#BlackAtLMU holds second town hall, students push for more transparency from administrators
Saturday, October 3, 2020
#BlackAtLMU holds second town hall, students push for more transparency from administrators
By Simone Soublet
On Thursday, President Timothy Law Snyder, university leaders, and #BlackAtLMU members held its second Town Hall—an open forum for Black students to discuss the university’s response to their demands.
Over 100 students, faculty, and staff were in attendance to speak freely and ask questions regarding Black student demands. This comes after the University’s initial letter and follow-up response to #BlackAtLMU’s proposal detailing their demands. In these letters, the University also responded to some of the demands put forth by LMU’s Black Faculty and Staff Alliance (BFSA) but they were not addressed at this meeting.
#BlackAtLMU leaders Alexa Walls, Amaya Lorick, Christian Jackson, Dezmin Hemmans, and Lauren Morrison have been leading the community in these open forums to address how frustrated and outraged they felt after their demands weren’t met in LMU’s first response to their 16-page proposal.
In President Snyder’s opening statement, he said, “One goal I have this evening—and I really hope that one outcome of this is that you will see this as genuine—is that we can develop a strong, collaborative, trusting relationship.”
The first item on the agenda was, “What would you like leadership to know about your experience at LMU?” Students voiced a variety of concerns ranging from financial aid and the lack of financial resources for the Black students to their educational experience in regards to the lack of Black faculty, staff, and therapists.
First-year student Monet Thompson voiced how she observed the lack of education about race and about social justice within her white peers and professors and suggested solutions.
“[I]n the orientation module that talks about identity, there should be a section dedicated to race because there are a lot of students of different races at LMU,” Thompson said. “I feel like at this point in time, with how much information and how easy it is to get information on the internet, it feels like a very woeful ignorance and a total lack of empathy.”
Thompson also explained that, “[f]or a lot of Black freshmen, like me, it can feel disheartening when you constantly have to be a spokesperson for all Black people.”
Junior and #BlackAtLMU leader Amaya Lorick expressed concern over the lack of seriousness she witnessed when she expressed interest in an all-Black dorm to Judicial Affairs, which is now the Office of Student Conduct & Community Responsibility (OSCCR).
This idea stemmed from an experience in Lorick’s first year at LMU where a white resident allegedly said the n-word in her floor’s group chat.
“Rosecrans is typically a predominantly white residence hall, and it’s mostly male,” she explained. “Since it was mostly white students, there was no way for my roommate and I to feel supported as Black women.”
Lorick also explained that she told former Office of Black Student Services (OBSS) director Dr. Nathan Sessoms about the incident, but Judicial Affairs didn’t take the report seriously.
“[T]hey ended up making an excuse for the student who said the n-word,” Lorick said. “Unfortunately, the woman I was talking to was a Black woman and here I am thinking I’ll finally be understood and comforted. [But] I never felt comfortable in Rosecrans after that.”
Black alumni were also in attendance and spoke to the historical gap in the understanding of intersectionality between Black students and white professors.
Alumnus Steven Fuller (‘10) expressed feeling disconnected from the community and that Town Halls like this one have been his opportunity to get himself involved and be a representative for the graduate students.
“The hoops that we have to run into in order to connect with the Black community and to organize ourselves together, I hope moving forward that we can get faculty and staff to advertise Town Halls like this and get the word out about the need to recruit more Black students to make the Black community on LMU’s campus stronger,” he said.
As the open forum shifted focus to the list of demands and LMU’s response, various students shared their thoughts about how LMU should have created a concrete timeline of these demands from the beginning. They expressed how each demand should have been acknowledged, broken down proactively, and given a publically available deadline and response team.
Students also brought up LMU’s Public Safety department as a concern. President Snyder explained that the university is currently looking for a new Public Safety chief and has invited students to be part of that search process within a newly-established Public Safety Advisory Committee.
Snyder also explained that the administration was also working on building anti-racism into the curriculum university-wide and being transparent about their financial matters.
