NUBIANMESSAGE NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY | RALEIGH, NC | THENUBIANMESSAGE.COM | THURSDAY, January 31, 2019
THURSDAY, January 31, 2019 | 2
Letter from the editor Hey y’all! I’m excited because Black History Month is just around the corner, and I love Black people. I know that we should honor the lives and achievements of those in our community all year; still, I enjoy seeing all of the black excellence on display in February each year. As I’m writing this letter, this quote from Langston Hughes’ essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” comes to mind:
THISISSUE 3
DELTA TEST CENTERS
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FACULTY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
This semester DELTA Test Center released a new policy. New research initiative from the AACC.
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HER JOURNEY INTO POLITICS
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WOMEN IN POLITICS & THE MEDIA
A Q&A with Symone Sanders.
Show us their accomplishments. Not their dating life
“We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”
cover GRAPHIC BY KEILAH DAVIS/Nubian Message
All photos contributed by AACC Faculty Fellows.
I highly encourage you all to read the essay in its entirety. Hughes urges Black artists to resist the pressure to conform to whiteness and middle class aspirations. Instead, he charges all of us to be our fullest selves and be proud of the beautiful and ugly parts.
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I think this is the energy we should all bring into Black History Month.
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I am because we are, Keilah Keilah Davis
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Only with the permission of our elders do we proudly produce each edition of 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
THURSDAY, January 31, 2019 | 3
DELTA Test Centers adopt new appointment-only testing policy
Emma Dimig/Nubian Message Students wait to be called to take their online exams at the Centennial Campus Testing Center in Venture IV on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018. Despite the shorter lines due to the appointmentonly policy, students such as Riley Wenker, a third-year studying animal science, still had to wait up to three-and-a-half hours to take his exam.
The Distance EduYesenia Jones cation and Learning Staff Writer
Technology Applications (DELTA) Test Centers unveiled a new appointment-only testing policy designed to eliminate wait times and avoid disturbing surrounding merchants. According to Tim Petty, the associate vice provost for online and distance education, the decision to switch to appoint-only testing was made in November 2018 in collaboration with the property management company that manages Venture IV, the building that houses the Centennial Campus Test Center. “The Centennial Campus Test Center is in a privately owned building and at peak times, walk-in testing was disrupting the business of other tenants,” Petty said. “DELTA worked with the property management company on a plan to reduce the disturbance. Testing by appointment was part of the plan as it will distribute traffic to and from the test center more evenly throughout
the day.” Petty also stated that the switch to appointment-only testing will eliminate wait times, with each student having a guaranteed time to take their exam. Last December, students taking final exams witnessed wait times of approximately 4 hours, according to the WaitTime web application. The long wait times were created by a snowstorm that closed the University for multiple days. However, not all students have faced such extreme wait times in the testing centers. “I haven’t really ever waited for an exam,” said Guimel Magallanes Hernandez, a thirdyear studying biological sciences. “At most the max was 10 minutes.” Hernandez said the ability to walk in at your leisure and wait minimal amounts of time to take your exams was very convenient. This privilege will no longer be afforded to students as no walk-in testing will be permitted going forward. “I personally do not like it because it
doesn’t give me the freedom to take the exam whenever I want,” Hernandez said. “My exams this semester have a certain time frame, in that case, I don’t want to face any scheduling difficulties due to this new change.” Some students worry that appointments will be limited and run out quickly, leaving inconvenient time frames to take their exams. In order to avoid having less time to take your exam, DELTA suggests scheduling your appointment now. “Appointments must be made at least 24 hours in advance, but DELTA encourages everyone to make appointments for all their exams as far in advance as possible,” Petty said. “Appointments can be made now for the whole semester.” According to the Online Distance and Education website, students must also arrive 15 minutes before their scheduled exam. Failure to do so could result in less time to take your exam or cancelation of your
appointment. The website also states that appointments may also be canceled if the student is unable to provide a valid photo ID, which includes a Wolfpack One Card, driver’s license, passport, or military ID. To schedule an exam, students must use NC State’s online RegisterBlast portal at go.ncsu.edu/takemytest. Exams for courses within the College of Sciences may be taken at the Cox Hall Testing Center. All others must be taken at Centennial Campus Testing Center. Students can cancel or reschedule exams up to 24 hours before the original time by visiting the “My History” section on the RegisterBlast portal. For more information regarding the appointment policy, visit the Online and Distance Education Frequently Asked Questions.
