2-18-2021

COLLEGE DIVERSITY, 2

BLACK AT BU, 3

BLACK ARTISTS IN FILM, 5

FREEP ARCHIVES, 7

Boston’s students question university inclusion efforts.

BU’s Black community shares campus experiences.

Nonprofit strives for equity in film industry.

Take a look at the history of Black students at BU.

CE L E B R ATING

THURSDAY, FEB 18, 2021

B OSTON’S

B L ACK V OIC E S

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

YEAR LI. VOLUME C. ISSUE IV

Umoja through the years

A home for Black students at BU Anne Jonas Daily Free Press Staff Umoja, Boston University’s Black Student Union chapter, was founded in 1967 as an organization and home for Black students on campus.

More than 50 years later, Umoja has evolved into what is now an evergrowing umbrella organization that brings together other Black student groups at BU. The structure of Umoja allows students from different colleges and organizations to meet and form connections that would have otherwise been difficult to develop, and fosters what some members call a “sense of home” for Black students.

College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Brianna Linden, a member of Umoja’s Advocacy Committee, said the group gives Black students a chance to interact with people they rarely could otherwise.

“It definitely presents opportunities for us to meet with and engage with other Black students,” she said, “that maybe we had no idea existed because BU is large.”

CAS sophomore Emmanuel Messele, Umoja treasurer and member of the Public Relations Committee, said his favorite part about the organization are the engaging events and opportunities that facilitate introductions with students he wouldn’t get to see because they were in other schools.

Umoja’s mission as an organization, he noted, is about bringing people together –– “Umoja” means “unity” in Swahili –– and the organization aims to do that while promoting the cultures of its members.

“We really connect with all of the Black student organizations on campuses under different categories,” Messele said, “to help be that unifying factor that connects us to both the administrative side of school but also help preserve Black culture.”

Andrea Taylor, a senior diversity officer at BU and a co-founder of Umoja, recalled the history of the organization from its beginnings in the ’60s.

Edward Coaxum Jr., a student in the School of Law, was the chapter’s first president.

Taylor, a 1968 College of Communication alumna who served as president and CEO of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, said she worked alongside Coaxum as a co-founder of Umoja.

Christ-Janer.

“We took over the building and had a set of demands,” Taylor said, “and were prepared to occupy the building and be disruptive in a nonviolent, peaceful sort of way to gain attention and to have an opportunity to dialogue with the administrative leadership at the

1968.

The protestors locked ChristJaner out of his office for 12 hours and successfully had all but one of their demands met –– the renaming of the School of Theology after Martin Luther King Jr., who had been assassinated just weeks earlier on April 4, 1968.

COURTESY OF DELICE NSUBAYI

Members of Umoja, Boston University’s Black Student Union, at the 2019 Culture Cookout. Umoja brings Black students from different colleges together and is still expanding 54 years after its founding.

Taylor and Coaxum dated while at BU, married after graduating and had three children and five grandchildren together before separating in the ’80s.

Just a year after its inception, on April 25, 1968, Umoja achieved major success in fighting against racial injustice at the University by organizing a sit-in protest at 147 Bay State Rd., which was at that time the office of the BU President Arland

University.”

Among the demands were the increase in the number of Black students admitted and enrolled at BU, financial aid to support their admission, tutoring centers, the inclusion of a course on Black history, a library dedicated to African American studies, and an AFAM coordinating center, according to a Boston Globe article dated May 5,

Taylor said it is “striking” the same issues of racism and inequity in academia that were fought over 50 years ago continue to be issues faced today.

“We need to be constantly reminded as a society that having an educated population making opportunities available for people to achieve their full potential is an ongoing challenge,” she said, “and

it’s worth fighting for and protesting about in every generation.”

The current fight against systemic racism swelled this past summer and was taken up by Umoja and BU’s Student Government, which raised over $140,000 in June for several social justice organizations fighting for racial equity.

Messele said the fundraiser was an example of Umoja coming “full circle,” as the organization also fundraised for activist Angela Davis’ legal defense in 1970.

“Social justice is definitely one of our most emphasized focuses,” Linden said, “because issues that affect the Black community affect everyone in the Black community, so therefore anything that we can do to help will be done.”

Umoja is currently working with StuGov on an anti-racism training module for faculty and students that would function similarly to the AlcoholEdu for College and Sexual Misconduct Prevention Training programs incoming BU students are required to complete.

“We want to make something more interactive,” Messele said.

“What we’re going to do now is cast the members to really act out certain situations which we think are common and that could really be beneficial to freshmen or someone entering into the college environment.”

He added they want to provide a practical example for how students can combat the racism around them.

“What does being anti-racist to that regard look like?” he said.

Umoja President Stephanie Tavares, a CAS senior, wrote in an email that Umoja is also looking into launching a Umoja alumni history project in collaboration with BU’s Alumni Relations, a historian from the AFAM Department and BU Today.

While specific details about the project aren’t available yet, Taylor said she believes “it’s very appropriate.”

“To think about some kind of a deliberate and intentional effort to capture the history of that timeframe,” she said, “what it meant CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Social justice protests echo through Boston’s history Daniel Kool Daily Free Press Staff Born in Fayetteville, N.C., raised in Houston and killed in Minneapolis, George Floyd transformed Boston from over 1,000 miles away.

His Memorial Day death sparked a season of unrest in the city and beyond. Protests began in late May, continuing throughout the summer before cooling off as the winter set in.

The Boston City Council began

weighing options for police reform in early July, after Mayor Marty Walsh declared racism a public health crisis in June and vowed to reallocate 20 percent — $12 million — of the Boston Police Department’s overtime budget to citywide efforts to combat system racism.

Discussions on how to curb excess spending continue, with the Council’s Committee on Ways and Means slated to hold a hearing regarding police overtime in March.

Demonstrations continued into the Fall semester, with protestors rallying in the names of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, who was killed in March,

and Jacob Blake, who was shot and partially paralyzed in August.

Although a few saw conflicts break out between activists and law officers, the majority remained peaceful.

In November, the City filed an ordinance to create a new Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, tasked with reviewing the BPD’s internal investigations and civilian complaints.

The following month, the Mass Legislature passed a major reform bill, banning chokeholds, creating a state-level oversight committee and allowing officers to report coworkers’ behavior. Gov. Charlie Baker signed

it into law on New Year’s Eve. But local activists still say more is necessary to curb police brutality and systemic racism in Boston.

Brock Satter, an organizer for Mass Action Against Police Brutality, which led a number of the summer’s protests, said defunding police, while important, is not a complete solution.

“The reform proposals have fallen short,” Satter said. “The central demands of the families most affected are not even really the central demands being put forward in most of these demonstrations right now.”

Satter added that reforms should

make it easier for the families of those killed by police officers to take cases to trial — although he said he wasn’t sure how to effectively enforce such legislation.

“There’s already the laws in the books to indict,” he said, “it’s not like a legal barrier to what’s going on. It’s a political barrier.”

While Satter said he was optimistic moving forward, he added that another surge of protests is “inevitable.”

“People thought it was over with Mike Brown,” he said. “But George CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

2

NEWS

Kendi, Center for Antiracist Research aim to inspire policy change Colbi Edmonds Editor-In-Chief

When Ibram X. Kendi isn’t writing a New York Times-bestselling book, collaborating on a cover for Time Magazine, or being named one of the most influential people of the year, he is working to combat racism at Boston University.

Kendi serves as the founder and director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research, which launched in July with the stated mission of understanding, explaining and solving seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice.

With Kendi’s successful career comes a large internet following: 1.1 million followers on Instagram and more than 378,000 on Twitter.

He said a difficulty that comes with such a following is knowing a lot of people are reading and listening to what he says — even typos in his tweets will get a lot of traction.

“There are many people who are going to like it and even many people who are not going to like it or even better, many people who are going to engage on that idea,” Kendi said.

“That’s what becomes a challenge.”

And said during his time at BU so far, his team has worked to establish its structure and staff. The Center started off with nothing, he said, so the past few months have been spent developing projects, internal structure and personnel.

“We’re starting to turn idea into actual program,” he said. “And so I feel like it’s been productive.”

Kendi said COVID-19 has hampered the Center’s team-building abilities because not all staff are able to come work in person —

some staff members have yet to even meet rooted in data and data analytics. effective policy changes through its work. She one another. But, he said this is an experience “Data speaks louder than words,” Bestavros is also a critical race theorist and professor everyone is facing. wrote. “So, I am inspired to arm those working of law at BU and often tells her students how The Center has also continued work on its on problems that are important for our society to effective policy work can be. racial COVID-19 data tracker and will be do so using the best tools I can provide them.”

“What’s so exciting about the Center is now announcing new projects soon.

Throughout Kendi’s career, he said policy that this is at the forefront of our thinking,” she “Over the last year, said. “We’re actually going we’ve been closely tracking to be doing work that tries racial demographic data to provide tangible policy across the country,” he products to achieve those said. “We also recently ends.” announced a collaboration Gonzales Rose cited with [Computing and Data many opportunities for Sciences] for our racial students to get involved data lab.” with the Center, through The Faculty of CDS different avenues such as is an academic unit made policy reports, online data of researchers, scholars and model legislation. and faculty. It works Future projects will include to prompt integration a racial policy tracker that of research, education will have large student programs and computer involvement. data sciences throughout “They’re engaging in BU’s academics. cutting-edge research that CDS Associate Provost is going to yield tangible Azer Bestavros wrote in policy products,” she said. an email he and Kendi “Here, they can engage in have a shared vision for the that work in meaningful ability of data to promote COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS ways that are going to evidence-based policy Ibram X. Kendi, founder and director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research. impact communities.”

After launching the Center in July, Kendi has worked to build out its structure, staff and making.

When reflecting on her “From the CDS projects. time working with Kendi perspective, we are particularly interested in changes have been the best aspect of his work. so far, she said she is still in awe of his work connecting students in computing and data “It’s certainly incredible when I get feedback and career and described him as a “visionary sciences with opportunities,” he wrote, “to from individuals who have become educated leader” — one who is more empowering than apply their data analytics skills to help answer on a topic and are more aware of the existence any leader she’s ever worked with. questions that social scientists may have about of racism,” he said, “but nothing compares to “He really guides, with a very wise and equity, of which racial equity is an important actual policies being changed that improves the thoughtful hand and allows a lot of space for dimension.” lives of people who have suffered under the foot you to grow and to learn and to tap into your Bestavros added he wants to ensure those of racism.” own knowledge,” she said, “and to ultimately who are interested in developing and changing Jasmine Gonzales Rose, the associate come up with your vision and your strategies policies do so by using solid, sound evidence director of policy, ensures the Center yields and your tactics so it’s incredibly empowering.”

