Johnny Conley: Good afternoon. My name is Johnny Conley I serve as a Director of Student Equity here at Moorpark College campus. I want to thank you all for taking the time to log into meet with some of our Black Student Union,
as well A2MEND students, Veterans Resources students. We also have Professor Tamarra Coleman, who is serving as our facilitator, you will hear from our college president, Dr. Julius Sokenu, as well as our newly
elected President David Katz. There's some housekeeping things that I wanted to go through today with you, just so you all know some of the logistics.
Number one, this webinar will be recorded for future reference. There is a Q&A box on the very bottom if you all have any questions that you want
to have the panel student panelists answer please type those in. We do have a closed caption available for those that need that additional support.
There will be poll questions throughout the duration of this webinar to look out for it to be able to get some transparency on how you all are feeling in the audience and keeping you engaged and there was anonymous response if you feel comfortable to do so
as well as we have a YouTube Live, that is a link that is on our Moorpark homepage that you can reference if we meet capacity here in our webinar. And lastly I'd like to introduce our newly elected Associated Students of Moorpark College President, David Katz.
David Katz: Moorpark College Raiders, welcome to the student forum on racial and social injustice an open but respectful conversation on racism and social injustices and how they affect our community college and our nation.
My name is David Katz, and I am the newly elected President of the Associated Students and Moorpark college or ASMC.
I'm here today to represent the student perspective on the topics that will be discussed today, along with the other students who are giving their time to be here for this important discussion. I will also be a contributor to this forum.
With the protests and riots happening nationwide, it is important that we come together as a community of students and faculty on a campus-wide scale.
And discuss the current events, ensuring that we all know what's going on and that we're all on the same page.
I want to thank each of the panelists for taking the time to be here. I like to thank the students, each and every one of you, for joining us on this forum.
And to our college faculty and staff who are watching the YouTube Live stream. Thank you for tuning in. I would now like to introduce our Moorpark College Campus President Dr. Julius Sokenu now to give us some words of his own on this forum.
Julius Sokenu: Good afternoon, everyone. I appreciate you joining us this afternoon. I know that there's some folks on YouTube
who are currently in the process of trying to join us. So we'll sort of give them a couple of minutes to enable them to connect and then, you know, continue this,
but just sort of as we as we are gathered here this afternoon, it is important for you to know and to hear from our college community and particularly from our students.
At the end of the day, the work that we all do as administrators, as faculty members, as classified professionals,
as staff of the organization as a college, as a college president, or as a trustee member is to support the learning experience of our students.
Your stories matter. Your voices matter. Your experiences matter. And if we are going to have solutions that matter, you need to be a part of those conversations.
I hope that, as we engage one another this afternoon, that will bear in our hearts the families of George Floyd, of Breonna Taylor,
of Ahmaud Arbery. That we will bear in our hearts the families of Trayvon Martin, that we will bear in our hearts, all those individuals over the centuries who have been impacted by racial injustice.
For us to move forward, we have to acknowledge our history, the national history, our own racial history and equally as important as a Moorpark College community, we have to acknowledge our experiences on the Moorpark College campus and our own Moorpark College history.
There's not much I can do today to heal or you know absolve your pain. Like you, I am hurting. Like you, I am disappointed. Like you, I am hopeful for the future of our country. Like you, I am frustrated.
Like you, I am looking to get beyond being speechless.
Like you, I have a whole lot of a barrage of words really fighting to come out of me, along with my emotions.
But what I also know that like you my investment is finding a solution to our racial and social injustice problem.
Our hope and my hope is that today we will learn from one another, that we will learn from you how we can make our experience of the Moorpark college campus open, accessible, and an experience that is equitable for all our students. Your Voice Matters. Your experience matters.
So I ask you as you listen to your colleagues, as you listen to one another. What changes need to happen on our campus for all students to feel that the equally belong here?
What changes need to happen
for all students so that we can adequately support students from all walks of lives?
What changes is needed so that our Black and Brown students, so that our students of color, so that our LGBTQ students, so that our Muslim students, so that our foreign students feel like their lives matter? Feel like their voices matter?
As I said, there is not much I can do but offer hope. There's not much I can do but listen to you, learn from you, respect your opinions.
This conversation today is aimed at being respectful,
being reflective,
and this conversation is our opportunity to speak truth. This conversation is opportunity to learn from one another.
