ETHOS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
NEWSLETTER October 25, 2015
Issue no. 1
“I couldn’t breathe. . .” Distance disconnects us from the world. Distance hides reality from our vision and encloses us in a veil of ignorance. But I always thought distance was a passive thing. I never knew people could use it as a tool to invalidate me. This summer I learned otherwise. While I laid in the comfort of my home on July 17th – Eric Garner laid on the ground, dead. Forty-five minutes away from my house, several police threw themselves on Garner like Have you ever had someone tell you that expressing your opinion about basic human rights and equality was inappropriate? Called you a racist for not tiptoeing around the fact that race affects things? Accused you of setting a bad example for the kids that you teach? I
couldn’t
an animal. Through gasps of air, Garner’s plea of “I can’t breathe” did not stop the police from suffocating him to death. When I posted the quote, “I can’t breathe” and a caption embodying my frustration towards the disregard for human life, on Instagram, I did not expect what came next. The comment of my co-worker, from the horseback-riding barn that I coach at, on my post left my lips paralyzed. I could not form words to describe my utter astonishment and anger. But yet her statements still stood. “If we don’t talk about race, it won’t be a problem” she said. “You are being a bad role model” she said. “I could get you fired for this” she said. My body was trembling. I couldn’t form words – a sound – a simple thought.
cried for Eric Garner. I cried for the people whose bigoted opinions will never change no matter what. I cried for our fucked up world. Finally, I stopped shaking. Finally, I could breathe normally. But Eric Garner and colored people before him and people to come, will never have that luxury.
breathe… I
The next day I took away her tool of distance. When I confronted her she was timid.
couldn’t
breathe…
Julie Renfroe
I had to distance myself. Collapsed on the wheel of my car, through broken sobs I
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October 25, 2015
Issue no. 1
Over the past 2 years a total of 1,260 people have died from mass shootings in the United States. The figure below represents the number of people that have been killed or injured during a mass shooting in the past month.
Data Source: Mass Shouting Tracker
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October 25, 2015
Issue no. 1
The Real Struggle in Academia One of the most bold and frequent questions teachers get asked by students is “When are we ever going to use this?” On one particularly draining day in my high-school AP Calculus class, a student was curious as to how the knowledge they were gaining in the course could be applied to the outside world and why the course was relevant. My teacher replied honestly, admitting that we would not apply most of the material, but that we would come away with enhanced problem solving skills that we could use for college. The rest of the class and I accepted this because we would accept anything that would help us to get into college.
Now, I have made it to college. I love the classes I am taking and my professors are great, but in what could be my last stage of academia, I need to know that the skills I will be learning are applicable. I value academia, yes, because through higher education I will have greater access to wealth which can increase the overall quality of my life. No longer can I accept theory without it being applicable to my life. I have been in this system for nearly two decades and I now desire a greater relevance. I hope to have skills, not to just help myself, but to help my community. To deconstruct systems that create such big barriers between
quality education and between wealth. I do not want to be to be the sole beneficiary of my education, I believe that I can use my education to better many more lives than just my own. As what could be my last journey in academia, I am struggling to see the greater entity I have been striving for. The disconnect between academia and my life back home is especially apparent to me as I am transitioning from Chicago to Wellesley. In this process, I’ve realized that I was not only transitioning to a different state, but that I was transitioning into a different state of living; one that feels artificial.
Wellesley does not feel like an artificial world because it’s a women’s college, but because I’m not sure how the skills I am learning will apply outside of class or in my future career. I have a lot to navigate in those two realms and also outside. For example, in my pursuit to become a certified teacher can and will Wellesley teach me how to empower students of color? Many of the requirements of becoming certified English teacher here represent a Eurocentric curriculum that could disengage students of color in the classroom. As an institution that attempts to craft an environment of empowerment not mimicked in the greater world, there is an added responsibility of making sure that what we learn here is applicable.
Some of the privileges I experience at Wellesley have produced a sort of culture shock.
At Wellesley, I can walk around as late as I want without the same degree of paranoia I experience at home. I usually do not fear anyone or anything but flying acorns. I can also walk around with my headphones in because there’s no real need to be alert. However, this sort of oblivion is never encouraged because there is no single place where one is safe from danger.
