NUBIANMESSAGE NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY | RALEIGH, NC | THENUBIANMESSAGE.COM | wednesday, april 12, 2017
encouraging intersectionality
wednesday, april 12, 2017 | 2
Letter from the editor
Hey family, I cannot believe that this is the second to last issue of this year’s Nubian Message. I am both humbled and honored to have had the opportunity to serve as this year’s Editor-in-Chief. I came into this position anxious, and if we’re being frank, pretty unqualified. I also came into this position passionate and excited about increasing the relevance of this paper. With the help of an amazing staff, I feel as though we have done exactly that. With that being said, I have a few groups to acknowledge.
To our Student Media family: Thank you so much for all of your support throughout this tumultuous but ultimately victorious year. Through you sharing our stories, doing cross promotion and just generally being more inclusive, the Nubian Message became more involved with the entire office. You all have encouraged us to try new things and you have challenged us. For that, I say thank you. To my friends and family: Thank you so much for all of your love and support through what seems to have been one of the most stressful years of my college career. This job is oftentimes a lonely, thankless one, and your support is what got me through the hardest days. Thank you for bringing me ice cream at the office late at night, listening to me cry and giving me tons of hugs this year. Thank you for sharing my lows and highs, and providing me with healthy outlets to express fear, anger and joy. To my AMAZING staff: I want to thank you for taking this journey with me. I am forever grateful for your commitment to this organization, to quality journalism, and to serving the underrepresented populations on this campus. Know that I will always remember the late night conversations in the office and the excessive amount of fruit snack eating. I’ll always cherish the arguments that went into creating playlists and brainstorming coverage. I’ll never forget the amazing work that you all have done and I promise to support you in all the work you will continue to do. Thank you for being adaptable and willing. Thank you for becoming my family and riding this crazy rollercoaster with me. To our readers: I am so grateful for all of your support over the past year. Your willingness to stick by the Nubian and be avid readers has helped us push this publication to new heights. You have forced us to ask harder questions and cover topics outside of our comfort zone. You have required that we try new things with our photo, design and our multimedia presence. You have challenged us. For all of this, I say thank you. Quality journalism is nothing without an active audience, and because of you, the Nubian Message has set a new bar. I know that the staff will continue the legacy of excellence that is demanded from our readership and I hope you will join me in engaging with them as they do so. Stay black and blessed, Stephanie
THISISSUE 4 DERAY DURING PAN-AF Why you need to wake up
5 KIMBERLE CRENSHAW: PAN-AF KEYNOTE SPEAKER The urgency of intersectionality
6 GUEST COLUMN Dr. Nacoste asks, “Are you woke?”
7 HB142 AND WHAT IT MEANS Does anything change?
7 KENTON’S COLUMN The dangers of blindly listening
The Sentinel of the African -American Community at N.C. State Since 1992. Stephanie Tate
Editor-in-Chief
Ashley Darrisaw
LAYOUT DESIGNER
Anahzsa Jones
Managing editor
Allona Wilkerson
LAYOUT DESIGNER
Only with the permission of our elders do we proudly produce each edition of the Nubian Message:
Dr. Yosef ben-Yochannan, Dr. John Henrik Clark, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, The Black Panther Party, Mumia A. Jamal, Geronimo Pratt, Tony Williamson, Dr. Lawrence Clark, Dr. Augustus McIver Witherspoon, Dr. Wandra P. Hill, Mr. Kyran Anderson, Dr. Lathan Turner, Dr. M. Iyailu Moses, Dokta Toni Thorpe and all those who accompany us as we are still on the journey to true consciousness.
news
PAN-AFrikan week IN PHOTOS The photos featured below show the many talents and events that made for a successful Pan-Afrikan week.
