Nubian Message, March 21, 2018 — Study reveals hunger and homelessness

NUBIANMESSAGE NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY | RALEIGH, NC | THENUBIANMESSAGE.COM | wednesday, march 21, 2018

study reveals hunger and homelessness

wednesday, March 21, 2018 | 2

Letter from the editor

THISISSUE 3 BLACKADEMICS

Hello lovely people, Sorry for the little hiccup in the schedule, but spring break, you know? So this semester, we’ll only have two more issues of the Nubian, one on April 4th, and then on the 18th, and that last one will be out through the end of the semester and exams.

So if you have something to say, your chances are dwindling!

We’re always open to taking guest columns and suggestions for coverage. Just contact us at nubian-editor@ncsu.edu.

Now for this issue. To your right, you’ll meet Ms. Angela Gay, if you haven’t already. She is the assistant director of the Women’s Center, A.K.A. the bomb.com according to Keilah, who got the chance to talk to her for this awesome Blackademics article.

Center spread is a far less cheerful story. Dr. Mary Haskett, from our very own psychology department, has released a study you may have heard about. It examines the prevalence of food and housing insecurity among NC State students. This is a very real problem, and it’s very much here on our campus. I’m so glad that we got the chance to highlight these issues, so please take a look. We need to make sure we’re fostering a campus community where these things can be talked about openly and honestly. Part of the article talks about the social stigma that comes along with food and housing insecurity. Breaking down those stigmas starts with conversation, so share this article with friends, family and administrators. Let them know this is important to us.

After that we have a little culture section for you. Over spring break, I got to read the most amazing book. It’s called “Children of Blood and Bone” by my new favorite author, Tomi Adeyemi. Black Girl Magic runs rampant through this novel, literally and figuratively. It’s the fantasy book I have been waiting for, with black people and African mythology. You can read the rest of my nerd out on page six. Also, one of our writers has found herself getting into podcasts and wanted to make some recommendations for the culture, so you’ll find that on page seven.

Well that’s all for now. Thanks for sticking with us this year; we’re almost in the home stretch! And if you’re new to the paper, welcome to the Nubian Message family.

Angela Gay

4 FOOD INSECURITY

New results on magnitude at NC State

6 BOOK REVIEW “Children of Blood and Bone”

7 PODCASTS FOR POC Podcasts for the culture

The Sentinel of the African -American Community at N.C. State Since 1992.

Anahzsa Jones

Editor-in-Chief

Keilah Davis

Managing editor

Love, Anahzsa Only with the permission of our elders do we proudly produce each edition of the Nubian Message:

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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.

features

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Blackademics: Angela Gay keilah davis Managing Editor

Empowering Students to Live Authentically

“I never had that vision for myself of what life looked like past high school until I decided I’m the author of my life,” she said.

Angela earned her bachelor’s in organizational communication. After finishing her master’s in clinical mental health counseling, Angela completed an internship at a collegiate counseling center.

She uses her experiences both in counseling and student affairs in her current position.

“I have a very person-centered ethic of care,” Angela said. “I understand that everyone needs to be heard, seen, appreciated and understood. That’s really what I do in my work.”

Angela’s “The Politics of Black Hair” exhibit did just that. This exhibit, which was on display in the African American Cultural Center Gallery, featured the hair and hair stories of 30 participants from the NC State community.

Photo contributed by angela gay.

The exhibit was about “seeing black folks and their hair in ways that the mainstream ngela Gay is a second-year culture says is stigmatizing or stereotypical graduate student in the Educational and elevating it to a point where it can be Leadership, Policy and Human understood,” Angela said.

Development doctoral program at NC Another example of person-centered State. She joined the Women’s Center programming is Feminist Fridays, studentstaff as graduate programming assistant facilitated conversations on gender and in December 2016 and became assistant equity held weekly at 3:30 p.m. in the director one year later.

Women’s Center.

As assistant director, Angela is responsible “Feminist Fridays are really an for many things, including advising student opportunity to talk about who you are workers at the Women’s Center, working and taking the personal and making the with the Women of Welch Village and personal political, which is not something organizing signature programs. However, that I made up. It’s something that black Angela likes to describe her role a different feminist theorists have been saying for way. years.”

“I get paid to help folks live their best According to Angela, women’s centers life in their most authentic form,” Angela are often exclusively associated with white said. “That looks like supporting students, women. “For me, it was important to have educating students, leading students, a space where there was representation of helping students find the leader in folks who can come and see that you, too, themselves and advocating for students.” have a space at this center,” Angela said.

