I am proud to be an NYU student. It is undeniable that there are many progressive youngins like myself devoted to raising awareness and making a change. For the last few days my FB timeline has been inundated with statuses all making the same statement:
To the students of color at Mizzou, we, student allies at New York University, stand with you in solidarity. To those who would threaten their sense of safety, the world is watching. #ConcernedStudent1950 #InSolidarityWithMizzou
Students of color have been systematically targeted and marginalized on campuses across the nation. I support my fellow people of color (PoC) in their struggle. People of color all over the country live in fear about the next threat they may face. The liberal ideals of New York University doesn't mean that there are those few that will make certain commentaries towards PoC. I'm glad to say that I personally have not felt a threat on campus for being Afro-Latina. Though I cannot say the same about my high school experience and living in New York City as a whole. And that is not to be interpreted as minimizing the severity of any racial attacks that PoC have faced on campus.
Sure I have definitely had several micro-aggressions in class directed towards me here and there, especially concerning my hair, but I have never felt attacked to the point where I feared for my life. I really do hope that I never will, -though I'm sure it is inevitable- because truth be told I do not know how I will react if I am being singled out, attacked, and oppressed.
- After news of what happened at Mizzou (along with Yale, Columbia and Ithaca) circulated the web, PoC all over campus have made efforts to raise awareness about the current situation. Washington Square Park is the epicenter where we all go when we want to bring attention to social issues.
- Saying racial slurs, threatening the life of another, none of that is a joke.
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| Lz Granderson (NYU Freshman) |
- Countless students are uneasy about the situation at hand. Students of color are angry, hurt and overall heated that they are still fighting for their right to equality. Students of color are demanding visibility, they are demanding justice. It is admirable how much of a difference they want to make in our community by speaking on behalf of people of color everywhere.
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| Jaylan Daniels (NYU Freshman at Steinhardt) |
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| Chuma Osse (NYU Freshman at Tisch) |
Many NYU students of color spoke up today at the event #InSolidarityWithMizzou held by the New School. They spoke on their experiences of being marginalized as a person of color and their desire to be accepted.
Black people matter, people of color matter. I matter, that's a fucking given! - Chuma Osse.
The whole situation concerning the University of Missouri really has me messed up. The list of demands made by the students at the University of Missouri comes from the group named "Concerned Student 1950," – named for the year African-American students were first admitted to the University of Missouri.
Now I definitely do not think that crediting our black peers (and all people of color) with their unalienable right to education is the same thing as shaming all white people everywhere, that defeats the purpose. You can not adequately refute such a large scale social injustice with more social injustice.
Understand, though, that when fellow minorities like myself refer to "white people," they are in fact referring to the worst of white people. In the words of Kiese Laymon,
The worst of white folks [is] a pathetic, powerful 'it.' It conveniently forgot that it came to this country on a boat, then reacted violently when anything or anyone suggested it share. The worst of white folks wanted our mamas and grandmas to work themselves sick for a tiny sliver of an American pie it needed to believe it had made from scratch.
- Of course we realize that not all white people are persecuting us, that many of them are "woke" and willing to stand up for people of color, especially at such a liberal school like NYU, but we need to be careful when we make allegations towards an entire race, the moment that we refer to an entire group of people and characterize them the same, we have lost.
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| Author Kiese Laymon |
But we will not continue to let our oppressors feel like they are winning. They win nothing in dehumanizing people of their same race, the human race. Skin color, ethnicity, and cultural background should not be a defining factor that singles out a group of people and belittles them.
And I am especially passionate about this. In High School, the few white people in my school decided to "jokingly" say,
"Shirley, we are oppressing you because we are white, hahaha."
Like I honestly want to know where the joke lies in this statement? BOY, if that is not the most ignorant thing that I have ever been attacked with, then I don't know what is. I was supposed to take that as a light-hearted joke, but it really was an attack on my beliefs on equal rights and social mobility towards acceptance in my own community.