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news
AACC introduces new fellowship opportunity, announces Faculty Fellows kennysha WOODS Managing Editor
The African American Cultural Center Faculty Fellowship Program (AACC FFP) is a new semester-long fellowship that supports NC State faculty members’ research endeavors into African-American and African diasporic cultures. In an email interview with Nubian Message, Sachelle Ford, the assistant director of the AACC, said the program “is an extension of our new emphasis on interdisciplinary research and represents our investment in faculty as well as our investment in scholarly production.” “We provide them with resources for their projects and an opportunity to showcase their work to the campus community,” Ford said. These resources include access to office and work space, research support from the AACC library and $600 in research funding. In addition to receiving support, the Faculty Fellows will present their research at a public talk and attend the presentations of the other Fellows. This expectation aims to promote faculty research, engagement and presence in the AACC, which “enriches our intellectual culture” Ford said.
Dr. Ronisha Browdy
In her project entitled “Feminist Interpretation of Michelle Obama’s Kitchen Garden as Rhetorical Space,” Browdy, an assistant professor in the Department of English, analyzes Michelle Obama’s White House Kitchen Garden (WHKG) as a rhetorical space. “Rhetorical space is this idea that physical locations come with certain social expectations about what should occur within them,” Browdy said in an email interview with Nubian Message. These expectations include what, who and how people can communicate in the space. With her research, Browdy hopes to emphasize WHKG as part of Obama’s legacy and that it “speaks to the histories, cultures and labor of both women and African American/Black people at the White House long before and long after Mrs. Obama.”
Dr. Quiana Cryer-Coupet and Dr. Delisia Matthews Cryer-Coupet, an assistant professor of
social work, and Matthews, an assistant professor of fashion and textile management, are collaborating on their project, “Jumpman: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Sneakerhead Culture among Black Fathers.” Cryer-Coupet said, “[We want] to delve deeper into a nontraditional way of looking at fathers’ parenting practices and this idea of fathers, sons and daughters bonding around sneakers.” “The fellowship will allow us to further immerse ourselves as researchers into the Sneakerhead culture,” said Matthews in an email interview with Nubian Message. “It will also give us the opportunity to share the results of our research with the community in a larger scale.”
Dr. DeLeon Gray
Gray, an associate professor of educational philosophy, is working on a project entitled “iScholar,” which works with teachers in Durham, NC to empower and motivate their students—mainly black and Latinx students. This semester, iScholar is focusing on honoring and affirming students culturally through instructional practices and the school environment. “One of the big questions we’re asking in the classroom is, ‘Who’s being affirmed, and who’s not being affirmed,” Gray said, “a second major question we’re asking is about... teaching as a dynamic process where you look over time.”
Dr. Derek Ham
Ham, an assistant professor of graphic design, is working on “Exploring the African American Experience Through Mixed Reality,” an endeavor that uses VR to immerse people in the stories, histories and experiences within the African American narrative and foster conversations among people of different identities. One of the VR experiences was recently featured with the “I Am A Man” Exhibit of the AACC gallery; it told the story of the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike in 1968. Ham hopes to bring other kinds of VR projects to Raleigh and the campus community, like a cultural exchange workshop in which the two groups of people can learn about and from each other through VR and dialogue.
keilah davis/Nubian Message
Dr. Elan Hope
Hope, an assistant professor of psychology, has a project entitled “Anti-Racism Activism as a Mechanism to Reduce Racial Inequality in Higher Education,” which focuses on daily experiences of black college students and the effects of anti-racist activism on those students. Hope said, “There’s a lot of activism happening right now around the world, so I wanted to know for black college students… is that helping or hindering their mental health and their academic performance.”