The forum ended with updates on #BlackAtLMU’s demand to make The Bird’s Nest a safe space for Black students. Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Lane Bove said that the process of fulfilling this demand is underway. The goal, she explained, is to have the Bird’s Nest renovated and ready by Spring 2021, should it be safe for students to return to campus.
According to Hemmans, another Town Hall regarding BlackAtLMU’s demands will be held sometime in late November.
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| Graphic: Jolie Brownell |
By Jolie Brownell
We chant: “BLACK LIVES MATTER.” They say, “no, ALL lives matter.” We say: “ABOLISH the police.” They say, “but wait, BLUE lives matter.” Perplexed, we respond: “No, blue lives don’t exist, that’s a job, not a life.” But I want to stop you there, because when we say that “blue lives do not exist” we are actually watering down and erasing the history of racial policing in the US.
To Be White is to Be a Cop
Blue lives, used here as an analogue to Black lives to mean “the lives of police,” do, in fact, exist. And no, I’m not talking about the Smurfs.
It’s the early to mid-eighteenth century. US colonies are kidnapping, bringing over, and enslaving more Africans, thus increasing the Black slave population. This population increase causes paranoia, “suspicion and fear” among white people. To curb this fear of being overpopulated or overthrown by slaves, many colonies, Virginia being the first, institutionalize slave codes that instill racist laws around the rights—or lack of rights—of enslaved individuals and the rights of their slave masters. These codes, in essence, grant white slave owners complete control over slaves including “corporal punishment.”
Slave patrols are the very root of today’s policing. During this time, slave patrols, a militia of mostly white men, were the ones who enforced these slave codes. The first patrols were formed in the Carolina colonies in 1704 and consisted of white people catching and punishing runaway slaves and committing other racist atrocities. In the eighteenth-century United States, to be white was to be given complete control over Black lives. To be white, was to be a cop.
First Came the Right to Police, Then Came the Badge
The key point here is the fact that white people were given the right, institutionally sanctioned permission, to police Black bodies before there ever was an actual badge or “job” per se.
In their new book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, award-winning authors, activists and race scholars Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi expand on this. In the chapter “A Different Adam,” they hit on another fear of the white elite: the fear of poor whites and enslaved Black people uniting and working together to overthrow them. Reynolds writes:
They “knew if Blacks and Whites joined forces, [they’d] be done. Everything would be done. It would’ve been an apocalypse. So, [they] had to devise a way to turn poor whites and poor Blacks against each other, so that they’d be forever separated and unwilling to join hands and raise fists against the elite. And the way [they] did this was by creating (wait for it…) White privileges” (26-27).
Reynolds then explains how this white right to police Black bodies was one of the first cases of this white privilege:
“So White privileges were created, and, at this time, they included:
Only the white rebels were pardoned; legislators prescribed thirty lashes for any slave who lifted a hand ‘against any Christian’ (Christian now meant White).
All whites now wielded absolute power to abuse any African person. These are the two most important ones - poor whites wouldn’t be punished, but they could surely do the punishing.”
Therefore, to be born white was to be given absolute power over Black bodies. To be born white was to essentially be given the birthright to police Black bodies. Again, to be white was to be a cop before there ever was a badge.
Does This Mean That Blue Lives Do, In Fact, Matter?
Of course not. Think about it: which “blue lives” are they talking about when they say “blue lives matter”? Do Brown “blue lives” matter? Do Black “blue lives” matter? In the cases of Milton Green, Jemel Roberson, and other Black officers, they clearly do not. Therefore, here, Blue means white “Blue Lives Matter.” White is synonymous to blue.
Blue Lives Matter, like All Lives Matter, has always been a counter-movement to silence the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement. Blue Lives Matter means white cops matter. That is the heart of this movement: White power matters. White policing of black bodies matter. White supremacy matters.
This is why to say blue lives do not exist is to leave out the violent history of how white privilege was created in this country. It erases how very much of the creation of “whiteness” was the creation, dehumanization, and policing of “Blackness.” The creation of whiteness is henceforth, synonymous with the policing of Blackness.