While students are the primary concern, Furthermore, Angela’s vision for the the Women’s Center supports the entire Women’s Center is to “[bring] research to campus and Raleigh community. the Center and [make] the Center a hub Angela, and the Women’s Center staff, for research especially around gender and does this through “programming that equity.” centers intersectional experiences such as Angela founded the Gender and Equity women of color, queer students, those along Research Symposium as a graduate assistant the LGBTQ spectrum, different religious after the idea came to her during a staff and spiritual affiliations.” retreat. The 2018 Gender and Equity As a child, Angela didn’t envision herself Research Symposium will be held on April 2 doing this work and attending college wasn’t in Talley Student Union. always a goal.

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“We have faculty and staff, and even doctoral students and master’s students, who are engaged in some pretty amazing research,” Angela said. “Bringing research to the Center also means using that research to produce things that actually promote a better quality of life for people.”

For Angela, putting theory into practice is the ultimate goal. Everything she plans or coordinates has a theoretical basis.

“My own theoretical frameworks are Black Feminist Ideology, Womanism, Critical Race Theory and Cognitive Behavioral Theory,” Angela said.

Yet another aspect of Angela’s vision to incorporate more research into the Women’s Center is “bringing in faculty and researchers and folks who are doing this work, like Lorraine Acker. Dr. Lorraine

Acker came for Domestic Violence Awareness Month back in October and talked about her research on how women of color, specifically black women, are experiencing sexual assault and sexual violence on college campuses.”

Ultimately, Angela’s work and vision are about empowering others to light the fire inside themselves and setting fire to the oppressive systems that prevent people from living their most authentic lives.

“Everything that makes us who we are, the very essence of our being, is to be brought to light and elevated to a position where we feel like ‘I can be who I am in this environment that does not always welcome me and my identities’ and doing that in a way that challenges the power structures that be.”

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news

Food and housing insecurity at nc state Recent survey shows 14% of NC State students expericnce food insecurity and about 10% experience homelessness.

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here are some common struggles among the students of the Wolfpack; we’re all trying to balance classes, clubs, jobs, and social lives—all while desperately trying to get a full eight hours of sleep when we can. But a recent survey conducted at NC State shows that for some students, homelessness and food insecurity are also part of their struggles.

In October 2017, a survey was emailed to 7,000 randomly selected students, asking questions about their experiences with homelessness and access to food. Dr. Mary Haskett, a professor of psychology and member of the Steering Committee for the Food and Housing Security Among NC State Students Initiative, worked with two undergraduate research assistants to conduct the survey. These students are also members of the Steering Committee— Shivani Surati, a second-year student studying health sciences, and Indira Gutierrez, a third-year student studying psychology.

“I knew we had students on our campus who were struggling with not enough food and with really vulnerable living arrangements and homelessness,” Dr. Haskett said. “I really wanted to try to bring people together to solve this problem, and the first thing we decided we needed to do was to understand the extent of this problem.”

The survey consisted of 35 questions and the questions were divided into topics such as food and nutrition, sleep and housing, methods of paying for college, and economic experiences.

“I think each category can tell us about what aspects of food and housing insecurity are most common among college students and the adverse effects it can have on academic performance,” Surati said.

This is the first study of its kind to be done on NC State students, and the questions were adapted from similar surveys of different universities in the country.

Major Findings Of the 1,949 students who replied, 14% had experienced low or very low food security in the past 30 days, while 9.6% had experienced homelessness in the past 12 months. The survey indicates that food

kennysha woods Staff Writer

and housing insecurity are closely related, with 24% of students who experienced homelessness in the past year also experiencing food insecurity in the past 30 days.

“In terms of how we compare to other campuses,” Dr. Haskett said, “our rates of food insecurity tend to be consistent with what other universities are reporting, and maybe even lower than a lot of other universities. But our rates of homelessness are stunning.”

The survey report cites the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 2015, which found that 4.5% of high school students in NC had experienced homelessness during the prior year.

Food and Housing Insecurity: From the Pack Gutierrez shared her experience: “This summer was the first time that I had the most serious concerns about housing. My mom has a chronic illness, and the rent Graphs composed using study data. This pie chart compares the demographic breakdown increase was so significant she could no by race of students who answered survey questions. For visual breakdowns by gender and longer work long enough hours to afford it Hispanic/Latinx heritage, see thenubianmessage.com. and maintain her health.” other people, and I hope they act upon After paying the fee out-of-pocket to keep What are the Causes?