I am very grateful to all of those individuals who have put this together. I'm very grateful for the panelists and I'm especially grateful that this conversation today will be moderated by English professor
Tamarra Coleman. Professor Coleman as a commitment to civic engagement, Professor Coleman as an engagement
and an awareness of the needs of all our students and that is where her ethic as an academic, as a researcher, and as a faculty member strives and comes from. Please join me in welcoming and thank you Professor Coleman for moderating this panel.
Professor Coleman...
Tamarra Coleman: Alright, sorry, trying to unmute here. Thank you, Dr. Sokenu and thank you to all of you who organized this event for asking me to moderate
this panel. As I was thinking about this over the last couple of days and thinking about the questions for the students,
and where I sort of situate myself in this conversation I realized that I'm in a unique experience talking about this issue and talking to our students.
Not only am I a professor as Dr. Sokenu introduced me as an English professor. I'm also the one of the co-advisors of the Black Student Union.
I am also a Black mother with Black sons. So when I think about these students and I'm asking them questions. All of them could be my children. Right? And so, in many ways, this is really personal for me in terms of thinking about
Black males, my own children and then the students also on our campus.
What I wanted to do. I wanted to start off by introducing myself in kind of a different way. I've been having a conversation with a really good friend over the last few weeks with all of the events going on a friend who happens to not be Black
but is very conscious and we were talking about the protest versus the looting and that kind of conversation, which I'm sure a lot of people have been having
and I wanted to read to you, my response to him in that conversation to sort of get us started, and to create a context for this discussion, and I'm going to be reading from the email that I sent.
"I'm not a fan of the violent and lawless behavior that we see around the country. The loss of Community resources, especially for Black people is very sad."
"The south and west side of Chicago have very few grocery store options after the looting."
And I talked about that because I lived in Chicago for 18 years. "I want to be angry at the folks who chose to do that, but it's hard."
"Even those who tend towards lawlessness anyway, there has got to be a place within them where they feel like they don't belong in America. I imagine that they feel disconnected from the community.
so they don't feel like they need to preserve it. I've been posting things on social media that illustrate this anger.
I do not condone it, but I feel the pain. I do not believe
others will fight this fight if they
cannot feel the pain and empathize.
I think other groups would respond similarly after a life of feeling disconnected and never good enough."
So then I provided him a couple of examples from my own life I've been considering moving this summer.
And as I've been looking for homes in the back of my mind is his voice that asks, "Are there any Black people in that neighborhood.? What will it be like for my boys?
That is the neurosis that's created by constantly feeling like you don't belong.
I am fairly evolved. I'm a fairly evolved confident and self aware human being. I can't imagine the psyche of a Black man growing up in an inner city or a poor Black uneducated woman.
I feel like I can cope. I'm fair skinned, I have two degrees. I'm articulate, I have navigated the white world, my whole life. So I know how to fit in. But no matter how educated you are or how much money you make or how well you speak, you never really belong here.
Before my son went into residential treatment for substance abuse last year, he ran away many times, towards the end, he was gone for five days at least four times I called the police and reported him as a runaway minor.
Running away is not a crime and they don't arrest kids they bring them home. I remember one of those times.
And the police officer was sitting at my dining table with his laptop writing a report and asking me questions. He was a very nice man he was respectful. He was polite. I looked at him and I said, I know this is uncomfortable, but my son is Black and he's six feet tall and he has dreadlocks.
He is not aggressive. Yes, he has a chip on his shoulder. Like most teenage boys, but he's not aggressive, the police officer understood full well why I said that.
He closed his laptop. And he looked at me and he told me about the training they get in the police department here and that they are well aware of this problem and that they know things happen.
But they work hard to train officers. I shook my head. Showing confidence in him, but in the back of my mind I was feeling guilt for sending the dogs after my son.
I had to decide between possibly getting my son killed or leaving him in some place where he was using drugs and could possibly overdose.
Luckily, the officer found my son pretty quickly and brought him home. This story is not about the good cop. We all know there are good cops. The story is about the fear and neurosis is caused by systemic racism and the history of violence against Black bodies. No
should have to feel guilty
about trying to save her son.
Oh, I don't share this story or talk about this. It's easier to just get back in the
game moving, but this moment has offered us the gift of revealing the truth and
Many of us thrive in the face
of this in the background, but we are affected, and the solace that we find in the opportunity for us to finally breathe and be comfortable in our own skin is when we are with each other."