Once Again: Abolish The Police
Getting rid of cops, or heavily defunding and restructuring the entire system of policing, is definitely a goal, but it isn’t the end goal. Under a system of white supremacy, we can get rid of cops and Black and Brown people will still die. Therefore, the end goal is to dismantle the entire system of white supremacy.
Ridding whiteness of supremacy is the goal. Ridding whiteness from the institutional power to police others is the goal.
This is the opinion of Jolie Brownell, a junior from Portland, OR.
LMU's response to Black student, faculty and staff demands—and everything they missed
Sunday, September 6, 2020
By Christina Martinez
LMU administration has responded to the student demands of #BlackatLMU as well as those of the members of the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA).
Over the past few weeks, both #BlackatLMU and BFSA have demanded better treatment and support for Black individuals in the LMU community. #BlackatLMU’s platform was widely circulated among LMU students, thanks in part to a rapidly growing Instagram presence.
In a letter dated Sep. 4, University President Timothy Law Snyder and Vice President for Intercultural Affairs Jennifer Abe acknowledged the work of Black at LMU and BFSA, and said that they would attempt to make progress towards goals that would benefit Black students, faculty, and staff.
“We ask for the community to keep working with us to realize our goals, as rushing or bypassing certain processes may keep us from realizing fully what we intend to accomplish,” the letter reads. “The changes we enact will be made through prayerful discernment, close consultation, and extraordinary care.”
Agency has consolidated the university’s response below.
Student demands that were addressed:
Increase of budgets for The Learning Community (TLC) and the Office of Black Student Services (OBSS)
Establishment of a Black Space on-campus
The Bird’s Nest will be used as a temporary space dedicated to Black students with a permanent one to be decided in the future. #BlackAtLMU originally asked that the space be Collins Center in Leavey Hall.
Acknowledging Black LMU history
Although LMU pledged to work with the relevant officials to set up halls of fame for Black staff and faculty, there was no mention of recognizing the specific figures that #BlackAtLMU proposed—notably civil rights activists Helen and Robert Singleton.
The university also mentioned that they would “launch an Inclusive History and Images Project to recognize LMU’s diverse stories,” using archival photos. Alumni will also be invited to share experiences to be included in partnership with the Jesuit Community.
Updating the curriculum to include a diversity or anti-racism core class for undergraduate students
However, LMU only mentioned that the school’s programs would be reviewed according to normal procedures and timelines.
Integrating an anti-racism model into the current orientation program.
According to the letter, anti-racism modules were developed over the summer for transfer and first-year students' orientation this fall.
Some Black student recruitment initiative demands
Enrollment Management leadership and the Department of Human Resources will partner to set new goals for Black student recruitment.
Black Student Overnight will continue in the Spring of 2021 pending public health guidelines.
Admission will identify more community colleges to add to the current Transfer Pathway program in order “to increase the number of Black students from different backgrounds and perspectives recruited to LMU.”
Increased engagement with Black community organizations
A new position will be added at the Center for Service and Action (CSA) to create service and social justice opportunities with Black community-based organizations (CBOs) in LMU’s immediate area.
Student demands that were not addressed:
Establishing an ongoing relationship with LMU’s Black students
There was no mention of whether or not the University would implement regular town halls or monthly meetings between LMU’s administration and Black students.
Updates on the progress towards the goals announced in the letter will be shared via LMU This Week starting Sep. 8.
Establishment of a Black Admissions team
The letter did not address whether or not LMU would promote Charles Mason to Associate Director of Admissions or provide him with a team dedicated to recruiting Black students.
Increase of financial aid to support the recruitment of Black students
The expanded details of this demand were addressed instead, particularly regarding recruitment methods, but the allocation of funds for scholarships was not specified.
Opportunities solely for Black students and alumni to curate public art
Establishment of a National Pan-Hellenic Council
Allocation of $100 million from the next Capital Campaign solely for Black initiatives
Hiring of at least seventeen additional Black faculty members and the retainment of current Black faculty.
Despite LMU’s ongoing hiring freeze, exceptions will be made “on a case-by-case basis” for certain opportunity hires. No commitment to the demanded minimum amount of hires was made.
