Diversity speaks about Black and Brown experiences
By Leshay Jones | Published by October 8, 2020
The Pan-African Student Union in collaboration with the National Council of Negro Women held a panel where Black and Brown students opened up Pandora’s box, discussing some heavy topics.
The discussion, held on Sept. 17, started off with an address from President Lamont Repollet, who encouraged students and praised Kean for its diversity.
“Diversity is what we do. It is our strength. It’s the equity aspect that we must build on,” Repollet said.
The president was not alone in feeling there is a need for change. Four student panelists, along with an open forum, discussed their experiences at Kean as the Black and Brown dicommunity.
Although each of their experiences and backgrounds were different, it became very apparent they all had similar experiences when looking for clubs and events for people like them.
“The presence of the Black community when I first came to Kean in 2015 was basically non-existent. For the first year, my teammates and I had no knowledge of clubs like PASU or any events that they had because they were not easy to find,” said alumnus David Patterson Jr., a former football captain.
Not only is it hard to find the African-American student body, professors of color are equally, if not harder, to come by, they said.
Some students addressed their concerns with microaggressions from non-black professors. These are indirect, subtle comments or actions that discriminate against someone’s race or ethnicity.
“I have been at Kean a very long time, and my entire time here, I’ve only had four Black professors,” said senior Latisa Harriot, who is vice president of Top Notch. “Meanwhile, I’d have white professors commenting on how my hairstyle was different from the week before, or mixing me up with other Black students who clearly did not look the same as me.”
From these student’s perspectives, they had no outlet and some of them felt alone on a campus filled with people, no matter how many friends they had.
“There was a time where you really had to go out there and search for the Black organizations on campus. I didn’t have my first Black professor until my junior year and I found myself wondering why it took so long,” senior Shanice Allen said.
Students like Jenell Boykins, got tired of waiting around for someone to create a space for students of color, so they took the initiative to create something for themselves. The goal was to create something for the whole community on campus. All of the Black student organizations came together and realized that there is power in numbers.
“When it came to Black women on campus, we realized that we did not have that safe space, so we created it,” Boykins said, one of the Vice Presidents of the National Council of Negro Women “We started to work with the other organizations on campus and that’s when we really started to make noise. Now we are louder than ever.”
Repollet left the students with some encouraging words and his expectations for the University in the years to come.
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the extra,” he said. “I said diversity is our strength, but it’s what we do with that strength that defines who we are as an institution.”
With a new academic year with a new president, the campus community is anxious to see what changes will be made to make the environment even more diverse and spread his vision of equity.