Nubian Message, Sept. 27, 2018 — Black & Latinx

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NUBIANMESSAGE NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY | RALEIGH, NC | THENUBIANMESSAGE.COM | THURSDAY, september 27, 2018


THURSDAY, september 27, 2018 | 2

Letter from the editor

THISISSUE 4 AFRO-LATINA EXPERIENCES Navigating campus communities.

4 ”HISPANIC” VS “LATINX”

Hey y’all! It’s been a while since our last issue. Hurricane Florence happened, and while I hope that everyone was able to return to campus safely, I know that many students are still dealing with the physical, emotional and financial impacts of the storm. We’ve highlighted some campus resources that offer financial assistance. I also want to emphasize that the counseling center is always available for students to use. In honor of Latinx Heritage Month, we’ve created a playlist of Afro-Latinx artists, a list of authentic Latin-American restaurants, and featured Afro-Latina student voices on the Latinx experience at NC State. I hope you enjoy it all!

What’s the difference?

5 BIAS IMPACT RESPONSE TEAM Talking restorative practices.

7 WHY AFFIRMATIVE ACTION MUST STAY

I also want to remind you, our readers, that you are always welcome to submit a Letter to the Editor to nubian-editor@ncsu.edu. And if you’re interested in joining our team, then come to the 3rd floor of Witherspoon on Mondays at 6:30pm.

The case against the Harvard Affirmative Action case.

I can’t forget this issue’s proverb: “You learn how to cut down trees by cutting them down.”

7 NAVIGATING RACIAL AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

I am because we are, Keilah

The shame of being American.

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

Editor-in-Chief

Kennysha Woods

Managing editor

Only with the permission of our elders do we proudly produce each edition of the Nubian Message: cover graphic by anna lee

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

THURSDAY, september 27, 2018 | 3

MSA offers support for APIDA students aditi dholakia Staff Writer With much of their restructuring now complete, Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) is now offering support and advising for the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) community at NC State. MSA, which historically focused on supporting Hispanic/Latinx, black and Native American communities, hopes to provide more comprehensive support for all students at NC State. Marcela Torres-Cervantes, assistant director of community outreach and engagement at MSA, said it’s important to make sure that MSA is available to all students, and not just individual student groups. “As times change globally,” TorresCervantes said, “we start recognizing, ‘Oh, Courtesy of Asian Students in Alliance (ASIA) things have been happening. Things have myth,” Torres-Cervantes said. “There’s this been excluded; there’s a need for change.’ We’re inherently going to be interacting with idea that Asian students are succeeding any type of student, white students included, academically, so they must be fine. As a whole, we know that we’re more than just or any other domestic, international. students. We’re more than just grades. We So we’re going to see many different are people too, so making sure that was a opportunities.” priority was a really big thing for us.” Emotional and cultural support for David Chang, a fourth-year studying students within the APIDA community environmental science, is the president of is especially needed, according to TorresLambda Phi Epsilon International Fraternity Cervantes. Although Asian students often receive academic support, Torres-Cervantes and also serves as the community liaison said that advising for APIDA students needs for the Asian Students in Alliance council. Chang said that having support and advising to go beyond that. from MSA is going to be helpful in elevating “We know that there is a model minority

APIDA voices at NC State. “I find it phenomenal,” Chang said. “I spoke to Marcela quite a bit about this. It’s very exciting. As I mentioned, it’s very obvious that the APIDA community does have a lack of voice. I would say it’s also very inspirational. I strongly believe that this is the first step in making NC State more aware and involved in the APIDA community and those conversations.” According to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, international students made up 12.3 percent of NC State’s total population in 2015. Furthermore,

Asian-American students made up 4.8 percent of the total student population. Torres-Cervantes said, however, that numerical support does not negate prejudice against and within the APIDA community. “There are still microaggressions that happen,” Torres-Cervantes said. “Just because you may have more numerical support doesn’t mean that you aren’t still a person of color living in the United States and need some sort of support outside of just your advisor. We saw that as a need area, and that’s what we’re trying to be more helpful in.” Torres-Cervantes also said that there needs to be more cohesion within the community because the term “Asian” is often assumed to mean East Asian, which excludes other parts of the APIDA community. Advising and support from MSA, she said, is a learning process in understanding the variety of different APIDA lived experiences. Chang said that in order for APIDA voices to be heard on campus, the community itself has to come together and work together. “There is a sort of separation. Even in terms of the Asian Students in Alliance council, we don’t really see a lot of Pacific Islander representation or Desi American representation,” Chang said. “There is definitely a sense of separation that we do have from each other. I would love to see the community come closer together. In the future, I really do hope to see more collective empowerment.”

