Nubian Message, Jan. 16, 2020 — 2020 Vision: new year, greater moves

NUBIANMESSAGE NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY | RALEIGH, NC | THENUBIANMESSAGE.COM | THURSDAY, January 16, 2020

2020 vision: new year, greater moves

HONORING Black excellence

THURSDAY, January 16, 2020 | 2

Letter from the editor Hi Everyone!

I hope your spring semester is off to a good start! This is a new opportunity to increase your GPA, make new friends, and try new things. It is also a New Year, time to manifest lots of health, wealth and success for the New Year.

In this issue our theme is 2020 Vision: New Year, Greater Moves. With all of the positivity surrounding this year on social media we couldn’t help but join in on the good vibes.

THISISSUE 3

MLK COMMEMORATION

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LESTHEGENIUS

6

NATURAL DISASTERS

8

POEM

Ibram X. Kendi’s address

NC State student on Obama’s EOY list Puerto Rico hit with earthquakes Life of a Black woman

The first news article in this issue is all about how you can better yourself in 2020 by being anti-racist. In the anti-racist talk conducted by Ibram X. Kendi, he gave various tips on how to combat racism.

Other articles in this issue include a Q&A with LesTheGenius. He is an NCSU student who was recently recognized by Barack Obama for his song “Raleighwood Hills”.

Les discussed his plans for 2020, his excitement after being recognized by Obama and his love for Raleigh.

cover photo BY elikem dodor/Nubian Message Members of the Mu Xi Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated at the Back 2 School Jam Revamped.

This issue also features photos from the first ever Black to School Jam Revamped. Kudos to the Black Student Board for bringing the beloved fall event to the spring semester.

The Sentinel of the African-American Community at N.C. State Since 1992.

314 Witherspoon Student Center, NCSU Campus Box 7318, Raleigh, NC 27695

We hope that you enjoy this issue and accomplish all of your goals for 2020!

office 919-515-1468 advertising 919-515-2411 online thenubianmessage.com

In solidarity, Yesenia Jones

Yesenia Jones

Editor-in-Chief

nubian-editor@ncsu.edu nubian-managingeditor@ncsu.edu Managing editor

Elikem Dodor Ugonna Ezuma-Igwe Layout designers

Elikem Dodor

Social Media Manager

Only with the permission of our elders do we proudly produce each edition of Nubian Message: Dr. Yosef ben-Yochannan, Dr. John Henrik Clark, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, The Black Panther Party, Mumia A. Jamal, Geronimo Pratt, Tony Williamson, Dr. Lawrence Clark, Dr. Augustus McIver Witherspoon, Dr. Wandra P. Hill, Mr. Kyran Anderson, Dr. Lathan Turner, Dr. M. Iyailu Moses, Dokta Toni Thorpe and all those who accompany us as we are still on the journey to true consciousness.

news

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MLK Commemoration: The Fears of Martin Luther King Jr. OluwaJoba On Jan. 13th, the African American Cultural Ogun Center (AACC) hosted Staff Writer

the annual Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Commemoration featuring Ibram X. Kendi, author of the book, “How to Be an Antiracist”.

In this event, Kendi focused on the life of MLK through his dreams he visioned for America as well as the fears he faced.

The commemoration started with an introduction of some of AACC ambassadors, as they taught the audience the special way of welcoming their guests.

Chancellor Randy Wilson came on to introduce Kendi with background information on his accomplishments as well as his present works.

Following his introduction, Kendi came out and immediately began the conversation.

He discussed the ideas of MLK, the man behind the scenes.

“It is believed,” Kendi said, “that King was an assmilanist… He wasn’t striving for the disintegration of all institutions and of communities. He was seeking to assimilate America. In other words, he was, like many Americans, standardizing and lifting up the institutions and cultures of white people.

He was saying that in order to make this nation whole, people who are not practicing the culture of white Americans should start practicing those cultures, the people that are not in those institutions should be bust into those institutions. And that is essentially what will make the society great; what will make this society whole.”

He then brings a significant point of acknowledging MLK’s fears and nightmares that he himself talks about.

“By 1967, the very King who was saying in 1963, ‘I have a dream’, that same King was now telling an ABC News reporter that, ‘my dream has turned into a nightmare’... Why aren’t we told each year around this time about King’s nightmare? Why are we always only told about his dream?”

Kendi goes to give an understanding view of why this world thinks that racial progress is a step to achieving King’s dream.

