DECEMBER 2018 • ISSUE 3

THE

BLACKPRINT

DEC 2018 • ISSUE 3

“CREED II” DIRECTOR

CONGRESSWOMAN

STUDENT ACTIVIST

STEVEN CAPLE JR.

MAXINE WATERS

SONITA ALIZADEH

INTERVIEWS WITH GAME CHANGERS

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAMPUS 6

AU EXCELLENCE 18

CULTURE 20

OPINION 30

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H.B.I.C. RECIPE *Go raw at your own risk

A quick and easy guide on how you, too, can become a Head B-tch in Charge!

To quench your hater’s thirst!

Talk your sh-t. You’re on your way to becoming a H.B.I.C. so take a moment remind people who exactly you are. That B-tch! Self-confidence is key to getting ahead, securing leadership roles and stop people from “trying” you.

Practice your resting b-tch face. Especially if you still have your mom make your dentist appointments.

No on wants to see those pearly yellows. This is best done by reflecting on that time someone asked to touch your hair. That’s it! Let the grimace begin.

Find good people to surround yourself with, people who will uplift you, people who are going places.

Seriously, why are you still friends with that girl whose leave-out doesn’t blend. You can do better!

Don’t ask questions, make statements and demands.

Why are you still asking for permission? Take it. A little highlighter, dash of melanin magic, you’ll taste so good you’ll want to slap your mama. (But not really because she’s slightly terrifying).

T N I R P K C BLA 4

ldwell

Alexis A

enna Ca rnold & J

Nutrition facts Serving Size 1 campus Editors-in-Chief

Alexis Arnold & Jenna Caldwell

Editors

100% News

Zshekinah Collier

Campus & Opinion

Nadia Slocum

District

Mariah Espada

Culture

Amanda Nyang’oro

Multimedia

Tiffany Trang

Writers

Artists & Models

Tainaya Nash-Cheaton

Kiran Ahluwalia

Roman Habibzai

Carol Wright

Ofonime Idiong

Stephen Okonkwo

Danielle Germain

Youssefier

Kiarra DeLouis MacKenzie Galloway Kemo Grant Alexis Foster

5

SICK AN SICK AN SICK AN SICK AN SICK AN SICK AN OF OF OF

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ND TIRED ND TIRED ND TIRED ND TIRED ND TIRED ND TIRED BEING BEING BEING

STUDENTS OF COLOR CONTINUE TO FACE RACISM IN 2018 CLASSROOMS

BY JENNA CALDWELL, ZSHEKINAH COLLIER & DANIELLE GERMAIN7

Given the exclusive opportunity to cover this event, The Blackprint has agreed to keep the names of all in attendance anonymous.

Earlier this month, American University’s Chapter of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hosted a call-to-action to address students’ concerns regarding the racism students of color face in the classroom. Discussion based, attendants got the chance to share their personal stories, as well as explore what specific factors has allowed American University to uphold an environment in which racism thrives. Successfully creating a supportive space, the NAACP executive board urged students to propose specific changes that could be made to ensure that all students, particularly Black and brown students, are able to feel safe within a community they have invested thousands of dollars into.

Planned to be held at 8:15 p.m. in the Kogod School of Business Room 233, the NAACP executive board were met by a professor that had not reserved the room through the university’s reservation system, 25live, but had took it upon themselves to reserve the room, unofficially, to hold a midterm.

Students planning to attend the event started to gather outside of the reserved room, confused as to why they were being told they could not enter a room that had been reserved through proper channels. Members of the NAACP executive board spoke to Kogod’s front desk assistant about the issue, but she refused to remove the professor and their class, promising that unusual situations like this rarely occur and that it would “never happen again.” Event-goers were sure to tell the assistant that issues like this were of a frequent occurrence, particularly to clubs of color. Shortly thereafter, the NAACP event was forced to relocate.

off with their detailed recount of a harrowing experience they recently had in a classroom: “My professor introduced an article surrounding the debate on who could use the n-word, I don’t know why that’s still a debate in 2018 but she brought up the article to the class and basically there was this white male student in the class that was outspoken and angry and he spoke up and said, ‘I think white people should be able to use the n-word, it’s a double standard that Black people can use it and we can’t’. So it got really heated in the room and [he] was pretty much attacking all of the students of color in the room and the professor sat there and did nothing, she pretty much had her hands tied and didn’t mediate the situation in any way even though she saw that there were a lot of students that were uncomfortable. He even called a Black student a racist.”

The student went on to describe the event as triggering and reported it to the board of directors because their situation “is not an isolated situation.”

Encouraged to speak, many in the room began to share similar experiences they have had where professors failed to make the classroom a safe environment for students of color. One student shared how their University College professor assigned the class to read a chapter where the N-word served as the title and subsequently repeated the N-word throughout the duration of class. “Everyone was quiet and there was so much tension in the room,” they recalled. “ After the class we told the peer mentor that we weren't comfortable with her saying the word in class. It’s just wrong and she shouldn’t be able to say that.” Afterwards, the student went to the class’ peer mentor and asked them to speak to the professor on the class’ behalf as many expressed that they were uncomfortable with the verbiage being used. However, “in the next class, our professor said it again. We felt that our peer leader never said anything to her. We decided to talk to the professor after the class and she told us the peer leader had talked to her but it was an academic choice to use the word again. She said that ‘Not using the word is taking away the power’ and she started crying. She said she understands where we’re coming from but she just had to make that academic choice. After that, she would say the word but say sorry [afterwards].” The student expressed that her feeling of frustration and discomfort stemmed not only from professor using the

“THE COLONIZATION OF AFRICA WAS THE BEST THING THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO THE CONTINENT”

This setback set the tone for the event where students of varying marginalized identities spoke about how their experiences on campus are not only accompanied by feelings of tokenization, unfair treatment and insulting (racist and bigoted) comments from fellow peers in the classroom, but also from faculty and staff alike, impeding their education, college and future careers.

Inspired by one student in particular, the event kicked 8

N-word, but other white students being able to “make the academic choices to say that to us.” Although the professor was reported to the program manager of University College, Richard Duncan, she has since been allowed to return and teach the class again.

Not only have numerous professors expressed racist sentiments in class, but religious ones as well. One student spoke to how a current School of Public Affairs professor of theirs constantly refers to Muslims as terrorists and told the class that “if you arrest a terrorist on this day, years later he’ll probably say he did it for Allah.” This same student went on to describe how this particular professor tokenizes (and assumes) the experiences of specific students in class based on their identities. They detailed how when issues related to criminal justice or slavery come up in class, he encourages visibly Black, dark-skinned students to speak although their hands are not raised.

or the expertise within the topic to understand the problems that are really happening in the continent” and were “sympathetic to the issues” because they are of African heritage.

Representation in the classroom was a major topic at the event with students sharing the roadblocks they’ve faced trying to register for classes taught by Black professors. “During the summer I emailed SOC to see if there are any Black professors in SOC,” one student recalled. “They forwarded my email to 3 different people that were all on the SOC diversity panel. SOC forwarded [my email] to them and didn’t provide [me with] any type of list. People emailed me back saying ‘We have a lot of diversity, come to our panels and talk about diversity.’ I was just asking for the specific Black professors. That’s all I wanted and they didn’t give that to me.” Another student went on to share how they searched for a professor of color who did research on mass incarceration in School of Public Affairs to help them with their senior thesis to no avail.

When discussing this with a fellow SPA professor they “joked” “‘yeah I don’t think we have any professors [of color] that teach about it because they’re probably all mass incarcerated.’”

“I DON’T THINK WE HAVE ANY PROFESSORS [OF COLOR] THAT TEACH ABOUT IT BECAUSE THEY’RE PROBABLY ALL MASS INCARCERATED.”

Another student shared how they had to drop their Civilizations of Africa course after their white professor made several inappropriate comments regarding Africa, Africans, African-Americans and the lasting effect of colonialism throughout the continent. “I was really excited to take it, but when I got to the class, the professor didn’t look like me so I was immediately like ‘what’s going on?’” the student explained. (A lack of Black and brown professors is another reality a lot of minority students face on campus and is often the root of a lot of their issues regarding racism inside the classroom). Nonetheless, the student decided to stick the course out, putting their apprehensions aside. Shortly after this decision was made, the professor subsequently went on a “rant,” stating that “the colonization of Africa was the best thing that could have happened to the continent because the African rulers were doing it to their own people and that Black people, specifically Africans and African-Americans, that we’re always making excuses and make it okay for our own people to hurt each other but when someone else does it, we want to cry and get mad about [it].” Afterwards, the student tried to explain to the professor in office hours that a lot of the statements that they made were not factual as there were peer-reviewed articles supporting opposing views. In return, the student was told that they “did not have the stature

Although this is the reality many students of color are subjected to on campus, one revelation that left many in the room startled was from a particular student.

Sharing that their professor segregated the classroom based on race, the Asian & Latin-American, the African & Caribbean, Black-American, and white students were grouped separately, with the professor specifically citing that her reason for separating the Black-American and African students was that she recognized “there were differences between the two.” The student also shared that the professor would encourage students to relive and tell the class about the racism they have faced in their personal lives as well as assign different readings for white and non-white students for class discussions.

So why not report the professors who use racist terminology, segregate their classrooms by race or teach alternate versions of history to their students? Academic repercussions. Assigned to write a paper on stereotypes, one student shared how their paper, centered 9

on the stereotype that Black people can not swim, was rooted in Black people being thrown off of slave ships during the transatlantic period. They were given an ‘F’ and spent the rest of the semester having to work with the dean to earn a passing grade in the class. Students, especially those who work and/or are involved with extracurricular activities, do not always have the luxury of working with college deans to ensure that their professors are maintaining a safe space in the classroom nor should they.

With the release President Sylvia Burwell’s Inclusive Excellence Plan, many in attendance questioned why the president has not reached out to Black student leaders and groups to discuss what their wants on campus are. Others also questioned the purpose of the Antiracism Research Center: “We just spent thousands of dollars investing in the Anti-racism program with [Dr.]Kendi, which is great but where is that?” a student asked. “They are pouring thousands of dollars into a program that’s suppose to save our school but there’s no direct impact on or for students of color.”

Students suggested that there should be more classroom training for professors, particularly on difficult conversations regarding race, not held by CDI. “AU does a lot of talk about civil discourse and discourse in the classroom and that's all great and fine, however, the training professors are getting needs to come from an outside source,” one student expressed. “There are plenty of places in DC that do diverse and equity training and it doesn't always have to be CDI. CDI does great work but they’re underfunded, understaffed, and they can’t give comprehensive training to every single professor needed and I feel like a lot of the time the university dumps everything into CDI’s bucket.”