Hurricane Florence Relief Resources At NC state staff report

On Sept. 18th, Chancellor Woodson emailed the NC State community with a reminder of campus resources available to those facing hardship due to Hurricane Florence. According to Assistant Vice Provost Mike Giancola, the Student Emergency Fund has been quickly getting funds to students experiencing hurricane-related financial challenges. We’ve compiled information below about key campus resources students in need. Student Emergency Fund

This is a useful resource for students experiencing dire financial hardships and need access to emergency money. For more information, visit https:// dasa.ncsu.edu/student-emergency-fund/.

Pack Essentials

This page provides information on some of the primary resources you may need to access emergency housing, food, and funding. For more information, visit https:// dasa.ncsu.edu/pack-essentials/.

Student Ombuds Services

The Ombuds is an independent, confidential, informal office students can go to address any challenges they are facing and identify helpful resources. For more information, call (919) 5133401

American Red Cross

As an organization dedicated to providing crisis victims with aid and relief, the local Red Cross is prepared to help Hurricane Florence victims help and shelter. For more information, call (800) 7332767


THURSDAY, september 27, 2018 | 4

features

Afro-Latina Voices: FINDING ACCEPTANCE ON CAMPUS What does it mean to be Afro-Latina here at NC State? Kennysha Woods Managing Editor “Afro-Latina” is a relatively new--and seemingly complex--term to most people. With celebrities like music artist Amara La Negra and actress Gina Torres bringing the discussion of what it means to be Afro-Latina in the entertainment industry, we’re implored to learn about the way Afro-Latinas navigate everyday life--especially on college campuses like NC State. So, what does it mean to be an “Afro-Latina”? How do they experience NC State’s campus? Nubian Message met with three Afro-Latina students to find those answers. “For the most part it means someone who is Hispanic with African origins,” said Marriah Decosta, a third-year studying sociology who identifies as Afro-Dominican and president of the Caribbean Student Association. ”Like, I’m not African, but I know somewhere down the line I came on a boat from somewhere.” “My identity is very hard to explain to some people,” said Caíla Holley, a sixth-year studying geology and chairperson of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. (LTA), “because at the end of the day, I’m black. I

feel like oftentimes black Americans in the United States see black as american-only, and it dismisses black or Afro-everybody else.” Holley continued: “For me, the Latino community has always been where I’ve felt more at home. Also, a place very dear to me is Dominican Republic. I eventually want to live there.” Ayanis Lindo, a postgraduate from the Class of 2017 who studied zoology and member of LTA, is from a Panamanian family that immigrated to the U.S. She grew up in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. “Although my parents are immigrants,” Lindo said, ”and although they are Panamanian and they’re Latinx, that doesn’t mean that I’m very much different. That black culture transcends. It didn’t really change much from Latin America to American itself.” There’s little data that shows the exact population of Afro-Latinas at NC State. Presumably, the figure is small, considering the Latinx student community only makes up 4.7% of the 32,898 total student population, according to the Spring 2018 Enrollment report published by the Office of Institutional Research and Planning. “There’s not that many Afro-Latinx in general,” Decosta said. “I remember last year

I helped facilitate an event called ‘Latinx And,’ and one of the segments was Latinx and Black, and trying to find panelists for that was really hard because most of us are Dominicans or Panamanians.” As an identifier, “Afro-Latina” expresses an intersection of identities: Black and Latinx, and it bares some weight on how these students navigate campus culture socially across the Black community, the Latinx community and the overall student community. When talking about her experiences with the Latinx community, Decosta said, “It’s awkward exclusion from my experience. I don’t speak Spanish very well, so it’s hard to join in. They’re really clique-ish. It’s not even really the thing of being Afro-Latina. Sometimes it’s about what country you specifically come from. For here, most people are Puerto Rican or Mexican, so not following those set traditions or having that background [makes you] not fit in. They have certain mannerisms or inside jokes you may not understand.” However, Decosta also has positive experiences: “I have a lot of friends in the Latinx community. I go to events when I’m able to… for the most part, people are very accepting.” Holley and Lindo also relayed feeling acceptance from the Latinx community, especially as member of LTA. Lindo recalled being inspired to become an AYA Ambassador because of one of her sisters and how