Dr. Jamie Pearson
Pearson, an assistant professor of teacher education and learning services, has a project entitled “Meeting FACES: A Community Workshop for Families and Providers of African American Children with Autism in North Carolina.” “My work focuses specifically on the dis-
parities in diagnosis and access to services among underserved families of children with autism,” said Pearson.
Dr. Kim Stansbury
Stansbury, an associate professor and graduate program director of social work, research is entitled “Clergy Domestic Violence Prevention and Intervention Planning Project.” Along with her colleague, Dr. Natalie Ames, and Dr. Erica Campbell of Fayetteville State University, Stansbury works with African-American clergy on intervention and prevention of domestic violence in the black community.
Editor’s Note: The full version of this article is available at thenubianmessage.com.
features
YESENIA JONES Staff Writer
THURSDAY, January 31, 2019 | 5
NC State Students named WomenNC Scholars
Two female students attending NC State were accepted into the highly competitive WomenNC Scholars program. Jada Hester, a third-year studying business administration and international studies, and Sara Darwish, a third-year studying social work and Arabic, will receive the opportunity to conduct change-making research. Darwish and Hester will present their research in at WomenNC’s 10th annual Local-to-Global Forum on February 28, 2019. They will also have the opportunity to present at the United Nations Annual Commission on the Status of Women Conference in New York in March 2019. The WomenNC Scholars program is hosted by the local non-profit, WomenNC. Their mission is to aid NC youth in decreasing violence against women. The non-profit upholds its mission by annually recruiting and accepting a cohort of local college students. Once accepted, these students are afforded the opportunity to conduct research on issues facing women. Hester, a native of North Carolina, has chosen to focus on the growing wage gap facing women of color in Durham. “Durham currently has one of the lowest gender pay gaps in the nation. That is, the wage gap between men and women,” Hester said in an email interview. “However, that gap is seemingly only shrinking predominantly for white women. I am looking to explore why is this progression is not applicable to non-white women; and the possible correlation to long-term effects on a woman’s homelife.” She hopes that her research will aid in the creation of a more equal society for women of color in the future. “As a woman of color that will hopefully be entering the workforce soon, my research pertains to my future,” Hester said. “Of course, it is in my interest, and in the
(Left) Photo Contributed by Instagram. Jada Hester, third-year studying business
administration and international studies, was one of two NC State students named 20182019 Women NC Scholars. (Right) Adarsh Puvvadi Ramamohan Kumar/Nubian Message. Sara Darwish, a junior studying Social work and Arabic, stands in front of Tucker and Owen Beach on Monday, Jan. 28, 2019. interest of young girls who look like me, to be invested in shrinking the racialized wage gap between white and non-white women.” Hester’s research may have a significant impact on legislation surrounding the racialized wage gap. She stated that her research will serve as a resource for the Durham County Women’s Commission and Durham Mayor’s Council for Women. Both organizations will use the conclusions of Hester’s research to advocate for policy changes and budget allocations regarding the wage gap.
Darwish has chosen to focus on an issue that women face globally, but still significantly affects female NC State students. “My research explores barriers to accessing menstrual hygiene products, specifically what barriers students in public higher education face and how this impacts their educational experience,” Darwish said in an email interview. She stated many menstruating students at NC State wish there was more access to free menstrual products, more locations that sell menstrual products and less stigma sur-
rounding menstruation. “Being a menstruating person, accessibility barriers and stigma have personally impacted my NC State experience, both in and out of the classroom,” Darwish said. “There have been many times where I’ve had to go without products while in class, on assignment for Technician, or leading a Model UN meeting because there either weren’t products available nearby, or I was afraid of facing backlash in spaces dominated by non-menstruating people.” Through prior research, she found that there was not much research regarding the subject. “I wanted to establish verifiable evidence that this was indeed a problem impacting students and receive feedback from the community on the best ways to eliminate the issue,” Darwish said. Darwish hopes that the evidence she will provide can spark change within the university system and the state of NC. “The state of North Carolina is among many that tax menstrual hygiene products, but does not tax other items like Viagra,” she said. “It is my hope that this research can be used to advocate for a removal of the tax that currently exists on period products. I also hope that this research will open doors to providing these items to students in our state’s public school system free of charge.” They recognize that this is a high honor that they hope to receive knowledge and experience from. “The main thing I hope to gain from this experience is practical and applicable research experience,” Hester said. Both are excited to present their research at the UN and possibly create lasting change.