Boston-area universities not entirely successful at diversity efforts Sam Trottenberg Daily Free Press Staff

Universities throughout Boston and the greater-Massachusetts area have made efforts to increase diversity for years, but students and education experts question the success of these inclusion efforts.

“When push comes to shove, there aren’t really that many truly diverse private institutions in our country,” said Joan Casey, president of Educational Advocates.

The first African American graduate from Harvard College was Richard Theodore Greener in 1870. Today, the current Harvard College freshman class is 14.7% African American, according to the college’s website.

Casey said she believes public universities have done a much better job than private

universities at creating a diverse environment, in part because of the financial incentives that private institutions have.

“I think that Boston-area schools could look at the Boston Public High Schools and do a better job identifying talented students,” Casey said, “and giving them a decent enough financial aid package that they can attend.”

She added that creating a diverse environment can be measurably better for all students within a university due to the exposure of other cultures.

Despite this, initiatives such as affirmative action — policies designed to favor minority and women applicants to more fairly represent marginalized groups — have come under fire in recent years, Casey said.

The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals — which intended to ensure the admission of Black students who may be offered fewer opportunities in high school through the 1964 Civil Rights Act — ruled that Harvard’s “limited” consideration of race in its application process did not violate the Constitution in

HANNAH YOSHINAGA | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Harvard College. Harvard and other universities in the Greater Boston Area have made efforts to increase the diversity of their student populations for years, but some educational experts and stu-

November.

Ed Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, which filed the initial lawsuit alleging discrimination against Asian-American applicants, planned to appeal. Critics railed the suit as an attack on affirmative action.

At the end of the day, though, affirmative action is only a “drop in the bucket” during the college process, Casey said.

Casey added that other examples of preferential treatment such as “legacy” admissions, which tend to be more common among white applicants, have a more significant effect than affirmative action.

From 2014-2019, 43 percent of white Harvard admits had some sort of admissions preference — including legacy students, athletic recruits and children of faculty, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Among Black, Asian American and Hispanic applicants, that figure was less than 16 percent each.

Harvard admitted 2,179 white students preferentially — including legacy admits, sports recruits and children of faculty, according to a study performed by Uprooting Inequality.

During that same period, the university admitted 1,392 Black students total.

Casey said she hoped that admissions would improve in the future, but admitting a more diverse student body was only one piece of the puzzle.

“It’s great to admit students of color,” Casey said, “but if you don’t have any support and programming for them once they get there, it’s not going to go well.”

A number of universities throughout Boston and the greater-Massachusetts areas have established offices to combat racism and improve diversity, but Casey said she questioned whether some of these were merely “ornamental.”

Emerson College created the Director of Faculty Development and Diversity in 2019, hiring Tuesda Roberts and tasking her with increasing diversity and inclusivity among the school’s faculty.

Nia Cooper, a Black freshman at Emerson

studying writing, literature, and publishing, said when she arrived on campus in the fall, she felt welcomed by the school and orientation leaders who clapped and cheered her name.

Cooper added that Emerson offered an orientation specifically for students of color.

“I think they’re doing their very best to make people of color feel more included,” Cooper said. “But I also do think that when there are issues like that it’s usually mainly the student body who’s doing something about it.”

In addition to resources provided by universities themselves, many schools have student-run groups designed to provide a comfortable space for students of color.

Emerson’s Black Organization with Natural Interest is a student-run group that hosts multiple events each year and has more than 500 likes on its Facebook page.

Still, Cooper said she feels Emerson is primarily white.

“I know there are many people of color here, but I just haven’t met most of them I guess,” Cooper added.

The Emerson student population is four percent African American, according to Emerson’s website.

Madeline Cohen, a sophomore studying public health at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said she does not think her college is diverse. Amherst’s 2018 undergraduate population is 71 percent white.

Cohen attended Boston Latin Academy, a diverse public exam school in Roxbury.

She said she was caught off guard when she arrived at Amherst.

“Some of my peers from suburban places were like, “Wow this is so diverse,’ and I was like, ‘huh?’” Cohen said. “I came from a place that was literally the most diverse situation I’ve ever got myself in in my life.”

Cohen said most of her classes at Amherst are dominated by cisgender white students, but she hopes the school is becoming more diverse over time.

“How are we supposed to understand other people if we live in a bubble of people that are only like ourselves?” Cohen said.

NEWS 3

Black students, faculty, staff reflect on their experiences at BU Madhri Yehiya Daily Free Press Staff

Halfway into Black History Month, Black students, staff and faculty have reflected on their experiences as members of a minority group on campus and offered their opinions on how Boston University has handled a year which brought race and white privilege to the forefront of national conversation and consciousness.

Many students cited on campus groups such as UMOJA: The Black Student Union and Sisters United as positive resources for those looking to connect with others of the same background.

“It’s been a good experience,” said Nicole Agwu, a freshman in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, of these organizations. “There’s not a lot of us so we can have a sense of community which is good especially being in a [Predominantly White Institution].”

She stated while it is nice to find a community within cultural clubs at BU, she would like to see more students of color on campus.

“I feel like it’s more diverse than other schools but it’s still not,” Agwu said. “It’s still pretty hard to find other people like me.”

Many students also reflected on their experiences handling racist incidents on campus.

Brianna Bourne, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, described a microaggression, or an instance in which the discrimination was subtle and indirect.

“Some security guards...would let other students who I noticed were white just walk in but once it was me I was stopped and they said ‘let me see your badge and your card’ and they looked very hard at it even though they see me walk in and out at least 10 times, they’ll still ask.”

Despite such incidents, Bourne said she sees BU “working towards an anti-racist environment” with resources available such as the Center for Antiracist Research and the recent unveiling of the Newbury Center, which will provide support for firstgeneration college students.

Bourne additionally pointed out that while many resources may exist, they are not much use if the knowledge is not widely available.

“I haven’t really looked at the antiracist center because I thought there’s not a lot of information about it, it’s just that we have an antiracist center. It doesn’t really say anything about it.”

In regards to addressing national issues surrounding race, some students have expressed their appreciation at BU’s efforts to promote conversation on the topic.

Michael Igwe, a sophomore in the College of Engineering said he had seen articles on the issues in BU Today, the university-run daily online newspaper.

“But I think that’s the most I’ve seen,” Igwe continued. “I’ve seen a protest outside...they seem to be keeping track of it on their BU Today website.”

In addition to student groups, other race-related resources on campus include the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground and several formal lectures and discussions held over Zoom.

Igwe recalls attending one such discussion on “black people in technology and engineering”, although he is unsure of the original webinar title. “Starting the conversation is always good,” he said of BU’s willingness to hold such events.

Following a summer of protests surrounding the treatment of people of color in the United States which was catalyzed by the death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement, several academic departments within BU released statements as well.

Neta Crawford, Chair of the Political Science department, posted on the department webpage “These events are, sadly, not new.

However, the United States is in an unprecedented moment — a recognition of police violence, widespread protest, and the threat of a militarized response to democratic

protest — even as the US continues to reel from the economic devastation and human toll of the corona virus.”

Below her introductory message followed dozens of statements from political science professors expressing their pain and disgust at the racial inequity so prevalent in American society.

“As far as I know of what they posted, in my keeping up with it, I think it was an adequate response…” said Ambrozine Daring, a freshman in the School of Education.

Jessica Adejobi, freshman in the College of General Studies said she saw the university’s response to the protests as aiming to cater to people of many different viewpoints.

“You can always do more.

But I understand their point from an institution that they have to accommodate to everyone. So that’s to say people with different views

do go to this school so we do have to take that, but at the same time I think they could have done more.”

Warren Towers housekeeper John Walker had an overall positive view on BU’s handling of racial issues as compared to students.

“I think [BU] is very diverse,” he said. “But when it comes to African American and the people of color I think it’s up to the people themselves...maybe if they have programs to reach out to people in certain neighborhoods, that could be a way to get people...Have outreach programs.”

“They could always be doing better in my opinion,” commented Adejobi on the level of diversity on BU’s campus. “But at the same time, I don’t know how the admissions process works or anything, but you can’t just admit somebody because they’re a minority.”

THALIA LAUZON | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Martin Luther King Jr. statue in front of Marsh Chapel. Some Black Boston University students appreciate resources and groups available to them at BU, but believe discrimination and a lack of diversity are still a problem on campus.

Boston remains highly gentrified

COURTESY SARAH NICHOLS VIA FLICKR

Street in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. Jamaica Plain is one of several areas that has been gentrified or declared eligible for gentrification in the city.

Madison Mercado Daily Free Press Staff Despite efforts to support lowincome neighborhoods across Boston, gentrification remains prevalent in the city — a consequence of the area’s affordable attraction, some residents claim.

Boston was ranked third most intensely gentrified city in the United States between 2013-2017, according to a 2020 study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

Certain neighborhoods in the city, such as East Boston, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Mattapan, Hyde Park and South Boston, were considered to be gentrified or

susceptible for gentrification in the coming years, according to the study.

The gentrification of these neighborhoods took place largely over the second half of the twentieth century, as Boston became an attractive, safe and affordable city to live, said Robert Allison, history professor at Suffolk University.

“It really is a function of having a good economy that attracts people into the city,” Allison said.

Nick Juravich, assistant professor of history and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said the city has an “hourglass economy,” with major income disparities among residents and a relatively small middle class.

High-income residents typically want to live in the middle of the city, in areas with good access to transportation and work, Juravich

said.

Meanwhile, residents in historically working-class neighborhoods aren’t able to pay their rent because the prices keep rising.

“Boston needs more units of housing to address that clear demand for it,” he said. “Even when housing is created, there’s a lot of distrust and a lot of frustration in communities that need access to quality affordable housing.”

The city permitted the creation of 1,023 new units of affordable housing last year, which will be distributed via a lottery system. The majority of new housing units will be sold at market-price.

“Even when there are programs that allot certain numbers of those units to middle and lower income people,” Juravich said, “they don’t really feel like they’re addressing the problem of affordable housing

in those neighborhoods so much as accelerating the visibility and the pace of gentrification.”