Photos taken by Kaydee Gawlik, Cody Helm, Will Skinner, Sally Tung, and Glenn Wagstaff
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news
DERAY McKesson: Justice, Activism, and Waking Up ANAHZSA JONES MANAGING editor On Monday, April 3, DeRay McKesson, Pan-Afrikan Week’s keynote speaker, addressed a crowd of about 200 in Talley Coastal Ballroom. McKesson is an organizer, activist, educator and one of the most recognizable voices of Black Lives Matter with over 700 thousand followers on Twitter. McKesson’s activism was sparked by the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. He recounted how watching footage of the protests was his own call to action. Two weeks after the shooting, he got in his car, alone and with only one bag and drove to Missouri. He used his social media platform to connect with people in the area to find somewhere to sleep. “We aren’t born woke,” McKesson said. “Something wakes us up.” He was awarded the Howard Zinn Freedom to Write award in 2015 along with Johnetta Elzie for their work as citizen reporters. Currently, McKesson is continuing to tour the country giving talks on his experience and how people can help. He is also on the transition team for Tom Perez, the new chairman of the DNC. And, as Deijah Barnes, a junior studying social work and one of the students who announced McKesson, noted, “He is one of the nine people that Beyoncé Knowles follows (on Twitter).” Some of the main points McKesson discussed were the battle of ideas, the false distance of history and what leadership for these issues should look like. He addressed issues like reparations, immigration and school choice in order to illustrate these themes in a way applicable to real life.
A main takeaway of his talk was the importance of knowledge, particularly of government policy. “I want us, especially as people of color, to really be aware of the word policy and what it means,” he said. One of the policies he spoke on was a “clause that states ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has to detain a minimum of 34,000 people a day. That is wild,” he said. He also spoke on the political climate of the country now as opposed to years past. McKesson helped to organize several meetings with members of the Democratic Party, including President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Even though McKesson and his colleagues didn’t always agree with the politicians they met with, they were sure they wanted to be “on the right side of history.” Because of that, he always felt there was value in beginning the conversations. He did admit that he didn’t see much value in sitting down with the Trump administration. “We’re confident that he doesn’t care, right? He doesn’t want to be on the right side of this,” he said. McKesson also called out voters on the left who view Trump’s presidency as a “productive apocalypse,” in which the situations created by the administration would force people to confront things like racism and injustice. “You and I know it to be true that the only thing guaranteed in an apocalypse is the apocalypse,” McKesson said. “The productive part rarely comes.” Michael Kolor, a sophomore studying political science and economics, attended for both personal and academic reasons. “I found out about (this event) though
the University Scholars program. I was like ‘oh cool, he’s coming, I’m definitely going to that.’” Students in the scholars program are required to attend 12 events for credit, according to Kolor, but he says he would have attended the talk anyway. “I thought it was very informative,” Kolor continued. “A really cool opportunity to see someone who’s so influential in terms of activism through social media. I feel like he was one of the spearheading forces in that.” Sharlene Smith, a sophomore studying business administration said she was inspired by McKesson’s talk. “A lot of the things he made very accessible and they changed the way I thought about activism…I didn’t know how important your voice could be,” she said. Jasmine Cannon, a 2016 alumna who attended the event, said, “I thought it was really good, I thought it was impactful, especially for people who are not sure what their next steps are or how to get involved after the election.” As far as what people can do to help, McKesson advocates for education and understanding how local, as well as federal, government works. To that end, he helped to launch a site called ourstates.org, which features a stateby-state guide to legislation and strategies to influence state legislators. McKesson ended by stressing the necessity of activism, but also of understanding that it isn’t all glamorous. “This work will always be more important than it is popular.”
