For its fourth year in a row, BSU hosted a town hall on race in Common Grounds. This event was designed to gather the community to discuss the ways in which EMU has changed, and needs to continue changing, in regards to racism. This particular night, the agenda was slightly more specific.
“[The] objective of tonight is to increase knowledge and awareness of microaggressions and the impact that that has on campus climate,” graduate and BSU member DeVantae Dews said in his opening remarks. He added that he had several things that he envisioned for the evening, including the goal to “foster a sense of commitment and responsibility to make change, empower a shift in campus culture, and transition from victimization to empowerment.”
Dews and BSU President and sophomore Jakiran Richardson, along with senior Paul Kayembe, sophomore Amanda Jasper, and senior Jasmine Wilson all provided leadership for the evening. Centering the group’s conversations around the subject of microaggressions, these BSU members urged people to mix up their seating arrangements and find people who they didn’t know to sit with.
“My goal going into the event was to highlight what micro-aggressions are and to help people connect with someone they wouldn’t normally connect with,” said Richardson.
Dews opened the event with prayer, asking that the people gathered would “understand how to better relate in community—in a diverse community.”
As an extension of this search for better relationships within community, the over 40 attendees were invited to split up into small groups for the rest of the evening. The first event included questions for the small groups to answer, like “When was the first time you became aware of your ethnicity?” and a word association question. Words included “Eastern Mennonite University, Racism, macroaggressions, and microaggressions.”
Leaders played a video from media source Quartz defining microaggressions and the forms that they take. The video featured clips from movies depicting types of microagressions.
After the video, group members discussed several written scenarios, each detailing a microaggression. The notetaker from each group was invited to share the group’s feedback.
These notes will be shared with President Susan Schultz Huxman in the BSU’s yearly Climate Report.
The leaders stressed that they wanted the event to be a space of honest sharing about difficult conversations. About his leadership style, Richardson said, “I don’t like to run my events very…high- energy and stuff like that. I like to chill, relax, get comfortable.”
Richardson feels the event fulfilled its original intentions. “I think the event went extremely well. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw everyone engaging and discussing,” he said.
The event is one out of many that are being sponsored and led by BSU in honor of Black History Month.
BSU has also organized a monthly art show that began on Thursday, Feb. 21 in the Black Box Theater for Black History Month.
