“The moral of the story is red, yellow, black, brown or white, we’re all precious in God’s sight.”
These were the words of Rev. Cornell Brooks at Monday’s convocation, the theme of which was “Sankofa,” to remind us that going forward in the fight for racial justice, we must understand our past. Brooks is a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, former president of the NAACP, and an ordained minister, to name a few. Brooks was one of the featured speakers at EMU for Black History Month, and subsequently a part of the agenda that BSA, Multicultural Services, and others have worked tirelessly to put together this month.
Along with all of the Black History Month events, EMU has seen a recent push for transparent conversation regarding race—something that Brooks talked about. Senior Ariel Barbosa believes it is because of student efforts across campus. “The student panel just really shook everything up. I don’t know if it was out of the blue for some people or just confirmation for other people; I think it might have been both,” Barbosa said, in reference to the BSA panel on race. “I think it was also seeing two seniors sit up front and say, ‘I’ve been taking crap for four years and I haven’t said anything about it, but now I will’—two very articulate and well-respected seniors.”
Barbosa believes other students’ stories, as well as the presence of Shannon Dycus as Dean of Students, have stimulated conversations this semester. Barbosa said it is because “having another black woman—along with Celeste in Multicultural Services—who gets it, who just listens, and who is also wise and careful and experienced … and balances so many things at one time and took on so many projects right away … more can get done.”
The Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (CODI) has also been working to get a Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion at EMU, which would be a paid position similar to Dycus’ but focused exclusively on race issues. Barbosa and the other committee members are looking forward to getting people excited about the position, as well as finding funding to make it a full-time position (it is now part-time). They intend to put pressure on administration and to find funding from outside sources. More than anything, Barbosa said, steps like this need to be taken and it is so important “that there are back-to-back events to keep the ball rolling.”
This is exactly what BSA has been working for. Junior Akiel Baker, one of the Vice Presidents of BSA, said, “I think we just want to do better with having a lot of spaces and talkbacks about racism, campus life… I know a lot of our first-years in BSA are experiencing racism on campus and feel like they don’t have people to talk to besides BSA.”
BSA has taken on a lot this month, and Baker said it has been stressful but worth it. They hope to keep the momentum going in the coming years. “We have some really strong first-years that are very opinionated and it’s really great,” Baker said. BSA leadership plans to pass on some leadership positions to those underclassmen as to assist future generations to become leaders and trainers within the organization.
Moving forward, Barbosa believes the VP funding will be a big step, as well as simply reaching out to others and opening up room for conversations on race and racism—that BSA are already putting into motion.
She enjoyed Cornell Brooks’ convocation and believes he voiced a lot of what many at EMU are working towards now. “I just so appreciate when a speaker is older and empowers youth… that feels like this recognition of history as being something that we are creating and that needs to be continued and moving.”
Brooks echoed both Baker and Barbosa in his talk, saying that we are at an “intersection of history and hope.” He repeated over and over that Black history is everyone’s history and presented a question much like the ones being asked around campus now: “What are we going to do with this history?”
