Nubian Message, April 4, 2019 — NC State's first Giving Day

NUBIANMESSAGE NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY | RALEIGH, NC | THENUBIANMESSAGE.COM | THURSDAY, April 4, 2019

NC state’s first giving day Page 3

is Pan-af week pan-african?

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Letter from the editor Hey y’all, We’re just weeks away from graduation and I’m already counting down the days until I walk across that stage. When I think about all that my peers and I have experienced to get to this point, I am overcome with gratitude for all the people who have supported our journeys through college.

THISISSUE 4

WEEK OF ACTION

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CRITIQUING PAN-AF WEEK

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Queer archivist gives keynote address for Week of Action.

Is Pan-Afrikan Week really Pan-African?

Racial bias in reporting “safety” issues?

We’ve been through A LOT and sometimes I forget to pause for a bit and acknowledge the many things we’ve survived. This issue’s proverb is a quote from Lucille Clifton: “Come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.”

cover photo BY Solynna Crownson/Nubian Message Kathryn Kittrell, a third-year studying fashion and textile management, writes on a chalkboard at an event for NC State Day of Giving at Stafford Commons on Wednesday, March 27, 2019.

Today—and really, every day until May 11—I am choosing to celebrate.

I am because we are, Keilah

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

314 Witherspoon Student Center, NCSU Campus Box 7318, Raleigh, NC 27695 office 919-515-1468 advertising 919-515-2411 online thenubianmessage.com

Keilah Davis

Editor-in-Chief

nubian-editor@ncsu.edu Kennysha Woods

Managing editor

nubian-managingeditor@ncsu.edu Elikem Dodor Ugonna Ezuma-Igwe Layout designers

Mersina Boynton

general manager

media-sales@ncsu.edu

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

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First nc state Giving Day raises $13.5 million in 24 hours

Solynna Crownson/Nubian Message Ashley Graham, a fourth-year studying finance and accounting, and Alexandria Gilmore Harris, a fourth-year studying business administration and marketing, dye t-shirts at an event for NC State’s Day of Giving at Stafford Commons on Wednesday, March 27, 2019.

NC State’s first Giving Day raised $13.5 million from 10,810 gifts to several funds and endowments across campus on Wednesday, March 27.

“We just want students to know, I mean, that they can make an impact,” said Kara Mulligan, the assistant director for Giving Day. “There’s so many places that you can give that directly affect students, so it’s really students helping students, students helping your peers.”

During the day, people had the opportunity to give to colleges and other campus programs, like student affairs and NCSU Libraries.

Many organizations on campus collaborated to teach students about the purpose of Giving Day, like the NC State chapter of the

Oluwajoba Ogun Staff Writer

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Berkeley Bryant, the social media specialist for the College of Natural Resources, talked about the positive impact that Giving Day can have on the university.

“For the College of Natural Resources, the money that we’re raising is going back to the students themselves,” Bryant said. “So I think they’re really going to see the impact with the money that we’re raising today when they start seeing the changes in their organizations and their classes and having more resources for them.”

Overall, many students had a similar opinion on the event. They liked the idea of people choosing a specific destination for their donations.

Emily Fletcher, a fourth-year studying parks, recreation, and tourism manage-

ment, said, “For me, as a student, it makes me more inclined to give because I know where my money is going and I feel like I’m making more of an impact.”

Students were encouraged to participate in the Giving Day activities held around campus, like signing their names and writing messages of where they hope the money will be contributed.

Other students talked about how Giving Day was able to help them with their school fees and continue to raise awareness.

Ashley Lynn Correa, a fourth-year studying sports management, said, “I transferred in and because of that, the school was able to give me a lot more money for scholarships… That was because of students giving, and so everyone who does get a scholarship, they are affected by alumni giving, student giving, parents giving and I wanted to sup-

port that.’’

Olivia Adcox, a fourth-year studying biological sciences, talked about what can be done to raise awareness on this matter.

“Let’s hear from students who benefited, maybe that would be interesting to actually have stories of students,” Adcox said. “It’s different when it’s face to face.”

Mulligan said the overall goal was to raise awareness for philanthropy and that giving back makes a good impact.

“You’re helping make NC State better because somebody gave for you,” Mulligan said. “So someone years ago made this experience possible for you and so we want you to make this experience possible for students who are coming five years down the road.”