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KIMBERLÉ Crenshaw Delivers Political Lecture KEILAH DAVIS staff writer Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw delivered Pan-Afrikan Week’s political keynote lecture to a crowd of over 150 on Tuesday, April 4. Crenshaw is a professor at UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School and is known for intersectional theory and critical race theory. Entitled “#SayHerName: The Urgency of Intersectionality,” the lecture centered on critiques of the current political landscape, social issues and the resistance movements that address them. “My view is that these circumstances warrant every critical effort that we have to wrestle with the moment we find ourselves in to find a path to a more robust vision of the future,” Crenshaw said. “To do that we’re gonna have to revisit some of our nation’s painful truths.” Crenshaw shared the origins of critical race theory, which she helped develop while at Harvard Law School. According to her, Harvard was resistant to considering how the school’s practices were consistent with, instead of challenging, white supremacy and racial exclusion. “Critical race theory came out of our response to the institution’s response to us,” Crenshaw said. “It was an intellectual movement forged in struggle, institutional struggle.” Dominique Weatherspoon, a junior studying mathematics, said, “What interested me most about her talk were the examples of past implementation and how the students made stuff happen. That makes me think about what we can do, what our generation can do, what our students here can do to improve the climate (at NC State).” Crenshaw also discussed colorblindness and the effect of post-racialism on the U.S. “Colorblindness, as many people have framed it, is a way of not talking about race,” Crenshaw said. “Post-racialism
allows us to talk about racial difference. Post-racialism allows us to talk about inequality. What we’re not allowed to talk about is racial power.” Crenshaw argued that the post-racial frame ignores problems located in structures and institutions. She used “My Brother’s Keeper,” President Barack Obama’s signature racial justice initiative, as an example.
“She spoke nothing but the truth tonight,” said Malik Zeigler, a junior studying political science. “She was wonderful. I think she spoke so much truth about the women in our movement and how we do not speak enough about them. I learned a lot about Say Her Name because when she did that activity, I could only do one and that was it.” The activity Zeigler referred to began
Jessica Hernandez/Staff Photographer Professor Kimberle Crenshaw speaks on the meaning and importance of intersectionality, a term she coined, in Talley Student Union on Tuesday. Crenshaw is a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, and is a specialist in civil rights, Black feminist legal theory and racism and the law.
“I told you that we had to have some difficult conversations,” Crenshaw said. “(My Brother’s Keeper) is a way of thinking and framing racial inequality that isn’t about structures, isn’t about history, isn’t about institutions. It’s about individuals who have been left behind by individuals.”
with the entire audience standing. As Crenshaw listed names of black people killed by police within the past 3 years, the audience was instructed to sit down when they no longer recognized a name. Crenshaw began by naming 4 men and the audience remained standing. After naming
4 women, all but 5 had taken their seats. “One thing separates the ones you know from the ones you don’t know: gender,” Crenshaw said. “I think it opened my eyes to a lot of things, especially as a black man,” Zeigler said. “I got corrected on my own privilege and that’s important.” Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum founded the #SayHerName movement to highlight how the current movement against police violence excludes the gender-specific violence black women, particularly black queer and transgender women, face. “The best way to address this is to bear witness, to actually sit with the discomfort of encountering the kind of violence that happens to bodies that have been marginalized,” Crenshaw said. She then presented a video compilation by the African American Policy Forum on Natasha McKenna, a 37-year-old black woman who died in police custody in 2015, and other unnamed black women. The video was graphic and included images of police officers using physical force and tasers to subdue the women. Members of the crowd could be seen wiping away tears. The video concluded by flashing the names and faces of black women killed by police or in police custody within the past 3 years. The audience read their names in unison. “Let’s use this moment to historicize, to tool, and to commit, to recommit to a social justice that is worthy to hand down to those who come behind us.”