The racism faced in the classroom is not exclusive to undergraduates at American. Students working towards high academic degrees have reported incidents where they felt targeted and mistreated because of their race. Zach Mills, a PhD student, shared that a professor admitted to having “biases,” and he “tries” to keep them in check. Mills also reported that the same professor intentionally tried to fail him Fall of 2017, by allegedly providing false due dates, not notifying him of major syllabus changes and calling him out in front peers for missing class and assignments.

Throughout the semester Mills physically missed 3 weeks of class because he went home to care for his 10

mother who became very ill and was admitted to the hospital, but attended class via Skype on occasion. Despite the professor being aware of the reason for Mills long absence, he was accused of lying. The professor also laughed when Mills tried to explain the emotional stress he experienced while his mother was in the hospital. Mills believes that these incidents were biased and race-related because a white peer who was also dealing with serious family issues was not treated in the same manner. Also none of his white peers in the class were targeted or harassed in or outside of class.

Mills decided to go through the formal complaint process by speaking with Carole Crawford, the faculty relations investigator at American. According to the Decision Letter, the actions of the professor “do not constitute racial discrimination, nor do they constitute discriminatory harassment as defined in American University’s Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Policy.” Allegedly, the issues were not investigated to the fullest extent, because Mills’ witnesses were never interviewed and he was not provided the opportunity to respond to the findings before the report was published, even though he was affirmed to have that right by the Office of the Provost. After the investigation, President Burwell sent an email stating, “I have confirmed that the university followed its normal processes in investigating and resolving your complaint and that the matter was fully investigated.” and “I understand that you are frustrated, and as a University, I want us to continue to learn and grow.”

Overall, most in attendance agreed that there needs be more advisors and professors of color, specifically professors of color with tenure. There should be access to a list with professors of color and the courses they teach if not available to students, at least available to groups like the SOC diversity panel to pass along this information to students when asked. Students also suggested that the end of the semester professor reviews should give students the option to self-identify their race and specific questions in regard to how the professor handled difficult discussions or if they explicitly said problematic statements in class. These results will help students of color decide whether or not to register for specific courses, shielding themselves from potentially traumatizing moments in the classroom.

“THEY ARE POURING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS INTO A PROGRAM THAT’S SUPPOSE TO SAVE OUR SCHOOL BUT THERE’S NO DIRECT IMPACT ON OR FOR STUDENTS OF COLOR.”

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WHAT CAMPUS EA YES

NO

DO YOU HAVE A FAKE ID?

DID YOU PROTEST THIS YEAR?

NO

FAN OF ALTERNAIVE MUSIC?

YES

NO ARE YOU FROM THE WEST COAST?

YES

DO YOU LIVE OFF CAMPUS?

NO

YES

YES WAS AU YOUR SAFETY SCHOOL?

YES

NO

DO YOU OWN A TAPESTRY? NO

YES

NO

ASIAN FLAVORS

MEGARAT

You occasionally steal from H&M but justify it because down with capitalism. You find your bank account in overdraft at least twice a month and can’t help but ask your uber driver where they’re from.

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Your parents paid for the 250 meal plan and regularly add money to your EagleBucks. You order in every night.

You’re from the West Coast. You won’t stop comparing everything to In-N-Out Burger. We get it, you like limited menu options. You still have yet to adjust to D.C. weather.

Buy a jacket.

Your shower habits are questionable as well as your “conversational Spanish” that you insist on speaking to the custodial staff in. You think Guapo’s is as authentic as it gets.

You once went on an Alternative Break to Vietnam. It changed your life.

You’re not sure why everyone gave you a bad look when you came to class wearing a bindi and cornrows, isn’t that what allyship is about?! You’ve taken three I’s this semester.

You still wear Doc Martens. If your instagram post doesn’t get more than 100 likes if an hour, you delete it. (You’ll repost it as a #ThrowbackThursday). You claim you’re a loner, but haven’t been invited to a social gathering in months.

You got a “coexist” tattoo in high school.

ATERY ARE YOU ?

YES

ARE YOU IN A CULTURAL CLUB?

NO

IS YOUR HAIR DYED?

NO

NO

ARE YOU IN GREEK LIFE?

HERE T R STA

YES

NO

DO YOU HAVE MEAL SWIPES?

YES

YES

YES

DO YOU DRINK COFFEE? NO

STARBUCKS

You start getting ready for your 8:10 at 9:30 am. You’re likely the only person of color in your non-divine 9 sorority, but who cares because you too, ignore the brown and Black students when they walk past your table. They just don’t get you.

You’re on a first name basis with every coffee barista on campus, so they make sure to only slightly misspell your name. You’ve never stepped foot in a campus gym and are repulsed by the idea of excessively sweating. You live in the Avalon. You’ve ubered to campus twice this month.

You complain about how expensive school is, but half of your “income” (allowance) goes to happy hour at Chef Geoff ’s. Your new years resolution is to bcome a fraternity sweetheart. Ugh, why won’t Chad notice you.

GLOBAL FRESH

You have three identity crises a week. Your dyed hair is more damaged than your GPA. You prefer people call you by your middle name because only the FBI agent assigned to your computer knows the real you. (Not to be confused with #TheRealAU). You skip class to “window shop” at the farmer’s market. You never buy anything.

You’re a GW student by night, HU student by weekend, AU student when necessary. You took a gap year. You won’t stop talking about your gap year. We get it, you’re well traveled. You claimed you’re a vegan, but we all saw you complaining to the McDonald’s cashier last weekend about a missing nugget from your order. But who cares, isn’t it pink slime?

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ASIAN AMERICAN STUDENT UNION

CLUB FEATURE Jenna Caldwell: What is the Asian American Stuan eastern Asian club. In what ways have you tried to dent Union? combat this image or perception?

It’s a student run organization dedicated to building community among the Asian-American, Pacific Islander community. We advocate for visibility and unity among the API community at AU. We also act as a liaison between students, AU and the greater DMV community as well.

Mae McCauley:

JC: Who is welcome to the union? Is it only open to

Asian students?

MM: So we like to call ourselves an AAPI cen-

tered organization, but not exclusive. So we even have our family program and its not exclusively for Asian-Americans or Pacific Islander students, it’s a program centered around the Asian-American experience, but its not exclusive to Asian-American students and that’s the same for our events, our events are open to the entire community and we actually encourage all members of the AU community to come. And participate in our activities and learn more about the issues surrounding the Asian-American community.

With regards to trying to make our events and any programs we host more open to the AU population, we also do a lot of collaborative work, especially with other cultural organizations on campus because we want more people to learn more about the Asian-American experience, but also for us to stand in solidarity with other communities of color that are also marginalized just because we tend to be left out of the conversation a lot and so we are here to support each other in any way possible.

Lucky Sasiphong:

I know in the past, and even currently, AASU is commonly thought to be JC:

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MM: Starting [Spring 2018] semester, we fostered a

really good friendship with the South Asian Student Association. That relationship has [carried over] to this semester and we have done a lot of events with SASA which has been really amazing and we call ourselves ‘sister organizations’ We cosponsor a lot of our events with each other, so that’s one of the ways [we combat this perception]. In a larger pan-Asian conversation, South Asians and Brown Asians tend to be left out of a conversation that tends to be dominated by EastAsians. It’s still a lot larger conversation for any API organization, not just student organizations. Not all of our members are East Asian. We have a pretty large South East Asian population as well.

Our executive board is reflective of the diversity of Asia.﹣ minus South Asia. We have a lot of East Asian and South East Asian mixed ethnicities as well so it’s a much more inclusive environment.

LS:

One of the things we’ve been doing now is getting an Asian American, Pacific Islander graduation so the two clubs that have been spearheading that together have been us, AASU, and SASA. We see that incorporates programing the graduation and also creating and designing API stoles. The API stoles and our Graduation Gala must be both inclusive and pan-Asian, where all API identifying individuals feel as if they’re being represented by the stole and the programming of the event.

MM:

JC: Do you feel as if there is a disconnect between the

international and domestic students of Asian ancestry on campus? If so, how has AASU played a role in this?

LS: I think AU has a done a really good job at trying

to foster a relationship between the Asian-American, Pacific Islander population and international Asian population. Even though our organization is called AASU, it isn’t Asian-American exclusive and so all of our events are open to the public., but often times it is

There was a lot of conversation with that this semester among e-board in terms of our events and even in terms of our name. There were some conversations of even putting in a slash so we [would become] Asian/American Student Union so that’s another way to open it up so it’s Asian and Asian American. There is a large disconnect because of lived experiences that are so different. Being an American-born Asian and Asian-American is a lot different experience. Something we were thinking of doing was a discussion on the Asian and Asian-American experience but sometimes there’s so much to talk about even with the Asian-American community that we don’t really get space even within our own community to talk about a lot of the times. Asian isn’t a monolith so there’s times when we’re all lumped together.

MM:

JC: What would you say has been one of the biggest

accomplishments of AASU?

For me, personally, I think it’s the strength of community. My experience as a freshman at AASU events was a very different experience than what freshman are experiencing now. I think that really speaks to how much the community has grown, especially with the start of our Family Program [in Spring 2018]. In a program of 90+ people, mostly everyone knows each other or knows of each other, everyone is super friendly and welcoming, and our events really try to replicate the dynamics of a close-knit family. In regards to my experience as a freshman—I’m currently a junior— I felt like there wasn’t a sense of overall community being fostered amongst the AASU general body. I think now, AASU really caters to creating community, and we see that both digitally and physically.

MM:

I think AASU has a done a really good job at fostering a relationship between the AAPI and international Asian community. Even though our organization is called AASU, it isn’t Asian-American exclusive and all of our events are open to the public. However, it is a bit more difficult at times for us to attract internaLS:

tional Asian students as our lived experiences are often very different from theirs but that is not to say that we haven’t made strides in that regard. Our e-board and Family Program alone has several international students. Looking forwarding to the future, we hope to continue bridging that gap.

JC: What’s your biggest hope for AASU going for-

ward?

LS: I think in terms of a relationship with Administra-

tion I’d like for us to have an even greater voice within the AU community in general. I think that’s something we’ve done really well since last semester but going from a community that used to be lumped with international students to us now having our own byline in a statistic report; and in some capacities that’s progress.

So it is sad that it took this long for it to happen but knowing that in some ways we are acting as the liaison between the administration and the student body, knowing that we can further create a stronger relationship within administration is awesome and it’s what I’d like to see AASU continue doing.

BY JENNA CALDWELL

a bit more difficult for us to draw in that crowd specifically because their lived experiences are so much more different than ours and I think that with every attempt of us trying to get more people to come out to our events [we are successful as] we do have international students who are a part of our family program and [on our] executive board, but I think, looking to the future, we are definitely trying to bridge that gap.