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features
Q&A with Symone Sanders Brandon loyd Correspondent
Nubian Message sat with Symone Sanders, the 2019 MLK Commemoration speaker, to talk politics, her path to success and what it means to be an effective politician.
Nubian Message sat with Symone Sanders, the 2019 MLK Commemoration speaker, to talk politics, her path to success and what it means to be an effective politician. *Editor’s Note: These questions were reformatted for readability and clarity and maintain the initial message. Nubian Message: Did you always want to be a political strategist? What was your ideal career going into as a child and college?* Symone Sanders: I used to want to be a judge or a politician, because I thought those were the two most powerful things a person could be in the world. Politicians make the laws that govern people’s lives, and judges literally hold folk’s lives in their hands. I didn’t know that being a “strategist” was an option, but I got involved in politics when I was in college… That’s when I knew I wanted to do campaigns. I wanted to do communications, because I realized campaigns were nothing but a bunch of messages when people get in a room and decide that this is what we’re gonna say, this is how we’re gonna say it, and we’re gonna repeat it over and over again. I saw that sometimes the messages weren’t connecting to people that looked like me— whether that means young people, black people, women—because we weren’t involved in creating the messaging, so I always want to be the person that’s in charge of or that has a hand in the messaging. NM: How did the limelight change for you after Bernie’s campaign? Sanders: I guess one could argue that I didn’t have a limelight before the campaign... I guess the difference is people recognize me, I can rarely go somewhere where someone doesn’t come up to me, whether I’m out at dinner or at the hookah bar or at the airport. I think that’s the biggest thing that has changed because I’m on TV a lot… I was in L.A. the other day, and I was at dinner I was sitting at a restaurant. My chair is facing the door and in walks Lionel Richie. Lionel Richie looks at me and I look at him and I’m like, “Hey!” And he was like, “How are you?” After he walked away, everybody at the table was like, “Do you know Lionel Richie?” and I was like, “No, he
Shanmukha Sandesh/Nubian Message Symone Sanders poses for photo with her poster on Thursday, Jan. 17 at McKimmon center. Her 2019 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Campus Commemoration Keynote Address was titled “MLK, Jr.: THE REALIST.”
watches me on TV.” But it was great because I knew who Lionel Richie was, okay? I found it interesting that he knew who I was and he was like, “Can you hear me when I’m yelling through the TV?” and I said, “No, but I can feel your pain sometimes”. NM: Is that scary sometimes? Sanders: It’s not scary… I think I’m fortunate to have the ability to sit on panels where thousands—I know Jeff Zucker hopes millions—of people are watching to discuss the news of the day and to contribute to the conversation. I think I’m very fortunate and very blessed to be able to do that. I think that comes with a responsibility, and it’s my job to be both actual and factual, and that I’m keeping the bar high and substantive—particularly now because we’re
discussing issues of humanity. I would love nothing more than to just talk about marginal tax rates, and what’s better, do we tax the top one tenth of one percent of people at 70 or 80 percent… but those are oftentimes not the conversations we’re having. We’re having conversations about issues of humanity. NM: What does it mean to have political power? What makes someone an important political figure? Sanders: I think it’s more about being effective rather than being important. Changing actual policy… When it comes to politics, that’s what makes someone effective. Someone who can move hearts and minds of people, that can galvanize folks to act. That to me is effective, and some may see that as being import-
ant, but I think there are a lot of important people who aren’t effective. So they aren’t exactly synonymous. NM: What do you feel like your purpose is? Sanders: …[I] used to always say when I grew up, that I wanted to help enact change in my local and national community. So I really do feel like that really is my purpose. Someone once told me that that is too grandiose and vague, but it’s not grandiose in my opinion, nor is it vague. I think it’s very specific. I would like to exact change. What kind of change? Well, it depends on what we’re talking about. I think that’s my purpose… to not only contribute to conversation, but to contribute to change, to move the needle.