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opinion
GUEST COLUMN: ARE YOU WOKE? DR. RUPERT W. NACOSTE, PH.D. GUEST COLUMNIST What does it mean to be “woke”? In the blistering days of the “old” Civil Rights MoveI have been thinking about this because I am worried. ment, there were former Klansmen who climbed over I see too many people who proclaim themselves “woke,” the hot unnatural walls of segregation to work in the who are nothing of the sort. movement for civil rights for African Americans. I shook Forty-two years I have been doing the fieldwork of hands with one or two of those former Klansmen. On the social justice. At the age of 22 I started doing that work in American journey toward positive social change, in our the U.S. Navy, an environment filled with danger and dan- work toward a more perfect union, we must be foolish gerous social interactions. In my beginning, I was trained enough to take every opportunity to create coalitions and to and facilitated interracial dialogues that were anything collaborations. but polite. To be “woke” is to be a connector of communities. To be “woke” is to be a person who brings the reluctant into being part of the campaign for social justice. To be “woke” means to live by this interaction principle: Never try to interact with a person as a representative of a group. Intersectional is today’s buzzword that has caught on with the newly “woke.” Intersectional is supposed to describe the fact that all of our lives as human beings intersect. No one is an island, in other words. For the “woke” that idea should mean we will not allow us-versus-them to guide our work. But not everybody who talks about our intersectional humanity actually gets that meaning. On Facebook I saw a post about feminism. It said: “My feminism has to be intersectional.” Then the Dr. Nacoste is an Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Profesattached article was “Why I hate white women.” Another sor of Psychology and the author of “Taking on Diversity: How We was, “Why white feminist are wrong.” Can Move From Anxiety to Respect” (Prometheus Books, 2015). And there it is. A word that is supposed to describe how all our lives interconnect was being used to push usversus-them. Intersectional; a word that was supposed to This semester, in a paper for my “Interdependence highlight our natural connections to each other, was being and Race” course, thinking about the coalition-building used to build an unnatural psychological wall. After the that she learned went on during the “old” Civil Rights revolutionary work we did to knock down the walls of all Movement, an African-American student wrote, “Being kinds of American segregation, are we going to still rely a ‘social justice warrior’ is very ‘in’ right now. Because of on old us-versus-them thinking? this I often find that people are quick to show how ‘woke’ Look, there are people who voted for President they are by attacking someone else. Unfortunately, doing Trump who now want to work against what he is trying to that, they miss the opportunity to teach and learn from do. Have you seen the “I regret voting for Donald Trump” someone else.” Facebook page? Have you seen the twitter stream of “@ For 42 years, with much success, I have done the work Trump-Regrets”? Have you seen the twitter hashtag “#reof moving all kinds of people into productive dialogue togretvotingforTrump” with its 250,000 followers? Will you ward positive social change. Today, I will not stand by and turn those people away from the social justice work that let the newcomers to this social-justice work, the newly needs doing? “woke,” go around ripping up the roots of the coalitions
that I know we need to get through these difficult days. I will not stand by and let the neophyte “woke,” with unfocused zeal, use bigotry as a hatchet in what is supposed to be the gardening of social justice for all. To be “woke” is to advocate for justice without putting people down; to hold to a foolish, high standard of respect for everyone’s humanity. Name-calling people because of the group they happen to be born into is not social justice work. That is just feeding the social injustice of bigotry that the “woke” should be fighting to dismantle. To those who claim to be “woke,” I ask, have you educated yourself enough to know that prejudice is not bigotry is not racism? If you have, then you would be able to address intergroup problems of today with strategies that do not rely on name-calling. To do our work for social justice, we must build coalitions of respect so that we can collaborate. That is how we will survive and thrive during this period in America. That is how we will, once again, save the soul of America. You see, that is what being “woke” has always been about. In 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke directly to how difficult the work for social justice is. In a speech to young people, Dr. King said: “May I say to you as you continue your protest, you will confront moments of difficulty. But let us realize that no great and lasting gain comes in history without suffering and sacrifice. Let nobody stop you; you are doing something that will ultimately save the soul of America.” As you advocate, as you meet to organize and develop new, innovative strategies of action, you must do so respecting everyone’s humanity. If that is not your way of being a social-justice worker, you are not what you are claiming. If you only care about people using stereotypes of the groups you like, if you do not check yourself from using stereotypes of people who are members of groups you think have it easy, you are contributing to the problems of social justice in these difficult days. You are not “woke.” Here endeth the lesson.
OPINION/feature
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kenton’s corner: Just Following Orders This entire incident with United Airlines is a truly pitiful microcosm of the state of the world today. It leaves me with a few questions. The first of which being, at what point does following kenton gibbs orders become morally Staff Writer reprehensible...asking for a friend. Because what happened on United flight 3411 was absolutely absurd. What may have been even worse is the company’s reckless attempts to make the incident look better afterwards. So I must first address their irresponsible behavior as a whole. But I must also touch on the parties who haven’t been talked about much: the Chicago aviation officer who violently removed paying customer David Dao from the overbooked flight. To start off, the company said one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen when trying to explain that the flight wasn’t overbooked.