“Indeed, this nation has experienced racial progress. There has been a move away from chattel slavery. There has been a move away

Devin Raines/ student media Ibram X. Kendi presents his framework and ideas with students, alumni and guest at the Stewart Theatre on January 13, 2020. Kendi recieved the 2012 W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize for The Black Campus Movement that changed access and inclusion throughout higer education for the black community.

from Jim Crow. King was able to even see the movement away from Jim Crow in his own lifetime. And we should value that and appreciate that, and highlight that. But what we should not do is continue to deny King’s nightmare… We should not continue to deny the progression of racism.”

John Robinson IV, program coordinator of the AACC spoke his opinion on how Kendi elaborated on the layers of King’s legacy and the significance of it.

“I really enjoy that we can take an honest look at Dr. King’s work.” Robinson said, “and actually understand that yes, he was very much so about race forward conversations, but he also about class forward. He was also about like just so many different intersections and the multi-dimensionality of humanity that we’re in a place now that we can program intersectionality...I think if we really start having a conversation and moving from equality into equity then we have to actually, critically look at the complexities of Dr. King’s work.”

Kendi discusses how MLK used his last years to make sure that policies represented everyone.

“King decided to use the last two years of his life challenging those policies that were leading to widespread poverty. So, fundamentally, this was the antiracist King.

This was the King who was recognizing the progress that had come as a result of the civil rights act and the voting rights act…

He also began to see that Black people who were working class and poor, that their lives had hardly not changed.”

Shantoneeka Zorn, a graduate student studying college counseling and student development expressed her agreement with Kendi about having better policies and opportunities for the common Black child.

“He has some great responses and recommendations for what administrators of this university and other predominantly white universities can do,” Zorn said. “I agree with a lot of those points, about increasing faculty diversity, specifically bringing in

Black faculty who have special interests and who can teach some of the topics and increase diversity that way and also hopefully increase Black student retention and graduation rates.”

Kendi speaks on the characteristics of being an antiracist by talking about the current issues of ethnocentrism with culture and how it turns into behavior.

“What people have been able to do is they have been able to standardize their culture and then assess other cultures from their own cultural standard and surprisingly they become superior,” Kendi said. “No one should be standardizing their culture. No group. Whatever group standardizes their culture is essentially the group that becomes the most superior.”

In the Q&A, he stressed the importance of diversity in the cultural studies department, how white supremacy can be uprooted from predominantly white institutions (PWI), how to properly support people of color in co-cultural groups, and he opened up on the process of healing.

James Daniels, a third-year studying middle school and language arts and social studies education gave his opinion on how students can make a racial difference on the grounds of a PWI. “I like his idea of acceptance and then the process of healing,” Daniels said. ”And I think something that we work on a lot on this campus is the acceptance part, especially if we are people of color. Like when we are doing something that is perpetuating these standards of these policies or ideas, these racist ideas… as we’re working on acceptance, our next step is moving towards that process of healing and dismantling the ideas that we’ve built.”

Kendi concluded by encouraging the audience to be antiracists; to be part of a society that creates an equal environment for all.

“The question for us, particularly each year, as we celebrate King is, are we going to stand on the antiracist side of the struggle.

There is no sideline to the struggle. When you have inequity and when that inequity is normal, it’s the status quo. It existed and it’s persisting and to do nothing is to allow for that racial inequity to persist.”

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features

Q&a with lesthegenius: The local artist recognized by Obama Amber Doyle Former President Correspondent Barack Obama recently

I would love to keep the brand as a nonprofit and hold events for kids in the city interested in out-reach and helping the community. I have a lot of big plans for the brand that surpasses music once I, myself, get in the right place to do so.

released his end of 2019 music playlist which featured NCSU student Les Robbin-Coker Jr., a second-year in the College of Engineering who also goes by LesTheGenius. LesTheGenius collaborated with Sonny Miles and Jaxson Free to create the song “Raleighwood.” Since Obama’s end of the year list, the song has received numerous recognitions.

NM: Do you have any upcoming songs?

L: This year we have so many upcoming songs, last week me and fellow NCSU student Zack Cokas released our first single “Bust Down” on all streaming services and it is doing amazing, soon we will follow it with another single before dropping our joint EP to kick off the year. Following this EP, I will go back to dropping solo releases before my own solo project “Raleighwood Hills” to end the year off.

The Nubian Message sat down with LesTheGenius to discuss the impact of the recognition.

NM: What was the inspiration behind the song “Raleighwood”?

L: The inspiration behind “Raleighwood” was creating a song with a double meaning.

Once Jaxson Free created the beat and put the hook on the song, we all felt like the song embodied what a late night in the city feels like. With this in mind, we created a song that spoke to the beauty of our city, our struggles in relationships, such as a female or music itself depending on how one interprets the lyrics.