taking on that role helped her understand her identity. “To this day,” Lindo said, “I’m really grateful that I finally pushed through that and I had my sorority sisters to help push me through that and find my identity. From that point forward, I felt, ‘I am Afro-Latina. I am Black, but I’m not American.’ Not being American doesn’t mean that I’m not going through the same things that somebody who grew up here did, I was just raised a little differently.” Holley added, “Growing up, I was always the odd ball anyway. I was never black enough… But for me, the Latinx community, I was always okay. I do think it has to with so many backgrounds in the Latinx community. It is a little easier [to be accepted]. You still have the racial questioning going in the community, but not as much in the educated community, but definitely outside of college.” On an administrative level, NC State has made efforts to improve representation and consideration of its Latinx community, primarily through hiring capable staff in offices such as the Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA). Lindo said, “As for the school portion, the staff that they’re hiring for these different offices, they have been really great people that have brought so much to the university to highlight that appreciation of culture. afro-latina continued on page 6

Hispanic vs. Latinx: What’s the Difference? Anna carlson Correspondent

Hispanic or Latinx? Every year during the nationally-recognized Hispanic Heritage Month, there is renewed discussion and debate on which term to use to categorize people of either Latin-American or Spanish-speaking origins—or both. While many often disagree on when to use these terms, the following definitions are relatively common: Hispanic: Someone who is native of, or descends from, a Spanish-speaking country. Latinx: Someone who is native of, or descends from, a Latin American country. Chicanx: Someone who is native of, or descends from, Mexico and who lives in the United States. Afro-Latinx: Someone who is native

of, or descends from, a Latin American country and is of accompanying African descent. These definitions may seem straightforward, but according to renowned scholars Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores, they also allude to the “long-term transnational relations” that have significantly impacted the history and culture of countries in the Latin American region. The history of these terminology differences and how they came about often impacts how individuals identify. The term Hispanic originally showed up on the U.S. census in 1970. Prior to this point, individuals that would identify as Hispanic were simply classified as white and identified based on their country of origin. The term Latino, on the other hand,

was originally coined by the French. The region below the United States is called “Latin America” because these countries’ colonizers spoke the Latin-based Romance languages. While the terms Hispanic and Latinx often overlap, there are communities where both labels do not apply. For example, Brazil is one of the largest countries in Latin America, but the majority of the country’s population speaks Portuguese. Individuals from Brazil, thus, may not be classified as Hispanic. Similarly, individuals from Spain would be classified as Hispanic, but they are from Europe and are not categorized as Latinx. It is also important to note that there is significant cultural diversity within Latin and Spanish-speaking countries. While the multitude of terms can be

overwhelming initially for those of us less familiar to them, asking individuals how they would like their ethnicity to be identified eliminates this worry about incorrectly labeling someone. By asking people what societal categories they would like to be considered under, we are not only learning more about the person and greater community we are interacting with, but we are learning to value the cultural differences that make each one of us so unique. For additional information on the changes in terminology over time, NC State history professor Ebony Jones recommends “Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000” by George Reid Andrews.


features

THURSDAY, september 27, 2018 | 5

Adrienne Davis brings restorative practice to BIRT keilah Davis Editor-in-Chief

Courtesy of the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity

“Practice is exactly what it sounds like, it’s not easy,” said Adrienne Davis, associate director of Campus Community Centers. “Restorative practice is literally a way of being.” Davis joined NC State in February 2018 and in addition to her duties as associate director, she is the coordinator of the Bias Impact Response Team (BIRT), a team that supports individuals or groups impacted by bias through restorative practice. Any NC State student, faculty or staff member can submit a BIRT report and from October 2017 to May 2018, BIRT received 22 total bias impact reports. The idea of implementing BIRT was first suggested by student leaders in fall 2015, but BIRT was reconceptualized in summer 2016 after Reggie Barnes was hired as senior director of Campus Community Centers. Many students were introduced to BIRT in fall 2016 at a Student Government Racial Town Hall that, coincidentally, occurred just days after a GroupMe incident reignited racial tension on campus. “[Restorative practice] is very different than just saying, ‘someone did something wrong so you’re kicked out, fired. You have no purpose in this community any longer.’ You can say that or you can say in response to an incident that there is value in us at least exploring the nature of this relationship,”