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news

‘Snatch the Power:’ Queer archivist and historian visits NC State yesenia jones Staff Writer

On Monday, April 1, the GLBT Center hosted Josh Burford, queer archivist and historian, as their Week of Action keynote speaker. Burford’s background as an activist-turned-archivist followed suit with the Week of Action’s theme of advocacy around intersectional social justice issues.

He specifically discussed the history of radical queer activism and the future of queer advocacy work. Burford stated that his archival work stemmed from the lack of queer history in education systems.

“There’s an ongoing problem,” Burford said. “Queer people don’t have access to their history. Less than 17% of all students… have access to any kind of queer history.

That’s in the entire United States.”

Burford is currently working on The Invisible Histories Project, a project based in Alabama collecting queer and transgender history in the Deep South.

Burford stated that his goal was to give queer history back to the queer people.

Much of this history, Burford said, is instrumental in understanding past queer advocacy work and the stereotypes surrounding the lives of queer people today.

Throughout his speech, he described groups such as ACT-UP, a group formed out of necessity in the 1980s. The group worked to advocate for people suffering from HIV and AIDS when they were being ostracized on multiple fronts. They utilized street political theater to create disruption—disruption that Burford got to witness for himself.

“They held what they called die-ins,” he said. “I went to my very first political action in 1994 in front of the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] in Atlanta where all of the HIV positive people laid in front of the CDC and covered themselves with pigs’ blood.”

According to Burford, this group brought attention to anti-assimilation tactics and forms of advocacy. He also stated that assimilation into society was one of the many goals that the white, wealthy queer community utilized to maintain wealth. Thus, resulting in the push for marriage equality and the “love is love” mentality which Burford

Swathi Karthik/Nubian Message Josh Burford, a historian that advocates for transgender and queer communities across the country, presented the Week of Action 2019 keynote address on Monday, April 1, 2019 at Talley Student Union. The event was hosted by the GLBT Center.

says cost over $1 billion to accomplish.

“As our numbers for homeless youth get larger,” Burford said, “as the suicide rate of trans people gets higher and higher, as the wealth gap of the most wealthy in the north and the poorest in the south get farther and farther apart, we start selling this idea of love is love. And people want to get married.”

Burford provided multiple counterpoints to the very popular “love is love” mentality and the global advocacy for gay marriage.

He stated that this movement often took financial support away from other disadvantaged groups and ultimately did not fix the issue of discrimination and negative stereotypes surrounding queer people.

“Did we really imagine that it was going to take a billion dollars to do that?” Burford asked. “I mean, even if we took off a tiny

little shave off the end of that, we could have easily have given that to homeless people, the elderly. Especially queer elderly people who are going back in the closet so they can get health care.”

From there, Burford began to discuss issues the queer community faces today.

“211 trans women [were] murdered in the last year,” he said.

According to Burford, the number of homeless queer youth is also steadily rising.

So, Burford asked, what changed? He believed that the organization of advocacy groups and lack of representation could be factors, along with little financial support.

“You still see a lot of white, rich gay people on television,” he said. “Occasionally when you see an actual queer character or a queer character of color or a trans person played by an actual trans person, it feels so remark-

able to you because it doesn’t happen.”

Burford stated that representation and support are likely problems faced by queer people of color and trans people of color because of their inability to assimilate.

“We’re the ones who are always upsetting the people who wanted to make things normal. But what if you don’t want to be normal? What if you can’t be normal? What if you are not assimilable? Trans people can’t be assimilated because their very existence calls into question the basis of the binary,” Burford said.

In order to combat this issue, Burford stated that he aims to inspire younger generations by giving them access to information about activists from past generations.

“What I want to give you is your own history back,” he said. “Because if you can imagine the amazing stuff that was happening, just within the last 30 or 40 years in this country, if you look at how organized we were, how angry we were, how happy we were to be queer in the same space, if you can know what your past is, you might be able to imagine what the future might look like.”

While Burford and The Invisible Histories Project is not currently collecting in North Carolina, NC State students can still access queer history in the GLBT Center on campus.