For those of you who do have privilege, aka "white" people, use that to speak up about the inequality that you see all around you. The worst thing that any of us can do is be silent.
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| Andrea Davis (NYU Freshman in Gallatin) |
"I feel as though PWI's [prediminately white institutions], especially a school like NYU, have good intentions for diversity, but in the end they cannot control how people act and the beliefs that people have on campus. But, when acts of hatred happen, I do expect there to be the highest form of recourse from the administration." (Andrea Davis).
We are tired of people policing our anger as black people and people of color. We are here for solidarity. We are tired of getting the short end of things. Of going to interviews and being told to change our hair.
We have an obligation to fight for ourselves. We all believed that we just had to get through it, that we can reach academia and all the outward attacks towards people of color would go away, clearly it gets worse in academia, as people of Mizzou fear going to school. The new racism is being in denial that there is racism. Grant us an end to our endeavors, realize the racism that does exist and stand up against it.
We need to make all efforts possible to raise awareness of the racism that exists on campus, be it our own, or ones like Mizzou. We are all from the same generation-- we are growing together, and we cannot stunt the growth of a person to further improve our own.
What NYU Students of Color Have to Say:
Thomas Fortune:
Right now, I feel as if people are doing nothing and allowing everything to happen with no recourse. I feel upset because the black community is being pushed down. When we get angry people say that our anger is unwarranted, that we are hypersensitive, which is not true. We have every right to be angry because of years of oppression and social injustice we have faced and continue to face. No one has the right to tell us to calm down and be patient.
Alyssa Jean:
The situation breaks my heart. The fact that black students that are just like my friends and I don't even feel safe in a place where there only thing they came to do was learn and make life long relationships is heart breaking. Although Missouri and NYU are not close in distance, it's important for us to raise awareness in the community and let people know that situations like this will not be tolerated. Especially because whether people want to believe or not, there are students here just as bad as the racists in Missouri and other states.
What NYU Students (not of color) Have to Say:
Vivian Gisle:
I think it is interesting that in NYU there is such a free discussion about this subject matter. But at the same time I feel as though something is going on. Mizzou shows that there is something going on and nationally we are not addressing it. As college students we know about it because of social media, but how many people actually know about it? About the adversities that black students face on campus? How wide spread is this knowledge?
The only reason action was taken is because the football players at Mizzou decided that they weren't going to play in the football games until something happened, and it caused a reaction. But if they hadn't done that then it would still be happening and we probably wouldn't even know about it. We have to internally look at our college campuses and see the underlying racism. NYU still has it, all college campuses have it. I think we need to raise more awareness, change is happening and change is good.
Madison Barwick:
I guess being younger and seeing things on the news and social media, it easier to disassociate yourself with the adverse problems occurring because you just see it as the older generation being responsible for the negative hardships that people of color have to face. So it was hard to identify with the youth that is also partaking in this, that someone is capable of posing this threat.
It is devastating to finally realize the reality that people my age are doing this. I can't just look at the older generation and blame them for the problems that exist. We have to realize now that it is our generation that is creating this problem. We can't use older generations as a scapegoat for what is going on, we are at fault as well.
But now, being in college, seeing people our age acting this way, it takes a toll on me. There is someone my age out there minimizing the worth of others and terrorizing them. I can never see myself doing something like that. It's hard to imagine how people our age (and even people in general) could be so caught up on the idea of white supremacy. I don't see how there can be anything different between us at NYU and students over there. We are all eighteen year-olds trying to pursue a college education, I don't think that we should ostracize each other.
As part of the NYU community, we stand aside with you in solidarity. We are watching your oppressors.
#StayWoke #ConcernedStudent1950 #InSolidarityWithMizzou
Author: Shirley Reynozo (Instagram: @ShirlsRey)
This is why I have a problem when people say that minorities have it "good" bc we get subsidized education. What good is it if we're still "minorities, blacks, latinos, poor, too ethnic, and too damn immigrant". Stop discriminating against race and lets look at each other for who we are. Humans
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