and demonstrates the racism portrayed behind the scenes in an effort to show the world that discrimination is alive and well.

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Article Living in Color

HOW MANY?

We riot because our hearts are heavy. We lie in the street because we have nothing to lose. They have told us our lives do not matter. Our souls hurt. For years and years, we are subjected to oppression in the most systematic ways, and I believe that many of us are tired of being buried alive. We are not fighting back; we are fighting for our life.

Hannah Goheen BlackLivesMatter.

and cultural appropriation.

This little hashtag plagues our Twitter newsfeeds, our Instagrams, and our Facebooks. Articles with stories of black boys and girls killed and mistreated and trapped in the cycle of structural racism are shared in vast numbers, with many supporting the movement. However, another hashtag peeks into the action. It’s desperate for attention, and fights to stand center stage in a production it was not cast in: #AllLivesMatter.

We have taken steps to prevent many aspects of racism that my grandparents and great-grandparents had to suffer through. Slavery is gone, the Civil Rights Act is in effect, and Affirmative Action is thriving. But the medication was not taken for the prescribed number of days. The virus is still inhabiting the body, reinforcing structural racism that continues to prevent the American people from achieving equity and targeting people of color and the poor.

This is no longer the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement.

The time where black boys hang from trees and AfricanAmericans are banned from restaurants and drinking from different water fountains is “long” gone. White children all across America are taught that racism is a thing of the past, and that African-Americans and other people of color are full citizens and have the same opportunities and resources as them. But, like many things, racism is a manifestation of a long history in America. It takes many forms and continues to evolve with each generation.

#BlackLivesMatter is not strictly a “black people thing”.

In order for all lives to matter, the marginalized must be treated with the same respect. Black people and their issues are not the only focus. #BlackLivesMatter was created to provide a space for those who felt they did not have a voice to unpack the structures that keep them marginalized. Occupation in Palestine is a #BlackLivesMatter issue. Syrians escaping their war-torn land and risking their lives in the Mediterranean Sea is a #BlackLivesMatter issue. How many more lives have to be lost before we as a people understand the repercussions and unsustainability of greed and corruption that directly target marginalized communities?

Racism is best described with a metaphor: an individual is extremely sick, and is not improving with each passing day. Finally, they decide to go to the doctor to receive further assistance. The doctor diagnoses a terrible bacterial infection, one that plagues the entire body and is highly contagious. The doctor prescribes a medication that guarantees healing and wellness, but the medication must be taken for 21 days. The individual takes the medication obediently for 14 days. By day 15, the individual is able to go back to work, able to take care of their family, and forgets to take the rest of the medication. The individual is healed from all the sickness, aside from a few symptoms, such as stereotypes

We riot because our hearts are heavy. We lie in the street because we have nothing to lose. They have told us our lives do not matter. Our souls hurt. For years and years, we are subjected to oppression in the most systematic ways, and I believe that many of us are tired of being buried alive. We are not fighting back; we are fighting for our life.

Do we not deserve life?

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Search This

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BROADside

S.T.L

(There’s Something in the Air Here)

Nikki Busch A misting rain From last night’s thunderstorm Peppers the morning And dampens the stagnant atmosphere “Air Quality: Good” blinks on the monitor Displayed from the skywalk above the interstate As commuters anxiously Scurry past below Buildings jet against the dark horizon And The Arch peeks out Like the last link of a broken chain Buried somewhere deep within the earth Out the window An undead metropolis Sustains itself on shallow, raspy breaths As the eternal searchlight rises The ruins of this city Leave a residue That clings stubbornly to Eyes, lungs, and souls

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Cop cars circle the block Winding slowly Like hungry vipers Waiting to strike Graveyards of abandoned buildings Slump dejectedly Littered with broken glass Unsettled in their abandonment Stone-pillared gates Loom menancingly ahead Dividing paths and neighborhoods Sentries against the children of Dred The outbound train Crosses the Mississippi And slices through the murky air That even the rain cannot absolve There’s something in the air here Something smoldering just beyond our reach

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Article Living in Color

I DIDN’T KNOW I WASN’T WHITE

“Hispanic,” or “white.” I had grown up being told what I was in terms of identity. I wasn’t “Hispanic” I was Mexican. Similarly, I wasn’t “white”, I was German. The conversation that was always brought up in my house wasn’t necessarily about race, but about where I came from. It was about the fact that I grew up with tortillas as a food staple, speaking Spanish and German and English, eating Spätzle every Thanksgiving and Christmas, and coming home from school to my mom blasting Maná on stereo and my dad making business calls in German. Whenever the topic came up, I always described myself as “multicultural.”