There are a combination of factors leading using that number as a motivator to do her things in Wolf Village, Gutierrez stayed to homelessness and food insecurity among something about it.” with one of her brothers of Mu Beta Psi and college students. According to the report, Dr. Haskett said, “These are not students worried about how she was going to be able these factors include the rise in the cost of that we could dismiss by saying, ‘Well they to buy healthy meals. living for college students, the increased just need to get a job. I worked when I was a “School meal plans cover food, sure, but tuition costs outpacing increases in financial student and I lived off of Oodles of Noodles.’ choosing the cheapest meal plan comes at a aid, stagnant minimum wage and less These students are working hard. They’re cost,” Gutierrez said. availability of affordable housing. employed at higher rates than the general Another student, Qulea Anderson, a But despite these setbacks, the survey population. They’re looking for work in second-year student studying creative indicates that many of these students work addition to already working, holding more writing, shared her experience of housing part-time and full-time jobs to sustain their than one job. They’re doing everything right, insecurity this past Christmas break: living; in fact, students who had experienced but what they’re not doing, and what we as a “When finals were coming up and I was food and/or housing insecurity were more university can help with, is taking advantage planning on how I was getting home, I was likely to be working or looking for work. of the financial resources that they may be communicating with my cousin to see when eligible for.” she would be able to come and get me. Later The report highlights that 37% of food insecure students were working more than Such resources include Supplemental on in the week I found out that I wouldn’t 20 hours a week.

Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), be able to stay with her for Christmas break Sarah Wright, an academic coach of TRIO programs, campus food pantries, due to her own reasoning. With that I had Student Support Services (SSS), Pack meal donations and on-campus emergency to scramble to figure out what I was going housing. to do. I knew that it wouldn’t be wise for me Promise Coordinator, and member of the Steering Committee, works with a small to stay on campus cause I wouldn’t be able population of 250 under-resourced students. Problems to Address to provide for myself food-wise. I ended up “To see the results of the a campus wide So what keeps these students from telling my best friend about what was going survey, especially with the [homelessness accessing these resources? One major on and she invited me to stay with her for rate] being so high, that was shocking to problem is the lack of awareness of financial break.” me,” Wright said. “I hope it’s shocking to assistance resources.

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news “We have a huge population of students who don’t know they’re eligible for SNAP benefits, which can equate to $160 a month for food,” Wright said. “So I think their awareness of their resources is important.”

For Gutierrez and Anderson, awareness of these resources proved useful. Anderson discovered Feed the Pack Pantry when she consulted her friends and TRIO about her situation. “When I brought it up with my roommate and my academic coach, that’s when I was told about the resources on campus,” Anderson said.

Gutierrez also benefited with the aid of TRIO; she “had a place to go for questions [she] had about resources in food, housing, and general how-to questions.”

However, Gutierrez added that “not everyone has TRIO as a resource since there are limited amount of spaces for TRIO.” Another major problem is the stigmas surrounding people seeking help from these resources and having discussions about issues of food and housing insecurity.

“I do think students feel marginalized and they feel they aren’t part of the wider community of NC State’s campus because nobody talks about it,” said Dr. Haskett, “so nobody understands that there are lots of students struggling. It feels very isolating.

“One of the things that we’re trying to change on campus is that stigmatization.

We want to have an open, transparent conversation about this so that it becomes a part of our conversation with students and among students to destigmatize asking for help.”

Anderson said, “People also associate being homeless with being dirty, dumb, and that the person deserves it. They think that the person did it to themselves and that they can get out of it as easily as they got into it…

But people don’t want their pride to suffer and to be pitied. They might be scared about being harassed or just feel like people won’t actually help them even if they speak out.

Nobody wants the whole world to know that they can’t provide for themselves so why even discuss it?”

What Can NC State Do? The report suggests possible solutions to lower NC State’s rates of homelessness and food insecurity. These solutions include establishing a single point of contact to provide struggling students with quick and efficient help in accessing assistance programs.

Wright said, “Reduce textbook cost, more open resource materials, but the biggest thing is there needs to be an office, person or group that is that single point of contact who is knowledgeable about the under-resourced population and managing

Graphs composed using study data. This graph represents the percent, broken down by race, of students who answered the survey and experience food insecurity or homelessness. For visual breakdowns by gender and Hispanic/Latinx heritage, see thenubianmessage.com. students in crisis, and has relationships with community and campus resources to be able to get students the resources they need and work with them so that they can sustain staying secure.”