NM: What was the process behind writing and collaborating on the song “Raleighwood”?

L: Jaxson and Sonny are good friends of mine and we tend to collaborate a lot.

After surprising Sonny at one of his shows at Imurj downtown, we linked up after the show where Jaxson played Sonny the instrumental. He instantly fell in love and we went back the following day to Sonny’s in-dorm studio and worked on the song all night. We bounced ideas off each other by sharing what lines we had written at the time so we had a common direction yet each unique takes on the song and in the end brought it all together to make a city anthem.

NM: How would you describe your sound?

L: I would describe my sound as alternative Hip-Hop. The music I make is southern-inspired, socially conscious, lyricism, enhanced through jazz-influenced melodies. I love so many different lanes of Hip-Hop and love to show my versatility by pulling from so many lanes.

NM: How did you create your stage name, LesTheGenius?

NM: What do you hope to do next with your music?

L: I hope to continue to excel in music and eventually do it full-time with all my peers.

Eventually, I cannot wait until I can tour, do even more shows out-of-state and connect with other bigger artists in the industry.

Photo contributed by lesthegenius/ taken by underrated views

L: The name LesTheGenius came from my first EP in seventh grade being titled “The Genesis”. Since it was in cursive, everyone thought that it said “The Genius” due to my background of being a straight-A student.

Everyone would just call me LesTheGenius when they saw me causing the name to stick and for me to start using it as my stage name.

excelling and making an impact in music.

It is still unbelievable today that the first Black President of the United States heard our song, and not just heard it but loved it enough to put in his top 30. It was also a big up for college students who make music in their dorms or are also chasing a degree at the same time following their dreams.

NM: What do you hope to eventually achieve with your music?

L: In music, I would love to be able to be financially stable enough to take care of my family and loved ones. Furthermore, I would love to tour and spread my music as far as possible to anyone who will listen.

By the time I’m done with music, I want to go out as one of the best lyricists of my generation and have my work studied and appreciated by future generations the same way the generation before me was to me.

NM: What has been the impact of the recognition by Barack Obama’s list?

L: Since the Obama list, we have been in a lot of big publications such as L.A Times, New York Times, Complex, XXL and almost every publication we could think of. The streaming percentage increase has been over 2,000% with the song hitting 50,000 streams within two weeks, which is a blessing. My social media engagements and followers also went up drastically on every social app. It also gave us the confidence to keep pushing and making music.

NM: What was your reaction to being on Barack Obama’s end of the year list?

L: We were all ecstatic and overjoyed to be on Obama’s list. It was such a big deal to us being one of the few independent artists on the list with those big names. It also meant a lot to the city to have someone

NM: What has been the success of “Raleighwood” so far?

L: “Raleighwood” has been a huge success for the reasons listed above, but also the clothing brand itself that we started three years ago is seeing a boost in interactions and sales and I’m so excited for the future.

Local NC playlist by Ugonna Ezuma-Igwe & Elikem Dodor

Nigboro Ft. Todi & Tomidrey Queen Izzy Raleighwood Hills Ft. Sonny Miles LesTheGenius Bänds NamÏ Muse Stop Cappin’ Shmoneymo 3x Freestyle Woodah Bungalow Mklaz Good Good Love Rapsody North Cack G Yamazawa

features

THURSDAY, January 16, 2020 | 5

B2SJR: We still live

On Jan. 8, NC State’s Black Students Board hosted their very first Back 2 School Jam Revamped. Multiple organizations showcased their talents through tabling and performances.

elikem dodor/Nubian Message left: Austin Cary, a member of

the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc performing with the Kappa Lambda Chapter.

LesTheGenius, a second-year in the College of Engineering, and Ricky Herrera, a secondyear majoring in Business Administration, performing one of Les’ original songs, “Bust Down”.

Right: Nick Mintz, a senior majoring in nutrition science, and a member of the Kappa Xi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. strolling.

Will Comer, a senior double majoring in Biological Sciences and Business Enterprenureship, rapping an original song.

THURSDAY, January 16, 2020 | 6

opinion

Another Natural Disaster in Puerto Rico jalen rose

Puerto Rico is currently

Managing Editor reeling from another

natural disaster. In case it has been forgotten by Issac smith some, Hurricane Maria hit Correspondent Puerto Rico roughly two years ago in Sept. of 2017.

Currently, Puerto Rico is recovering from a series of earthquakes.