It was the only term that really fit. Even the term “white,” was limiting in the sense that what people seem to mean in the States when they ask that question is, “are you American?” Well, yes—but I also can’t just ignore the fact that I’m German, too.

I’m always slightly bothered and confused at how people perceive race in the United States. For some reason, being Mexican makes me different in other peoples’ minds when I tell them. I always get asked questions about that side of me. But I NEVER get asked about my German background.

And I totally get it in the sense that a lot of people themselves have some German in their backgrounds as well and a little bit of Irish and Italian etc. etc. (insert whatever European country you want here). But it’s not as though my great grandparents were German and then migrated to the States. My dad was born and raised in Germany just like my mom was born and raised in Mexico. I’m quite literally 50 percent German and 50 percent Mexican. But people only seem to care about the half that’s a different race. And I know why.

Monika Gaiser

The first time I realized I wasn’t technically white was around my junior year of college. I was talking to a friend of mine and somehow the topic of our backgrounds was brought up, and I casually mentioned that technically I was half-Mexican, and by extension half-white—at which point I paused, and realized: wait, I’m not actually fully white. I’m only half-white. Only.

I hadn’t grown up being told I was “Hispanic,” or “white.” I had grown up being told what I was in terms of identity.

Admittedly, it’s not as though I wasn’t aware of the fact that being Caucasian and being Hispanic are two different races. Standardized tests, surveys, and college applications always ended up with me marking two separate boxes next to both labels. But up until that point, I had never viewed myself as being limited in some capacity—that is, only half of something. Rather than not belonging somewhere because I “lacked” characteristics of what it “means to be” white or Mexican, I had always viewed myself as existing in both worlds and the space that lies between them. I wasn’t not white, or not Mexican, I was a little bit of both, and by extension my own blend.

When you’re white, you are US. When you’re a different color, you are THEM. People are always more curious about people who AREN’T like them. And while I don’t mind answering questions about what it was like for me growing up with a Mexican mom, at a certain point the questions stop being about wanting to learn more because someone’s interested, and they start becoming about someone wanting to learn more about a culture that’s so outside the US group that it becomes this exoticized group that it’s “cool” to be a part of.

It’s for this reason that while I understood what people meant by being “mixed race,” I had never really described myself in those terms. I hadn’t grown up being told I was

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Why is it that even if you’re 90 percent white and 10 percent Hispanic, as soon as you cross some invisible threshold of having “white skin” you’re 100 percent Hispanic in the eyes of everyone else? Why is it that people only seem to remember that I’m Mexican, not German, too?

we base so much in the United States just on what someone looks like, without [taking] into account what his or her background actually might be.

All of a sudden you realize you aren’t just a part of the US group—you’re part of the THEM group, too.

*Note for reader: When I talk about an “us” group I don't mean to imply that someone of color is inherently in the “them” group, but rather that an issue that comes up when regarding race is that people tend to separate themselves into “us” or “them” groups.

Unfortunately, the world we live in is still filled with “us” and “them” groups, most often with whatever group in power defining itself as the “us” group. My point in using these labels was just to highlight the realization that being "only half" white meant that I had grown up with the privilege of never really being aware of belonging to a group that is often underrepresented and treated as outsiders—a “them” group.