Davis said. “Now, this doesn’t mean we’re all best friends, it doesn’t mean Kumbaya, but it does mean that we’re able to rediscover the humanity within each other.” Prior to NC State, Davis was the first diversity coordinator at Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill, and one of few diversity coordinators in private Christian schools in the South. There she implemented restorative practices. A major component of Davis’ current role is to actualize the restorative elements of the BIRT process. “BIRT is trying to explore what it looks like to say, ‘yes these things happen,’” Davis said. “We’re using an analysis that draws on our understanding of racism, sexism, all the -isms, and we’re saying, ‘yes those things exist, yes those things cause harm, and there are still people that have value on both sides of that. We’re refusing to dismiss the humanity of others simply because they caused harm, which is a very non-Western mindset.” When BIRT receives a report, Davis conducts an initial review to determine whether it is a bias incident or potentially a report that should be referred to campus police, Equal Opportunity and/or Student Conduct for further review. If the reported incident is a bias incident, then an initial review team assesses the next steps. This commonly involves connecting the impacted individual or group with resources for

BIRT continued on page 6


THURSDAY, september 27, 2018 | 6

features

The Plug: Authentic latinAmerican Restaurants Red Monkey Latin Fusion Kitchen

This restaurant was recently converted from an Asian fusion restaurant to a hot spot for Puerto Rican dishes. One of its signature dishes is the “Tour of Puerto Rico.” The dish includes pernil (roasted pork), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and maduros (sweet plantains). And you can finish the dish off with tres leches cake! Location: Crabtree Valley Mall

Caribbean Cafe

Specializing in Dominican/Caribbean cuisine, this restaurant is sure to please. One of its signature dishes is sancocho con arroz y aguacate (Dominican soup with rice and avocado). You can also enjoy your Caribbean treats with morir soñado (traditional Dominican beverage). Location: 2645 E Millbrook Rd, Raleigh, NC 27604

Mami Nora’s

This Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken spot is not one to miss. To go along with your chicken, you can choose from

sides like maduros (sweet plantains), black beans and yuca frita (fried yuca). It’s quick and affordable food could add much needed variation to your weekday dinner routine. Location: 2401 Wake Forest Rd, Raleigh, NC 27608

La Cocina de Mama Greta

This restaurant specializes in cuisine from El Salvador. Some of its signature dishes are pupusas (stuffed tortilla) and carne asada (grilled steak). There are also a wide variety of vegetarian options on the menu. And to pair with your dish, they also have horchata (plant milk)! Location: 1604 N Market Dr, Raleigh, NC 27609

Guasaca Arepa & Salsa Grill

If you’re looking for fast, casual Latin food, this is the place for you. This restaurant specializes in Venezuelan arepas (bread). The arepas can be filled with pork, fish or avocado chicken, and your choice of up to three side items. Location: 4025 Lake Boone Trl, Raleigh, NC 27607

afro-latina BIRT continued from page 4

And they get students excited. From the alum standpoint, I see how excited the students are. Back in the day when I started at NC State, it was the student’s job to celebrate diversity. It was hard because some of us were dealing with our own identities, plus we got school, this, and that, so it’s nice to have people to take our ideas to actually make them come to fruition and make them happen.” But even with these strides, there is still room for NC State to improve. From preemptively supplying admissions applications’ instructions in Spanish to placing more Latinx people in administrative positions, the school can do to further support Latinx students in general. Holley said, “When we don’t have as many people represented in administration, why would they think about us? They never had to think about how I’m going to go to college, how am I going to pay for college, how am I going to translate this to my parents. Even in poorer white and black communities, there are things we have to do to help our parents out because they aren’t higher educated. Imagine that with a language barrier.” Holley asserted that aving more diverse people in these positions leads to more understanding and consideration of issues that affect students from different backgrounds. Without those perspectives, such issues may go unacknowledged, and that unacknowledgement doesn’t make a welcoming campus. “What draws people to a university is not just the grades or rankings. It’s also, ‘Will I feel at home?’”