On the night of Dec. 28 and Dec. 29, 2019, coastal towns west of the city of Ponce, were hit by three earthquakes with magnitudes of 4.7, 5.0 and 4.7. These three quakes began a series of tremors that continued for more than a week.

According to the United States Geographical Survey, on Monday, Jan. 6, at 6:32 a.m. local, an earthquake of 5.8 magnitude hit Puerto Rico. This is following the series of tremors that have been most strongly felt in the coastal towns west of Ponce.

Then, again on Tuesday, Jan. 7, Puerto Rico was hit by another earthquake that was “scarier” than Hurricane Maria, according to a New York Times interview with a victim of the earthquakes in Puerto Rico. This earthquake was stronger than the

previous earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.4, knocking out the power for almost the entire island.

Presently, citizens are concerned that their government may not be equipped to handle such a disaster. Puerto Rico is currently handling debt, bankruptcy and political turmoil.

Despite how long these earthquakes have been going on, I was not aware of the situation until a week after the first three earthquakes. There are other situations going on, both domestic and abroad.

However, it is important that we don’t forget about those less fortunate than us facing challenges out of their control.

Puerto Rico has been shaking consistently since Dec. 28. Scientists are researching what the cause of the severity of this natural disaster. However, until the earthquakes stop, thousands of people will continue to seek shelter without knowing what caused the damage to their homes, hundreds of homes completely destroyed.

And with their homes destroyed, these Puerto Ricans may find their way to the continental mainland.

Following Hurricane Maria, former

Florida Governor, now senator, Rick Scott stated that Florida handled roughly 280,000 refugees displaced by the storm. Now, two years later, another natural disaster has hit Puerto Rico.

Being that this isn’t the first time Puerto Rico has been affected by a natural disaster, the people of Puerto Rico have grown used to a delayed response. Especially, from the mainland. Currently, Donald Trump initially withheld relief funds for months.

These funds can be used to help all of those displaced by the earthquakes.

The last time the Trump administration withheld relief funds for its own citizens, the death toll increased drastically. The citizens of Puerto Rico were left without the bare necessities such as power, food, clean water, and sustainable shelter.

This carelessness should not go unrecognized. As students of NC State, we value ourselves on our ability to identify a problem and work towards an effective solution. The responsibility falls on us. If we fail to perform our civic duty for our fellow citizens, then we are no better than the current administration.

The Malleable Legacy of Dr. King Martin Luther King’s Jr legacy is a deeply layered and multifaceted legacy that created a complex mosaic that is far from beautiful. King throughout history has been caricatured to the point where he is more Shawn of a parody of a postFredericks racial American ideal Staff Writer rather than a constantly evolving social justice advocate who saw his dream turn to a nightmare, which caused him to adjust and pivot his strategic goals based on the current political and social climate.

King was both a by-product of his time and the possessor of a prophetic vision for the world. It is this conflict where King’s work and legacy become interpretive instead of literal. Instead of his legacy being a recollection of agreed-upon facts, it is a legacy muddled by political objectives and social biases. People will use parts of King’s work to validate the assumption that the end goal of racial equality is not the upending of social inequities but Black and

white people coexisting passably, as well as the assumption that racism lives and dies with individuals instead of systems of power, as all racial systemic issues stopped with the civil rights act.

The ever-revolving door of interpretations of King’s legacy has muddied the waters and his clear vision of not a post-racial society but a socially-just society has been ignored by a majority of people. These people mold parts of King’s legacy into a selective framework to justify the current order of society, which King clearly disagreed with.

To truly understand King and accurately contextualize his ideas into the current conscious is to understand two things. One is one of his greatest projects: The Poor People’s Campaign and the other is his strong opposition to the Vietnam war. The reason being is these stances reveal much about how today’s issues are reflective of the moral shortcomings of past generations.

King’s Poor People’s Campaign is a movement he started under the leadership of Rev. Barber, and it is still going strong.

It is a movement about securing economic rights for poor people. This movement

seeks to right the fundamental wrongs of a materially abundant nation still having citizens being subjected to the indignity of poverty, which King compared to cannibalism.

The second is his stance on Vietnam, specifically his sentiment on how the U.S should focus its resources on domestic issues such as anti-poverty programs instead of foreign wars. King also largely objected to war and advocated for peace and diplomacy and he stood on this issue as an individual, without the backing of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

That is how much peace meant to King.

Understanding these two things provides a way for us to question the morality issue of how America distributes its resources.

For instance, many politicians on Capitol Hill advocate the cuts on social programs, yet they increase military spending for foreign interest. More plainly America prioritizes its empire over its people.