MM: I agree, Lucky. I think that goes with how there

are misconceptions about our community too, which may be the reason for the “lumping together” of Asian-American students and international students.

But I also think that now the demographics have shifted dramatically of Asian-American students being accepted into AU, I mean like you walk around campus and you see so many more Asian-Americans than we did our freshman year. Our voice, our ideas for the community and for the space we want at AU, can no longer be ignored by a university that keeps increasing the number of Asian-Americans they’re accepting.

We also need to be more vocal about the things we want to see. We’re starting with the Graduation Gala, which has been a really big step. We also like to see the expansion of the visibility and demands of AASU, from administration to resources on campus to the curriculum. Expanding the Asian Studies Program, to an Asian and Asian-American Studies Program would be amazing because right now the Asian Studies Program is catered towards studying Asia in an international relations context, which differs greatly from of an ethnic studies oriented program which would focus on decolonization within an Asian-American studies curriculum. Also having more Asian-American professors, like Professor Lily Wong would also be amazing.

15

While I was working at this newsroom, I went up to one of the main anchors to introduce myself. She asked me what and where I was studying and I told her Journalism at American University. “But isn’t Syracuse a better university for journalism?” She asked in response. “I went to Syracuse.” She concluded. I told her that I originally wanted to study International Relations along with Journalism and the combination of those two appealed to me about American. “But isn’t Georgetown a better school for International Relations?” It seemed she had a problem with every life decision I had made. - SOC, 2019 This past summer I interned at a trade association. My boss had an inferiority complex and took out her anger on me. (The queen of passive aggression). She would constantly micromanage me and was really cruel. I once told her I was sick and couldn’t come in.

She didn’t believe me and made a huge deal about it. The breaking point was that after an office meeting, she pulled me aside and told me how I did a terrible job and didn’t give me any specifics on how to improve. She also said others in the office thought I was a poor intern. Afterwards, I asked some of the employees how I was doing and they all said I was doing a great job. She secretly had a vendetta against me. - SPA, 2019 One summer I worked for an office within the federal government. My supervisor was an easily-agitated and holier-than-thou micro-manager who drove me up a wall for the entire summer. They gave me child-like busy work and became agitated when I reached out and networked with other employees in the office for more meaningful assignments. They complained constantly about everything, and was literally OBSESSED with keeping track of EVERYTHING I did. They would print the emails I sent, make me sign in and out the office, and only allowed me 2 trips to the bathroom a day, which I also had to sign out for. Lunch was 30 minutes nothing more and nothing less. Additionally, they had rules about when I could ask them questions (20 minutes after their arrival until 20 minutes before the end of the day), intercepted my phone calls, told me that this internship “isn’t meant to be fun, its meant to be work.” Then, denied my request to meet the leader that we worked for and barely let me have any one-on-one time with them. What annoyed me the most actually happened a year or two later when I saw them outside the office... they saw me and tried to secretly turn in the other direction. - SPA, 2019 My boss would rent out pricey locations to host parties “dedicated” to a celebrity’s upcoming birthday. She would advertise the parties and make it seem as if Emma Watson or Reese Witherspoon would be in attendance and sell the tickets at a hefty price. When people arrived, (I would be working the door),they would ask where [insert name] celebrity was, leaving me to tell them that the party is dedicated to that celebrity, they have no idea who we are. - SIS, 2019 I had the worst coworker who I only worked with for one week, but he made a pretty lasting impression in that week. I am a woman, and he would mansplain everything to me despite being pretty incompetent at basic office skills. He once mansplained how to use a stamp! He would also tell inappropriate or insensitive jokes in the presence of people coming into the office for important meetings with the senator. Once, after having a conversation with someone visiting in the office in which he received career advice, he turns to me and in the most annoying, smug voice possible and said “you know, a lot of important people come through this office, if you talk to them they might offer you a job.” I WAS SITTING DIRECTLY NEXT TO HIM THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION. He was the absolute worst, and even the staffers in the office were getting sick of him. He also tried to talk sh-t to me about a new intern who I liked way more than him, so of course I told her right after. I got my best revenge on his last day though, after I got to witness a staffer getting mad at him not knowing how to create a simple mailing label on Word, and then after getting to explain it to him.

-SPA, 2021

16

My former boss wanted to host a small empowerment event in a bar or restaurant in New York City, but turned down every venue I suggested because she didn’t want to pay the high prices that came along with renting out a space (red flag #1). A few days later she told me she’d found a venue in Midtown Manhattan and I didn’t think anything of it at the time because I knew she was pretty well connected and probably was able to get a good deal.

The day of the event comes and naturally I arrived earlier than her like a good assistant should and spoke to management to ensure all the affairs were in order. They told me they didn’t know anything about an event that was supposed to take place (red flag #2). I was a little worried, but brushed it off thinking that maybe it’s a specific person that we were supposed to work with. I called my boss and lo and behold, she reveals to me that she didn’t actually reserve the event space, and was just planning to pull up there since the space was open to the public?! She then instructed to me to find a new location 30 minutes before the event was supposed to take place. I found one and the event took place, again without permission, and management took notice of the size of our party. He threatened to call the police, and was even turning people away at the door, saying the event was a scam (can’t say I disagree with him). Thankfully the situation was mediated before the police were called, and everything went as well as it could’ve gone to it’s completion. I turned in my resignation the next morning and haven’t spoken to her since. - SOC, 2019 I had a boss from hell. After a failed career in journalism, she decided to convince her dad to finance a magazine startup dedicated to “vegan clothing”. (Who was her audience? No one! Considering the website was “under construction” the entire time I was there). She would bring her teacup dog with her to work with her everyday and on my first day, she dropped it and it’s knee cap popped out! Not only that, but she refused to potty train her pup. It would pee and poop all over the office and she would make staff take it to get groomed. Once, she gave a coworker the keys to her apartment to pickup something and when he went, he said there where dog “sh-t” stains everywhere. I kid you not. She eventually broke her knee (karma?) and forced everyone to work at her kitchen table instead of going to the office. That was my breaking point. I didn’t even quit. It was finals season and I literally just stopped going to the office. - SIS, 2019 When I was interning for this “up-and-coming” fashion magazine in D.C. (it’s shut down now, but that’s another story) earlier this year, I decided to write about Saudi Arabia hosting its first ever fashion show. I also revealed to my boss that I was engaged earlier that day. My fiancé is Muslim. When I asked her to review the story I wrote on Saudi Arabia, she asked me if I wrote it so I could convince myself not to wear a hijab when I get married. Seriously, what the f-ck? - SIS, 2019 My boss once asked me to do a story on why Black women wore “clown makeup.” What made them feel the need to “cake” their faces? - SIS, 2019

I had a teacher I shadowed for my English language learners class and he had 0 idea which students were actually ELL and he just let them copy each others homework. It was a difficult and pointless semester long early morning shenanigan. CAS, 2018

I worked as a social media intern during the fall semester last year for this organization. A part of my job was not only running the organizations various social media account, but also running the personal pages for the CEO. I would legit tweet and post on Facebook acting as if I was her from her account because she was too lazy to post on her own platforms.

SMH! - SPA, 2021

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AU EXCELLENCE

TWENTY-TWO. HERAT, AFGHANISTAN. RAPPER, STUDENT, ACTIVIST. As children, we are encouraged to dream. We dream big so that we can have something to aspire to become.

Unfortunately, as we get older, many of us take the world as we see it and put our dreams aside to face reality. Not many of us go back to our dreams. Instead, our dreams fade away, never to be thought of again.

Rapper, songwriter, activist and student, Sonita Alizadeh, refuses to let her dreams and aspirations fade away. Instead, she gives them an address to be sent to-her Dream Book. It’s there where she says her dreams are created, nurtured and eventually achieved.

“Putting [dreams] out there and not believing in [them] will get you nowhere” says Alizadeh.

Alizadeh came to American University this past summer after graduating from Wasatch Academy in Utah.

While having spent only a four months at American, Alizadeh says she hasn’t let her school work over shadow her love for music and vice versa. She is currently taking English classes within the English Language and Training Academy through AU’s School of Professional & Extended Studies and will start her freshman year at AU in the fall of 2019.

On any given Saturday morning, you’ll most likely find her sitting on the couch in the living room--which also serves as her bedroom-- of her small one-bedroom apartment. She’ll have a laptop on her lap, small beats maker on the coffee table, TOEFL study guide sprawled on the floor and her Pepsi sitting upward beside her. This is her zone. This is her process. This is how Alizadeh brews up dreams hopes and aspirations.

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And it is in this room where she makes her dreams a reality.

Last month, Alizadeh released her most newest single, “Brave and Bold” Alizadeh says not every song she makes sounds like a hit at first.

“Today’s rap is all about the beats,” said Alizadeh.“One time I made something that was trash but it’s cool because I learned something from it.”

The last few weeks for Alizadeh have been filled with a lot of excitement. Earlier this month Alizadeh was notified that she was nominated for MTV Europe Music Awards’ first ever Generation Change Award. The award highlighted some of the world’s youngest and most influential change-makers.

“It was amazing to be a part of something so big … it shows that no one can take our voices away,” said Alizadeh.

Alizadeh’s aura of positivity and faith was shaped from her complicated childhood.

Alizadeh was born in Afghanistan during Taliban rule.

Surrounded by a plethora or uncertainty and violence, her family moved back and forth from Afghanistan to Iran. The constant moving and separation from her family played a toll on Alizadeh at an early age and caused her to lose hope on not only her dreams but her future.

“During that time, I was sad and I didn’t know what my future was going to look like,” said Alizadeh. At the tender age of 14, Alizadeh came up with her “Dream Book”. She knew she wanted more for herself and her family. She thought by constructing an image of her dreams with pictures and tape, she could work towards making them a reality.

“Making the book gives me energy and tells me that this dream is going to happen in the future,” said AIizadeh. “Everyday they get bigger and bigger.”

cepted by her family or the Iranian government. While living with her older sister and niece as undocumented refugees in Tehran, Alizadeh cleaned schools and bathrooms to help pay the rent and to save enough money for studio time. While working and writing, Alizadeh also attended a community school for girls that taught life and coping skills.

Alizadeh was discovered by documentary filmmaker, Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami in 2014. Ghaemmaghami documented Alizadeh’s complex journey of working, rapping and self-discovery for nearly a year. Her documentary, Sonita, was released in 2016.