Um,
I just wanted to share that because I think it's important for us to understand that there are a lot of
victims if we want to say victims in what is happening. There are a lot of us who are affected in our community in different ways. And as for our students, all of our students on the panel,
there's some there's a mother behind those students right and there's a connection to a family for those students.
So with that, I want to turn to our panel and introduce our students. Next slide please.
Our first student Timothy Whitehead, he's a part of the A2MEND group and also the Black Student Union.
And then we have
Latanya Hulon, Gerald Richardson III, Madison Hunter, and one of our veterans in our Veteran Resource Center Simon Kurciski. Sorry if I mispronounced that.
Um, so we'll go through some questions that we've prepared for our students.
Some of the questions will be answered by all on the panel. Other questions will be answered by
you know, a couple of students on our panel. But we'll begin with the first question. Next slide please.
So the first question is, how are you feeling
about the recent killings and George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor?
I'm going to start with Gerald.
Gerald Richardson III: Well, I'm absolutely devastated and it's so heartbreaking and traumatizing to see people who look just like you people who look just like your family members and people who are in situations that you could very much be in
brutally die. It's definitely takes a psychological toll on you and it's just overwhelming.
Tamarra: Thank you. Gerald. Madison?
Do you want to respond to that question?
Madison Hunter: Yeah, I would love to respond to that question. I feel all of the feelings that everybody is saying all the time.
But I'm also concerned at the same time because there are videos upon videos of these things and
I've had multiple conversations about the fact that I refuse to watch the George Floyd video.
I refuse to watch the videos because
in taking all of that can do more to your mental paranoia and the things that you were talking about before, where it's already a thing of
"Ooh do I need to move into this neighborhood?" It adds to that kind of paranoia to have to repeatedly watch somebody that looks like you like your brother, like your sister, like your cousins, like your friends brutally murdered. A horrible feeling.
Tim, do you want to chime in on that one as well.
Tim Whitehead: Yeah.
I'm just feeling like frustrated because it's like, how many people are you
Losing in a time period, and this has been happening in the past, but it's like
Ahmaud Arbery was recent Breonna Taylor was recent, and then like all those deaths like George Floyd really just sent it over like I saw, I think, on Twitter. It was saying like
This, this is the reason we're all upset right because everything just kept leading up leading up leading up.
But then like George Floyd was like, that's it. Like there's no more like this is not again like really like I can't breathe again, you know, so it was just really like a tip of the iceberg
of everything. And it's just like, this is the reason why everyone's protesting and during the way they feel now.
Tamarra: Simon, do you want to add to that?
Simon I. Kurciski: Yeah, I think your point that George Floyd was the tipping point is
Salient. I was I was honestly shocked by the
display of brutality and the simple lack of respect for human life that was on display in that video.
Thank you, Simon.
Tamarra: And Latanya. What are your thoughts?
Latanya Hulon: Well, my thoughts are, I'm disappointed.
I'm also disappointed with the United States of America being that we have a history of police brutality, there is a very, very, very, very long track record with our police department within the United States. So
as far as that goes. We have history that shows and its history, as far as injustice and should not be repeated. Not today, not tomorrow, not an hour, not in the morning, and those are my closing statement.
Tamarra: I think it's an important point that you make about
history. One of the things that I've been seeing on social media is
people really making the point that what's happening now is not just about George Floyd right this is just another event. It's about a history
of events that have happened that have added up to what we're seeing now in our communities and in our nation.
Thank you. Next slide please? Johnny: Before we
go, Professor Coleman and there was a question that came on the Q&A and I do apologize. There's by anonymous person. How do you feel about the killing of the St. Louis Captain by looters?
Tamarra: Asking me?
Johnny: That's to the student panel. So that was a question.
So I'll repeat it. How do you feel about the killing of the St. Louis, Captain by looters and that is to the students panel?
Tamarra: Well, I think Latanya, are you raising your hand Latanya down there? Latanya: Yes. Tamarra: Go ahead.
Latanya: It's hard to answer that but
I feel like it's wrong.
Nobody deserves to, you know,
get killed in a situation like this.
And I do I
just feel like people should be morally responsible, knowing that, you know, two wrongs don't make a right and just because
that happened. That doesn't mean the majority of protesters. You know, I guess it could be, you know, just as a protest or as a student body we don't you know, condone those behaviors.