Staff and faculty demands that were addressed:
Decolonization of the LMU curriculum
It was acknowledged, but the letter then said that all programs would be reevaluated and reconsidered for their content.
Acknowledgement and funding of the work, research and outreach of Black faculty
LMU said it would look into how to honor the work and service of its Black faculty, but funding and compensation were not discussed.
Staff and faculty demands that were not addressed:
Release of raw demographic information for Black community members at LMU:
Students
Staff
Faculty
Administrators, managers, and directors
Student applicants for both four-year and transfer admissions
Trustees and regents
The following benefits and support for Black faculty and staff:
Release of an audit of that details how Black faculty and staff were affected during this summer’s furlough.
Salary information and statistics for Black faculty, staff, and administrators.
The University only mentioned that they would study salary equities in the coming years.
Funding and coordination of a cluster hire of at least 12 tenured Black faculty members.
Acknowledgement of the role of the Department of African American Studies, especially with additional named professorships at each college and school.
Stronger salary equity and retention for all Black faculty and staff.
Promotion of Dr. Cheryl Grills and Charles Mason to President’s Professor of Psychology and Associate Director of Admissions, respectively.
LMU only mentioned that the President’s Professor’s line would be maintained and filled.
Employment of a Black therapist with expertise in trauma associated with anti-Black racism.
Restoration of all jobs held by Black individuals at LMU, and the promise that no other Black employee would be furloughed.
The following benefits and support for Black students:
Meeting of all #BlackatLMU demands.
Increase in scholarship funding and consistency of financial aid packages.
Incorporation of Black student leaders in decision-making processes.
Acknowledgement of and compensation for Black student leaders.
Respect for Black students’ academic work, especially when grappling with race and important community issues.
Promotion and funding of student research for Black students.
An additional Black (preferably male) therapist trained in anti-Black trauma available for students.
Full funding of the Kente Graduation, including an on-campus celebration site.
Black Joy and Poetic Eloquence: Sitting Down with Jolie Brownell
by Megan Loreto
Jolie Brownell is a rising junior at LMU majoring in women and gender studies and minoring in African American studies and sociology. She is a writer, speaker, artist and the author of several collections of poetry. She recently sat down with Megan Loreto, Agency’s Arts and Culture Editor, to discuss the release of two new ebooks: You’re Cute, But Are You Woke? and Nappy Headed Teachings Vol. I. You can purchase them on her website.
Megan Loreto (ML): Jolie, thank you so much for interviewing with us. I love your work and I am so excited to hear more about it. When did you first begin to write and when did you begin to consider yourself a writer?
Jolie Brownell (JB): I started writing when I was 13 years old. I was never good at journaling or grammar even, but one day I came across this blog that had a lot of toxic messages geared towards teenage girls. This blog had an open blogger format and so I became one of their bloggers and started counteracting those negative messages with positive and empowering ones. It was so much fun and I gathered quite a following… that is, until they literally kicked me off their site a year or so later, because my uplifting messages “tainted their brand,” LOL. I didn’t consider myself a writer at that time, just a girl who wanted to empower girls through writing.
It wasn’t until I published my first book at 17, that I considered myself a writer. Selling hundreds of copies of my book all on my own (without a publisher) was a really rad feeling. It was like, “oh, people like my writing enough to buy it,” that must mean I am a writer or at least a decent enough one.
ML: What do you enjoy most about poetry, which seems to be your preferred medium?
JB: It took even longer to consider myself a poet. I can’t actually remember the first time I started writing poetry, but I also think it was around freshman year of high school during our poetry unit in English class. I liked how beautiful, simple, and concise poetry is, and started playing around with it a little. Now, poetry is my main writing style. I love writing research papers too, but that’s a whole different thing.
ML: What does your process look like? Who/what are some of your inspirations?
JB: I write poetry almost daily. It has become integral to the core of who I am. I think, process, and exist through poetry. “I am a writer; I feel in syllables” (JVB 2017).