Other solutions include gaining more sources to fund programs helping these students and raising awareness of these issues and assistance programs among students, staff and faculty members to make them more knowledgeable of how to help struggling students.

But all of these solutions start from a common foundation—ending the stigma by fostering discussion of food and housing insecurity within NC State administration and among the student body. With more discussion, struggling students may be more encouraged to seek the available resources.

“I just want to see more workshops and discussions being centered around helping students with food and/or housing insecurity,” Anderson said. “There should be events that show students where they can go and who they can talk to. When they send out the howlemails and what not, they should have those events in there and even include links where they can go to a site or give them contacts that they can discuss in private if theydon’t want their business to be public.”

Wright said, “Whatever the resource may be, it can’t be effective if the students who

need it feel bad about going. That’s not necessarily a campus issues. It’s a societal issue.”

“Using resources available to you that satisfy your needs shouldn’t be a source of shame but an example of the resilience you have to get through an unfavorable situation,” Gutierrez said. “Hard times don’t discriminate… There’s no population in the world that is immune to crisis, things happen.”

The next step for the Initiative is to further investigate and analyze food and housing insecurity as it relates to mental health and well-being, first generation college students,

international students, veterans, students with disabilities, students athletes, and parenting students.

All data will contribute to understanding these students’ situations, and will help NC State and Wake County enact solutions to help these students.

For more information on resources at NC State, please visit go.ncsu.edu/packessentials.

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wednesday, March 21, 2018 | 6

opinion

“Children of blood and bone”

A ya fantasy for the Black Girl magic in you ANahzsa Jones editor-in-chief that are amazing despite the lack of color, I’ve also read a lot of books full of melanin-deficient people making melanin-deficient mistakes to drive the plot. Books where people who look like me were non-existent, or representative of the entire race or served as a lesson in diversity. They weren’t allowed to just be people. That could be because nobody knows what to do with black people in publishing because there are no black people in publishing.

That’s an exaggeration, but according to a study done in 2015 by Lee & Low Books, only 4 percent of people in the publishing industry overall were black. On the editorial side, basically the people that edit and pitch the book, there’s 2 percent. There’s 3 percent in sales and marketing each, and a whopping 2 percent at the executive level.

Not only is there a lack of POC in the Photo from macmillan publishers Cover of “Children of Blood and Bone by industry, but when it comes to writers Tomi Adeyemi. Cover art by Rich Deas.“ and subject matter, the numbers are also pretty low. lack book nerds! Our time has According to an ongoing research come. I have three words for you: effort by the Cooperative Children’s West African Fantasy.

Book Center at the School of Education March 6 saw the release of my new at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, favorite book, “Children of Blood and out of the 3,500 children’s books they Bone” by Tomi Adeyemi. The setting received from U.S. publishers in 2017, a is a mythical land characterized after mere 116 were written by black authors.

West Africa, and the main character is There were 319 books about black the very definition of black girl magic. people—a discrepancy that requires The story follows Zélie, a teenager who a completely different article, but I watched her mother and her people digress. slaughtered for the magic running So it’s no mystery why books about through their veins. Now, she’s got one us are so hard to find, but thankfully, shot of bringing back magic and ending the publishing industry is starting to the reign of the king who had her realize there’s value in stories of, for mother killed once and for all. and by people of color. Tomi Adeyemi I know, right? is a Nigerian-American writer who Personally, I am a lover of fantasy graduated from Harvard and studied books. And while I have read some

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West African mythology and culture in Brazil. So not only is she a living definition of black excellence, but she writes with a purpose.

In her June 2015 blog post titled “Why I Write: Telling A Story That Matters,” Adeyemi wrote, “So that is why I write... a burning passion to tell a story about someone who is different and to force readers to fall in love with what is different from them.”

This book has more than gods, magic and horse-sized felines. It tackles issues of colorism, sexism, classism and authority, with a dictator-like regime that smacks of racism, even though all of the characters are Orishan (West African). Those like the main character Zélie are born different, with dark skin, white hair and the potential for magic, and are persecuted for it, were massacred for it.

In the author’s note, Adeyemi writes, “If your heart broke for Zélie’s grief over the death of her mother, then let it break for all the survivors of police brutality who’ve had to witness their loved ones taken firsthand.” Adeyemi weaves the echoes of Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland and countless others into her tale, and at times, it’s hard. But it is so unbelievably worth it.