Tamarra: Thank you. Anyone else want to respond to that?
Madison: I'll respond to it as well.
I also feel like we as Latanya said we don't condone that sort of behavior. But I do think that
the people are tired of people taking matters into their own hands. So the entire message, we're spreading is no one person should be
Judge, Jury, and Executioner. So whether you're in the position of being a police officer or not, no one person should have that amount of power over anyone else. That's not acceptable. So no, we do not condone them killing cops. But we also don't condone cops killing us either.
Tamarra: I just want to add to that, just closing out that is that I think a lot of it. I don't condone that. And I think it's terrible.
All of it's terrible. I think what we're seeing, though in some of these actions that we think are terrible actions is really an expression of anger.
And I don't really know what to do with that. And that's part of the conversation that I see people happening.
That I see happening with people is how what's appropriate when we express our anger, what's an appropriate response to trauma?
Right is the question that I see people engaging in in the community in regards to something like that and also the destruction of property and other things as well.
Next slide please.
Well, this is somewhat related to that question, but different as we're thinking about destruction of people in property.
Um, some of the people that we see in the media have become destructive and I've chosen have chosen to loot stores in our communities. What do you think when you see that behavior? I'll go to Gerald for this question.
Gerald: Well as a Black man who is in multiple communities who works for law enforcement and has a stake as a stakeholder in the community. I personally would never loot or destroy property.
But I also understand the dichotomy, and the pain that this issue in particular presents. I think it's imperative to note that
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, these aren't isolated incidents. This is a theme reverberating throughout history in our nation.
So to demand peace and denounce violence, simply because the looting has started and this outrage over the looting.
It's simply manipulative it's asinine and it's extremely disrespectful to their lives because dissimilar to the products, these storefronts and these corporations their lives will never be replaced. So
The fact that we have been constantly ignored through these overtures of peace in that people expect us to keep doing these overtures a piece is just beyond me. So that's just my thoughts on it.
Tamarra: Thank you Gerald. Madison, what are your thoughts about that?
Madison: I have a lot of thoughts on this particular subject as someone who's actually been out in the streets and has been protesting. I feel like this is being
disproportionately portrayed in the media. They love to talk about because it's a better story. It's a better story to talk about looting, it's a better story talk about
people getting violent, the better story to spin the narrative that again Black people are scary when Black people are angry, they're going to destroy things and it keeps the system in its place, right? But what they're not talking about is the facts behind it, the fact that
especially in California, in particular, there have just been mysterious
pallets of bricks being found near areas where they're being told there's going to be protests. I don't know about you but pallets of bricks are not just casual things to be dropped off. You need heavy artillery, to be able to bring those. And the other thing about the fact that
police are inciting the violence. It was proven that a couple of the cop cars were pre-rigged to explode because it makes it look like now I have reason to use force on the protesters, which I'm not, I'm not going to say it's
nice to have somebody sit there and scream to defund your job right? So you're upset the second that you step outside of being upset and you step outside of what you are there to do
That's something totally separate. So yes, there is a lot of looting going on but is all of it from the Black Lives Matter? No.
Because their overarching message is we matter and we're trying to do this peacefully. Now again to the sentiments of what everybody else has said.
We're tired. So when you're tired and you've been told repeatedly that you don't matter and that your feelings don't matter,
All of that gets bottled up. We tried to do it peacefully. Colin Kaepernick. Y'all didn't listen to that you guys told us that we were wrong for that. And we were unpatriotic.
And so some people. Yes, some people are turning to looting and rioting and while that's not a great thing. And I don't condone it. I understand what people are doing it.
I 100% understand because being told repeatedly that what you have to say is an important will never hold up, ever, and it's irrational for us to continue to believe in such things.
But as Gerald said like the media is portraying is like, "oh no, look at all these businesses," Businesses can be replaced human lives cannot and that's my final thought on that.
Tamarra: As a
Kind of a follow up question to the point you made about not all of the folks are who are destructive. Well, actually, most of the folks are not
part of the Black Lives Matter movement. What are your thoughts or what are your feelings, any of you about groups, people, whatever you want to call them folks who have kind of infiltrated the larger peaceful strategic Black Lives Matter movement?
And that's for Madison or anybody else that wants to respond.