Boston City Councilors Kenzie Bok and Liz Breadon sponsored a petition in late January that would expand the City’s definition of “landmarks” to include sites with local, but not necessarily statewide, significance.

The change could not only establish equity and preserve the city’s history beyond white, affluent historical figures, but also create a bridge for affordable housing, wrote Bok in an email statement.

“There are historic tax credits on the state and federal level that when paired with things like low income tax credits, housing vouchers, and other affordable housing measures, can really be an opportunity to preserve important neighborhood sites and increase affordable housing,” she wrote.

Despite this, some residents say that gentrification is still increasing in their neighborhoods.

In East Boston, a neighborhood with a prominent Hispanic population, the construction of luxury apartments and condominiums is displacing the present immigrant community, said Gloribell Mota, co-director and lead coordinator of Neighbors United for a Better East Boston.

“They’re not marketing to the families that live here,” Mota said.

She noted waterfront development projects in the 1980s that converted triple-deckers into individual condos.

In Mattapan, a similar situation came up when the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Commuter Rail came through the area while housing corporations bought large apartment complexes and increased rent prices, said Fatima Ali-Salaam,

chair of the board at the Greater Mattapan Neighborhood Council.

“They are slowly but surely displacing people,” Ali-Salaam said.

“If you are just discarding history as if it doesn’t matter, that’s a great loss.”

She added the Mattapan neighborhood is worth preserving because of its Native American history.

“You have to find that balance,” Ali-Salaam added. “You’re not going to keep a building that is unsafe, but we do have the technology now in order to go in and do things so that buildings can become safe and keep the architecture’s integrity.”

Mota said the Councilors’ petition could possibly help preserve East Boston’s history, but the City Council’s efforts have not garnered enough awareness for more people to participate.

“Some of the development, the way that I see has been marketing, is trying to create a new discovery,” Mota said. “It’s not honoring what was already here.”

Residents of East Boston frequently are disadvantaged by a language barrier, and that should not exclude them from the decision making in the city, Mota said.

“There’s people that live here that do care about this community, that are rooted here, that are raising children here, that are actively participant, but were never participants to create the change,” she said.

Allison said Boston’s new zoning laws could help keep people in their communities, but he is still in support of the petition for preserving locations and history.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

4 NEWS Gentrification from 3 “[The petition is] a very important step to be able to preserve the historic fabric of the town,” Allison said. “But that’s somewhat different than saying this is going to keep the people here.

It’s instead preserving the aesthetic.”

Preservation efforts need to focus on the community in addition to the buildings and historical sites, which comes with advocating for affordable housing, Juravich said.

“If we’re telling local stories, and we’re shifting the power dynamic and preservation such that we’re not just asking people, ‘How can you tell the heroic story of a founding father?’ but ‘What happened to you in your community that really matters to you?’” Juravich said, “we might be opening the door to thinking a little more broadly about what preservation’s for.”

Juravich added that even in historically diverse communities, like Dorchester, several different groups compete for limited space.

“So many families now pay not 30 percent but 50 percent or more of their income in rent just leaves people scrambling on every front,” he said. “It makes it really hard to do the sustaining work in these communities.”

Black, brown and immigrant residents are disproportionately at risk of losing their homes, Bok added.

“The most important thing to preserve is the ability of people from all walks of life, including so many who have built our city communities with their sweat equity across

generations, to stay in their homes,” Bok wrote.

Allison added that modern gentrification is less of an issue of active displacement and more of a trend of shifting housing prices.

“The places being built to accommodate high-end luxury condos, being built for a certain market, and that’s not affording housing to people who’ve lived here for a long time,” Allison said. “On the other hand, if you’re not building anything, you’re also not going to have enough housing.”

Tom Sullivan, a resident and community activist in Hyde Park, echoed these claims.

“I don’t really think it’s been gentrification so much as affordability,” Sullivan said. “People have moved to Hyde Park because there was affordable housing here.”

Sullivan compared the changing population to people moving from Cambridge to Jamaica Plain in the 1970s because it was more affordable — which led to more movement and gentrification in other neighborhoods.

“People who couldn’t afford to stay in Jamaica Plain came out to Rosendale,” he said, “and we’ve experienced gentrification in Rosendale.”

Boston remains a changing city, Allison added.

“You’ve seen this happening in every neighborhood, North End, Charlestown, South Boston, Dorchester, the South End, each neighborhood really has a different story in any way if you look at them to find some similarities,” Allison said.

HANNAH YOSHINAGA | DAILY FREE PRESS

Boston Police Department officers. While Boston and Massachusetts legislators have taken steps toward police reform, local activists believe additional measures are needed.

UMOJA from 1 then and what the implications are for the future.”

The Umoja alumni history project, the summer fundraising campaign and the antiracism training are just some of the many ways students can engage in social and racial justice causes. But the effort is and must be ongoing, Taylor said.

“The struggle for equity, social justice, racial justice, inclusion, diversity, all of those things that were very much a frame for what we were

BPD from 1

Floyd proved that nothing has really changed.”

In its almost 400-year history, Boston has never been a stranger to protest.

“Protest has occurred over the entire course of Boston history,” said Peter Drummey, Stephen T. Riley Librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society. “Much of it we can be very proud of, especially the protests of slavery in the 19th century.

Sometimes it’s paradoxical. In 1919 … the Boston Police Force goes on strike. So you have, in a sense, the world turned upside down.”

The city’s earliest protests included organized, somewhat “ritualistic” riots that predated the American Revolution by nearly a century, Drummey said.

He added that, based on historic precedent, the fact that some protests turn violent is unsurprising.

The Boston Massacre — often considered a spark that ignited the American Revolution — took place on March 5, 1770: violence broke out between a crowd of Bostonians and nine British soldiers in front of the Customs House, on what is now State Street.

doing back in the ’60s remain still a challenge,” she said.

Taylor noted that while steps have been taken, there is still a lot to be done in the fight for social justice.

“We’ve made progress,” she said, “but we still have much more opportunity to come together and work.”

Black History Month celebrates and honors Black culture and history, and for Messele, it is especially important for “preserving and creating an image of Blackness that we can control.”

“Black history doesn’t start off in

chains,” Messele said. “The history that we learn in school and in high school and when we’re younger definitely makes it seem very focused on the slave trade.”

Messele cited his belief that the culture and origins of Black people should be the real focus of Black history.

“I think true Black history looks at how we came from different tribes, different kingdoms in Africa or how Black history is very diasporic,” Messele said. “It’s important to help shape our future and allows us to look into the truth of our past.”

Claiming self-defense against unruly, young agitators, the soldiers fired into the crowd, killing a total of five men, Drummey said.

Among the casualties was Crispus Attucks, a former slave who would come to be seen as one of the Revolution’s first martyrs and a symbol of the Black struggle for freedom.

“Depending on how you look at it, you can certainly call it a police riot,” Drummey said. “This wasn’t a police force that was militarized, this was the actual military serving as essentially a police force.”

The soldiers were arrested and their trial delayed repeatedly. Captain Thomas Preston, who led the British militants received a verdict in the fall: not guilty. Of his eight soldiers, six were found not guilty.

Serena Zabin, author of “The Boston Massacre: A Family History,” added that while the soldiers involved in the massacre are often remembered as outsiders, many had been living in Boston with their families for years.

“By the time we get to the shooting, we have soldiers and civilians living quite literally cheekby-jowl,” she said. “These people know each other.”

Zabin added that, according to her

research, one of the soldiers involved in the shooting had married a local woman. Another was confronted by a neighbor. “[The Massacre] doesn’t actually turn neighbors into strangers,” Zabin said. “I mean they’re horrified, but they don’t suddenly say ‘Oh, you’re not people anymore, you’re monsters.’”

She compared the soldiers’ presence to that of the National Guard: a balancing act between neighbors and enforcers.

In September, Baker activated 1,000 members of the Guard in response to Black Lives Matter protests. The decision sparked controversy among residents, some of whom denounced the decision as an infringement on citizens’ right to protest.

Despite apparent parallels, Drummey and Zabin both warned against looking to history as a strict guide.

“It’s hard to know when we’re right about the past and its connections to the present,” Zabin said. “I think that the past is the foundation on which our future is built, and sometimes we need to be able to look back and see ‘where are the cracks?’ and ‘which pieces are strong?’”

COMMUNITY Forgotten stories: the critical role of Black trans women in the civil rights movement Rachel Do Daily Free Press Staff

Hundreds of years of systemic injustice, from slavery to Jim Crow laws, inspired the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

As the United States continues that long fight for racial equality with the Black Lives Matter movement, a reflection on the past reveals the influential activists who led those fights. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and many others did undoubtedly have a role in the civil rights movement, but the oftenforgotten role of Black trans women was just as crucial — if not more so.

Adeline Gutierrez Nuñez, the assistant to the director at BU’s Center for Antiracist Research, wrote in an email that learning about Black trans women and their activism is essential and, unfortunately, not often done.

“Women like Marsha P. Johnson and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy experienced homelessness and incarceration, and these adversities fueled their activism,” she wrote.

“Learning about the history and the importance of Black trans women’s leadership in our movement is crucial, and to state it simply, overdue.”

Martha P. Johnson — P for “Pay It No Mind” — became a mother figure for LGBTQ+ homeless youth and was integral to the ’69 Stonewall

Riots. Johnson is considered by some to be the catalyst of the U.S. gay liberation movement.

Griffin-Gracy, also a part of Stonewall, fiercely advocated for transgender civil rights, specifically for trans women of color.

Black trans women have not only been excluded from education and platforms, but from movements themselves.

The Combahee River Collective grew in Boston in the ’70s out of a need to advocate for Black members of the LGBTQ+ community and address their needs. The group members were considered outcasts, left behind from other movements that didn’t prioritize their needs. So, they gathered together to be heard.

Though times have changed, this pattern of exclusion has persisted in some capacities.

Athena Vaughn, the president of Trans Resistance MA, said the organization was first created in June as a response to the deaths of George Floyd and Black trans women around the world.

Specifically, the organization formed to offer trans individuals of color a platform separate from the Boston Pride board and its “transexclusionary” practices, according to Trans Resistance MA’s website.

Vaughn added Pride also did not recognize Black Lives Matter in their newsletter, which was another cause for concern.