It was during the filming that Alizadeh’s most renowned song, “Daughters for Sale” went viral. Alizadeh wrote the song to express her pain and experience as someone who was almost sold into a child marriage-- a long standing custom in Afghanistan. The song gained the attention of the Strongheart Group, a non profit organization that sponsored her visa to further her education the United States in 2015.

After escaping two arranged child-marriages, Alizadeh made it her life’s goal to use her talents as a platform to speak against child marriage.

“My next big plan is to become a lawyer to help people in Afghanistan speak their truth and defend their rights,” said Alizadeh.

Alizadeh says gender equality is essential for global progress.

“There are so many opportunities for not only boys but girls too … women can support the country while also supporting their families and still supporting themselves,” said Alizadeh. “[Women] can be their own bosses and their own body guards,” said Alizadeh.

This raptivist has a ton dreams--two composition notebooks worth to be exact. One of her biggest, becoming a rapper, is what helped her defy the odds.

Initially, Alizadeh’s dream to rap was not a fully ac19

T HE STATE OF

HIP-HOP

BY AMANDA NYANG’ORO

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After hearing altercations such as the Nicki Minaj and Cardi B feud, XXXtentacion’s fatal death from a drive by shooting and various claims of rappers being charged with assault the world of hip-hop may seem like a whirlpool of hatred and anger.

However, this could not be further from the truth. The surge of “mumble rappers” or emo-rap have left the older generation of hip-hop heads thinking that the younger generations have forgotten what hip hop is meant to represent. At its core, hip-hop is about love and acknowledging the troubled lives that people of color, especially Black people, go through.

On the flip side, women and their status in hip-hop have elevated this year as we start to see more female rappers getting recognized in the game. Of course, we cannot forget about the two trailblazers — Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. Their projects “Queen” and “Invasion of Privacy” have topped the charts and given a generation of women new anthems to soundtrack their lives as they grind to success.

Although their feud may have caused tantalizing drama for The Shade Room followers, at the end, the two squashed their beef so they could go back to more important things — the music. Other female rappers such as Rico Nasty and Princess Nokia have grown with Hip-hop is how we speak the truth of our struggles and their respective projects “Nasty” and “A Girl Cried it makes all the difference that it be spoken by people Red”. An unapologetic abrasive attitude is brought in who look like us. Hip-hop was crafted in the streets of the former while the latter allows for a softer approach New York in house and block parties during the 1980’s to emotional topics such as heartbreak. that left communities broken and craving joy in some aspect in their lives. Hip-hop was the creative outlet Love, drugs, mental health and money have been the that expressed the pain that people in the ghetto were common themes that have surrounded the hip-hop going through in a way that also allowed us to connect world these past few years. Mental health is the most with others on an emotional level. important takeaway that we should be discussing as a community, especially in the Black community. We If we fast-forward to 2018 we can say that hip-hop is have these rappers discussing difficult issues that the still doing just that, despite what the old hip-hop heads younger generations are struggling with but are using might think. Many have dismissed “mumble rappers” drugs to suppress instead of saying them out loud. such as 21 Savage, Trippie Redd, Smokepurpp and Ski Mask the Slump God simply because they believe they J Cole is a great example of how the older rappers aren’t say anything of value. can lend a helping hand in discussing these issues of mental health and drug addiction through their art.

This is not the case, if you really listened to their projHis minimalist project KOD (aka Kids On Drug, King ects as oppose to rely on the singles that are overplayed Overdose and lastly, Kill Our Demons) gives wisdom on radio, you would find that these rappers speak on to the younger generation in a simplistic, straight-toissues that are currently prominent in their communi- the-point manner. Although his album may have not ties. topped charts his works can still be used to start conversations such as how addiction can creep up on you, An example would be Trippe Redd’s latest project, “A love in a digital age and the dangers of greed.

Love Letter To You 3”, released in November 2018.

He’s album tackles issues such as love and drugs and With the death of beloved rappers such as Mac Miller how they play into the state of his mental health. His and XXXtentacion, fans around the world have shared song ‘Loyalty Before Royalty’ makes you think about just how much the music of these rappers helped them the importance of family and friends all while trying get through hard times that life throws at us. Their to live a life that could let him into heaven. Songs such tragic deaths have reminded us to celebrate our idols as “Toxic Waste” and “1400/999 Freestyle” talk about while they’re here with us and to notice the changes the grappling hold that addiction can have on a person in behavior when they’re silently crying out for help. trying to find their way in today’s technology driven Mental health is an ongoing battle and until we as a world. The topic of love is addressed in songs like “So community start seeing it as such we can then hopefulAlive” as Redd discusses how the power of love can ly help this generation of pill popping suppressors. help fight thoughts of suicide and depression.

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AN EXCLUSIVE IN WITH THE OF

22

NTERVIEW DIRECTOR “CREED II”

“Creed II,” starring Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, has been one of the most highly anticipated films of 2018, with many people calling this the big break for indie Director Steven Caple Jr. and amateur Boxer Florian Munteanu.

Creed II is about boxer Adonis Creed, son of Apollo Creed. In this sequel Adonis, who is played by Michael B. Jordan, has to face the Drago’s, the family responsible for his father’s death. Apollo Creed fought Ivan Drago and during the fight Apollo died. Now Ivan’s son Viktor has decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a boxer. In Creed II, we see both families struggle with their personal and professional lives as they prepare for their biggest fight yet.

Director Steven Caple Jr. has been on the film scene since 2011. He has worked with Sundance, Netflix and on the television series “Grown-ish” starring Yara Shahidi. Caple made a major leap forward in his career as the creative genius behind Creed II. The Blackprint got the exclusive opportunity to speak to Steven Caple Jr. and Florian Munteanu.

“I got a call from MGM, like, we want a director for Creed II, we heard about you, saw your piece, and on top of that Ryan [Coogler] knows you and you all went to film studio together,” said Caple Jr. He and Ryan Coogler, the director of the first “Creed” installment, both attended the University of Southern California where they first met.

Caple Jr. admits that initially he was nervous but the cast provided him with a sense of “support and reassurance” that allowed him to move forward and make things happen. They encouraged him to make the movie his own from the very beginning and that is what he did.

Caple Jr. knew very early on that he wanted to shake things up a little bit to ensure that the movie wasn’t what fans predicted.

Florian Munteanu plays Viktor Drago, son of Ivan Drago. Ironically, Munteanu is not Russian, but Romanian and he had to endure intensive training for this movie.

Munteanu had to attend boxing choreography classes, language lessons and acting classes. “It was a tough process and maybe the hardest thing that I did so far in my life because it was not only physically exhausting but mentally exhausting,” said Munteanu.

Munteanu said that he “really connected to the character [Viktor Drago].” But connecting to the character was the exhausting part. Munteanu said he constantly had to think out bad memories that would allow him to feel the pain that Viktor Drago was feeling so he could be as authentic as possible.

This film is Munteanu’s debut piece and he said that he gave it his all and would like to continue his career as an actor. During the interview Caple Jr. briefly joked about Munteanu being a good fit to play Hercules. Which Munteanu responded by saying, “Don’t say too much.”

Creed II is currently out in theaters. It was released on Nov 21 and has a record breaking 55 million debut, and according to Rotten Tomatoes 89% of people that saw the movie liked it.

However, there has been mixed reviews about Creed II, some believe that the sequel is a stylistic step up and others believe that it would’ve been better if Ryan Coogler was the director.

Throughout the movie Caple Jr. made some stylistic decisions that strayed away from what the franchise would normally do, making the movie less predictable. As with some of the previous movies in the franchise like Creed, Creed II does not begin with a recap of the previous film’s final fight scene.

Caple Jr. is currently on a press tour for “Creed II” but he is also working on a project called “Two White Tears” which is based on the book “White Tears” by Hari Kunzru on cultural appropriation.

Yami Payano, a senior and student government president, had similar sentiments.

BY TAINAYA NASH-CHEATON

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CON L AI THE GENERATIONAL IMPACT OF THE VIETNAM WAR BY: TIFFANY TRANG Tiffany Trang: What was it like growing up with a parent who wasn’t full Vietnamese?

Tracy Huynh: So for me personally, my mom is half-American, white and my dad is full Vietnamese and my mom obviously the other half is Vietnamese. For me, growing up with a non-fully Viet parent was really interesting in terms of the difference that I guess other Viet families didn’t have. In regards to the way we interact with one another and sometimes we weren’t as strict. But for the most part I feel like my mom was more in touch with her Vietnamese roots. Growing up, I spoke Vietnamese, and I’m still fluent ‘til this day. There were a lot of ways in which the culture essentially just kind of permeated into our own personal identities.

Relatives living together was always something that was a big part of our family because my grandma lived with us for a decent amount of time. My aunt and her family also lived with us. So there were a lot of ways that was similar to the way they were brought up in Vietnam like enforcing the language and the religion on us and also the holidays and stuff. There were things to look forward to, but I never felt it was something I didn’t want to do. And it was definitely something I grew more proud of the older I got.

Tiffany: Did you feel like an outsider when you were around full Vietnamese families?

Tracy: I would say it depends. Sometimes when I would speak to other Vietnamese parents who obviously were fully Viet, they would notice early on that I would have changes in my dialect or in just the way I looked or how tall I was. I feel like my physicality varied the most, but when it came to my values and upbringing I was very in tune with other Vietnamese families.

I never felt out of place at other Vietnamese gath24

erings and stuff like that. Like I went to Vietnamese school for about three to four years, so that was never a problem for me. Additionally when I did visit Vietnam, they knew that my mom was half white, but they still treated me as if I was another Vietnamese citizen or someone from America that’s Vietnamese. And I think that distinction is important to note because locals treat locals differently, but it will always be different between Vietnamese-Americans regardless if you’re actually white or not.

Tiffany: I think what’s really interesting is that I always felt like an outsider because of the way I look. Growing up, my mom always said “you are lucky that you have American nose,” and I never knew what that meant. I don’t really look “Vietnamese” because I don’t have the characteristics of one, I guess?

Tracy: It’s interesting because between my two sisters and I, we look entirely different too. My oldest sister, she’s 23, and she looks a lot more white than everyone else, but people have told her that she looks Hispanic, she looks Japanese and white, or something relating to that. My other sister is a lot darker in complexion, so people said she looks Laos, Thai, and Cambodian. For me, I always get Japanese or Malaysian or something like that. So I feel like the physicality is what draws the sharp distinctions. Growing up, it was always my height because going to other Vietnamese gatherings or Asian gatherings in general, I was one of the tallest girls in the room and I’m not even that tall. In general Asian women tend to have smaller waistlines and are smaller in size, so that was something hard for me to come to terms with. But in a lot of ways I think that’s what tied me to my white roots as well.

