On Thursday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m., EMU’s Black Student Alliance hosted a Town Hall on Race, where an hour and 30 minutes were devoted to a discussion on race and activism in local communities.
Led by BSA co-president and senior Jakiran Richardson, the town hall guided an audience of EMU students and staff in a discussion about taking organized action against discrimination and oppression, and it encouraged thought into ways the community around EMU could better represent itself.
The event started with a brief lecture on the history of Black activist movements, including the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement, and the Black Lives Matter movement, with much conversation floating around the nationwide protests over the summer and the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police.
From there, students and staff were asked to break out into small groups and reflect on any injustices in their home communities, the city of Harrisonburg, and the campus of EMU itself. Many students expressed issues with EMU’s position as a PWI, or predominantly white institution, and an underlying issue with tokenism toward Black students on campus.
Reporting what her group had discussed, senior Amanda Jasper said, “We talked about issues we saw with tokenism, and white people taking advantage of the fact that Black people have experience, and they can harp on that.”
Richardson also led the group in discussions on how students and staff could better take action in combating racism both on and off campus. Richardson laid out a framework of ways people could draw from to make steps towards action, noting that people have different ways of getting involved. Richardson also invited small groups to reflect on ways that people could use their skills on smaller scales to help combat racism.
Reporting back from her group, Executive Advisor Amy Hartsell noted that, “big change is important, but often small doesn’t get the respect it needs.”
The town hall concluded on a hopeful note, providing examples to students of young leaders who fought to make change, including Sonita Alizadeh, an Afghan rapper who has used her talent to combat forced marriages, and Nupol Kiazolu, a young activist who sprung up in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement to become the president of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, an organization part of the larger BLM movement.
Richardson and the other members of BSA hoped to inspire members of the town hall to pursue their own forms of activism. “We don’t have to be major figures to make big changes,” Richardson said.
