From left to right, members of Les Griots Violets: Raven Ancar (LA ’22), Xel Frame (LA ’20), Abi Mbaye (LA ’19, PHTM ’19, LA *20), Tabita Gnagniko (SE ’22), Kamiya Stewart (SE *19), Paige Magee (PHTM ’22), and Deja Wells (LA ’22).
Black Feminist Activism Students Raven Ancar (LA ’22) and Simenesh Semine (LA ’21) discuss their experiences as Black women at Tulane
By Katie Small
W
hen she told her friends that she planned to attend Tulane, Raven Ancar was met with shock. “They wanted to know why I would volunteer to go here—because everyone knows Tulane’s hella white,” Ancar said. A native of New Orleans East, Ancar says she initially felt isolated as a Black student at a predominately white institution (PWI). “You don’t meet a lot of people from New Orleans at Tulane. ...My house is only 30 minutes away from here, but it looks like two completely different places,” Ancar said. “The wealth gap, that clicked for me as soon as I got here—I experienced a culture shock, and I’m from this city.” The sense of shock and alienation that she felt inspired Ancar to make a film documenting the experiences of Black students at Tulane. During her first year of college she released The Veil, a film aimed at educating the Tulane community on the double-consciousness that students of color experience as students at a PWI: “You have to think about things that white students don’t, like—‘Don’t take this teacher because they’re racist,’ or ‘Take this teacher because they’re not as racist,’” Ancar said. Bringing awareness to the Tulane Black student experience has been a constant source of motivation for Ancar, who continues to take on activism responsibilities in addition to a double major in Sociology and Digital Media Studies, and
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NEWCOMB FALL 2020