“We realized that everything going on in the community was not for us, by us,” Vaughn said. “The power that

COURTESY OF QUINN DOMBROWSKI VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, an advocate for transgender civil rights. While Griffin-Gracy and other activists played a major role in the civil rights movement, they are not widely recognized for their contributions.

was given to Pride was given to Pride by trans women of color … and Trans Resistance was created to counteract all of the hatred.”

The organization stems from Massachusetts’ Transgender Emergency Fund, which is the only group in Massachusetts supporting unhoused and low-income transgender individuals.

Vaughn said the mission of Trans Resistance MA is to support trans individuals of color and offer them safe spaces while responding to and resisting transphobic actions.

The formation of the organization

coincides with high rates of violence — more transgender and gender non-conforming individuals were murdered in 2020 than any other year since the Human Rights Campaign began tracking the data in 2013.

Vaughn said Black trans women are “ostracized” because of ignorance and a lack of understanding, and people must consciously work to educate themselves on what it means to be a true ally.

“Trans individuals, especially Black trans women, are vital to a piece of civil rights,” she said. “We represent and look like what’s going

on in the world and who the world is.”

Black trans women, and Black individuals in general, are crucial to the civil rights movement, Vaughn said, because when King talked about equality, he meant we are all created equal, no matter who you are.

“You cannot say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ you cannot say ‘All Lives Matter,’ you cannot say whatever it is that people are saying when it comes to being equal, and not include trans people of color,” she said. “You cannot fight for one and not fight for all.”

FEATURES 5

ARTS ‘Our Right To Gaze: Black Film Identities’ short film series highlights Black artists in the film industry Emily Pauls Daily Free Press Staff

In the Hollywood industry only 13 percent of directors are people of color, according to Full Spectrum Features NFP. FSF, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization focused on equity in filmmaking, is determined to change those statistics. With the virtual cinema program “Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities,” the nonprofit is seeking to promote films made by Black filmmakers.

The virtual showcase premiered Sunday and will continue through Feb. 28 at various venues.

It features six short films from Black artists, with genres ranging from thrillers to wholesome, feelgood comedy.

The collection features films in which the “filmmakers gaze at themselves and their world, attempting to make sense of what they see reflected back,” according to the program page.

Sofia Villela, the communications and events manager at FSF, said the program was created with the different film organizations participating in the event, including Northwest Film Forum, The Luminal Theater and Circle Collective.

“We started having conversations around how can we radically support filmmakers in a time that we’re seeing it’s so easy for artists to be first on the chopping block,” Villela said. “ Villela said each film organization wanted to support filmmakers in an industry that is currently unbalanced,

she said, and the project was born as a means of fighting the inequity in the industry, especially when the pandemic has made the position vulnerable.

“We were trying to think about how could we flip that around and support marginalized artists that are trying to create a career out of this,” said Villela. “That’s where “Our Right to Gaze” came into play.”

One of the featured short films is “A Hollywood Party” directed by Toryn Seabrooks which shows the truth behind chasing your dreams in Hollywood with some added “Black comedy and humor,” Seabrook said.

“I made the film as a link to how things aren’t always as they’re cracked out to be when you meet your idols,” she said in an interview, “and how we strive to impress people even, even at our own personal expense, especially in Hollywood.”

Seabrooks said the program approached her, and she was grateful to be featured with other new Black filmmakers.

“I just said yes because it seemed like an amazing platform to feature new Black filmmakers like myself,” Seabrooks said. “Just being in a lineup with so many other incredible artists was an honor.”

She said she has been connected to the film industry for nearly her entire life — before she was even born, her father worked as a screenwriter and met her mother at Paramount Pictures — but, as a Black woman, she said she is glad to be active in the industry at the current moment, when people are ready to listen.

“I’m also coming up in a really powerful time where Black filmmakers are being recognized

HANNAH YOSHINAGA | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Full Spectrum Features is hosting the virtual “Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities” film series through Feb. 28 to highlight films made by Black artists.

and being given a platform to share our work,” she said. “It’s been an empowering time as a Black filmmaker honestly, just by the grace of being born at the perfect time.”

The short film called “Nowhere” is also a part of the program, which follows a woman dealing with a toxic relationship and one night accidentally discovers a bondage, discipline, dominance and submission “underground” club, said the director of the film and selfproclaimed “filmmaker nut” Lin Que Ayoung.

“For me, what really moved me was understanding power dynamics in relationships, and in the world,” she said. “This one has to do with gender politics as well. I wanted to

shed light on that.”

Ayoung said she was excited to hear about the showcase.

Being a Black woman in the film industry, and previously in the music industry, Ayoung said she has dealt with the challenges of making a name for herself in a field saturated by the white male gaze.

“I don’t want to be pigeonholed,” she said. “We have stories that are not just based on being gay or being Black or being a woman, we have stories, we have experiences that are just as valid as anybody else’s experiences, and we have yet to kind of get that out there.”

Viella said FSF hopes “Our Right to Gaze: Black Film Identities” continues to be shown in theaters

even after Black History Month because people need to include Black narratives in collections.

“We’ve encouraged most of the cinemas to extend their runs past February as a message of: this is not just something that needs to happen in this one month,” she said. “We need to support Black filmmakers way past February.”

While there is a “Black Renaissance” happening in the film industry, Ayoung said she hopes it will not come to an end.

“It’s so important that places like “Our Right to Gaze: Black [Film] Identities” are here and are here to stay,” Ayoung said, “because it’s so important that these voices are heard well after this trend dies down.”

Black artists at BU discuss their craft, advocate for diversity in arts Emma Vacirca Daily Free Press Staff Ashlie Dawkins has been creating and making art for as long as she can remember. Her mom helped nourish her love of art, and she became serious about her craft in middle school, wondering if it could be a career.

She found her love of graphic design in high school, and carried that love to the College of Fine Arts, where she is now a junior majoring in graphic design.

Dawkins is one of many Black artists at Boston University pursuing their artistic passion in CFA. Graphic design is Dawkins’ current medium of choice, she said, but lately her focus has been on the

people around her. She said through the nature of her assignments, her designs have recently become “more political.”

“A lot of my work recently has been focused on curating content from the people around me,” she said.

“Getting different perspectives and different point of views in my work.

Dawkins said she is passionate about art because of how it reflects the artist’s experience.

“Through our work, our voices are heard,” she said. “Art is a reflection of the person that’s making it and of the time that they’re making it in.”

She said having more Black artists in the space — both faculty and students — will help amplify different experiences and outlooks, which coincides with some of her passions: making art more accessible

and representative.

Johannah Coichy, a senior in the College of Communication, has a passion for art as well, though it’s not her major. As an advertising major, she said she has been involved in several kinds of artistic ventures over the years, even majoring in theater at her performing arts high school.

“I found myself gravitating towards arts-related fields,” Coichy said, “or just finding ways to create things.”

While in college, Coichy said her love for art has grown, both with advertising and in other creative pursuits such as fashion and graphic design for publications. She said using art as a storytelling tool might be a future career path for her.

“I’m finding my niche is working on editorial design and using art

HANNAH YOSHINAGA | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Hoochie Zine cover art created by Boston University student Johannah Coichy. Coichy is one of many Black artists on campus who have explored their artistic passions while attending BU.

and design to tell stories and create narratives,” she said.

Coinchy said she had the opportunity to create a four-garment collection for a fashion show through the Fashion and Retail Association at BU, which she said was her favorite piece of art that she has created.

The collection was created out of unique materials: trash bags, old mascara wands and paper plates.

“Then I painted over them to create sort of a structural garment, but also that had some flowyness to it,” Coinchy said. “The end result, it kind of looked like armor, even though it was free-flowing material.”

Though Coinchy said she is unsure how art will fit into her future, she said it is currently a welcome source of stress-relief and expression in her life.

“It’s an outlet, it’s how I sort of recalibrate my sense of self and it’s how I express myself,” she said. “If I’m having an off day, I’ll go to art.”

When it comes to being a Black artist on campus and amplifying Black voices, Coinchy said she recommends students seek out supportive places.

“I would encourage other Black creatives or Black artists to find the places that help you grow and that you feel supported in,” she said.

“Your art can manifest itself in a variety of different ways but once you find those places that might help you nurture that I think those are

super important.”

Shamayam Sullivan, a sophomore painting major in CFA, said she has also been making art since she can remember, though her medium of choice has changed. Now, she tends to focus on mixed media, completing works not only in paint, but also in graphite or with collages.

Though she uses oil paint now, she said she started off drawing. She started painting because of the beauty in it, and chose that as her major of choice while at CFA. “I was hesitant on which part of CFA Visual Arts I was going to take on,” she said. “I really did painting here because it just has the most freedom, you can really work with all types of medium.”

Sullivan said she believes it is important to make Black artists visible on campus because art can often convey what words cannot.

“Art is the medium that reaches everybody,” she said. “Regardless of whether it’s visual art or music or theater, it’s just another language that everybody understands.”

She said learning and elevating Black art is imperative in art and art history classes.

“It’s crucial for us to dive in now and highlight those voices,”Shamayam said, “because there’s so many artists all over the world doing so many things that why not learn about them, why not take in more?”

6 PHOTOS

A look inside:

Blue Nile restaurant Located near Mahoney Square in Jamaica Plain, Blue Nile is known for its Ethiopian cuisine. While the pandemic forced restaurant owner Yosef Haile to reduce his staff, Haile still runs the business on a day-to-day basis and continues to impact the Greater Boston community.

CONNOR KELLEY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Blue Nile’s iPad, which is used to organize orders.

CONNOR KELLEY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A cook extinguishes a flame.

CONNOR KELLEY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A chef puts the finishing touches on a dish before it is served.

CONNOR KELLEY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Haile talks on the phone.

CONNOR KELLEY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Taye manages the register and checks orders.

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Zach Taye, Haile’s nephew, helps out at the restaurant.

CONNOR KELLEY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A chef prepares a dish on the stovetop.

• ARCHIVES • ARCHIVES • ARCHIVES • ARCHIVES • ARCHIVES • ARCHIVES • ARCHIVES • ARCHIVES •

7

42 students charge guards with racism Karen Eschbacher Daily Free Press Staff Apr. 7, 1997

Forty-two minority Boston University students have charged that some BU security guards are racist· and routinely hassle them when they try to enter their dormitories.

College of General Studies freshman Jean-Paul Limontas circulated a petition throuth CGS last month after he had a run in with a Rich Hall security guard but has not yet decided if he will send it to the administration.