“We also have an archive through the GLBT Center that we’re looking to integrate into the university special collections,” said Andy DeRoin, program coordinator of the GLBT Center.

features

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APIDA Voices: An Exploration of the Intersectionality of Mental Health With the various intersections that make up people’s identities comes their varied experiences with mental health.

Across different cultures, religions, races, sexualities and gender identities, there are a range of expectations and stereotypes people have to battle, and that battle can wage a war against good mental health.

“Exploring Mental Health in the APIDA Experience” was a panel and small group discussion in which members of NC State’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) community shared their perspectives on the intersections between their identities and mental health, and unpacked the ideas surrounding mental illnesses in their community.

The discussion was a part of APIDA Heritage Month and hosted by the Counseling Center and Mental Health Ambassadors on April 1 in Witherspoon Student Center.

There were five panelists from different identities across the APIDA community: Danyaal Buttar, a third-year studying human biology and the president of the Gamma Chapter of Delta Sigma Iota Fraternity, Inc.; Jonathan Chen, a second-year studying psychology and theater; Liyan Khan, a third-year studying Spanish education; Pauline Bulala, a third-year studying psychology and nutrition; and Vishaal Pillai, a second-year studying business administration and the external vice president of Lambda Phi Epsilon.

The event started with their experiences of the APIDA community on campus. For some panelists, like Pillai and Chen, their arrival to NC State exposed them to this community deeply for the first time.

Pillai said, “I felt this kind of cultural belonging that I didn’t have much in my hometown that had no one that was Asian, not even South Asian. So I found it pretty welcoming.”

Bulala recalled how she couldn’t find any active Filipino-American clubs and organizations when she came to campus in 2017, so she aided in re-creating the Filipino American Student Association.

“Through there, I got close to everyone in the community, in the culture,” Bulala

Kennysha Woods Managing Editor

said. “It was amazing because there were all these people there that I didn’t see at first.”

The questions surrounding mental health took the discussion into many realms.

In one instance, they shared an array of perspectives about how friends and family members impacted their mental health journeys.

Khan expressed that her parents were very supportive: “My family has been my biggest support through many of my experiences. High school was really tough on me, specifically junior year. My senior year, my dad really helped me out and took me to counseling.

“That meant a lot. That helped fulfill my relationship with them.”

Conversely, Chen found his friends to be a more solid support system.

“My family’s been supportive to some degree,” Chen said. “They know about OCD and they’ve always been trying to be supportive despite having the cultural Marissa McHugh/Nubian Message barriers. But my support system has always The panel at the “Exploring Mental Health in the APIDA Experience” event in Witherspoon been my friends since they’re probably the Student Center speak on the stigmatization of mental health on Monday, April 1, 2019. ones that understand most what I’m going through, whether they’re an immigrant as about anxiousness and depression, she’d say, about how in becoming an orientation well or their family’s been here for ages.”

‘You just need to change your attitude, and leader, she served as representation for other The cultural barriers Chen mentioned you’ll be okay.’ It wasn’t until high school incoming Filipino students and helped conwere espoused further into the conversathat I began to develop a better understand- nect them to campus organizations. tion, and illuminated the complicated ideas ing of what mental illness was.

“I feel really proud,” Bulala said. people have about mental health.

“It’s not just an attitude thing. It’s an actuOne major commonality shared between Several of the panelists relayed how the al, legitimate illness that people have.” the panelists was the need to reduce the stigpressure to succeed and maintain a good But they also highlighted how these ma against mental health in their commureputation makes it difficult for people to pressures don’t exist in a vacuum, explaining nity via open dialogue and supporting each participate in the conversation. how the ideal standards of the larger Ameri- other when help is needed.

For example, Buttar said mental health is can society impact them as well.

“Acknowledge that everyone has somegenerally “frowned upon” in his culture. He For example, Khan explained how difficult thing going on,” Khan said. “You’re not recalled how on trips to Pakistan with his it was to maintain her self-esteem while alone.” mother, who’s a psychiatrist and promotes “trying to figure out my place in society in By having more conversations with family mental health awareness there, he learned general with Eurocentric beauty standards members, friends and the people around there were “a lot of women in Pakistan who and growing up being told, ‘You need to you, knowledge about mental illnesses can can’t seek help because they’re too scared or have fair skin. You need to be skinny.’” become more accessible and the conversadon’t want to talk about mental health.”