Tim: Um,
Madison: I mean,
Tim: I feel like
there's a lot of people taking advantage as well. You know, so like, not all the people from the Black Lives Matter movement are necessarily looting like there's a lot of people
there's a lot of people that are like trying to live out their. How do you say?
Like their fantasy dream. You could say like they'll just go out like oh wow everyone else is doing it. Oh, let me loot or people are
seeing that other people are looting, so they see that they can get take advantage and say, "Oh, I can get away with it because people are doing right now" and just, you know, I just feel like
It's maybe looking a lot like it's just Black Lives Matter. And this is what you know it's all about looting, looting, looting. Like there's gonna be people that are frustrated
and not everyone's gonna understand but like I don't, I don't condone looting either, but there's just going to be people that are really, really frustrated over the years and it's just
they're taking out their anger. However, they take out their anger. But like I said, I just feel like a lot of people see that as a way to take advantage and just get something for free, you know. So I mean, a lot of it's on the media too like on a lot of stuff is on Twitter so.
Tamarra: Thank you Tim.
Madison: I agree with Tim as well. A lot of people are bandwagoners and they just hop on and they're like, "Oh, well I don't necessarily support the movement, but if I can go get some free Vans, I'm gonna go get some free Vans."
And so there's a lot of video footage. I think the important thing that's not being acknowledged enough is there are multiple videos of people
bringing the people that are actually looting to the police. And these are the looters we're here peacefully. We're here to be about our business and
that's not what we're aiming to do I think another thing that is not being highlighted enough about looting and all the stuff is
these people are grieving. They're grieving people that look like them. They're grieving the fact that they feel like the country they live in, that they pay taxes in, the country that they're supposed to love doesn't love them back.
And I feel like it would be disrespectful and
quite frankly, ignorant for us to not acknowledge that people grieve differently, and who are we to tell anybody how to grieve, or how to go through that process?
Tamarra: Thank you. Madison. Latanya. I think you wanted to say something.
Latanya: Yeah, and I just wanted to add to all our viewers and, you know, just being an individual representing you know Black Student Union at Moorpark College and, you know, Black Lives Matter protesters,
I again, I can't stress it enough, we have to remember what history taught us, you know, I don't know if you guys remember what happened, December 16 1773?
When you know, everyone has their different opinions or they want to point the finger or say, "oh, this is wrong, this and that," I'm referring to the Boston Tea Party.
Not as violent as today as far as moving, not as, you know, crazy with the behavior, but
we also got to put in perspective, like this to be a learned behavior where some people are literally like, "Oh, I remember what happened at the Boston Tea Party."
Come on, it was okay back in 1773 you know some people, psychologically think like that. It's a different lot of different reasons why
you know, people are acting the way that they act. But again, I can't stress that enough. History. So, don't, you know
Black Lives Matter just, you know, came about, you know, not even 10 years ago, it could be 10 years time flies. But we got to think about as
anyone that's watching things of that don't think that it just came from the Black Lives Matter or the Black community or, you know, African Americans are just, you know, Negros, and those are my ending statements as well.
Tamarra: Thank you, Latanya. I think the important point that you
bring up thinking about history is that
protest period, no matter what group is protesting historically,
around the world, there's, it's always been coupled in some way with violence or I'm not condoning that but just realizing this is not a new thing and violence is not a Black thing.
Right? And I think sometimes it gets sort of twisted and it becomes a part of the stereotype and it perpetuates the fear of threatening Black people. So thank you for adding to that and thinking about putting it in a historical context. Does anybody else want to respond to that question?
Next slide please.
Um, okay, I actually want to start with Simon with this one. He's one of our student veterans. What are your thoughts about the use of force and these protests and the escalation to military style tactics?
Simon: Honestly I've been watching the tactics that the police have been using nationwide on the news and I'm absolutely shocked by the way that
they've been treating peaceful protesters. There's been incidents of police destroying a first aid station. There's been police shooting rubber bullets at people that aren't
posing any threat, there has been police pepper spraying people and tear gassing and people on a mass scale that don't pose any threat at all,
and the important thing to note, I think, is that this is happening in cities across the nation on a mass scale.
And if a person in the military were to just callously use that scale of force on protesters like the police are doing
they would be court martialed and dishonorably discharged. I think. So the, the question has to be asked, can police be trusted to use force responsibly because based on their response to these protests, I would say that they can't?