At Wellesley, I am expected to call the campus police without fear and ask them to unlock my door. In Chicago, and most other places, the police are a fatal and antagonistic force and I try to limit my interactions with them as much as possible. At Wellesley I am even encouraged to call campus police for help if I, an underaged student, get drunk. At Wellesley, I do not have to eat leftovers or learn to cook. Food, and especially fresh vegetables, are abundant here.
At Wellesley, not many feel the need to steal and the cases of theft are significantly lesser than what I have experienced in Chicago. This partly due to the high regard of the honor code, but also significantly because here resources are abundant.
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October 25, 2015
Issue no. 1
The Real Struggle in Academia continued. . . Academia is this protected world and while I’m comfortable, I am disconnected from very real aspects of my life. When I go home all of these things will change, and more. I will not always be able to afford fresh foods. I will not feel comfortable interacting with the police. I will definitely not be encouraged to do so. I will have to remain alert at all times, maybe only using my headphones to ignore catcalls. I will be immersed in a world that does not view me as and does not want me to be empowered. Wellesley often does not explicitly acknowledge this. Academia usually does not acknowledge my identity as a queer Black. How do I reconcile this life that I am and will be living for the next four years and the skills that I gain here, with the life that I will be living when I go back home? I don’t have all the solutions as to how Wellesley, or academia in general, can deal with this. But one thing I’ve noticed as a first year, is how many speeches and workshops we’ve had about how to excel inside of the bubble that is Wellesley. I think there is room to talk about how to excel, survive even, outside of it. Ni’Shele
Black woman and I don’t know how to go about making myself visible here. Wellesley is allowing me to borrow this life, but I’m concerned about gaining the skills to make these privileges accessible to me for the rest of my life. The struggle for me, being Black in academia, is the disconnect between learning skills and applying them here at Wellesley, and these skills being applicable back home because those environments are the ones in which I will operate. This world full of misogynoir will try to discredit me and what I have worked toward here at Wellesley. As a Black woman I often do not get to be seen as a complex individual I will always
be grouped and typed, analyzed, simplified, and picked apart. I need Wellesley to help equip me against that. Will the CWS give me tips on how to combat racism and sexism in the workplace without getting fired? Will my writing courses teach me how to relate the theories I learn here in my own dialect or is the dialect of academia the only one I’m allowed to use here? How is academia relevant to me? How am I helping my community? How do I deal with the very real racism and discrimination in academia? What power do I have here? When I go home, will I be equipped to excel in the real world?
INTERESTED IN WRITING FOR THE ETHOS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER? Email Serenity Hughes (shughes3) and Sydney Stewart (sstewart3) with your ideas. All members are welcomed and encouraged to write for the newsletter.
Jackson
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October 25, 2015
Issue no. 1
From Cookie to Clair Huxtable: The Portrayal of Blacks in the Media The Let’s Talk About It series began in November 2014 as a set of discussions aimed at increasing the Wellesley community’s awareness of issues affecting the Black race in America. We will be holding our fourth installment of Let’s Talk About It, “From Cookie to Clair Huxtable: The Portrayal of Blacks in the Media”, on Thursday, October 29 at 6:00 pm in Pendleton Atrium. We plan to discuss the impact media has in shaping people’s understandings of the Black race in America, how harmful stereotypes can be in classifying a people, the politics behind these negative portrayals of Blacks in the media, and how we can affect positive change in regards to this issue. We welcome all members of the Wellesley community and students from other campuses interested in the discussion. If you have questions in regard to the event, please contact Sydney Stewart and Serenity Hughes at sstewar3@wellesley.edu and shughes3@wellesley.edu.
Ethos Political Action Committee Members: Serenity Hughes, Co-Chair ‘18
Julie Renfroe ‘19
Sydney Stewart, Co-Chair ‘18
Olaide Sode ‘19
Amaya Allen ‘18
Gabrielle Taylor ‘18
Sydney Cadiz ‘16
Iliana Smith ‘19
Tyanna Crump ‘19 Ni’Shele Jackson ‘19 Elsa Kudzi ‘19 Victoria Lee ‘16 Jordan Mayfield, Newsletter Layout Editor ‘18 5