But through all this unpacking, they also tion more common.

“It’s a huge problem and a lot of people shed light on the positive outcomes that Buttar summed it all up in a line that anyhave it,” Buttar said. came out of their experiences. Theater had one of any identity, background or from any They’ve also had instances where they become Chen’s outlet through which he community can learn from: “The best way found people close to them held misconcould acknowledge and process his strugto go about it is to talk about it.” ceptions about how to overcome issues with gles, and several of the panelists found that mental health. learning about their family histories, lan“As a Taiwanese American, what I knew guage and heritage aided them in balancing about mental illness was that it’s just a kind their identities. of attitude,” Chen shared, “If I told my mom In one of Bulala’s anecdotes, she talked

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opinion

Pan-Af Week is Not Pan-African A time of love, connection and celebration is approaching—Pan-Afrikan Week.

The long-awaited occasion is the week where black people are supposed to come together in friendship and attend a week of Shawn events carefully curated by Fredericks the hardworking people of Staff Writer the Black Students Board.

In my experience, however, Pan-Af does not and has not lived up to the values of Pan-Africanism, the term from which the week gets its namesake.

Honestly, Pan-Af is NC State’s “African-American Homecoming week with a little diasporic spice.” An African-American homecoming week would not get any opposition from me, but I wish it was much more honest about it.

The week is more often about parties, outfits and being on the gram with your clique than building solidarity between people of African descent.

To be clear, the issue of Pan-Af Week has nothing to do with the quality of events, but their intention and essential nature. Pan-Af Week’s events do not seek to foster kinship between diasporic people, which is in the

opposite of the principals of Pan-Africanism.

Pan-Africanism is, as defined by an essay titled “Pan-Africanism” by Minkah Makalani, associate professor and graduate advisor of African and African Diaspora studies at the University of Texas in Austin, “a belief that African peoples, both on the African continent and in the Diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a common destiny.”

Pan-Af Week fails at a basic level. The celebratory nature of the week does little to educate people about the connection between diasporic peoples. Furthermore, the emphasis on the African-American experience creates an erasure effect where the concept of blackness is only seen through one set of experiences.

Blackness is global; it’s in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and heck, even Canada. Blackness has always been multifaceted. Frankly, it’s lazy to slap the name Pan-Af on a week that does little to foster the ideals of Pan-Africanism. Furthermore, it’s disrespectful for the website to say it’s celebrating blackness with such little representation.

Pan-Af Week in its current iteration is disappointing, and the issue lies with representation and lack of acknowledgment of

the greater African diaspora.

Marriah Decosta, president of the Caribbean Student Association spoke about her reaction to this year’s Pan Af event calendar: “Most of the time, whenever there’s events during Pan-Af Week, I’m just used to seeing it being catered toward African Americans and Africans. It doesn’t really encompass the entire diaspora, so I wasn’t really pressed to see it not really catered towards Caribbean students.”

She further elaborated by saying, “I assumed that would be our responsibility, like my org’s responsibility to bring that to the table then. Like, that’s why we created it in the first place—because we never saw any representation anyway.”

Pan-Af Week’s lack of representation has another detrimental effect. It perpetuates ignorance.

Dr. Craig Brookins, coordinator of the Africana Studies program for NC State, shared his thoughts about Pan-Af Week, saying, “Many of us have wanted to see more of this kind of discussion more during the week, more efforts to kind of educate folk on connections and the meaning of Pan-Africanism.”

Pan-Af Week’s lack of educational events about the greater diaspora is a wasted opportunity to bring people from all over

the diaspora together. Misunderstandings and stereotypes are the by-products of ignorance, so if Pan-Af Week is to continue, it must be more intentional in showcasing more aspects of the diaspora.

Also, the lack of education of what Pan-Africanism is can lead people into thinking that the idea of Pan-Africanism is just about culture when it has social, political and economic aspects as well. This, again, perpetuates ignorance.

Pan-Af Week is something to be enjoyed by everyone, but there’s always going to be a cap on that enjoyment when one or two experiences of blackness are given care and attention. Going further, Pan-Af Week must be not just about parties and fun but also educating folks—or, to put it plainly, making more skin folks into kinfolks.

To my peers: enjoy the week, as I will also enjoy it, but be conscious of what’s seen and unseen during Pan-Af Week.