According to a USA Today article, United stated, “United and regional affiliate Republic Airlines – the unit that operated Flight 3411 – came to the conclusion that they had to remove four passengers from the aircraft to accommodate crewmembers who were needed in Louisville the next day for a “downline connection,”.
“So at what point does
following orders become morally reprehensible... asking for a friend. ” If all the seats are filled and essential passengers still aren’t on board the flight is overbooked right? Okay, I’m glad I’m not crazy. But the fact that this debacle happened wasn’t just the fault of the company. A CEO can issue an order but someone has to execute it. The person who successfully followed through on a hostile removal of Dr. Dao was a Chicago aviation officer and they have been placed on leave.
My question for that officer would be why they would do such a thing? It’s so hard to imagine that a person could, in good conscious, remove a person who had done nothing wrong in such an intense manner. There is no ‘I was just doing my job’ when that job leaves innocent people bloodied and battered for a mistake on your employer’s behalf. It’s not as if Dr. Dao had gotten onto the plane through a series of Joanne the Scammer-esque moves. He bought a ticket just like everyone else.
“If all the seats are filled and essential passengers still aren’t on board the flight is overbooked right?”
I don’t care what your job is or how much you get paid. The fact of the matter is that at some point an individual’s moral
compass should override their directives from their boss. I understand that there are mitigating circumstances of having a family to feed and bills to pay but at what point do you stop and say wrong is wrong?
“The fact of the matter
is that at some point an individual’s moral compass should override their directives from their boss.” Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines, doesn’t look like he can pull off the act of dragging a grown man off of a plane. He needs this officer to do the “dirty work”. And to be put on leave after that...All I can say is, congratulations. You played yaself.
what does HB142 mean for NC State’s community dion figueroa staff writer A few weeks ago, the North Carolina State Legislature passed House Bill 142 which repeals certain provisions found in HB 2, or the famous “bathroom bill,” and sets up new provisions which have been met with scrutiny from both liberals and conservatives. The main headline from the Roy Cooper led compromise declares that only the General Assembly has the power to regulate who has access to which bathroom. Section 3 of the bill states that “No local government in this State may enact or amend an ordinance regulating private employment practices or regulating public accommodations.” However, these provisions have an expiration date of December 1, 2020. This means that barring the state legislature becoming less conservative, or Roy Cooper being reelected, any changes are, for now, temporary. Renee Wells, the director of the GLBT
“HB142 will likely continue to impact students’
perception of the inclusiveness of North Carolina, NC State’s, and other public universities’ ability to effectively recruit students, staff and faculty.”” -Renee Wells, the director of the GLBT center on campus
center on campus, noted that, “HB142 still prohibits local governments, at least until December 1, 2020, from passing expanded nondiscrimination laws related to employment or access to public accommodations.” When asked about what effects the new bill would have on campus Wells said, “Given that the ‘bathroom bill’ aspects of the new law aren’t any different from the old law, HB142 will likely continue to im-
pact students’ perception of the inclusiveness of North Carolina, NC State’s, and other public universities’ ability to effectively recruit students, staff and faculty.” This new piece of legislation has also garnered critique from both the NAACP and the ACLU. President of the NAACP Cornell Williams Brooks released a statement on the NAACP’s website after the ratification of the law stating, “The
NAACP condemns the perplexing attempt to address the discriminatory HB2 law through a proposal that on the surface repeals HB2, while subtly embedding a greater layer of discrimination and confusion into the state’s anti-discriminatory laws.” The president of the NAACP also used the statement to bring up concerns that the ratification of this bill is to simply please the NCAA who moved the opening round games of its NCAA basketball tournament in opposition of the law. Brooks stated, “Ironically, the proposed solution only comes forward due to attempts to avoid the deadline imposed upon the state by the NCAA which threatens to ban championship games through 2022, and not due to a sincere commitment to eliminating discriminatory laws.” A link to the ratified bill can be found on the NC State legislatures website.