continued from page 5 immediate support. “I think that’s the biggest thing about the restorative process and the transformative community process,” Davis said. “When you experience it, it feels so different and it feels right.” The BIRT process is driven by the impacted person’s needs and values. The individual or group who caused the harm is given space for education if they desire to take that space. “The process is restorative on both sides,” Davis said. “Even if you never come back together, you have the opportunity to heal, to learn and to grow. And for everyone it won’t be coming back together and we have to be okay with that.” In the future, Davis hopes that BIRT’s restorative practices will transform the NC State community at-large. “Let’s just build some restorative communities in housing, in campus orgs, in offices around campus, so if and when something does happen that warrants a report, people are already familiar with this concept of a restorative community,” Davis said. Few peer institutions have teams like BIRT and even fewer have taken a restorative approach to those teams. This gives NC State a unique opportunity. “Done well at NC State,” Davis said, “we can really lead in some conversations about this.” While it takes time to transform an entire campus one incident at a time, Davis still finds her work rewarding. “It is hard work; it’s long and slow work, but it is good and fulfilling.”

orgullo Latinx: A playlist Yesenia Jones Staff Writer Happy Latinx Heritage Month from Nubian Message! In a society that worships Eurocentric ideals, art and features, it is important to recognize and uplift different forms of these, which are not limited to oppressive western standards. Our goal for this month is to highlight Afro-Latinx who have made contributions to our culture. This playlist is an ode to iconic Afro-Latinx musicians from various genres whose achievements have had a lasting impression on Latin music. Oye Mi Canto

N.O.R.E ft. Big Mato, Daddy Yankee, Gem Star, and Nina Sky

Dale Don Dale Don Omar

Un Beso Aventura

Tengo Un Amor Toby Love

Te Extraño (Bachata Version) Xtreme

Te Quiero Igual Que Ayer Monchy and Alexandra

Reggaeton Latino Don Omar

Yo Voy

Zion and Lennox ft. Daddy Yankee

Perdóname La Factoría

Lloraras

Oscar D’León

Visit thenubianmessage.com for the full playlist.


opinion

THURSDAY, september 27, 2018 | 7

Getting rid of affirmative action hurts all minorities Arguably the worst part of going to college is applying to college. The process is expensive, time-consuming and incredibly stressful. Applying to college is already daunting enough with the constant comparisons of one’s Kevin Moye self to others when weighStaff Writer ing your chances of getting into a certain school or not. To make matters even worse, one of the most beneficial tools in getting historically disenfranchised groups into college, affirmative action, is yet again under attack. A lawsuit against Harvard by a group of Asian-American students who were denied admission to the university has gained a lot of traction. The students claim that Harvard is artificially deflating the value of Asian-American students and accepting less qualified students to uphold racial quotas through affirmative action. The Justice Department has now put their support behind this lawsuit ostensibly as a means to act on the Trump administration’s goals of deconstructing affirmative action. As a student who can attest to the pain

and heartache that comes with a college rejection, I can see where these students are coming from. These are the best and brightest students who gave it their all in high school only to have all of it invalidated by a terse rejection letter. The circumstances are deeply unfortunate, but these students must see the forest through the trees. Affirmative action is not the enemy of these students; it is the one of the hallmark elements of education that makes the system so special. In almost all other areas of life, minorities are constantly put on an unequal playing field. Before college, minority students statistically have to deal with less funded schools and overcoming the advantages white students may have through generational wealth. After college, minorities still must overcome the implicit racism hidden in applying for jobs. For many students of color, systemic biases against them make it extraordinarily difficult to compete with their more privileged counterparts. A black student growing up in a low-income area of Durham with limited resources is at a nearly insurmountable disadvantage when competing against a student raised in the affluent suburbs of Cary. Affirmative action works as means

to help remedy these societal problems we still face by giving minorities access to elite higher education. The diversity that is brought to our education system with minorities provides an invaluable experience for students attending universities. For many students, college is the first time in their lives when they are exposed to such a mosaic of different cultures. For example, 27 percent of NC State’s class of 2018 come from rural counties. Upon entering State’s campus, such students likely experienced more diversity than ever before. This doesn’t just apply to students from rural counties. Before coming to State, I had never encountered the breadth of information on so many different cultures and diverse perspectives, and I know I am not alone. The diversity that affirmative action brings is invaluable to help foster the learning experiences we engage in outside of the classroom that make the college experience so unique. In teaming with the Trump administration, these students are essentially cutting their nose to spite their face. The central thesis of the lawsuits against Harvard is that the university is systematically devaluing Asian-American applicants, a policy that would categorically be defined as racist.