We base so much in the United States just on what someone looks like, without really taking into account what his or her background actually might be. I am technically a woman of color. But I will never be treated like one because when I was born, genetics decided that I’d have my mom’s eyes and body, but my dad’s hair and skin. And because I look the part of “white,” I will forever be treated white. I won’t be treated as the “other” like I see some people treat my mom, despite the fact that she’s a naturalized American citizen. I won’t be made a target and called a beaner because of my features like the idiot middle-schoolers on the bus called my mom. I won’t have people see me and hear an accent and assume I’m not collegeeducated like people assume my mom isn’t. Because I’m white, even when people learn I’m half Mexican they won’t assume I can’t read English like my elementary school teacher assumed about my mom when she started sending home school forms exclusively in Spanish. I will, however, be questioned when I’m with both of my parents at the same time about which one is actually my parent. I will have people ask my mom in Spanish if her “white” daughter speaks Spanish or not. I will have people who don’t even know me well ask me ignorant questions because I’m “white,” so why should I get offended? I will have people make racist jokes at me for the same reason.

I’ve had the benefit of growing up with an understanding about my identity that transcended just the color of my skin. I’ve also reaped the benefits of not dealing with some of the issues that people of color—people like my mom—have had to deal with. But I cannot negate that having multiple cultural and racial identities came with its own set of issues that I, and people like me, have had to deal with growing up. That’s the thing about a statement like “I’m only half white.”

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Liberation Leaders

james baldwin

his most successful works, one being the turn-of-the-century novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, a story that not only tackles the issue of racial discrimination and overall suppression of African-Americans, but also questions what it means to be accepted in general, regardless of the color of one’s skin.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

James Arthur Baldwin was born on 2 August 1924 in the Harlem burrow of Manhattan, New York, a city that was, at the time, a burgeoning haven for black culture and ingenuity. Childhood proved to be a trying time for Baldwin, who grew up facing abuse from all angles ranging from run-ins with the police, to discrimination in his grade school, to mental and physical bullying from his step-father. To find solace from such an unpredictably violent world, Baldwin turned

to Christianity for answers, a period of time that would greatly affect his personal and academic life for years to come. Baldwin would maintain an off-and-on relationship with his faith for years to come, seeing the value in its ability to inspire African-Americans to defy oppression, while also seeing it as an institution reinforcing slavery in delaying one’s opportunity for salvation until the afterlife. Regardless, Baldwin’s relationship with his faith went on to inspire many of

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At the age of 24, Baldwin, upset by the treatment he was receiving as both a black and homosexual man, expatriated to France to seek a better environment to express himself as well as his love of writing. While there, Baldwin cavorted with cultural radicals championing similar causes he involved himself with in America and used his written voice to champion them, all in order to change the perspectives of those around him and invite the possibility of nonviolent, colorblind acceptance everywhere. Baldwin would periodically visit France for the rest of his life and would go on to pen many of his most famous works there, including Notes of a Native Son, a collection of his thoughts and mini-essays he’d collated for several years, and Giovanni’s Room, a controversial homoerotic narrative. These writings, and his countless others, would go on to demonstrate how Baldwin could use his way with words not just to entice people to care about serious issues, but also to portray how to alter one’s behavior in creative, artistic ways that people everywhere, of any age, color, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, could align with and emulate.

Once in America, Baldwin’s writing was not only getting much-deserved

“EDUCATION IS INDOCTRINATION IF YOU’RE WHITE – SUBJUGATION IF YOU’RE BLACK.” “It took many years of vomiting up all the filth

I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”

publicity among members of all communities and social groups, but he put himself on the touring circuit as well in order to have his spoken voice heard. He frequented college campuses to give lectures about civil and gay rights, traveled with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and even appeared at the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963. Baldwin even met and discussed race relations with President John F. Kennedy and was personally invited to the White House to do so, a historic meeting that didn’t just discuss civil rights on a political level but a moral one as well. Baldwin was especially affected by the fatal protests occurring in such towns as Birmingham and Selma and would often speak against the use of violence against those peacefully championing a cause, but in doing so, Baldwin notably deferred calling himself a “civil rights activist.”

Instead, he believed that true citizens in any setting should not have to fight for their own civil rights, and encouraged others to believe the same. Through his advocacy, Baldwin would come to befriend several big names in the world of civil rights, some of which included Maya Angelou, Malcolm X, and fellow author Toni Morrison.