Tiffany: When did you realize your family was different compared to full Asian families?

Tracy: Thankfully I had a really good friend growing up whose dad was also half white and Viet, so it wasn’t odd to me there was a combination out there similar to mine because I was exposed to it. But I know that there is also Vietnamese families that had interesting mixes as well. There was a friend of mine Salvadorian and Vietnamese, there was another one who was Spanish and Vietnamese. So… I feel like the moment I realized I was different was when my mom would take me to Vietnamese community events and she looked so different than the rest of them, but it was never to the point where I felt ashamed. I just felt proud and I

felt like my mom is different and I really enjoyed that.

My mom has really beautiful light greenish, yellow-y, brown eyes. Like they are really hazel in the sun and as a kid I always thought that was so cool because they reminded me of kiwis. Like even though I knew my mom was different, it actually made me feel closer because even though she was white and Viet, she stayed closer to her Viet heritage and I am really thankful of that.

Tiffany: That’s really interesting because you mentioned location and that you’re from Portland Oregon.

I remember you telling me earlier that there is a lot more families that are Amerasians which is totally difference from me because you are the first person I ever met that was just like me, other than my brother. So growing up for me was very different because I was literally the only-like I would meet kids that were half white and half Asian because one parent is white and the other is Asian. So it was very different for me because I felt so left out of everything because I felt like

Còn Lại - crossbreed; Vietnamese term for a mixed-race child; I wasn’t enough. I felt like other kids and parents were judging me cause I wasn’t full Viet.

And like my parents did raise me in a Viet household, but they did implement western culture. Like when I was learning to speak, they just taught me English because they didn’t want me to be confused. Which later on in life when they tried to teach me Viet, I didn’t want to because I was stubborn as a child. So it was really interesting to hear your side because I felt like such an outsider at home.

Tiffany: I was separated from my extended family growing up, so I could never connect with the other Viet kids at my school because I felt so different from them because of the way my dad and I looked. Did you struggle to make friends or connect?

Tracy: I feel like in a lot of ways, minorities and people of color are affected by their environment, whether it is positive or negative. Because I feel like to this day 25

I would not have felt closer to my heritage and my roots if I didn’t have that upbringing. I know that my parents settle in an area where they can find commonalities between the other locals. When you are around minorities that are similar to you, even if they are not Vietnamese or even Asian, and they understand the struggle, that we do have different upbringings, and different customs it almost empowers you to stay closer your roots because my friends never bartered on me in regards to the fact that I do celebrate those things.

They were just fascinated and wanted to know more.

Tiffany: How did your upbringing differ from your parents?

Tracy: My mom was born in ‘66, and that was essentially before the war started. She would always tell me, as a kid growing up in Vietnam, especially at times of war - she was very aware of her surroundings and how anti-American beliefs were forced in Vietnam. My grandma even had to buy darker foundation for my mom so she wouldn’t be bullied in school for looking American. She could actually embrace her normal complexion, and she can walk down the street without being called “con lai.” She took the opportunity and I think in a lot of ways that inspired me to be more in touch with my roots because my mom never shy away from the fact she was American and Vietnamese, nowadays. But from the stories she told me before, she always tried her best to show her Vietnamese-ness more than her American-ness back in Vietnam. And that’s the irony of it all, in the motherland you still get ridiculed for how Vietnamese you are and that is something I felt when I went there.

Tiffany: Going back to your mom, she was the one telling you these stories?

Tracy: Yes. Tiffany: For me, these stories came from my mom because my dad never really talked about his past. I just went to my mom for everything I wanted to know about my dad because I felt like it would’ve been too much of a sensitive topic because he never met his dad.

Did mom ever met her dad?

Tracy: Yes, My mom met her dad. He was related to the army on some level. Even to this day I don’t feel comfortable talking about it too much because I don’t know him, and I don’t think that it is very valid for us to uproot someone’s life. I knew it was a wartime affair 26

of some sort. But I feel like the extent and severity of the Vietnam War tends to be desensitized in an American tone because they view it as an American loss and that desensitizes the circumstances for Vietnamese people who eventually moved to America. Growing up, I was just confused to why I was always taught about the Vietnam War through America’s eyes.

Having had known all these heartbreaking stories from both my parents and grandparents, I felt that, in a way, my history wasn’t being written down. That’s why passing these stories down through generations by wordof-mouth is important, especially between populations that have had multiple conflicts and war. To this day, a lot of my dad’s family is ripped apart. He was the oldest of twelve, but I don’t even know where some of my uncles really are.

Why is it important to look at the Vietnam war from different perspectives?

Tracy: I always wondered “well what about the families that were affected” because that kind of history is also suppressed in Vietnam because of the communist regime. So when you have both sides of the story being suppressed, the only thing you have left and only medium you have left is through family ties. Hopefully, one day this can be brought to light and more media coverage can be surrounding it, but just because stories like this aren’t portrayed in mainstream media doesn’t make it less important. And I feel like most of the time, they never ask the survivors, they just look at the general picture, the policies, and the statistics and this is something that can’t be measured by numbers.

You can’t measure someone’s pain, suffering and loss by a number. And tying it back, this is something my parents raised me with, this was always a virtue they taught me: stay close to your roots, no matter what. No matter how far you go in life, know that this is where you came from this is your history and you are endowed to it more than anyone else.

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I woke up to the hectic cheers of my family. “Bekhaze!” to a religious rule, one must never step on the dasmy mother yelled at the top of her lungs in our natarkhan. My siblings and I sigh when my father tells us tive tongue, in a shrill cry that forced us to wake up. that we cannot go into the city to visit family until we I awoke to my siblings bickering and running toward finish the yard work. In silent tandem, we run upstairs the only bathroom in our small home. People who and change into our work clothes. When we return, associate bathrooms with privacy have never been to I open the door and lead my siblings to the sixteen my house. This cramped and humid room was not a acres that comprise our backyard. I have never seen my place that I liked to spend my time. We had to confather’s home in Afghanistan, but he assures me that I tinually elbow and push aside needn’t go further than our own my siblings with “excuse me” “If you want the tree to grow backyard to see what it looks like. and “please move” to complete to him, it is an exact tall and strong to produce According our daily morning wash. replica of his yard back home.

fruit, you must water its

To say that growing up in My father tasked me with watering roots.” this family is crazy would be the cherry and apple trees. Being an understatement. Every as young as I was at 10, I observed morning, my mother and father would delve into the the leaves of the tree. I saw the leaves and thought, kitchen, cracking, beating, and frying eggs for the these poor leaves must be very thirsty from the swelrowdy crowd of five. The lazy mornings spent chasing tering heat. To this day, I cite watering those trees in the runny yolks around my plate with a diced piece my backyard as the first time that I have ever nurtured of roasted tomato, fresh from our garden, are some of something. After a few minutes of watering, my father my favorite memories. We all sit around a dastarkhan asked what I was doing. “I’m watering the trees, Padar.” (a tablecloth spread on the floor) and feast. According He looked at me with a smile and said, “If you want the 28

tree to grow tall and strong to produce fruit, you must water its roots. You see, every tree has roots that are hidden beneath our feet. Although we cannot see these roots, it is crucial that they are properly taken care of.�

Being a first-generation Afghan American, my life has had its considerable share of setbacks; yet, I am constantly humbled by the rewarding moments as well.

School was always difficult. In the absence of strong academic role models, I forged a sense of self-reliance that I carry with me today. These are my roots. My self-reliance is what holds me down and keeps me tethered in times of turbulent weather. This self-reliance grew stronger when I had to defend my language and culture from the prying eyes and ears of a community lacking diversity of any kind. Whenever a new stranger discovered my afghan identity, there hunger for hearing me speak my language to them would take over. I would speak and they would laugh.

Growing up with such strong roots, I developed a special outlook on life. Along with learning the true meaning of respect, I became stronger by enduring the hardships of living with immigrant parents. In the face of adversity, I have always found value in hope.

Every night, I have hope that tomorrow will be a better day for that is how my parents lived their whole lives.

Everyday I work towards treating others with respect and working hard because that is what my parents showed every Mainer who was probably meeting an immigrant for the first time. As I reflect on the daily transition from home life to school life, I cannot help but notice that throughout this time, I was watering the leaves of my life, instead of the roots. Always focused on what others had to say, rather than making sure what I was saying was right.

This was something that I learned through trial and error; focus on the roots, not on the leaves.

Learning two languages was a blessing and a curse. This is mostly because it wasn’t just a language I was learning. I was learning a way of life; each word teaching more about my culture. At school, I was forced to drop any meaning behind the words they told me to recite for them.

Moving forward, I know that I will have to focus on the roots of my life to expand and explore and get the most of life. I made a commitment that day to strengthen my roots to be able to produce fruits that I can give back to society.

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CAROL WRIGHT

WHY MORE STUDENTS OF COLOR NEED TO STUDY ABROAD

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Open your Instagram today, and you’re bound to scroll upon someone named “Becky” sipping on sangria, overlooking a beautiful foreign city. She is the quintessential student studying abroad: expanding her horizons, learning new languages, and throwing caution to the wind. There is nothing inherently awful about this. In fact, I love the “Becky’s”, even after the whole Beyoncé fiasco. The problem resides in the fact that our views of “studying abroad” have been siphoned into a very specific experience. When we think of studying abroad, the first image we think of involves young white people.

I think everyone agrees that studying abroad can be extremely influential, no matter your background. Science even proves that this is true. According to research done by the University of California, people that study abroad are more likely to have higher GPAs, higher maturity levels, more self-confidence post-studying abroad, and are more likely to find employment within 12 months of graduation.

Definitively, students in underrepresented communities, that are not studying abroad, and hoping to one day be job-seekers, are at a disadvantage. For the betterment of society as a whole, I feel like there should be more people of color going abroad. In order for that to happen, there needs to be more representation of people of color in this realm.

Some will say that the demographic of students studying abroad is simply proportional to the number of students enrolled. The data simply does not represent this and presents a clear image of minorities being underrepresented. According to NAFSA, white students accounted for only 56.9% of the United States’ postsecondary enrollment in the 2016-2017 school year. However, that same year, white students were 70.8% of the students studying abroad.

Furthermore, many naysayers respond with the argument that studying abroad is simply too expensive. I was once one of those people. I searched online and saw all of the numbers and figures, that on paper, make the idea of studying abroad unfeasible. I then dug some more, a clear indication that something needs to be done, and saw that with the help of grants and scholarships, studying abroad can often be much cheaper than a traditional semester.

Society has realized that there is a disparity here. There are so many opportunities today that advocate for minorities to study abroad. The website GoAbroad.com, alone, cites 45 scholarships for students. A majority of these scholarships are tailored

towards underrepresented communities, and many of them go unnoticed.