And it’s not just politicians, it’s also the supposedly liberal media, specifically television anchors, who constantly question ideas like medicare for all and are jarringly silent and unquestioning of increases to

military spending.

For these reasons it is imperative in this current political, social, and cultural climate to unearth the King that consistently advocated for justice and human dignity to understand what a just America looks like. Currently, with the problems of the Trump administration, a looming war with Iran, and the campaign of Bernie Sanders bringing ideas of economic and social justice to the mainstream, it is imperative that the ideas of the late King do not go ignored.

At this moment, his ideas on economic justice, anti-war sentiments, and his ultimate call to respect human beings with dignity are ever more relevant and timely, but hopefully not timeless. These issues would be permanently resolved by the end goal of a much more just society that has been reached.

King’s vision of justice is bigger than the dream he expressed in 1963. He moved past that moment to advocate for a more just society that worked politically, socially, and economically for all people. For us, people living currently in America, it is about time we moved forward too.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

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January 2020 Here are a few events to look forward to this month sunday

5

monday

6

tuesday

7

Wednesday

19

26

friday

saturday

1

2

3

4

8

9

10

11

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc Founders Day

what’s on the table (AACC) ¹

Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc Founders Day

12

thursday

13

14

15

16

17

18

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc Founders Day

Poodle Vision 7:22 p.m.

(RidDick 461 )

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc Founders Day

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc Founders DaY

Black Grad Student Association (BGSA) (Witherspoon 356)

NAACP Service Day (Raleigh Food Bank)

20

21

22

23

24

25

MLK JR. Day

State of Sound: The Movement: Blackalicious Escalation Fish Bowl Film Screening (Women’s Center)

Free HIV testing (LGBT center of Raleigh) 2

Marcus Roberts and the Modern Jazz Generation (Stewart Theater)

27

28

29

30

31

When MLK and the KKK met in Raleigh (AACC gallery) 3

State of Sound Stories: Girls Rock NC panel (DH Hill)

CSA game night Stalking Awareness (AACC)

Month: Bystander Behavior 101 Workshop

Disclaimer: We understand that this is not a comprehensive list of all the events occurring in the area. If you would like your event to be featured in future community calendars please email us at nubian-editor@ncsu.edu. For more information about the events listed, please check out the online version of our calendar.

Whats on the table meets every Friday at 3-4:30 p.m. in the AACC Free HIV testing- LGBT center of Raleigh every Tuesday and Thursday from 5 p.m. -7:45 p.m.

3 When MLK and the KKK in Raleigh is open from Jan. 15th to Feb. 7th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

1

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white noise Since I was a little girl they been filling my head with lies Constantly telling me to lower my voice Weaken my stance Be less threatening Less angry Less powerful Less... Black Less everything that I was created to be MLK once said: our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter If that’s the case, my life has been ending since 2008

WALKING

DISTANCE TO CAMPUS

5 MINUTES TO THE

BRICK YARD

Rates 670 $

AS LOW AS

2910 HILLSBOROUGH ST.

MON-FRI: 9AM-6PM • SAT: 11AM-5PM • SUN: 1PM-5PM

Hearing shit like “Why can’t I touch it it’s just hair?”

Ugly Arrogant Aggressive No wonder Black men don’t date Black women Nappy headed Burnt You’re pretty..... for a dark skin girl

Loud Obnoxious If you don’t support your own men who will?

The year I moved to North Carolina Waste of space Angry Black girl Everything seemed to change My innocence being stolen from me has shaped the way I continue If I’m really all that angry then why don’t you listen to what I have to to play this game called life say?

If I put that much fear in your heart 2008 made me ask myself then why don’t you shut up and why should I insert myself in listen? unnecessary danger?

Why continue trying to explain Every single time I try to explain my myself when it’ll only be more preposition it falls on deaf ears acceptable when someone else No matter what you say, even if it’s explains it in the nicest way I’ll always be the angry Black girl They keep telling me that I’m just the angry Black girl I’ve finally decided to save my Angry at the system pleas Angry because I’m completely Stop straining my voice on deaf ignorant ears But what y’all don’t understand They’re not listening to my screams is that I have every reason to be I’ve decided that I’m done begging angry for a spot at their table All the rooms I’ve had to fight my Ima create my own damn table way into All the sly lil comments on the side “You only got here because you’re All I gotta say is: either you gone adjust or get the Black” hell outta my way “Affirmative action is made for Cuz I’m the angry Black girl who’s people like you” here to stay.

The number of times that I’ve been told that I’m Bitter - Elikem thee Poet Rude