To be clear, I will acknowledge it’s easier for me to write this article than join Black Students Board to change this directly, as planning Pan-Af week is an intricate process. But I have faith that the leadership will look at this critique as a guide and not receive it as slander of their collective efforts.

Enjoy Pan-Af Week and stay black, stay proud.

opinion

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We Can’t Tolerate Right-Wing Extremism on nc state’s Campus When you envision an extremist attack, what is the first thing to come to your mind? For much of the public, years of demonization by both the media and the public have caused us to register extremism with Islamic radicals. A Kevin Moye closer look at the numbers Staff Writer involving extremist attacks in the United States paints a much different portrait.

The majority of extremist attacks in the United States since 2014 have come from far right-wing radicals.

The demographics for this group are clear: young, white and male. At a university that has an abundance of this demographic, it should be of high priority to ensure that susceptible students do not go down the rabbit hole of extremism.

Just as we should not stereotype Islam as the root cause of Islamic terrorism, we should not mischaracterize all right-wing ideology as the cause of all extremist terror.

Instead, we should be critical of segments of any ideology that lead to extremist tenden-

cies. As college students, we must be the most aware of what these ideologies can manifest into.

For right-wing terrorism, there are a number of reasons why the path may lead some to its more insidious territories. One of the reasons why right-wing extremism is growing is because of the internet and social media helping to enlarge its presence.

What was once only discussed in isolated groups has become an open matter for all to reason with. The increased online presence has been vital in recruiting young people into these dark movements.

The shifting of our politics has also played a key role in the path to radicalization for many of these extremists. The election of Donald Trump effectively normalized far right-wing ideologies with his explicitly xenophobic rhetoric and policies.

Trump’s rhetoric on shifting demographics plays directly into the narratives right-wing extremists are trying to peddle.

When the president of the US says that our country must adopt a Muslim ban, it works to legitimize the rhetoric of a racist extremist that antagonizes Muslims.

Impressionable white males are prime

Letter to editor Racial Bias in reporting “safety” issues?

This may just be an opinion that can not be fully proven with the available data but I find it insulting (and awfully suspicious) as a Black student on this campus that the University police are quick to send out safety alerts about minor “criminal” incidents involving Black men—last week I think it was a Black touching peoples’ feet—but on March 7th, when the police seized weapons from a students’ vehicle that was parked on campus they “determined there was no cause for a Wolf Alert.” I’m going to go ahead and guess

that the armed student in question was White.

I am curious to know how much potentially violent criminal behavior perpetrated by non-brown skinned peoples is swept under the rug while Black peoples’ behavior is constantly being put on blast.

D. Clark Delandra Clark is a first-year transfer student in the College of Engineering.

targets for being swayed by these ideas. Because they are the ones with the most to lose from demographic changes. As inherent racial advantages are removed, young white men are the likely candidates to act on the toxic ideas being spread.

It is the very reason why the crypro-fascist “It’s Okay to Be White” flyers were posted around campus months ago. The demographic that would be seeing the message also happens to be the one that is the most receptive to it. A seemingly innocuous message about white identity can lead to sympathy for white-identity politics that creates right-wing terror attacks.

Even at NC State, there are a handful of avenues that could lead impressionable students into the den of extremism. An organization like Turning Point USA is the prototypical version of an extremist pipeline.

On its surface, the organization claims to be a club that is simply in favor of small government and free market capitalism. As one digs deeper into the organization, they will uncover a number of far-right ideas espoused by the faces of the organization, such as the Director of Communications,

claiming racism no longer exists.

NC State needs to do a better job at ensuring that our campus does not become a breeding ground for right-wing extremism.

Getting rid of Turning Point should not be an option as they are entitled to their free speech rights, but the university should make it clear that they completely disavow some of the more toxic rhetoric that is disseminated by some of the high ranking members within the organization.

The university should also ensure that attempts to spread harmful right-wing ideology on campus are shut down. While the university assured the student body that they were monitoring the spread of “It’s Okay to be White” posters, there was no actual repudiation of the white nationalist propaganda and no explanation to students about why these statements are harmful.

Radicalization is a process that is much closer to our daily lives than many may think it is. Both students and the university must ensure that this process to radicalization continues to be suppressed.

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