After Baldwin’s death in 1987 from stomach cancer, his legacy would go on to inspire several reformations to improve conditions for underprivileged blacks across the nation, some of which include the National James Baldwin Literary Society, a group who organizes free public events in commemoration of Baldwin’s life, and the James Baldwin Scholars program for Hampshire College, which helps talented students of color from underprivileged communities hone their skills in school and find colleges suited to their talents. Baldwin also had his likeness displayed on a 2005 postage stamp, and he was also included into Chicago’s very own Legacy Walk, a public display that celebrates LGBT history and people.

“I imagine one of the

reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”

“People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.”

“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a stateof innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”

“I love American more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

“DO I REALLY WANT TO BE INTEGRATED INTO A BURNING HOUSE?”

“Hatred is always self hatred, and there is something suicidal about it.”

“TO BE A NEGRO IN THIS COUNTRY AND TO BE RELATIVELY CONSCIOUS IS TO BE IN A RAGE ALMOST ALL THE TIME.” 43

Article Living in Color

Newton himself believes race is the issue. “I’ve said it since day one: I’m an African-American quarterback.

That may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to”

(PICTURED) Cam Newton (SOURCE) Google

CAM NEWTON: IS IT JUST A GAME?

Romell Harris-Ollarvia (but not necessarily involved with) sports portray strong, vocal, flamboyant, and successful athletes as negative influences.

No one can wait for the Super Bowl, especially Cam Newton, quarterback for the North Carolina Panthers. Newton is a rags-to-riches story of hard work and determination. From humble beginnings to college champion, and now, a near perfect season, he will be headed to the biggest game in the NFL. However, a sector of the public paints a much different story. Many believe that Newton has no place in the spotlight.

Instead of boasting his incredible season and performance, he is viewed as having a negative influence on the sport, and supporting him supports a culture of arrogance and showboating.

Non-supporters say his antics on the field take away from the tradition of the sport and demean his opponents.

Yes, his dancing can be seen as offensive, especially if you’re on the receiving end of the touchdown he just scored.

Nonetheless, there is a pocket of NFL fans that are not happy.

“Thug”, “showboat”, and “arrogant” are some of the names used to describe his behavior. It is a narrative that is all too familiar.

Whether it be Marshawn Lynch or, as seen in the wrestling world, Muhammed Ali, the media and culture surrounding

Newton himself believes race is the issue. “I’ve said it since day one: I’m an African-American quarterback. That may scare a lot of people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to,” Newtown said (Guardian Sport).

To put it bluntly, he enjoys what he does. Many times, he has called himself an entertainer and that everything he does is for the fans. His smile, forever noticeable, is consistent throughout the game. Not only are these stereotypes damaging to his own career, but these misrepresentations promote the fear of young African-American males, thus perpetuating a potential self-fulfilling prophecy, and destroying his career.

Whether racism be the case or a conservatism about the game, Newton is trying to prove to the world that he belongs on this stage and that he earned it. Dancing is the least of your problems, especially if you’re a Broncos fan.

"Cam Newton: 'I'm an African American Quarterback That May Scare Some People'" Guardian. Guardian, 27 Jan. 2016. Web.

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BROADside

Talyah Puri I’ve come to realize, I’m in love with myself.

Which is not vain, or conceited.

Or anything negative, at all.

It makes me indestructible.

Yes, sometimes I fight with myself, like any lover would, but in the end, I always come back to a love for me, that could rival a artist’s love in finding metaphors in the moon.

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Message Me

What is intersectionality?

lol idk.

All of the different identities a person holds coming together in one safe space.

All of a person feeling safe to express oneself.

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WLA Reanimated

carol mosely braun

by Caroline Lynd Giannakopoulos

Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, Carol Moseley Braun was the first and only African-American woman to ever serve as a United States Senator (1992-1999). She was also only the second African-American senator elected since the 19th century. While holding office, Moseley Braun advocated for improving the nation’s school, providing retirement security for women, protecting the interests of Illinois farmers, and defending pro-choice legislation.

Moseley Braun noted that both race and gender biases continue to prevent Congress from being more diverse.

“Women get marginalized in the political process by so many sets of negative preconceptions and prejudices that sometimes it can be very difficult,” she said in a 2014 interview with The Washington Post.