My writing process usually starts with inspiration. I may see an image, come across a certain color (usually bright fun colors) and/or hear a word that inspires something in me. I’ll screenshot it and or jot the word down and then when I have some time, I’ll write from that place of inspiration. Actually, my entire Instagram “saved” folder is filled with images, quotes and or people who inspire me. I have countless images of beautiful Black women, pro-radical liberation quotes and shots of Beyonce (because Beyonce). It’s the new Pinterest. A lot of my inspiration comes from there.
Also, sometimes poems just flow right out of me, no inspiration needed. This does not happen often, but when it does, these poems always turn out to be my favorites.
ML: Your work is very much centered in the idea of intersectionality, first termed by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. One of my favorite parts of your collections and something I first saw on your Instagram was your "disclaimer" that really does a great job visually illustrating the way your work is (to borrow a phrase from you), "pro-dismantling all systems of oppression."
JB: I learned about Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “intersectionality” freshman year of college and it changed everything for me. It changed how I see and understand the world and myself in the world. Many times, I believe we are taught only one perspective, one side of a story, or one part of a person’s identity, yet intersectionality challenges this notion and pushes us to consider different viewpoints and completely different ways of analyzing. Intersectionality complicates things (in a good way), as it shows what is possible, what new solutions are possible, when we dive into the complexities of the world and who we are.
On a more personal note, intersectionality has helped me understand how my multiple identities (Black, adopted, femme-identifying, immigrant, etc.) relate to one another and make me who I am. I am beautifully complex, and Crenshaw’s “intersectionality” helped me revel in this fact.
And YES, I am pro-all forms of liberation. I believe that while fighting for my own liberation, it is absolutely necessary to fight for other’s liberation, even if their liberation looks different from my own. There is not one form of freedom, but in order to give everyone access to these forms of freedom, we must first dismantle all forms of oppression. There is no other way!
ML: The way you explain your ideas is very accessible even to readers not familiar with Crenshaw's work. Why is it important to you that these ideas are clearly and explicitly expressed?
JB: Thank you so much for asking me this question, because it is central to my goal for my work. I want my work to be as accessible as possible. This said, I understand that my story, my intersection of identities does not make me palatable for everyone and that is okay. So, what I really want is to be accessible for those who choose to read and engage with my work.
Studying in college I’ve learned a lot of cool new words and concepts, which is great, but at the same time I’ve learned just how inaccessible many of these words and concepts are. Not only in the costs of buying such resources, but also in the very language these resources are written in. I almost always need a dictionary when reading these “college-level” texts, and while I appreciate this opportunity to learn, I realize this is not the reality for everyone. My hope and mission then, is to take what I’ve learned, process it for myself and then relay it back through poetry. In other words, take these huge “intellectual” words, and make them smaller, more accessible and more beautiful.
Especially now, when there is a revolution emerging and there are a lot of big concepts being thrown around like “police brutality,” “abolishment,” “white supremacy,” etc. people fear what they don’t fully understand and therefore, there is a need to break these concepts down for people to understand them and hopefully be inspired to get on board. Like Toni Cade Bambara said so eloquently, “The purpose of a writer is to make revolution irresistible.”
This is especially my mission and hope for my latest work, You’re Cute, But Are You Woke? poetry ebook. Breaking down what the word “woke” really means, not only for myself, but also in relation to eradicating systems of oppression.
ML: One of the collections of poetry you recently released, Nappy Headed Teachings centers around the deconstruction of the beauty standards that our society upholds for Black women, girls and femmes. In several poems you very eloquently speak to the way that these standards are imposed by racism, sexism and capitalism. Will you expand on this idea? How do you integrate the work of combating these standards into your daily life?
JB: The simplest way I can further explain this is through hierarchies. Sexism is the hierarchy that places men above women and heterosexuality above anything else. Racism is the hierarchy that places value on lighter/whiter skin (on top) and darker/blacker skin with less value (on the bottom). Beauty standards then, as a mode of sexism (increasing a woman's value through appearance) also ties to racism. Society places greater value on lighter/white women than they do on darker/blacker women. Another term for this is colorism. Additionally, society’s valuing of skinnier/thinner over curvy/fatter bodies is also historically racist. A great book to read/learn more about this is Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings.