For example, Calkidan Fisseha, a senior at American University, was the recipient of the Gilman Scholarship, a program that helps fund the pursuance of studying abroad. Still, she was the only Black person in her program.

Fisseha admitted that she was a little scared about the idea of being away from the life she knew for such an extended period of time. In reality, the idea of leaving the comfort of what we know is terrifying.

Add the idea of going to a place where you are likely to be the only person that looks like you, and you have a situation that many shy away from.

Before I went abroad, so many people warned me of the potential racism that I would face while in Europe.

I can assure you that this warning was not presented to people with lighter skin than myself. It is unfortunate, but I do not doubt that fear has played a factor in keeping many students away from branching out to new cultures.

Ultimately, we need to dispel fears by presenting more minority voices in the study abroad experience.

It is people like Fisseha, that share their journeys, and coming to the state, “I learned so much about myself,” conclusion that help change the image of studying abroad.

Also, let’s face it, the process of applying to study abroad is taxing and daunting. Both the Merit Awards office and the AU Abroad office should present information in a more inviting way. This could come in the form of more targeted informational sessions, where students can talk with their peers that have already gone abroad, or even a revamped website that better promotes the scholarships and opportunities that are available to underrepresented communities.

I feel we would see more students applying to study abroad if they knew that they could not only afford to go abroad, but there are also people like them that are doing it already.

Like it or not, there is something that needs to be done here. It is time for the benefits of studying abroad to be extended to more people of color. Inversely, this inclusion of more diverse voices will provide value for student of all colors. Studies have proven that a more well-rounded experience for all students, stems from diversity. At the end of the day, going abroad is about building up the skills you will need later in life, and we should not be exclusive about who is better prepared for the future.

BY MIGUEL WILSON 31

BY OFONIME JOSEPH

Merriam Webster defines sexuality as “the quality or state of being sexual.” Growing up in a traditional Nigerian household, my perception of sex was wrapped up in how my personal culture perceived sex and sexuality. But I also grew up American, and the way American society views sex is different from the way Nigerian culture views it. But the one thing that has stayed constant has been the taboo nature of sex. I was taught that sex is not something that is discussed in public, but rather behind closed doors, with the blinds down.

And the women who chose to engage in this discourse publicly were the ones we labeled as sluts and whores.

Why? I mean at some point we are all going to have sex, at its basic nature, sex is integral to the survival of our species. There would be no “Homosapien” without sex. Even pornographic images can be traced back to ancient civilizations. Sex has been deeply ingrained in the human experience, so with all this why is sex still such a taboo?

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I also noticed that men are not shamed for being open with their sexuality in the way that women are.

Sexual images posted on social media, better known as “thirst traps”, makes this disparity even clearer.

The Game, a male rapper, has posted multiple sexual images on his instagram page. In his comments section, he is praised with heart eyes and winky faces, but, when someone like Amber Rose does it, her comment section is filled with people calling her a “slut” and a “whore”. From a young age, I realized that, when it comes to sex, the rules for men and women are different. And this affects how we as young women interact with sex, and causes an issue when we have to assess what sex and sexuality means to us.

My sexual evolution has come with a lot of introspection, and has developed through conversations with friends. However, the conversations surrounding sex that I have had with my Black female friends compared with my white friends are completely

different. Black women more often shy away from this discussion than white women. They are not as comfortable or explorative when it comes to sex and sexuality. They are less comfortable with the idea of pleasuring themselves, and subsequently, demanding satisfaction from men who decide sex is finished when they cum. To me, this is a problem, because sexuality is an important part of all our identities. And when we shun sexuality, we are shunning one of the most primitive parts of our identity.

It is important to note though, that ALL women deal with some form of sexism, especially when it comes to sexuality. “All female sexuality is colonized, no woman owns her body because sexual norms are institutionalized by the patriarchy, the standards are set by the patriarchy,” said Professor Sybil William, Director of African American and African Diaspora Studies in AU’s Department of Performing Arts. Women in general do not own our bodies or our sexuality, but

I have noticed that there is a different layer of shame that comes with being Black, female and sexual.

I remember whenever my uncles would come over when I was a kid, my mom would make me change what I was wearing, and I never understood why.

Living in an African home, relatives come and visit quite often, so I had older men coming in and out of my home. I remember myself always running to my room to put on a bra when they came over. Looking back now, this was me internalizing the sexualization of my body. But this sexualization was through shame, I did not want to be looked upon as fast, and I learned to cover myself in the presence of men.

As Black girls we are introduced to sex, through fear and shame. How do we tell fifth graders who are just discovering sex that they should cover up, and be ashamed of the natural way their body is formed?

It is no wonder that, as we age, the shame attached 33

to sex does not go away. Instead it becomes more toxic, and molds generations of women who have no idea how to express their own desires because they were taught to hide it, and be ashamed of it.

chocolate skin, how do you love your full lips, how do you love your vagina, how do you love your vulva lips, the firm ripeness of your bottom. Those things are very specific, those are the things that have been attacked.”

Tracing back to slavery, Black women were not truly accepted as women, because they were considered property. They did not have autonomy over themselves because the only use for a Black woman’s body was to work and breed Williams explains. “The fruit of the womb of the African woman was another enslaved laborer,” she says, “then even, the beauty of what the woman’s body can do in terms of birthing becomes a horrible thing. You become a factory, not a human being.” Enslaved Black women were often raped by white masters and blamed by Black men who perceived women to be using their sexuality to escape the physical violence men faced. “How do you expect someone whose body has been treated with abuse or as property or as something that has been animalized to have a healthy relationship with sexuality?” Williams asks.

Owning your sexuality means different things for different women. For Hatcher, it means “Honoring that I am a sexual being no matter what society says, and as a queer Black woman it means breaking down traditional borders and boxes of love, intimacy, and sex.” For Camryn, it means “being unapologetic in what/who I want and accepting myself as a sexual being with divers partners.” And for Sonata, it means “having sex with people who respect my boundaries and prioritize my pleasure. It also means having a sense of agency in each sexual encounter.”

Several studies have shown that trauma is passed down. When generations of Black women who have had to deal with similar issues, behavior changes and social expectations formed around that trauma are passed down as well. That is part of the reason why we see Black women today who still suffer sexual repression because of the pain we have yet to combat in our communities. When Black women slut shame each other, we become our mothers and aunts who shamed us when we are younger, and shame the women who dare to live outside of the narrative that is expected of us. When I was in high school, I used to do the same thing, and I was ashamed and embarrassed of my own sexuality.

Genáe Hatcher, a junior at American University, notes that her biggest obstacle when it came to owning her sexuality has been trauma. “Dealing with the effects of sexual violence has been difficult and, for awhile, I really suppressed any feelings of myself as a sexual being and I kind of had to relearn and reconnect to this innate part of me that I felt like I got cut off from due to the shock of traumatic instances.”

How do we as Black women begin to love ourselves in a world that tells us that we do not deserve that self love? How we begin to unlearn to Trauma that has been passed down?“ Lets begin with how do you love your kinks,” Williams said, “how do you love your 34

At 21, I am finally beginning to break that barrier, my sexuality is becoming something I am no longer ashamed of. I like sex, just like everyone else, and I refuse to let my body be just that another body. Sex is not something I fear, but rather something that with the right partner I can enjoy and gives me freedom.

It is liberating to begin to learn to love something you were taught to be ashamed of. When we as Black women begin to own our sexuality we are not easily manipulated, and it no longer becomes a weapon of abuse. Having these conversations is necessary to raise Black girls into trauma-free, sexually liberated Black women. I want more Black women to enjoy sex, to experience love and healing, and, most importantly, I want more Black women to cum!

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BY KIARRA DELOUIS Toxic masculinity’s relationship to violence and emotion (or the lack thereof) is dangerous. Toxic masculinity often sounds like: “boys will be boys” or “boys don’t cry”. I question the effectiveness of ‘tough love’ when raising males. If you ask me, toxic masculinity is indeed a product of unaddressed trauma. ‘Tough’ is the last thing males need to be, and I cannot help but wonder if being a nice guy will ever be cool again.

What does it mean to be a man? Do men hold doors open anymore?

Do men do dates anymore?

Do men cry anymore? Or do men only know how to grow beards and lift weights these days? I have encountered a growing number of instances that have proven chivalry to be dead.

Toxic masculinity refers to stereotypically masculine gender roles that restrict boy’s/men’s expression of emotions and exaggerate their physical strength, aggression, and sexuality. Sybil Roberts, a professor at American University, said: “Hyper-masculinity is a di-

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rect result of mass incarceration and the war on drugs, which started roughly around the 60s but more around the 80s and 90s.” During this time MTV popularly used it’s platform for music videos projecting these similar themes.

“We have the commodification of violence and the brutalizing of Black bodies... Hyper-masculinity is where it begins,” Sybil said. Male trauma like all trauma needs to be addressed. Ignoring it or attempting to masc it does not make the cuts and bruises disappear overnight.

These are conversations that parents need to have with their children because as the saying goes, ‘it all starts at home’.

Toxic Masculinity is rooted in In POC culture toxic masculinity ind is in many ways a product of systematic oppression. The idea of representing a gang for example, and defending territory are almost considered to be a duty of a Black male depending on your upbringing (suburbs versus the projects aka the hoodski). Sybil cites artist like Ice Cube as a big influence

of what she describes as a “survival skill going wild”.

According to Walter Thompson-Hernandez’s article “Toxic Machismo Is Killing Latinos, Here’s What 12 Latino Men Think We Should Do To Stop It,” “society teaches boys and men to use their bodies as vehicles for violence and aggression against women and others,” according to an article titled, “Toxic Machismo Is Killing Latinos, Here’s What 12 Latino Men Think We Should Do To Stop It” written by Walter Thompson-Hernandez. In the article, Rudy Mondragon suggests that “It is okay to be vulnerable and the expression of love, care, and empathy are beautiful things.,” said Rudy Mondragon.

As gender continues to be a frequent topic of discussion, it is important that children are provided with resources and mentors that can help guide them during times of doubt or confusion. The tragic deaths of Xtetnancion (gun violence), Mac Miller (suicide), and Lil Peep (overdose) act as evidence of worst case scenarios when it begins to feel impossible to deal with emotions you never learned how to handle in healthy ways.

ing when crying, and to shut up when venting. It’s time to flip the script because the habits of the past have threatened the future of too many men.

Masculinity is not defined by physical power or the ability to be numb. Teach boys that ‘boys will be boys’ is not an excuse. Teach boys that love is the answer.