The petition states that “there is

a discriminatory treatment towards people of color (of black or Latino appearance) and favoritism of the white students exercised by the security guards.”

Limontas said he was not allowed to sleep in his Rich Hall dormitory room on Feb. 22 because he had lost his BU ID. Limontas said security guards may have made confirming his identity difficult because he is black.

“Initially, I started the petition just to find out if there are other students of color who went through similar situations or anything close to it, and there were a lot,” Limontas said.

Limontas said Pauline Gauthier, the Rich Hall director, told him he could not sleep in the dorm without his BU ID.

He said Gauthier and three BU Police Department officers escorted him to his room so he could get clothes for the night. Even though it was obvious the room belonged to him, Limontas said he was not allowed to stay.

“Me and my wife were escorted out of the building by BUPD,” he said. I ended up going to her dorm [at Boston College].”

Herbert A. Ross, BU’s associate vice president and associate dean of students, said Limontas was never told he could not sleep in his room and that the guards were following standard procedure.

Nicolas, a black CGS freshman who asked that his last name be withheld, said he entered the dorm with three white friends from BC while

Limontas argued with the security guards.

“My three friends that were white just walked past the guard without showing ID,” he said. “There’s always an issue of ID with people of color coming into the building.”

Ken Elmore, the associate director of residence life, investigated the complaint but found no evidence of discrimination. Elmore did not return several messages left at his office.

Devyn Watson, another CGS freshman who signed the petition, said he thinks some security guards favor white students, but he has not brought his concerns to the administration because he does not think anything will be done.

“I figure there’s not really much I can do about it. It’s not really an ex-

treme situation,” Watson said. “It’s not really that bad, but I think it sends a message.”

Despite the number of students who signed the petition, the administration has received few complaints, Ross said.

“I honestly get as many complaints from white students about getting harassed because they don’t have their IDs. It’s not a color issue.

It’s really an issue of ‘Do you belong here?’” Ross said.

Students who are concerned about the way they are treated should bring the matter to the administration, he said.

“We’re very harsh when it comes to security in resident halls, but we do that to protect the safety of the residents,” Ross added.

sell Boxley, 82 percent of all American studies on blacks blame blacks “for having pathological family patterns and being prone to violence.”

Boxley said blacks are the victims of circumstances and poverty and are blamed for their misfortunes. He said psychological studies are in part responsible for this because, in studying black communities, psychologists often don’t consult the people they

are investigating.

Harvard genetics professor Richard Lewontin denounced the concept of inheritability, which says an individual’s IQ is an inherited trait. Most of those who spoke at the gathering sponsored by the Student Union, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Black Caucus at BU, similarly rejected the use of the IQ as an accurate indicator of intelligence.

UMOJA calls for class boycott Umoja, the Black Student Union of BU, issued the following news release Sunday, Nov. 19.

Nov. 20, 1972 Umoja, the Black Student Union have to build our own institutions, fascism which began when the first of Boston University, strongly con- but while we are forced to attend African was ripped from the mothdemns the political assassinations the European racist institutions. We erland by our European oppressors. by the police of the two brothers at refuse to submit to his enslaving In this historical framework, Southern University (Baton Rouge educational propaganda. Because UMOJA calls for a boycott of ALL campus) on November 16, 1972. these brothers were fighting against CLASSES on Monday, November These assassinations are further inferior education that they were re- 20. Memorial Services will be held evidence of the continuing racism ceiving at SUBR, they were brutally also on Monday between 12 noon and brutal attacks on Black people murdered. If we allow these blatant and 1:00 pm at Marsh Chapel. Guest fighting for their self-determination. atrocities to go unnoticed, they will Speaker will be Dr. Wilmore of the We’ve already witnessed the slayings undoubtedly lead to the mass murder School of Theology. of Black students at Orangeburg, of all Black people.

Jackson State, and now Southern Black people must realize that this SOLIDARITY WITH THE University. is not just an isolated incident, but BROTHERS AND SISTERS AT We understand that ultimately we part of an international trend of open SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY.

Teach-in denounces racism Peter Lowy Daily Free Press Staff Dec. 7, 1973

Seven members of the natural and social science community in Boston spoke against racism last night in Boston University’s Morse Auditorium.

Racism is fostered by social institutions and the theories of Arthur Jensen and William Shockly, which state blacks are intellectually inferior, they said.

Commenting on the state of racism in the natural sciences, William McLaurin, an associate in medicine at Harvard University, said “They’re

really contaminated. It is literally disgusting.”

McLaurin reported scientific experiments with racial overtones.

He cited a 1958 University of Texas study which attempted to determine the effects of a lack of lineolic acid on children. Lineolic acid is a fatty acid essential to growth in children.

The university experimented on wards of the state, McLaurin said, all of whom happened to be black or Spanish Americans. McLaurin said a similar study previously conducted on puppies had yielded conclusive findings.

Noting the word “Jensenism” has already entered English dictionaries, Prof. Louis Lowy of the BU School of Social Work, said everyone has to accept the dignity and worth of all human beings.

Lowy, one of two whites who addressed the racially mixed audience of 120, said universities and schools everywhere have to teach the falsehood of racist doctrine, eliminate the “consequences of such a half baked doctrine and the subtle and not so subtle racist overtones of textbooks.”

Unokanma Okonjo, a native Nigerian and a BU assistant professor of sociology, said racism is a disease and predicted it will last as long as “the white man continues to be a threat to people of every color in the world.”

Okonjo delivered a warning issued by all seven speakers; one must be aware and on guard for racist books and unsubstantiated racial theory.

According to BU assistant professor of psychology and former New York City public school teacher Rus-

8 FEATURES

BUSINESS

BU Black female alumni discuss entreprenuership in various industries Ashley Soebroto Daily Free Press Staff With February comes Black History Month, a time when the country commemorates the history of the Black community and celebrates the possibility of the future.

On a local level, Black female BU alumnae are making their own history in industries such as finance, psychiatry, education and catering.

BlackMoneyMVMT, an Instagram account and virtual community dedicated to promoting various Black-owned businesses, is one of them.

Founded by Gabrielle Lawson, a 2018 alumna of the Questrom School of Business, BlackMoneyMVMT is a virtual platform with the mission to elevate Black voices in business.

“The mission behind BlackMoneyMVMT is really to reimagine Black wealth through the amplification of Black businesses, Black artists and just Black excellence in general,” Lawson said.

Since its first post in June, the account has gained more than 840 followers and 80 posts, as well as a link tree with a large directory of Black-owned businesses from the top cities nationwide.

The directory was created in support of the “On Fridays, We Eat Black” campaign that encourages followers to buy from a Black-owned restaurant on a Friday and share their meals on Instagram.

Lawson said she created the account and campaigns after learning one dollar circulates for about six hours within Black communities while it can last up to 29 days in others.

“The approach to economic equity that we take is a collaborative one, meaning we lean not only on the Black community to build up the Black community from a financial standpoint,” she said, “but we also do lean on the support from our allied communities.”

Lawson said Black-owned businesses often face difficulties due to a lack of resources compared to other well-known brands.

“There’s a lack of accessibility and that’s because most Black businesses are small businesses,” Lawson said.

“What BlackMoneyMVMT truly seeks to do is one we want to provide our audience and our community with resources on how they can buy Black.”

Tracie Pinnock, a 2008 alumna of the College of Arts and Sciences,

HANNAH YOSHINAGA | DAILY FREE

BlackMoneyMVMT was founded by Boston University alumna Gabrielle Lawson to promote Black-owned businesses.

also said it is important to support the Black community, especially for new businesses.

“It’s how you build a community, it’s how you can pay it forward as well,” Pinnock said. “Supporting other Black-owned businesses is definitely key.”

Pinnock currently owns and practices as a licensed marriage and family therapist at The Pursuit of Happiness Therapy LLC — a virtual psychotherapy practice where she works with women and couples, particularly helping women navigate life stressors such as breakups and losses.

She said she started her own practice after finding her niche in the therapy field, knowing she wanted to work for herself.

“I had also known for a couple of years now, at that time, that I wanted to eventually work for myself,” Pinnock said. “When I merged the idea of therapy and working for myself, it turned itself into a private practice.”

She said building this business is different from the retail business model — instead of creating products, she had to find clients who wanted her.

“Over a period of a few years, I transitioned myself into taking on more and more clients,” Pinnock said. “It was a gradual build up for me.”

Shironda White, a 2018 graduate of the Questrom MBA program, is the co-owner of Cupcake Therapy — an allergy-friendly, made-to-order cupcake business — and the CEO

of CauseEDU, a college advising program to help families figure out a payment plan for college.

White said she launched CauseEDU in 2017 as a second-year in Questrom, after a friend — who had to take a leave of absence from college due to monetary reasons — helped students financially through crowdfunding.

After researching why students drop out of college, she said she found the true cost of secondary education was a large factor and launched a financial planning platform in March for families.

“The major reason was that most families [and] most students don’t understand how much college actually costs until they get there,” White said. “We started the platform to really address that.”

White said students thinking about starting their own businesses should make use of resources offered by BU. “There are so many businesses that don’t start, especially students, because we think ‘We don’t have the funding, we don’t have the money,’” she said. “My advice in that respect would be number one, go for it, do it anyway and look at BU resources.”

She mentioned local pitch competitions, the Pathway Program, Summer Accelerator Program and the New Venture Competition as potential ways to achieve free funding.

When it comes to advice for students, it was simple: just start.

“Don’t wait another day, just do it,” White said. “Every business that succeeded, at least started. They all tried.”

SCIENCE

PBS highlights BU’s Malika Jeffries-EL’s reseach in new docuseries

HANNAH YOSHINAGA | DAILY FREE PRESS

Boston University associate professor and associate dean Malika Jeffries-EL was featured in PBS’ new NOVA docuseries “Beyond the Elements,” which premiered Feb. 3.

Connor Allen Daily Free Press Staff

“Big-picture” perspectives can at times seem overwhelming, but zooming in on the details can produce just the same mystery.

The new NOVA docuseries titled “Beyond the Elements” — a threepart series closely examining the chemical bonds that make up the world around us — premiered on PBS Feb. 3.

NOVA — a reference to the astrological event in which a star suddenly explodes and casts a bright light — has produced science documentaries for PBS since 1974, each investigating a different topic in an in-depth, entertaining and accessible format.