When it comes to the treatment of women politicians in the media, she added, “To this day, I still question why it’s hemlines, husbands and hair.” Moseley Braun also recognized how prejudices create obstacles for women and people of color working to raise necessary campaign funds.

Congress was not the first place that Moseley Braun made history. While attending the University of Chicago School of Law, she started the nation’s first Black Law Students Association. Following graduation, Moseley Braun worked as a prosecutor in the office of the U.S. Attorney in Chicago before winning election to the Illinois state House of Representatives in 1978. She became the first African-American to hold an executive position in Cook County when elected the Cook County, Illinois, recorder of deeds in 1988.Moseley Braun found that p olitics came easily to her, and she accomplished more than she expected in her early years of working in the state senate. “Sure I got both sexist and racist reactions from some of them,” she said of her colleagues, “but if you’re an effective legislator you can deal with it from a position of strength.”

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After her term in the Senate, Moseley Braun was appointed as the U.S Ambassador to New Zealand. She made unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for President in 2000 and again in 2004. In 2005, she founded the Good Food Organics, a company that offers organic food products grown using farming techniques that are in harmony with the environment. Through this company, which focuses on environmental sustainability and social ethics, Moseley Braun continues her lifelong commitment to public service.

BROADside

Kimani Rose Someone draw sunsets in my head.

Tell me the most beautiful things on your mind, let me see your colors.

Paint my sky.

Show me your van Gogh thoughts The ideas you don’t understand.

And the concepts you think I won’t.

When is sunset turn to starry night, take me to the clouds.

Let our heads flow with those of Dali’s love.

Get us stuck there.

Two lovers, with our heads stuck in the clouds on a starry night.

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Quote Corner

stokley carmichael I ALSO KNOW THAT WHILE I AM BLACK I AM A HUMAN BEING, AND THEREFORE I HAVE THE RIGHT TO GO INTO ANY PUBLIC PLACE. WHITE PEOPLE DIDN’T KNOW THAT. EVERY TIME I TRIED TO GO INTO A PLACE THEY STOPPED ME. In order for non-violence to work, your opponent must have a conscience

Black power can be clearly defined for those who do not attach the fears of white America to their questions about it.

There is a higher law than the law of government.

In order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom.

That’s the law of conscience.

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CONTRIBUTOR GUIDELINES

PRINCIPLES

How to be BROAD

1. Feminist Consciousness:

(a) recognizes all voices and experiences as important, and not in a hierarchicl form.

(b) takes responsibility for the self and does not assume false objectivity.

(c) is not absolutist or detached, but rather, is more inclusive and sensitive to others.

2. Accessibility:

(a) means utilizing accessible language, theory, knowledge, and structure in your writing.

(b) maintains a connection with your diverse audience by not using unfamiliar/obscure words, overly long

sentences, or abstraction.

(c) does not assume a specific audience, for example, white 20-year-old college students 2. Jesuit Social Justice Education & Effort:

(a) promotes justice in openhanded and generous ways to ensure freedom of inquiry, the pursuit of truth and

care for others.

(b) is made possible through value-based leadership that ensures a consistent focus on personal integrity, ethical behavior, and the appropriate balance between justice and fairness.

(c) focuses on global awareness by demonstrating an understanding that the world’s people and societies are

interrelated and interdependent.

GUIDELINES & EXPECTATIONS

• You may request to identify yourself by name, alias, or as “anonymous” for publication in the digest. For reasons of accountability, the staff must know who you are, first and last name plus email address.

• We promote accountability of our contributors, and prefer your real name and your preferred title (i.e., Maruka Hernandez, CTA Operations Director, 34 years old, mother of 4; or J. Curtis Main, Loyola graduate student in WSGS, white, 27 years old), but understand, in terms of safety, privacy, and controversy, if you desire limitations. We are happy to publish imagery of you along with your submission, at our discretion.

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• All articles must have some clear connection to the mission of the magazine. It may be helpful to provide a sentence or two describing how your article fits into the magazine as a whole.

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We very much look forward to your submissions and your contribution to our overall mission.

50 Please send your submissions with a title and short bio to Broad People through broad.luc@gmail.com.