Teach boys that crying is sometimes one of the first steps towards healing when hurt. Let your tears fall just as quick as your pants do.

It’s the insecurities that hide behind the beards of these men and their toxic behaviors. Do not be afraid to ask for help or express yourself (instead of suppressing your emotions) to those who are willing to listen.

We teach boys that their only option is to be tough when challenged by obstacles, to get up and stop cry-

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FROM SUFFRAGETTES

THE NEED FOR INTERSECTIONALITY IN WOMEN ADVOCACY

BY ZSHEKINAH COLLIER Today, the term “white feminist” is used to describe someone who believes in a hierarchy of women’s struggles, but prioritizes issues that mainly affect cisgender, straight, white women. However, the Suffragettes, one of the first groups of American women to advocate for equality, could also be described as white feminists.

For over 100 years women of color have fought for their voices to be heard, but most times they were dismissed and told “Not right now” or “It’s not the right time.”

The tradition of exclusion from women’s advocacy started in 1848 and still lives on in 2018. White middle and upper-class women gathered in Seneca Fall, New York for the first Women’s Rights Convention 170 years ago. The meeting included a handful of white men, Frederick Douglass, and no Black women. Allegedly Black and poor women were not invited.

ARTWORK BY KIRAN AHLUWALIA

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott helped organized the convention with the goal of advocating for “all” women’s social, civil, religious rights and full citizenship. They wrote and signed documents that demanded equality to men such as the Declaration of

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Sentiments and Resolutions which became staples of the movement.

But despite their activism and high moral standards, they were known to have racist prejudices. Staton once said “We educated, virtuous white women are more worthy of the vote…” when comparing themselves to abolitionist movements to free Black people. She expressed her thoughts on how much worse Black men would be as voters, and she was generally dismissive of Black women.

In 1913, Alice Paul, one of the leaders of the feminist movement, organized and led a parade throughout DC for women’s right to vote and to raise awareness of the suffrage movement. Ida B Wells, a Black activist and journalist, wanted to march with her organizations for Black women. But they were giving an ultimatum: either they marched in the back or not at all.

The suffragettes believed addressing race would cause the movement to digress and they were afraid of how some white women would feel. As the movement progressed so did racial tensions and arguments, espe-

TO WHITE FEMINISTS cially because of the 15th Amendment. Susan B Anthony spoke out by saying “I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman.” Susan B Anthony along with many other suffragettes separated race and gender as if a person can not both be “Negro” and a woman.

Thoughts like these along with subordination by Black men set Black women’s suffrage back decades. Black men got the right to vote in 1870. All women were given the constitutional right to vote in 1920, but in reality, Black women struggled to exercise their right to vote freely until the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Although Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality did not exist during the suffrage movement, there definitely was and still is a need for it in women’s advocacy.

garding the experience of all women. Whether it’s with pussy hats, tone policing or color blindness. White feminism is very present in the #MeToo Movement.

Tarana Burke started the campaign with the intention of supporting and advocating for women of color survivors in 2006, but it was ignored by the media. After Alyssa Milano used the hashtag in 2017 inviting other women to share their stories the movement went viral and was completely whitewashed with white celebrities in the forefront of the movement.

Today’s suffragettes often disregard the high amounts of sexual exploitation women of color have experienced throughout history and today.

White feminists need to acknowledge their privilege and understand that you can experience injustice or oppression while also holding many forms of power because race, among many other identities, alters a person’s experience.

Today, many white feminist protests against the gender wage gap, but ignore the extreme discrepancy between white people and women of color. In the 21st century, Women’s movements remain exclusionary by disre-

In the words of Womanist Rachel Elizabeth Cargle, “If there is not the intentional and action-based inclusion of women of color, then feminism is simply white supremacy in heels.”

“If there is not the intentional and action-based inclusion of women of color, then feminism is simply white supremacy in heels.”

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Starting college in a new environment, far from the comforts of home was very stressful, and it was hard to avoid feeling like a little fish in a big pond. Even starting my first week at American University felt like the odds were against me due to all the allegations and hate crimes that happened to Black students over the past years at the university.

Coming to a Predominantly White Institution as a Black man was never something I took into account when I made my decision during the college process in high school because I never really understood the constant conflicts over racism in the United States. I moved to the US back in August of 2015, and over the past years, I saw the divide in the country that originated from people’s complexions.

Coming into AU, I only knew a few things about the university, mainly that it has the best Public Affairs School in the U.S. and it offered a wide range of majors and experiences to explore. There was one period of time where I thought about going to a Historically Black College or University because coming from a primarily Black town, and I knew I would fit right in.

But I didn’t want to be comfortable. I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and meet people from all walks of life, because, in the real world, I know I’ll have to interact with non-Black people. I personally think attending an HBCU would not prepare me for the real world at all, but that is just my opinion. Many students who attended HBCUs across the United States have their own reasons for why they wanted to be there, ranging from historical legacy to a familiar environment, all of which I understand and respect. After all, I had those exact same thoughts when I picked colleges.

Since being here at American, I learned several things.

You can’t be thinned-skinned or risk becoming a target, and the university will always preach about diversity and inclusion to sweep the thoughts about racism under the rug until the next controversy. If you take walk through TDR you will see advertisements of African American students on every screen, but the real question is where are those administration officers when those same Black faces are being discriminated against on campus?

Looking at Black student-led organization on campus, like the Black Student Union, African Student Organization, Les Coeurs D’Afrique, and most importantly The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, they are supposed to make it easier for us to navigate through the culture shock we experience, but they seem to be doing the opposite throughout my time at AU. These Black organizations were supposed to make young Black boys and girls feel empowered and entitled to certain things in life, and create a home-like environment no matter how far we traveled. But sometimes, home feels far away, especially when you can’t express your struggle to anyone except the white kids that live next door. My mother always told me finding a place where you belong is one of the most important things I have to do as a Black student at American, and I haven’t as of yet. Some days I feel welcomed, and some days I don’t at all. I use those not so welcoming vibes as fuel to keep pushing myself to achieve my goals.

Regardless of my age, I can still give my advice to Black brothers and sisters in high school who are considering attending a PWI. Go with your gut feelings. Even though you may feel sick about it at first, it always better to step outside your comfort zone because, in the real world, you still have to work with whites, so it better to start building a connection now.

BY KEMO GRANT

Many days, while walking across campus from Anderson to the School of Public Affairs, questions about race and place constantly run through my mind. Do any other Black men notice how few of us there are here? Do white students notice any of this? Do they feel uncomfortable around us? What runs through their minds with they see a group of us walking together on campus? It may seem silly, but the reality is that we sometimes have to over think the situation to be prepared for the unthinkable occurrences. But then again, this is a PWI, I think to myself. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into from start. I became more aware of my existence here everyday. Whenever there is a group of white students cackling behind

me, I immediately think they are laughing about my Blackness;. But I like to be an optimist and am a firm believer in the idiom “Black is Beautiful.” So far, experiencing racism in the United States taught me to embrace my heritage. I’m proud of who I am and where my family came from. In order to address these types of experiences and the strife of other cultures, I had to accept myself. It’s often painful to admit how long it took me to come to terms with my heritage.

These days, I am beginning to see the idea of culture as something far more fluid than concrete.

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DO BETTER:

A RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT BURWELL’S ”GENERATION STRESS” OP-ED

BY ALEXIS ARNOLD American University President Sylvia Burwell wrote an opinion essay for the November issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. She wrote about the mental health crisis among college students from what she gathered during her short time at AU. She starts by referencing a recently published study on collegiate mental health by Healthy Minds: “... while 44 percent of students said that they were flourishing, 39 percent reported experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety. The proportion of students experiencing suicidal ideation has grown from six percent in 2007 to 11 percent in 2017. The percentage of students receiving psychotherapy has jumped from 13 percent to 24 percent over the same period.

Even though more students are getting help, only a little more than half of those with symptoms of depression and anxiety had received treatment in the previous year.”

Burwell acknowledges how alarming those numbers are and compares them to rising mental health issues among American adults. “But no matter what, universities need to deal with this uptick in psychological distress,” she writes, “No longer can they consider students’ mental health to be outside their area of responsibility.”

She spends the entire 2500 word article articulating what she thinks the root causes are, but does not present any legitimate solutions by the end. When I first started reading, I was hopeful that she was writing it to share ideas with other educators, but the time I finished, I was sincerely disappointed. She missed the points of her own article: what the causes are and solutions to the mental health issues on campus.

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Burwell attributed the stress culture at AU and other major universities to tired ideas from the baby boomer generation. She blames it on helicopter parenting and participation trophies making it harder for us to cope.

“When students have a panic attack because they received a B minus on a test, it becomes clear that parents have probably not done enough to prepare them for the fact that life involves both success and failure,” she writes, but I disagree. When students receive a B minus on a test and have a panic attack, it’s because the sense of self-worth we cultivated in high school was grade based. That is because many of us have been raised on the necessity of a college degree. And your high school grades are what get you there. The career paths we have been shown and hope for almost exclusively require degrees. The class status of our parents, or the class status they may hope for us to have, comes from getting a degree in a career field that can support it. So much of what you want to be is attached to your academic success, so any less than perfection feels like your ruining your future when you have yet to experience the world beyond it.

I disagree that we were raised on “risk aversion.” If we were, most of us wouldn't have taken the risk of putting ourselves in debt for the next 10-15 years just to get a degree. What we have internalized is a sense of futility and constant state of inadequacy. One thing she is right about is the effect of mass shootings on students. It makes it a lot harder to love our open campus. Furthermore, there is a new climate report every couple of weeks that essentially says: “Yup. You’re all doomed.” On top of that, the only thing you see on social media is people living the best looking versions of their lives. It feels impossible to keep up with at a point. Unlike our parents, who just had their friends to compare themselves too, we have the entire world. So we push ourselves harder and longer to do more, but still end up feeling behind.

Add unaffordable tuition costs on top of that, and you can imagine all this doom and gloom gets a little soul crushing sometimes, especially when you still have to get up and go to your 8:15am class the next day. So yeah, I’d say we’re stressed, but not because we’re special snowflakes who got participation trophies.

There is not a clear path to improving the stress culture at AU, but the American University Experience (AUx)

cannot do all of the heavy lifting. As an AUx peer facilitator and former pilot program member, I know AUx has potential. There is only so much it can do, but there is more that can be done. A good addition to the program would be to have representatives from the counseling center visit the classes, like the freshman’s AU central advisors did. It would help the students know who they are and where to find them.