David Pogue, a technology and science writer and five-time Emmy Award-winner, hosts the series.

Pogue travels across the globe talking with scientists, engineers and other industry experts for the series to learn how the products and materials that surround us are manufactured from the molecular level.

Malika Jeffries-EL is the associate dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and associate professor in chemistry and materials science at Boston University. She was featured in “Indestructible,” the second installment of the new NOVA series, which focused on how the chemistry of molecules is manipulated to create nearly unbreakable everyday objects.

J e f f r i e s - E L’s r e s e a r c h focuses on polymer chemistry — more specifically, creating “semiconductors,” or organic materials capable of conducting electric charges.

“Our systems are what we would

classify as organic semiconductors,” Jeffries-EL said in an interview, “whereas most polymers are insulators in that current charges [do] not transport through them.”

In the PBS episode, Jeffries-EL discussed the molecular chemistry of different kinds of household plastics and how the same material can create two distinctly different products, depending on how the plastics are processed and molecules are combined.

She also gave live demonstrations on how to manufacture certain types of plastics through various chemical combinations, such as making polyurethane foam, used for seat cushions and insulation — which she and Pogue formed into a make-shift foam snowman.

As lighthearted as the demonstrations were, Jeffries-EL said in an interview these experiments are not an everyday occurence in her lab, where she and other researchers look

for more efficient semiconductors from carbon-based material such as plastics to be used for electronics, including television and computer screens.

She said her research is concentrated in two main thrusts based on the unique property of a semiconductor.

“The two main things we’re looking at is whether we can harvest solar energy using our systems, and then convert it into usable electricity,” Jeffries-EL said in an interview, “or whether we can make light-emitting materials by pumping electricity into them and getting light emission to come out of the system.”

This NOVA episode not only was a notable experience for Jeffries-EL, but it also marks her first network television appearance, she said.

“It was super fun,” she said. “I didn’t have an appreciation for the magnitude of it when I was doing it and then when they released it was like ‘OK.’” Jeffries-EL said she additionally consulted as a scientist on the project — producers told her they wanted to “tell a story about a molecule,” and she could not have been more excited to share that story in a fun and educating way.

“Plastics came up as a hot topic,” Jeffries-EL said. “It was up to me to figure out the science, to bring the science to life. So, I’m really proud of the outcome.”

The docuseries also focused on how single-use plastics — which compose half of the plastics produced — can perpetuate pollution and

global warming. Jeffries-EL said her research aims to use plastics as a way to save energy.

“Our biggest contribution to the enterprise is going to be in the space of energy,” Jeffries-EL said in an interview, “and we are literally trying to make materials that harvest energy.”

Jeffries-EL runs her self-named research group in BU’s graduate chemistry program, conducting research on semiconductors with graduate students. Those working on the team alongside her had some positive words about their leader.

Aidan Murphy, a graduate student at BU and member of the research group who focuses on creating semiconducting small molecules, said Jeffries-EL is a great scientist and head researcher.

“Dr. Jeffries-EL is absolutely phenomenal as a boss,” Murphy said in an interview. “While she’s super busy with her job as dean, she still always has time to meet with us about research every week.”

De’Zhanae McCall-Butler is another graduate student in the Jeffries-EL Research Group focusing on organic light-emitting diodes and organic photovoltaic devices to synthesize materials for organic solar cells. She said she looks to JeffriesEL as a role model.

“I really look up to her,” McCallButler said. “Being a Black female, she’s already gone through what I eventually have to go through and [she’s] just a good person to talk to and give you good advice on how to move forward.”

OPINION 9

EDITORIAL The University’s ‘diversity’ marketing is misleading, hurtful “Why BU?” prospective students are asked.

For minority applicants, it might be Boston University’s purported diversity that draws them in. The Community Diversity admissions page claims BU has a “history of inclusion,” from Martin Luther King Jr. to the first female doctor to the first Black dean at a predominantly white institution.

The University also offers a Multicultural Community Weekend experience to admitted students of color, jam-packed with classes and a cultural expo.

The marketing certainly paints a welcoming, metropolitan picture of BU as “one of the most diverse research universities in the country.”

But the marketing is not representative of the school as a whole. In reality, BU is much less diverse, and minority students might be in for a rude awakening when they start their classes.

With a student body stitched together from 131 countries around the world, much of BU’s advertisements focus on its international students, who are listed as their own category in the student body demographic statistics — but there isn’t any further breakdown of their demographics or the distribution of students from each country.

After becoming acquainted with the student body, you’ll soon realize the distribution seems vastly uneven. For the international students who come from a less-represented country, it’s possible they’ll feel more alienated despite total international students making up 20 percent of the freshman population last year.

And if you look closely at the rest of the statistics, you’ll see most of the student body is either white or Asian American. Less than 13 percent of the Fall 2020 first-year students were Hispanic American, and a shockingly low 3.8 percent were Black American.

That’s less than one Black student for every 25 undergraduate students enrolled.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the classrooms reflect this tragically low percentage.

On campus and in classes, it becomes increasingly clear BU is a PWI. The few classes that have a majority of students of color seem to be cultural classes.

For a school that is so multicultural and intellectually diverse, Black, Indigenous and people of color’s voices are not well-represented in the curriculum or classroom.

We must actively work against such a

homogeneous narrative — even if the students are not diverse, then the course content should be.

It’s especially telling that BU doesn’t offer an African American studies major to its students — only a minor — when they have virtually all other cultural studies as majors. Instead, the African American history and literature courses are made electives, deprioritized and thrown to the side.

The University should have BIPOC history or literature, that would normally be part of an elective, included in the mainstream curriculum.

Professors should also try to promote diverse, decolonized and multifaceted discussions in the classroom by bringing in guest speakers or lecturers of color and fundamentally changing the way they frame their teaching.

Though BU’s Teaching Writing website

extremely diverse to begin with. A 2018 faculty count indicated less than eight percent were faculty of color, with 3.5 percent Black faculty and 3.6 percent Hispanic.

The Community Diversity Page only describes the school’s faculty as “intellectually diverse” and “distinguished.” Its Diversity and Inclusion Data Dashboard only shows the percentage of change in the faculty and staff ’s demographics. In short, recent demographic data appear to be inaccessible to the public.

One might argue the University looks for decorated faculty, but the administration should be able to find professors who are more diverse and just as experienced. This representation is crucial so students can see people like them in fields they want to pursue. If you don’t have mentors who understand you or can connect with you, you’re going to be put at a huge

BU’s marketing — and the handful of diversity victories — it clings to is not representative of its reality. released a guide to “Choosing a Diverse and Inclusive Set of Texts” and the Diversity and Inclusion started an Inclusive Pedagogy Initiative, it’s apparent that the message hasn’t yet been adopted. As recent as Feb. 6, students on the Instagram account @blackatbu have posted about BU departments, such as the Philosophy Department, having a singular, western-focused approach to teaching.

As for the lack of student diversity within certain majors such as business, journalism, engineering and math, part of the problem is the University’s culture. Students need to have role models, educators and mentors they can look up to and see themselves in. BU must further diversify its faculty and professors, especially in fields where we see a larger racial discrepancy.

BU’s faculty is much less diverse than its student population, which is very upsetting considering the student population isn’t

disadvantage compared to your peers.

President Robert Brown has said BU will make a commitment to ensuring inclusive hiring and promotion policies. But on top of that, BU must stop tokenizing diverse faculties such as new deans of color. There needs to be representation on every level across the board, and BU needs to be intentional about how they tackle this issue — they cannot keep relying on a couple of figureheads.

It may also help to increase the wages of faculty in general so academics of color can be supported and able to take on a position at the University.

The campus culture toward minorities — specifically racial minorities — is also far from acceptable. From residential advisors to professors to parents to other students committing microaggressions or being actively racist toward you, BU perpetuates a hostile and

unwelcoming environment for students of color.

BU may have more than 40 cultural groups on campus, but it shouldn’t just be spaces students of color have to fight for or carve out themselves. Outside of those groups, there is little space for minorities to feel comfortable or included.

Of course, we can’t discuss diversity or the lack thereof without also acknowledging that the major contributing factors are undoubtedly systemic.

Though the disparities in the student body might be attributed to deep-rooted issues such as public school segregation, the school-to-prison pipeline and economic inequality, it is also due in part to the college admissions process.

BU has a fairly comprehensive financial aid program that helps address some inequalities.

As of last year, 100 percent of financial needs are met for admitted first-year students.

The school is making significant inclusivity efforts outside of financial aid as well, having formed a LGBTQIA+ Task Force, a Diversity Task Force and the Center for Antiracist Research.

At the same time, however, BU continues to contradict itself by acting in a way that is harmful to the very minority students it wants to attract and claims to support.

BU’s marketing — and the handful of diversity victories — it clings to is not representative of its reality. Though it may be implementing anti-racist policies, the change is not visible in classrooms, on campus or at an administrative level.

The University needs to re-evaluate what immediate actions it can take to combat systemic barriers, increase Black and Hispanic diversity in the student body, address the subtle racist culture on campus and offer a more inclusive education.

Changing the culture starts with the policy, the faculty and the administration’s behavior as it influences our own. It certainly will not be possible as long as the leaders of our institution continue to dismiss our concerns and perpetuate white supremacy on campus.

But the change has to come from the students as well. It is on us to promote a more accepting and inclusive culture that will not stand for the exclusionary, prejudicial behavior currently running rampant among our classmates.

ALEXIA NIZHNY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

10 OPINION

Letter from the editor

By Colbi Edmonds

ALEXIA NIZHNY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The Pledge of Allegiance has been drilled into almost every public school student since elementary school.

What that pledge fails to mention when it says “liberty and justice for all” is racism, oppression, sexism, homophobia and a slew of other institutionalized prejudices against minority groups that still exist today.

Those in power have consistently failed to acknowledge our country’s kryptonite: equality.

Frankly, the United States just wasn’t meant to sustain it.

Our founding documents cater toward cisgender, heterosexual, white men. If you do not fit that description in every way, you have probably had to fight for equality and respect at some point in your life.

Even the Declaration of Independence — which claims all men are created equal with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — was not written with everyone in mind.

It most definitely was not written with Black people in mind.

In 1857’s Dred Scott v. Sandford case, the Supreme Court ruled a Black person — regardless of whether or not they are free — was not allowed to be an American citizen and, as a result, could not sue at the federal level. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote the majority opinion and cited the Declaration of Independence as evidence for their argument: “The language used in the Declaration of

Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument.”