This is not a book about race. It’s not about black people “being black,” like so many YA books featuring teens of color.

It’s about reclaiming your legacy, the fight for what’s right and self doubt. It’s about family and what that really means.

It’s about fear, grief and purpose.

Even now, at 22, when I feel like I am firmly rooted in who I am, I found a piece of myself in this book that I didn’t know I was missing. I found a world I want to be part of more than Hogwarts.

Forget a sorting hat, I want to be claimed by a god.

Zélie’s story doesn’t end with this book. “Children of Blood and Bone” is the first in a trilogy that will be released over the next two years and has been optioned for a movie in the not-toodistant future. Read it now, so you can say you loved it before the movie got popular.

If you love fantasy, this book is for you. If you loved Black Panther and are searching for your next Mother Africa Fix, this book is for you. If you have ever uttered the phrase “black girl magic,” it’s for you. If you are black, or if you can read or if you can’t read but are willing to learn, this book is for you. If you somehow don’t fall into any of the above categories, it is still for you.

For more information about the book and the author, you can visit tomiadeyemi.com. For the full Lee & Low Books study, which includes breakdowns by race, gender, sexual orientation and ability, visit http://bit. ly/1Tm9bad, and the CBCC study can be found at http://bit.ly/2HRF34P. I encourage you to take a look and learn how we can produce more books for, about and by our people.

The revolution will not be televised.

But it just might be written, and “Children of Blood and Bone” might be the start. #NowWeRise

opinion

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Top podcasts for people of color In recent years, podcasts have become a mainstream way of gaining and sharing information. This popular platform has given people of color opportunities to share their perspectives as black and brown people in America in ways that are nuanced and intimate. While exploring racial representation, financial security and pop culture, podcasts are a refreshing way to hear about issues that are important to us. It is also refreshing to listen to podcasts and find yourself resonating with the life experiences of another person of color. Below is a list of podcasts for people of color who want to listen to the stories and perspectives of people who are just like them and maybe even laugh a little along the way.

The New York Times’ “Still Processing” A creation stemming from the beloved New York Times, “Still Processing” is a recurring cultural conversation with culture writers Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham.

The two debate films, Academy Awards, music and anything else that has to do with pop culture. The difference between listening to “Still Processing” and simply watching entertainment news, is that the Photo from from google play music podcast analyzes the complexities and of being a black consumer of pop culture. In a recent episode, they debated their likes and dislikes for the new film, “A Wrinkle In Time.” The podcast focused on why it is difficult for black consumers to criticize black art that is in a space that has traditionally only been for white people. Having debates like this is critical as black artists continue to break ground on various platforms.

Angela Rye’s “On One with Angela Rye” As a political commentator on CNN and the CEO of her own political advocacy firm, it is no surprise that Angela Rye discusses political issues as they pertain to the daily lives of black and brown Americans. This fun and quirky podcast often explores the intersectionality of Rye’s experiences as a successful black women in the media and her own ideas of what it means to be “woke” and Photo from Soundcloud “work woke.” The concept “working woke” is also often told through the perspectives of the many celebrity guests featured on the show. In a recent episode, Jemele Hill, from ESPN’s “The Undefeated,” was featured to speak on pay equity and her experience as a black women in sports broadcast.

Yesenia jones staff writer “Brown Ambition” This podcast was named one of MSNBC’s five podcasts that will inspire entrepreneurs. If you’re looking for a podcast that will influence you to budget and get your coins up, “Brown Ambition” is for you. Mandi Woodruff, a finance reporter, and Tiffany Aliche, a personal finance educator, aim to inspire and educate black and brown people who are looking to gain Photo from iTunes overall financial security. They discuss topics like student loan forgiveness, building a career and saving for retirement in ways that are efficient and effective.

Buzzfeed’s “See Something, Say Something” Many Muslim Americans feel as though the larger American society places large amounts of pressure on them to be representatives for the entire religion of Islam. This unfair burden creates complex issues of identity for young Muslims coming of age in the United States. Ahmed Ali Akbar discusses this issue along with others on the popular BuzzPhoto from “See something, say something” feed podcast, “See Something, facebook Say Something.” Now on it’s third season, “See Something, Say Something” has gained a following for its unapologetic relentlessness to speak truthfully about growing up as a Muslim American. The podcast often features guests that also give their perspectives on what being Muslim American means to them. And in traditional Muslim practice, they have all of these conversations over a cup of tea.

For the full list, visit www.thenubianmessage.com. All featured podcasts are available on iTunes.

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