Like many of the campus resources we presented to students, I know they won’t seek counseling out until they feel like they have no other options, but making the mental health services visible and giving it a face will make it easier for students to remember when the time comes. Another improvement would be to give regular academic advisors the training to spot or refer students they see struggling with non-academic issues that may start affecting their grades. Their training does not need to be as intense as the First Year Advisors, but the sense of community that has been built for the freshman will be useless if it just drops off after the first year. It may come as a bit of a shock when the underclassmen realize that their major advisors do not have time to hear about their day, and their first year advisors will eventually be to busy with their new advisees to deal with their problems. So, we end up back at square one: the semblance of a support system with no net.

Or have students all go to a mid-semester check in with an RA. Or have the counseling center set up a table in MGC where people can pick up informational pamphlets or just talk. Or making sure all of the freshman know what a care report looks like and how to fill one out since it’s more likely they will see their friends struggling first. There are many places to intervene and improve mental health services on campus, but AU and Burwell just have to start looking for them. It will require a lot of trial and error, and somethings won’t work, but doing too little is almost as bad as nothing at all.

The freshman do not need us to hold their hands (except when using Blackboard or Facebook). Like the generations before them, they can and will figure out how to be a functional adult by the time they graduate.

But when they finally take the leap of faith, it is important that we show them that someone cares if they hit rock bottom instead of learning to fly.

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Mental Health Among Black College Students

BY MACKENZIE GALLOWAY The practice of dismissing mental health issues among the Black community is thought to stem from the treatment of African-Americans by the American United States and the dismissal of our health and well-being by society for the 400 years we have been in America. Because of this poor treatment by the medical field, and a theory called “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome”, African-Americans have avoided seeking treatment, therefore ceasing to acknowledge mental illnesses all together. In the last decade, mental illness in the Black community has been acknowledged more heavily on a widespread level. Mental illness of Black students at the college age is the most prominent. With the outside pressures of students being forced to make life-changing decisions; in addition to being faced with racial profiling and the oppressive hindrance of the real world mental illness amongst Black college students is just another deterrent to their college experience. The lack of attention and acknowledgment given to mental health among the Black community, specifically college students, has created a lack of mental health treatments among the Black community and its young adults.

This battle with mental health dates back to the initial days of Black oppression in the United States when slaves were treated poorly by the US medical system. A theory called Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) plays a predominant role in the lack of recognition of mental health in the Black community. “Although slavery has long been a part of human history, American chattel slavery represents a case of human trauma incomparable in scope, duration and consequence to any other incidence of human enslavement,” says Joy DeGruy, the author of a book on Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.

DeGruy explains that Black people were denied proper health treatment for decades during and after being released from slavery, so they were conditioned to only seek treatment when absolutely necessary. The medical abandonment meant that only Black people under “life threatening” medical conditions that 44

needed immediate attention would be treated. And sometimes, they wouldn’t even be granted that, no matter the criticalness of the situation.

In DeGruys, book she again describes that “The United States government decided it was okay to run medical experiments on African Americans.” From 1932 through 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service let almost 400 African American men suffer from untreated syphilis and pass it onto their families for a medical experiment. Experiments like these were not only inhumane, but blatantly discriminatory. They cultivated a sense of distrust between the Black community and the white male doctors that used and abused them.

Because mental health is not visible, the Black community did not place emphasis on mental health issues because at the time they were not threatening and harder to diagnose. As a result, the tradition of ignoring has been passed on for generations leaving Black people to fend for themselves solely when it pertains to mental health troubles. When discussing the mental health of teens and young adults, it is important to discuss suicide. Suicide is quickly becoming one of the top three causes of premature death among young African-American adults. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among all demographics in the United States, but it is the third leading cause of death among 15-to 24-year-old Black Americans Teenagers.

As relating to mental health, a survey was conducted

by Mei-Chaun Wang among Black college students of who attend both PWIs and HBCUs and it was concluded that 75% of Black college students keep their feelings about their mental health to themselves. If 75%

of Black college students admit to dealing with mental health issues and keeping quiet, an estimated at least 5% are open about their mental health issues, which means at least 80% of Black college students are battling mental health issues. “Avoidance coping, which is used less frequently by African-American individuals, can shift attention away from negative feelings and perhaps direct focus to more positive things, protecting the individual from feelings of hopelessness and despair” says Wang. The study focuses on the concept of “coping” and how different students cope with stress, depression and other mental strains that college pressures instigate, specifically among the Black community. But, because of the lack of support from the Black community when it pertains to mental health challenges, Black students don’t have a background of coping mechanisms for mental health. The study states that “Because of a lack of more adaptive coping skills, some individuals who attempt suicide may use suicide as a means of coping with highly stressful situations”.

Because Black students are raised on the idea that self-harm and suicide are “bad” and are simply told not to do it, they are oftentimes not provided with the proper coping mechanisms to cope with mental obstacles like stress and depression. Therefore, many depressed African-American college students turn to suicide as an escape from the sorrows and pressures of college.

Heavy drinking for anyone can have a severe effect on their mental health, but from a statistical standpoint, it arguably effects Black men the most, especially with an increase in the amount of Black men attending PWIs. Black men, specifically at PWIs are more effected by the social pressures of school, resulting in a higher rate of mental illness within their group, while Black females on the other hand, are more willing to seek help for mental illness, recent studies have shown.

Such findings suggest that gender plays a significant role in the expression of presenting problems among Black American students exposed to racism in U.S. college environments. Although they face similar rates of discrimination, Black women are more likely to seek help. Men on the other hand are less likely to attempt to deal with these issues by drinking, and continue to try and fit in, as the earlier article suggested. This leads to an even greater increase in mental illness among Black men.

Many illness and mental disorders are also an onset of overworking themselves and overexertion, so that Black students can “prove themselves” just as worthy as their white counterparts. This is more common at PWIs. “We have witnessed Black students work themselves to the point of extreme illness in attempting to escape the constant threat of perceived intellectual inferiority,” Vanderbilt University concluded from the case study they did on the mental health states of their Black students. The American Journal of Men’s Health also argues that ‘The current enthusiasm for teaching African American students with psychological traits like grit ignores the significant injustice of societal racism and the toll it takes, even on those students who appear to be the toughest and most successful”. Traits like grit belies the societal and institutionalized racism that Black student face, especially in college.

“Black men, specifically at PWIs are more effected by the social pressures of school, resulting in a higher rate of mental illness within their group”

Another factor that plays in to the challenges of mental health amongst Black college students stems from the social pressure to fit in with and be up to par with their white peers and classmates.

Statistically, white college students consume more alcohol than Black college students, which means the drinking rate at HBCUs is lower than it is at PWI’, and Black men at HBCUs aren’t as pressured to fit in with the “majority” at the school, because they are already the majority. “Though the rates of binge drinking among Black college students have significantly increased since 1991, Black students are still not drinking at the same rates as White students”. Because of this hindrance, many Black men attending the university could easily fall into the social pressures of drinking to fit in, especially athletes and members of fraternities, specifically fraternities that are not historically Black.

To conclude, most of the mental illnesses that Black students face in college and lead many to attempted suicide, stems from the treatment that they receive from their universities, peers, and outside influences who demean their self-worth.

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DIVERSITY IN FACULTY: CIVIL RIGHTS ROUNDTABLE WITH MAXINE WATERS

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When I came to college I was unprepared for the amount of sleepless nights and late-night coffee runs I would have to make. I was also unprepared for the amount of times I would have to defend my identity as a Black woman to my predominantly white professors and peers.

fying faculty from primary through postsecondary education. I questioned Waters on bridging the diversity gap: “We need to do more to encourage diversity at the college level [through] incentives.” Waters spoke on the abuses and lack of funding teachers face and believes we need to invest more in educators.

Attending a predominantly white institution is a hurdle many Black students must jump to reach their career paths. We learn how to juggle our books in one hand with our other fists raised in the other. We are racial minorities before we are students.

Hate crimes and intolerance are not exactly incentives.

The lack of diversity in faculty is a systemic issue.

Colleges cannot recruit faculty of color if they have no intention of fostering an environment that will support them and the students they mentor.

But the even greater challenge is searching for Black coaches to cheer us on from the sidelines as we run this four-year race. Three years and 25 classes later, I can count on only one hand the amount of Black professors that have taught my lectures.

Hostile campus environments alongside the limited respect and trust from students and colleagues are contributors to fleeting faculty of color, according to a 2017 study. I have witnessed Black professors receive second-class treatment from students and colleagues.

Their skills and credibility are called into question, which would not keep any employee around for long regardless of the profession.

Colleges promote diversity and inclusion amongst students but fail to provide these values amongst professors. The need for faculty of color goes beyond cultural connections. Faculty of color serve as mentors and are increasingly important for civil discourse in the classroom, especially under the current administration.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters hosted “Student Civil Rights Roundtable” last week on Capitol Hill to address concerns of marginalized students in the classroom. Students engaged with policymakers to discuss the growing concerns of protecting diverse identities in the classroom under Secretary Betsy DeVos, whose education policies continue to threaten the civil rights of students. DeVos recently released a proposal of rewritten rules on sexual harassment and assault, limiting colleges’ burden of investigation.

Congresswoman Waters identifies the issue of diversi-

The absence of faculty of color is felt in conversations.

Students are taught to embrace the marketplace of ideas, but what does that look like when the facilitators of conversations are predominantly white, cisgender men? It looks like emboldened, white students projecting racist commentary onto me, one of the few minorities in a classroom. It looks like bananas and nooses being hung around campus with hate speech written on them. It looks like the 1960s through rose-colored glasses. If colleges and universities don’t make retaining Black faculty a priority they may lose the largest Black population they do have—students.

BY ALEXIS FOSTER

When the administration fails to protect women, communities of color and persons with disabilities, students require direct advocates in the classrooms. But that is not the reality when Black professors account for a mere 6 percent of higher education faculty compared to whites at nearly 76 percent, according to 2016 data from the U.S. Board of Education. This gap is limiting education quality for students of color like myself who struggle to find our voices in the white majority.

The absence of faculty of color is detrimental to marginalized students. Their absence is felt in the curriculum. Courses on the African diaspora are being taught by white educators and the Black voice is silenced.

Their absence is felt on campus. Students of color are unable to seek fulfilling mentorships amidst racial tensions on campus. I was devastated when my advisor, a supportive, Black woman announced she was leaving the university. She is one of multiple mentors of color I watched move onto another institution.

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SPECIAL THANKS TO

MATTHEW HENRY ROUNGRAT MOSES VEGA JEREMY GALLIANI DANIELLE GERMAIN NADIA SLOCUM AMMARAH REHMAN AWAIS AHMAD AMANDA NYANG’ORO KEMO GRANT TEANNA WILLIS

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DEDICATED TO ISAIAH YOUNG

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