This is a long-winded way of saying the existence of a Black person was one of property, undeserving of a right to citizenship.

It pains me to see how racism was built as the cornerstone of our society. Black people have been tortured, killed, silenced and terrorized every day. They’ve been raped, lynched and shot dead in the streets because of the color of their skin.

So, when people question the need for riots and undermine our anger, I question their self awareness. I question their ability to empathize with people who do not look like them. I question humanity’s ability to overcome our country’s deep-seated ignorance.

Because as much as a Black person’s skin carries the resilience of hundreds of years of racism, slavery, state-sanctioned killing and a government-issued war on drugs, a white person’s skin carry those years too — but with the weight of responsibility.

However, the fallacy of this country’s foundation is the idea that Black people are finite and that our existence can be summed up by racism and oppression. We are far more than that.

I look at Black people with reverence and joy.

We are to be celebrated, every day, because for far too long the institutions in this country tried

to define us with attributes that we are not.

We have been told we are not good enough, smart enough, beautiful enough, capable enough or worthy enough of equality.

I have been told my experiences with racism were false, inaccurate descriptions of what happened. I have sat in a room full of white men telling me racism is no longer a prevalent issue.

I have been referred to as “the Black girl” and “Aunt Jemima” as a joke.

My experiences — though hurtful and angering — have all been easy. But a lot of Black people have not lived to tell the tale of their experiences with racism. For many, it cost them their life.

Again, if you question the need to dismantle racism in the U.S., I will further question you: Why are you comfortable? Why are you comfortable in your ignorance?

I have no patience for those who do not see what has been right in front of them this entire time. Your privilege should not be so much of a blanket that you feel warmth from the suffering of others.

My entire life, I have grown up in spaces in which I just don’t belong. I have constantly been defined in a way that makes the people around me feel comfortable, but I would like to diverge from that.

Instead of falling victim to the societal insecurities I’ve internalized, I find it important to define myself in terms of what I am and what I have overcome. k of Black people, I think of versatility, strength and beauty. And it pains me to know the whole world does not see us this way.

It also pains me to think Boston University may not see us this way.

To the Black students at BU, I am sorry.

I am sorry you have been silenced and underappreciated, and I am sorry others have not listened to you.

I am humbled by the opportunity to lead this campus’ independent student newspaper and shoulder the responsibility of sharing the stories that need to be told.

I want Black voices to be amplified today and every day. I want you to walk on this campus and feel as if you actually belong. I want you to feel safe.

I want this University to be dedicated to antiracism efforts always — not only at times when it feels convenient enough for them.

But, I would be naive to think my wishes hold enough power to change how our campus currently functions.

I alone cannot tackle the issues we face at BU, but I would like to think as a collective group we can. I will spare you the cheesy, “we’re all in this together” mentality because I know that’s not true.

I know some people will read over this article and not bat an eye. I know some people will forget every word I have written and go about their day.

For those who are listening, and those who care, thank you, but don’t just listen to me.

Listen to every voice in this paper. Listen to every Black person. Listen to our anger and our hurt.

Because if you listen, you’ll realize we’ve been repeating the same message for a long time.

EDITORIAL BOARD Colbi Edmonds, Editor-in-Chief

Cameron Morsberger, Managing Editor

Nick Kolev, Campus Editor

Daniel Kool, City Editor

Lily Kepner, Features Editor

Charles Moore, Sports Editor

Andrew Harwood, Multimedia Editor

Abbigale Shi, Opinion Editor

Jackson Machesky, Podcast Editor

Emma Sanchez, Blog Editor

Alexia Nizhny, Layout & Graphics Editor

Hannah Yoshinaga, Photo Editor

OPINION 11

CHARCOAL MAGAZINE

Issue No. 4 – echo

Dear Hometown Ayomide Objebuoboh Charcoal Staff Writer Dear Jacksonville, North Carolina, I miss you. Although you are a small town with only three options of activities -- watch a movie in the local theater, walk through the mall, or eat at a restaurant -- I miss driving down Western Boulevard and keeping my eyes open for anything that signals newness in my semi-rural, southern town. Even with my past lives in Canada and Nigeria, you hold a dear place in my heart because you have shaped who I am today.

You taught me what Southern hospitality looks like and what it means to truly be kind to my neighbor. When I visit during break, I am reminded that people smiling and greeting me does not immediately mean “stranger danger”.

With Camp Lejeune, the 78-year-old base existing within your bounds, you’ve shown me why and how to respect the military that bravely

risk their lives for our country. As I see military men with short hair and women with their well-structured buns walking around your territory, I have learned the importance of respecting the military in our country. In addition, being in the Bible belt, you created a safe space for me to express my Christian faith.

You gave me the opportunity to be my true self, but you also caused me to wrestle with parts of my culture. You came with a whole set of pressures and expectations. I still feel unsafe running around as a Black woman in a predominantly White neighborhood. Black people exist, but are not always accepted, respected, or welcomed. Instead, residents of your neighborhood expect Black people to live up to this nation’s preconceived stereotypes. Although this may never be explicitly stated, I always heard the echoes of “what comes from a white person is better.” I could see this message in the education system, in the clinics, in the grocery stores, in the neighborhoods -- everywhere I went. Despite this, you are slowly doing better. A predominantly black high school now has one of the best ratings in Onslow County, but please continue providing more support for minority

communities.

You also echoed a lot of pressures and expectations. Many people have lived within your bounds their entire life. There is a danger in this. People adopt the same mindset and are not challenged to change their generational ideas tainted by dangerous ideologies. Therefore, people are stuck with the same mindsets. Racist, misogynist, sexist - you name it. Although I love you, if I didn’t leave you, I could have gotten stuck. You taught me what it looks for a city, for a people to be stuck in the same ways.

You showed me the dangers of this and how it can lead to being ignorant of one’s ignorance.

Racism is still prevalent, and luckily, I didn’t adopt this ideology while living with you, but I hope that more people’s eyes are opened to this reality.

As one of the few Black, Nigerian-Americans, my brother and I were victims to the never-ending parades of racist remarks. People would come up to us and ask, “In africa, do you guys speak like this---,” while they made loud noises, slapping their hand on their mouth.

When a patient was upset with my father, he told my him, “I never liked you or your Black

face”. During prom, when my brother wore a traditional Nigerian outfit, people came up to him to take pictures, gawking at him as spectacle when they had never taken the time to learn his name on a normal school day. He came back home upset and frustrated that night because he felt like used. All of this racism led back to the echo screaming in our minds that somehow, “what comes from a white person is better”. In a way, these experiences have opened my eyes to the reality of these present-day mindsets and the importance of advocating for people of color in the South.

Through the highs and lows, you are truly my home-away-from-home. While all the effects of your confines have not echoed through my mind positively, not all are negative either.

Southern hospitality, kindness, gentless, community, family - these themes, these values echo throughout my life while also reminding me of racism, social inequality, and ignorance.

It’s an imperfect perfect balance. Whether good or bad, you have shaped who I am today, and I am forever grateful for you.

grade — my first year in public school — my parents had to go speak with my teacher about name-calling. Not me, obviously. I would never.

But this boy in my first-grade class had learned the n-word prematurely. And for the most part, this has been my experience in your system.

That may have been the first time, but it certainly wasn’t the last.

Earlier I mentioned my friends, for whom I am thankful. I’ve met some of the greatest, loveliest, and hardest-working people through you. For them, I’d like to thank you.

But let’s discuss for a minute. I didn’t have friends who were like me until college. College.

How ridiculous is that? And even now I have a difficult time relating to people who look like me because I’ve internalized every message you ever told me. I let you mold me. And that’s a really tough realization.

Here, I tell people I’m from Minnesota and they respond, “Wow, that’s pretty Blue, right?”

And then, again, I find myself clarifying that yes, the state is. But no, my city is not. And that’s that.

It’s interesting. I spent so much time on defense, that I let opposition define me. I was a Democrat because no one else was. I didn’t fish because that’s what the kid who asked if I was a terrorist on Friday did on Saturday. I didn’t listen to the likes of Jordan Davis, Tim McGraw, or Luke Bryan because that kid who said slavery “wasn’t that bad,” well… you get it. Choices were made out of, what felt like, necessity. Make no mistake: I am liberal and will probably always vote blue; there are just some

things I feel very strongly about. But I no longer feel like I need to be. For a long time my identity was defined by my nonconformity to you.

But now I can just be me. I found that Gray space, so to speak.

Part of that, of course, is in thanks to my high school English Teacher and Speech coach who helped me navigate your waters. Some is thanks to my family who taught me early on that I was bigger than whatever you could throw at me. Some is thanks to my friends who were always willing to listen. And some is thanks to the distance from you and your silence.

And like I said, it’s hard. Harder than I was told it would be. Much harder than I expected it to be. I’m learning that a lot of issues, I’ve created. Or was passive in allowing to happen.

I convinced myself my agency was only that which was explicitly given to me. And I was wrong. That’s hard too. I create my own narrative, and for far too long I let myself internalize what I was told. Some were positive, intentional, and honest. Most not. I’m trying to decipher fact from fiction.

It wasn’t not good to be an Elk. I had really good times, anyone who says they didn’t is lying to you. But I’m not sad to be gone either.

I found my voice.

I’m glad we had this chat. I needed this. And this was definitely less about you than about me.

I told you it wasn’t a love letter.

Sincerely, Ayomide Ojebuoboh

GRAPHIC BY JUN LI

Open Letters to My Hometown Jazmyn Gray Charcoal Staff Writer Dear Elk River, This is not a love letter.

Nor is it one of condemnation.

I just need to have this conversation.

Please be patient. This is surprisingly difficult for me. I didn’t expect it to be. But I guess few things never are.

So, I did it. I left. I always said I would. But now it’s done. You know I’ve tried, but I can’t pinpoint exactly when leaving became my biggest goal — my only goal, really. It’s just always been one of those things. I’d go, and I wouldn’t return. I thought if I could just leave — if I could just go somewhere — I’d be happier. I’d belong. I’d finally breathe. It sounds silly now, but it’s true. I was convinced anywhere would be better than here.

I don’t know what’s happening here. I doubt anyone really does. But you know the clichéd phrase “distance makes the heart grow fonder?” I’ve found truth in that. Or, at least, in parts of it.

There is distance, obviously.