Thank you, Simon, Tim, I think you wanted to respond to that as well.
Tim: Yeah, so
I think. Okay, so I've been on like social media a lot and from my understanding,
on the news a lot of stuff like let's say let's say our parents are watching or whoever's watching the news a lot of this stuff on the news is just showing like all the violence and like the
the looting, per se, and they're not really showing like the other side like on Twitter, there's been some very questionable incidents. There was, I think it was NYPD where
it was peaceful protesters and there was two cars, two police cars, that ended up just driving into them.
But I don't know if that's been shown on the news, but we see it on Twitter and we see a lot of different perspectives, where it's like, you know, if you're being
like, what about, like, on the news, do they show the peaceful protesters a lot you know and like maybe oh what they're doing,
and instead of painting is like, oh, everyone is looting and this is evil and, you know, not looking at the positives and then kind of like the other side, the way that were being treated on the streets, you know,
when like Simon said like
you know, people are peacefully protesting, they shouldn't be using these tactics when they're peacefully protesting. Now, if they're retaliating then I guess you know they have their reason. But if it's peaceful protesting why
are they using violence, pepper spray ,know the flash grenade so
Yeah.
Thank you, Tim. Madison?
Madison: Hi. Um, yeah, a lot of what both of them said, I agree with. Um, the other thing that I think is very interesting is that we're in the middle of this whole COVID-19 thing and
respiratory issue and they're using tear gas like
do you really care about the public safety at all? Um, the other thing is that I learned is that they're not in war allowed to use tear gas anymore, but you want to use it on people who are peacefully protesting that's
interesting. Also the fact that, like the cops are inciting the violence, they're pushing people, they're shoving people they're getting loud so that when somebody you know is pushing you
your natural response is to push back. So then they take that as "oh now, you're assaulting me. So now I have
the right, the go ahead to do whatever I want." And the other thing that a lot of people don't know is that
yeah, we hear all the things that have been happening with the rubber bullets, but like the intent of rubber bullets they're actual bullets, just e encased in rubber
and they are to be shot at the floor, not at a point blank range, which is how they're being used, um,
it's disgusting. It's disgusting. It's uncalled for and it's inhumane and I don't understand why nobody is being like, you saying this was the military you guys would be court martialed and at this point
They're, they're confused as to why we're terrified of the police. This is exactly why.
Tamarra: Thank you Madison.
I wonder also, if this sort of
reveals to people who didn't realize this, the double standard with Black people and White people, a lot has been said about the response of the police.
In this case, in the case of these protests and the response of the police when the right wing groups, went to the statehouse and Michigan heavily armed right?
And it looks different when Black bodies are on the line protesting then when we see White bodies, and I wonder how much this reveals a double standard that I think Black people already knew existed, but I think
others are sort of waking up to this reality.
Any thoughts about that at all?
Madison: From my own personal knowledge, I think it is definitely waking people up.
In the protests that I know of and personally, and I've been involved in
I have family friends that have been on the front lines personally, and have seemed like they will get on a Black person in the second a White person walks in front of them, they'll backup.
They'll use them as shields or whatever because they for whatever reason firmly believe that we are less than or are our bodies and our opinions and our feelings don't matter.
And a lot of a lot of people, they didn't realize this was the truth. I feel like a lot of people have firmly believed for years that racism was over.
And that in certain situations, like, oh, we've heard a lot of he must have done something to deserve it.
They must have done something there must have been prior information that we don't know about. But to be out there and seeing firsthand for themselves for the first time, some of them forever
and then seeing that, like, there is no reason. Sometimes they really just do what they want to do. It's eye opening for a lot of people
and it's shocking to them because they've never had to experience that for themselves.
Tamarra: Thank you. Madison.
Can we move to the next slide please?
Okay, um, this question is sort of moving in to our campus and away from the larger society. But I think a lot of what we may see on our campus is just a microcosm that right, a smaller version of what exists in the in the larger world.
How do you think you're viewed or perceived as a Black male student on our campus and sort of paired with that, if it's relevant, um, can you relate to the situation with Christian Cooper, the Black male birdwatcher
and Amy Cooper, the white woman who called the police on him?
And actually, I want to go to the Black male students that are on the panel
and ask those questions. So Tim, do you mind starting?