As a curvy dark skin woman, I grew up being surrounded by messages of how I was not enough; not thin enough, not light enough, not woman (feminine) enough. This depleted a lot of my confidence and it would take me a long time to learn to love and appreciate myself for who I am. As I mentioned before, I started writing in order to empower others. I also did it to help empower myself as well. Yet, through this empowerment I realized that woman/femme- identifying folks needed more than to just hear “love yourself.” They needed to understand why these outside messages telling them they were not enough existed in the first place and why they continue to be perpetuated. The “why” I keep coming across is capitalism. By teaching us that we are not “enough,” we are then sold things that will make us more beautiful. We are sold beauty. This can only work if there is a lacking (sexism) AND if there is a beauty ideal to aspire to (racism).
My poetry ebook Nappy Headed Teachings is my celebration of me saying FU to these systems that are hell bent on telling me I am not enough. I want all women and femme-identifying folks, especially Black femmes to love themselves without the need to change themselves first. Our blackness does not need lightening. Our hair does not need straightening. Our bodies do not need tightening in order to be beautiful. We just are. How fucking radical is that?!
ML: Your work also touches very beautifully upon the topics of growth and self-actualization. One of my favorite poems from You're Cute But Are You Woke is "It is okay for your words to grow." What are some ways you challenge yourself to grow?
JB: I love learning. I accepted the title “nerd” a long time ago. My dad always told me that “the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.” This turns out to be very true, and while for many the “unknown” is a scary place to be, I challenge myself, through my poetry, to go there. Step into the unknown. In order to do this, I read A LOT. Yes, I am that student who reads the WHOLE 50 page reading before class. I love it. I am currently reading Pleasure Politics by Adrienne M. Brown. It’s epic! If you’ve read it, DM, and let’s talk about it!
...I also challenge myself to do a lot of “unlearning.” Living in these systems of capitalism, patriarchy, and racism, we are all conditioned into believing certain things. For instance, the whole idea that there are just two sexes/genders. This is bogus. Science has proven the existence of multiple sexes (i.e. intersexed individuals). Also, gender is non-binary. These truths just happened to be left out of our biology books. Like, WTF? I want to know WHY they were left out. Why weren’t we taught certain things? I am forever curious.
Finally, I challenge myself to sit in places of discomfort. This is all part of the “unlearning.” Thankfully, my curiosity seems to trump whatever fear or discomfort I may have with learning new things. So, every time I feel a sense of “ooh, but that makes me uncomfortable,” I push myself to sit in that discomfort a little longer. This is the ONLY way you grow, by stepping outside your comfort zone.
ML: Though your poems explore deep themes, so much joy can be found in your work. You wrote, not long after the death of George Floyd, about the necessity for everyone who believes that Black Lives Matter to celebrate Black joy, invest in Black dreams and fight for Black life, not just justice after death. That being said, what brings you joy in these moments?
JB: Yes. Yes. YES!
As an artist, I am putting myself up for consumption. I want readers to consume (or take in) my art, and in essence, consume me. This said, I do not want readers and viewers of my art to only take away with them the pain and frustration that I feel. While these emotions and realities are very real for me, I don’t want them to forget about my joy, laughter and light.
I am all of it. I am my trauma, my happiness, my anger, my dreams, my joy, my sadness, my sexiness, my exhaustion. Therefore, I want you to take in my smile, as you read about my pain. I want you to see bright colors as you read through my anger. I want you to take it all in. Not to overwhelm you, but to remind you that we are both human. We are everything at once. We are complex. We are contradictions. We are multifaceted. We are beautiful.
Fighting for my joy is just as important, or actually no, more important than fighting to dismantle my oppression. My Black joy is important. My Black femme joy is my right. My joy is a big middle finger up to all oppressive systems trying to steal my life away from me.
During these trying times, especially, my joy is crucial. Currently, things that have been bringing me the most joy are reading affirming texts by Black women/femmes, getting dressed up and doing self-timer photoshoots in my backyard, twerking to Beyonce’s SAVAGE remix, binge watching my favorite Netflix shows, making fun new things (like homemade Kombucha), and writing poetry of course.
May we continue to choose our right to joy.
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