And my animosity has certainly… lessened.

There are even days when I am fond.

Those are the moments where I remember — studying at Dunn’s, watching movies at the theater, smashing plates at the top of the world — and I miss it.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t expect to miss anything. So even the small things — late nights at Perkins — are surprising. But, with all that, I don’t know if I miss it. You, really. People

ask if I miss home and I find myself clarifying.

Do I miss the people? Sometimes. My mom?

Mostly. My friends? All the time. But you? The place?

Well… our relationship is a little more complicated. Don’t you think?

I mean, honestly.

My dad used to play a game. It wasn’t really a game, but it kind of felt like one. We would go out, and while at Cub Foods or Culver’s or Daddy-O’s, we would count how many black people we saw (not including ourselves). Sometimes we were surprised — there were several.

And other times — most times — there weren’t any. I don’t know if that specifically is your fault. But I do think it’s your fault that, instead of talking about it in public spaces, we chose to ignore it. We chose to pretend our differences didn’t exist. We chose to not have constructive conversations about intersectionality — about how different aspects of identity combine to alter an experience. And, if we’re being honest, I felt invisible in a very visible sort of way.

I was, and always have been, the biracial girl.

This past summer I worked at a childcare center and I can’t even begin to count the number of times children asked why my skin was a different color. Kids are just so honest. But, at times, these kids were as old as 10 and had never been exposed to that kind of conversation before. They see it. But they didn’t have any opportunity to talk about it until they find it in an adult (I hope) they trust.

We need to create space for positive conversations about intersectional identities. It’s a fundamental part of human experience and, I’d argue, a necessary step in teaching empathy.

I recently learned that when I was in the first

Red that Rises Sometimes I wish I had a voice like Mosiah’s Ripping through blue plains touched by dew I sit down, a weary spot in wilderness bewildered And it hums to me in a way you just can’t imagine Mama, I’m a bull weeping at the red That rises, emerges from shapes as timeless and true As bones in the womb of the desert Which shift as I sift through everything I know

Best, Jazmyn Gray

Home

So small and peacefully unripe, half-finished yet I see me I hold the edges of the world while standing at its center, The wound I knew so well closed at last, and for good!

What you create I can love for I am not so easily whittled.

Unfurl and arrange yourself until you fill the space you deserve Because you’ve always known that you have what you need And even then, know to grasp that garden close The home you longed for finally within reach reprimanding: You hold the edges of the world while standing at its center.

He sings of all the stuff I love best.

Buzz on, Song! ‘til I’m black and blue To exalt with the only words I know how to say Not grasping why I continue to search and chase and howl For I, among the bounding herds, still crawl to get places Or at least I feel this way; exchange one End for a new beginning, one pearl for another, Then let them float gently to the surface.

So from an endless roaring stream I burst Up and out onto the golden shore, head full of water Shoes, eyes, legs, lungs, forehead dripping Yet still I sing, a dot in my neighborhood park With my eyes on the red that rises.

Issue No. 5 – believe Ayomide Objebuoboh Charcoal Staff Writer

ALEXIA ALEXIANIZHNY NIZHNY| |DAILY DAILYFREE FREEPRESS PRESSSTAFF STAFF

SPORTS Patriot League begins Anti-Racism Sydney Walsh Daily Free Press Staff The Patriot League hosted Boston University assistant professor and historian Paula Austin to premiere its Anti-Racism Speaker Series Wednesday with the talk “Understanding Racial Regimes in United States History.”

Austin teaches history and African American studies with several focuses, including the history of social science and the history of race and racism.

The Patriot League established its Anti-Racism Commission in July 2020, which is composed of around 70 members and several working groups.

“This series is an initiative that’s grown out of one of the working groups of the league’s Anti-Racism Commission,” Patriot League Commissioner Heppel said. “They started speaking last summer about a type of speaker series that would really focus on anti-racism work from the educational perspective.”

The Educational Initiatives and Engagement working group created the speaker series. In the fall, the group worked with civic engagement and voter registration.

“This particular group … right off the bat, one of their action items was this type of speaker series,” Heppel said. “We’ve had a variety of initiatives coming out of these groups, and some of them have been more public than others.”

The goal of the speaker series is to educate, through perspective and context, on the issues that the world is facing, according to the Patriot League.

“It was looking initially at how we wanted to broadly structure the series, so that the speakers developing the topics and allowing the speakers to flow and to make sense,” Heppel said. “It’s been this sort of ‘from within’ selection and identification of speakers and then it was just a matter of ordering them within the overall spectrum of the discussion that we want to occur.”

The Patriot League felt it was important to not only establish the Anti-Racism Commission within the League, but to also create the speak-

er series in order to become a more anti-racist community, Heppel said.

“The speaker series really is a way to present that important educational component of becoming leaders and contributors to society and to the communities as students develop through their time at our institutions,” Heppel said. “It’s the opportunity to continue to learn about what it means to pursue anti-racism, to what an anti-racist society and environment looks like knowing that we certainly are not there.”

The League sees the series as a

Speaker Series way to continue fostering learning throughout all of their institutions, as well as create leaders — not only in the Patriot League community, but beyond, Heppel said.

“It really is about life-long learning that starts well before we’re in college, but as a Patriot League, we focus on the leadership development and the creation of students and de-

HANNAH YOSHINAGA | DAILY FREE PRESS FILE

The Patriot League began its Anti-Racism Speaker Series Feb. 10 with a lecture led by Boston University assistant professor Paula Austin.

velopment of students as important members of our community,” Heppel said. “It’s the educational value and learning, life-long learning for everyone about the history of racism.”

In her speech, Austin gave a brief overview about the history of racism in the country. She included information about the role race plays as a social construct. “[Race is] this concept, it’s not real, it signifies identities … there are these perceived usually visually but can also be orally, markers of difference,” Austin said. “It is a fundamental principle of social organization, and really that begins at a particular moment in U.S.colonial history.”

Austin also detailed the difficulty that conversations about race may present, due to widespread difference in experience.

“Sometimes when we’re trying to have these conversations we’re sort of talking about race at different registers because of its multiplicity and the multiplicity that is built into its history,” Austin said.

Evan Haber, a freshman in the Questrom School of Business, said the event was important for the BU community.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Haber said. It’s a great initiative for the players and fans, and even coaches in the Patriot League. It’s great to promote stuff like that.”

The next speaker in the series will be Karsonya “Kaye” Whitehead from Loyola University of Maryland, speaking about the topic “Uprooting Racism and Inequality: Exploring What it Means to Practice Antiracism” Feb. 24.

Basketball head coaches work toward anti-racism on, off the court Amanda Purcell Daily Free Press Staff Boston University basketball head coaches Joe Jones and Marisa Moseley reflected on their anti-racism work in and out of the Patriot League Anti-Racism Commission, of which they are members.

Jones has been the BU men’s basketball head coach since 2011, while Moseley joined the BU women’s basketball team as head coach in 2018. Moseley is a Terrier alum and played with the 2003 NCAA Tournament team.

Both coaches joined the commission in

July, which was formed in light of protests and marches across the United States for the Black Lives Matter movement. They continue to push for more anti-racism change across the Patriot League through discussion and education.

“The first thing we wanted to do is we wanted to make sure our players were educated,” Jones said. “How [racial inequality] has been embedded in our country for so long.”

The goal of the commission is to examine the way “systemic racism is perpetuated” and looks for long-term solutions to the problems racism causes, while continuing the Patriot League’s mission of preparing student-athletes to become societal leaders.

“This is not something that you can put a Band-Aid on to fix,” Jones wrote as a member

Boston University men’s basketball head coach Joe Jones. Jones and women’s head coach Marisa Moseley both serve on the Patriot League Anti-Racism Commission, which aims to bring awareness to systemic racism and work toward racial equality.

COURTESY OF EDWIN J. HERNANDEZ

of the commission in a Patriot League press release.

Jones credits Moseley with the creation of the commission, which has 23 Black and brown coaches from the conference involved.

“Marisa Moseley, she kind of spearheaded it,” he said. “[She] brought the idea to the Patriot League and that’s how it started.”

Jones said his work within the commission is focused on learning about hiring practices and how they work within the Patriot League.

Moseley shared similar sentiments to Jones about the perpetuation of racism in the United States. She said these issues of racism and injustices have always been around, but there has been a “societal shift” around addressing these issues.

“This isn’t new,” Moseley said, “there’s a lot of things that need to change and happen in our society.”

Moseley said she has been discussing these topics with her team in an educational, inclusive and trusting environment. Her team continues to have discussions about the news and history of Black people in the U.S. Conversations about racism with people in her life and her organizations are where she said she has seen a lot of change, but she is skeptical of the performative activism that has come along with the fight for equality.

“I do think that there has been a shift,” Moseley said. “My concern was and continues to be: Does this peter out? Because this isn’t just a moment, it’s a movement.”

Moseley said she is proud of her involvement in the commission and believes it couldn’t have happened had these coaches not “pushed the envelope.”

“Creating conversations between individuals, not only students, but faculty and administrators and coaches at our 10 member institutions just creates a broader dialogue that we are excited to foster,” said Jennifer Heppel, com-

missioner of the Patriot League.

Moseley said she is a part of a subcommittee that focuses on education, professional development and hiring practices. Moseley said other conferences have improved their hiring practices and the Patriot League should utilize its resources to do the same.

“It’s important to have patches or T-shirts or things of that nature,” Moseley said. “But if we’re really talking about making systemic change, you have to actually change the system.”

She also said her own experiences with racism have opened her eyes to her commitment for social justice.

“Whether it’s anecdotal with other friends or readings,” Moseley said, “[social justice] has always been a passion of mine.”

This passion continues to push her to fight for equality and justice. Moseley said while the work is hard and long term, she will continue to do it.

“It’s been inspiring to see that we can actually affect change,” Moseley said. “It’s not an overnight thing … I’m committed to the cause.”

“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred to as the Black National Anthem, was played before the BU women’s basketball game Saturday.

Moseley said this song is meaningful to Black individuals all over the country, including herself. She said it was important people learn the history and meaning of the song, as well as what it means for Black people now.

The song will continue to be played before every BU women’s basketball home game in February as a part of Black History Month.

“For me as a Black woman to be standing at a predominantly white institution coaching basketball and getting to lead a program,” Moseley said, “for me to be able to stand here and do this thing that I love is only on the shoulders of my ancestors and people who sacrificed.”