Tim: Sure, um...for me, like, personally, I haven't had
you know,
any problems. I was Moorpark for three years just finished up.
I feel like I do, does the same. I didn't really dealt with anyone give me like a hard time about anything, um,
and I actually can't relate to the situation. I've never been in a situation like that, but I just, I still feel like
that
calling on someone when they're like, you know, just for example like Christian Cooper was recording because it was just, you know, put the leash on the dog.
And because you're supposed to have it at the park and she just took it on a way a whole different level out of fear and I feel like
why, why are we feared like there's no reason? Like, I understand, he's recording you, but you don't need to start lying about, you know why he's recording so.
Tamarra: Sorry, I was muted. Gerald, do you want to respond to
that?
Gerald: Yes, I will. Um, my presence. I'll answer the first part of the question. My presence, on Moorpark
um, I would consider it as hostile it's oftentimes perceived as inconvenient, aggressive and if, when I'm not that I'm oftentimes disregarded or invisible.
and although people and my two years at Moorpark have not directly called me the N word or haven't been
directly racist, there is a sort of covert racism that happens on this campus and there is a certain implicit bias that goes on and when we report it it's oftentimes disregarded. So that's just my perspective.
Tamarra: Does anybody else want to respond to that question, even just thinking about
the perception of Black males of Black male bodies?
Madison: I'm speaking for some of my own personal friends that I've made through BSU and through being involved with our football team,
a lot of you know that a lot of our students that are on the team are not from California. So they're new to our culture and all kinds of stuff because everybody says California's different, but I've talked to many of them that have felt
I personally had can't say this because I grew up in this and I, in some ways, kind of nose blind to the
subtle things that happened, but I've had multiple of them say that they felt judged by their attire, or the way that they carry themselves or they've had teachers that have cowered walking down raider walk
and you know me, just trying to, like, oh, you know, "maybe you just took it the wrong way," and then I had to stop and sit with myself and be like,
no, this is how they're feeling and it's a valid feeling and it's something that needs to be addressed and brought up and
there's a bunch of subtle racism that happens, we do have a great staff and we have great people and great contacts, but
for somebody that especially is not from California, if you don't know that those things are accessible to you Moorpark can be a very cold and lonely campus 100% for our minorities.
Johnny: If I may, there is a question asking more about the covert types of racism on campus and want to maybe give more specific examples of what that looks like from our students perspective.
Tamarra: So I'm going to make two comments regarding guards to the comments that students just made, and then I'll put the question back out to you about specific examples on campus.
As a faculty member, I have had several Black male students transfer out of some instructors classes and into my classes for this very reason that they felt like they were perceived in a particular way or they felt like their bodies
were threatening or at least that was the experience that they had
with the instructor, and I've also had students say that's the feeling that they had with other students in the classroom and students not wanting to work with them.
I can't speak to what that feels like, because that's not my experience, but I can speak to what those students have said to me, and why they've decided to take my class.
The other thing I want to point you in terms of, you know, we could have a discussion forever about whether or not this is racism but I often find myself walking around campus
and hearing the N word. Hearing, well nigga all around me and I turn around to look, and I see that it's a group of kids who aren't Black.
This is a conversation that I have in my classrooms, because I think somebody needs to have a conversation with the students about this
at some point and somewhere, and often the texts that we are reading in my classes bring up issues regarding race, class, and gender. And once the students
realize that it's okay that we can have this discussion, we have a very interesting conversation about the use of that word.
But I just want to say from me, a person who doesn't use that word, especially not in those ways,
I do realize that our students are using it differently than maybe some of us of older generations. But I also want us to recognize
why that word is problematic, right, and I think these are conversations that we need to be having and we can't just throw that off and say,
"well, that's how the young kids talk to each other now. It's in hip hop music. Well, that's how the Black kids are talking and my friends and they allow me to say it." I hear White students say,
"my, my Black friend gave me a pass, right? Like they have a, you know, temporary Black card that they're allowed to use that word.
Whatever they're thinking in their context, I can't imagine that no matter how much a student says to their White friend that it's okay you can use it,
that I can't imagine that there's still not some effect or there's some pain or there's some feeling behind that. And I think that, you know, maybe something to have a conversation about at some point on campus.
But to Johnny's point in a question from the Q&A, are there specific specific examples that any of you can point to of whatever you're feeling on campus, more than just saying you're feeling uncomfortable, but incidents?
