Conferences for black students and intellectuals often follow a similar narrative: A group of black people gathers together to discuss the issues plaguing the black community and nod their heads in agreement before they part ways and wait for the next year’s conference to talk about the same problems. Maybe that’s why an audience member at the National Black Graduate Student Association Western Regional Conference luncheon broke into uncontrollable tears after keynote speaker Lou Radja told the crowd, “Education, if not backed by action is useless. Our significance will be measured by the people we touch.”
The theme of this year’s NBGSA Western Regional Conference was empowerment for black students.
Various black professionals, professors and graduate students came to U. Oregon Oct. 9 to lend practical advice to black students, whose needs often aren’t accounted for by predominantly white institutions.
“These institutions weren’t built with us in mind. Some of us forget that,” said Earlean Wilson Huey, the Ujima Education Office Coordinator at Oregon State University.
Huey’s assertion is reflected in the demographics of schools like the University, where blacks make up 1.7 percent of the student population even though they account for nearly 13 percent of U.S. citizens. This leads to classroom settings where black students are looked upon as representatives of the race rather than individuals. It also fosters an atmosphere where black student perspectives that differ from whites or clash with dominant American ideologies are rejected and demonized.
“We’re not chocolate-covered white people,” Huey said.
Despite the negative assumptions and reactions that black students elicit for their skin, panelists told students that it is imperative to always remain professional. They reminded students that their ancestors and elders were professional in both their dress and the way they carried themselves because it was a tool used to gain freedom.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of those that kicked in the doors for us,” Huey said.
Many black students consider themselves bicultural because they have to engage in constant code switching or operate and communicate differently depending on the racial makeup of their environment. At predominantly white institutions like the University, some students lose their ability to switch because they become immersed in the culture of the school. Panelists urged students to seek out like-minded people, not necessarily just other black students, because they don’t all have their best interests in mind. These people could range from black faculty members to students of any color who are adjusting to campus life.
“I speak to everybody,” said Cowanis Duckett, a first year law student at University. “If you don’t speak to me it’s your loss.”
Black students often have to work harder to be taken seriously as students because of the structural failures of the school system.
“If you have a black boy with his pants hanging down and no pencil or paper, but he ends up writing the best paper in the class then the assumption is that he didn’t write it,” said Johnny Lake, a professor who teaches diversity education courses at Northwest Christian University, Pacific University and the University.
Lake said that the school system conveys white supremacist ideology by giving disproportionate attention to the contributions of white men while people of color are seen as footnotes. He said students are quick to tell you that Alexander Graham Bell created the telephone but they don’t know that Garrett Morgan, a black man, invented the traffic light. According to Lake, black students and professors have to give knowledge to students because the structure won’t do it.
“We’re speaking for folks who didn’t have opportunity to speak,” Lake said.
Huey sees it as a source of empowerment. “I know my ancestors made contributions, and I know you’re not going to teach me about it so I’ll learn myself. (That’s why) I walk around OSU like I own the joint,” she said.
Radja said black students’ presences at predominantly white institutions is an extension of this progress, but it only means something if they use it to help the black community.
“We are not painting the vision for our kids. We don’t lack capacity, just leaders,” he said.
Despite the election of Barack Obama, race relations and the plight of blacks in the U.S. in particular are troubling. The average white family has a net worth of $81,000 to the average black family’s $8,000 according to an Oxford Study.
These conditions create a sense of urgency for black college students, who are the latest link in a chain of struggles that started when the first slaves arrived in 1619.
“Late is tomorrow,” Radja said. “I’ll give you tonight to think about it.”