CHAPTER NEWS
UCLA BROTHERS HELP CREATE VIRAL VIDEO
SCAN THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE THE SPOKEN WORD VIDEO ‘THE BLACK BRUINS’ BY SY STOKES.
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As leaders at the University of California, Los Angeles Brothers of Gamma Xi took part in a video highlighting the dearth of African-American students at UCLA and other predominantly white institutions. Many of the brothers already conduct research with world-renowned professor, educator Brother Tyrone Howard [Omicron Eta, ‘88] in the Graduate Center for Education where their research is focused on statistics on black male retention at UCLA and the first-year black male experience, and the state of black males in education in metro Los Angeles. Using this research and having casual dialogue on campus, brothers were asked by a fellow researcher to participate in the compilation of the video along with fellow student and spoken-word performer Sy Stokes. It targets areas like athletics and the Anderson School of Management in which the university prides itself on building its legacy, and yet the number of black males on campus continues to decline. Brothers’ involvement was marked by holding figures that displayed the tarnishing statistics being said in the spoken word with looks of disdain. Most of the statistics were ones that they configured from their research. Since then, brothers have been asked to present at forums, speak on news broadcasts and radio shows. More than 1 million people viewed the video online. Brothers continue to encourage the school’s administration to fund current outreach programs targeting black inner-city students.
THE SPHINX