opinion
THURSDAY, January 31, 2019 | 7
Media PerpetuateS Negative Stereotypes About Women in Politics The 2020 presidential election is rumored to become the most diverse election in the United States in terms of gender. As more women come forward to announce they’re running in the Democratic primary, media outlets Amber Doyle have begun to ignore the Correspondent accomplishments and experiences of the female candidates by reporting on things that have nothing to do with their qualifications to potentially become president. Kamala Harris, United States Democratic Senator of California, announced that she’s running in the Democratic primary for the 2020 presidential election. Being the second African-American woman to have been elected into the United States Senate, she’s had to face a lot of scrutiny from the media. Instead of focusing on if Harris will make a suitable president based on her experience, the media has been digging into her past dating life. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown was forced to address his relationship with Harris— which happened over 20 years ago—after receiving numerous phone calls from national media sites.
Media outlets started reaching out to Brown once they realized that Harris was planning to run for president, and Brown eventually wrote a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle acknowledging that they once did have a relationship and he gave Harris different job opportunities that helped further her career. The media never focused on the current president’s—or any of the past presidents’— dating life. There is an underlying stereotype that the media is perpetuating. It says females need a male to carry them. Brown even commenting that he helped Harris further her career implies that Harris needed him as a stepping stone. Harris’s dating life has nothing to do with whether or not she’ll be a good candidate. It’s just useless information the media is spreading. Gender politics in the media influences the way that voters react to candidates and the way that voters think. During NC State’s student body president runoff debate in 2018, two candidates, Jess Errico and Alberto Qurioga were asked about each other’s weaknesses. Quiroga believed Errico’s and vice president candidate Meredith Spence Beaulieu’s weaknesses were that they were both married. According to Technician, Quiroga said, “I would say that one thing we can’t overlook
though is that [Errico and Spence Beaulieu] both are married students. One’s a graduate student and one’s going into a fifth year, I’m saying does that represent what the student body is like and how can you make sure that those ideas are going into the student body?” What did their marital status have to do with their qualifications of being student body president? If they were male, would their marital status even have been brought up? When Hillary Clinton ran against President Trump in the 2016 presidential election, media outlets, like the New York Times, focused on her husband, Bill Clinton’s affair. What her husband chose to do shouldn’t have affected her campaign, nor should it have been brought up at all. Furthermore, after the presidential debate, CBS News reported on what Hillary Clinton wore during the debate—a Ralph Laurent pantsuit after Labor Day. Many social media sites made fun of the way she was dressed by making memes comparing her outfit using pop culture references. This was not something that happened to her only once. There were no reports on what President Trump wore. Throughout the election process, Clinton was criticized because of how she dressed.
Since America often ignores the problems we face when dealing with gender issues, like the wage gap, it’ll be interesting to see how that influences what the media says. Seeing women in politics represented is important, and the way the media portrays these women is often degrading. “The truth is that those who helped build the Democratic Party and have been the backbone of the Democratic Party have not always been given equal voice in the Democratic Party, and we need to deal with that,” said Harris, during the annual Netroots Nation conference. Representation of every field does matter and there’s currently a lack of female politicians. They aren’t being elected because voters are immersed in useless information given to them by media sites. Female politicians aren’t being taken seriously by the media. Instead of focusing on the changes that they’ll make or their prior experiences that make them a suitable candidate, media outlets focus on information that has to deal with their looks or their dating life. The media needs to start changing the narrative of their stories so our nation to see reputable change in the way voters view women in politics.