However, a further look at the claims made by the students would show that they are in fact stereotyping Asian-American students themselves. In saying that Harvard and other academic institutions are discriminating against Asians, the students attempting to derail affirmative action paint a narrative of all Asians as a high-achieving monolith. By having the Trump administration dismantle affirmative action, these Asian-American students would be inadvertently making the college admissions process worse for all minorities including Asians. An amicus brief to the Supreme Court written by 531 social scientists explained that Asians do actually benefit from the holistic admissions process. Because the admissions view their applicants as individuals and not simply parts of a broader ethnicity like the lawsuits allege, Asian students are often bestowed advantages. The students filing these lawsuits must realize that they are cannibalizing the admissions process for the majority of minorities - including Asians - by trying to do away with affirmative action. While their stories are compelling, so are the stories of thousands of minorities who defied all the odds by getting into elite universities.

Why I am race first instead of America first Being black in America means existing in two modes at the same time: Black and American. As history has shown, my nationality is often at odds with my racial identity. I navigate this complexity by accepting the reality of my shawn racial identity superseding fredericks my national identity. In Staff Writer other words, I choose to be proud of my racial identity through not acknowledging my nationality, for me, my racial identity supersedes my national identity. I am a black American, a very proud black American with most of my pride coming from being black and American instead of being an American who is black. These are very different distinctions with two different connotations; I accept the former and reject the latter. I accept the former because there is an

acknowledgment of my ancestors’ struggle of gaining basic civil rights in a country they have lived in for 200 plus years on while facing generational violence and discrimination across political economic and social lines. There is also an acknowledgment that white America has inflicted generational trauma and violence upon black people, and I am living with and healing from said trauma. The everyday racism of America makes me non-American. I am not accepted wholly within this society so while I still identify as a black American, the American part represents my ancestors’ struggle to earn citizenship and respect within this so-called “great” nation. This country has consistently fallen short of its professed ideals. There hasn’t been a more poignant time to be critical of the United States, not just of its policies but of its character which is reflected in the actions of the current administration. A report on modern slavery by the U.S.

Labor Department highlights why it is hard for me to identify with this country. While the International Labour Organization defines forced labor—also known as modern slavery—as a human rights issue, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta framed it as an economic issue. Identifying modern slavery as an economic issue calls back to when people defend the Confederate states by saying that the cause of the Civil War was states’ rights and not about slavery. In addition, this nation’s current treatment of people of color as subhumans unworthy of basic dignities or quality of life makes me feel nothing but shame to be a citizen of this nation. The everyday racism of America prevents any harmony between my national and racial identity. Brian Jones, associate director of education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, articulated similar feelings in his article for The Guardian. Despite his middle-class background, lighter skin,

professional dress and talking white, he could not assimilate to mainstream (white) America. “There is no amount of assimilation that can shield you from racism in this country,” Jones writes. “Throughout my life, something—the kink of my hair or my “attitude”—would mark me as inferior, worthy of ridicule, humiliation or ostracism.” How can I call this nation home when its spirit does not reflect me or my priorities? The U.S is both home and not home at the same time, existing in this constant wavering place where I try to cling to what little feeling of home I can grasp. I know I’m not the only one that feels this way, and that is what the NC State community must understand about Black America. We exist with one foot in this nation and, because of white supremacy, one foot out of this place that should be home.


African American Cultural Center invites you to the United States Postal Service Kwanzaa First Day of Issue Stamp Dedication Ceremony Wednesday, October 10, 2018 Pre-Ceremony - 10:30 a.m. Ceremony - 11:00 a.m. Witherspoon Student Center Harris Field

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