Go ahead Latanya.
Latanya: I'm gonna go back a little bit.
Um,
there was a time I felt extremely uncomfortable
and again I don't want toot, you know, my own horn or anything like that. But when I first started the process to have the Black Student Union reorganized at Moorpark college, I was told by the Associated
Students Department that it would be impossible to have in a certain amount of years. There will not be any advisor, there will be no one that will want to lead out and want to help you reestablish this organization. And
at that point, you know, I just said I pretty much know what this is about. This campus is 1% because I did my research, then it was 4% and I totally got it and I understood it,
put in the, you know, the leg work or whatnot. And, um, you know, that's why we're here today. We're able to have this panel so we can continue to address, you know, this.
We, I have been discouraged and out of the 2% of students this one the College or Moorpark campus have been discouraged in the classroom, out of the classroom
and, yeah, it's there. It's there, and I just really feel like we should have more, you know, discussion
as a student body, not just as BSU, but as a student body. So we all can, you know, be comfortable and be able to you know coincide, and not feel any difference among the different, you know...
I don't like saying racist, because I just, I don't see it that way. But, you know, just so it wont be a clash, so we can all, you know, just be able to rejoice and be comfortable, but it's definitely there.
Tamarra: Thank you for sharing that Latanya.
Anybody else?
Madison: Um, I had a similar instance where
I was looking to transfer to a historically Black college, and so I went for drop-in counseling, and I was like, "hey, these are the schools I'm looking at, um,
can you try to work out an ED plan with me so I can see what class, I need to take." And they were like, "we don't have any information on that." And I was like,
"Okay, do you know how I could get some?" And basically the counselor sat there and tried to talk me out of applying.
She basically told me that I wasn't going to get as good of a Business degree from those kinds of colleges and that I should really look
to stay in California because, you know, California schools are better when it comes to Business, which I did through my own research found out that is actually not the truth.
California is one of the best, but there are plenty of historically Black universities that blow California out of the water, but it was basically, I was just met with
well, I don't know anything about it and I don't want to learn anything about it, so,
if you want to know, like, and basically kinda just like redirecting like, let's make your ed plan based on you going to Cal Lutheran, right, let's make your ed plan based on you going to CSUN, and not listening to me as a student, because of where I wanted to attend.
Tamarra: Thank you, Madison for sharing.
We'll move to the next question. Next slide please.
I guess this is a similar question, but maybe there's some more specific answers to this. When you're in the classroom what is the vibe that you get from your classmates?
You feel like you're part of the class, the group, the college?
Latanya: Um, no I
it just depends. If I am the only Black
student In the classroom, then I won't feel welcome, um
when it comes time to, you know, voice an opinion or, you know, give my answer to a question that's being asked by the instructor, you know, sometimes, you know, be a simple [laugh]
you know, and I just, you know, I would never
say anything because I didn't want to come off as, oh, as they would say, you know, you're trying to have the Black privilege or you're trying to make Black problems on a
you know, predominantly, you know, Caucasian campus. So I've always kept it to myself, but for the most part, um,
it's definitely a vibe, and especially, you know, I'm not, I'm not gonna sit here and lie. I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
The sweater and when we have Black History Month, we had our event, and I was like, kind of scared to wear the Black History Month t-shirt
because I was getting stares, you know, on my way to class, like, you know, like. Who is she or why, you know, or just saying, oh, you know, Happy Black History Month. Oh I know about this, you know, past leader, this and that.
It was just a very uncomfortable feeling. And to be honest, I was really, you know, I did cover up, like, to be honest. So it's definitely a vibe while being Black on campus.
Tamarra: Thank you for sharing that Latanya.
As a person who organized some of those events for Black History Month, that makes me very sad, right, that something that's supposed to be celebrating who you are and a culture of people and there's fear inside of being proud about that, of visibly displaying
a sense of pride about that. That's a problem. That's a real problem.
Any other responses to that? Gerald, do you have any thoughts about or can you share with us?
Gerald: Um, yeah. Oftentimes when I'm in classes, again, it's like a burden of my Blackness. It's like
i'm afraid to ask the questions. I'm afraid to speak up, because when I do, it's always an issue. So that's kind of my only experience with that. I don't really feel welcomed,
and I'm always underestimated, if that makes sense? And then I feel like there's a higher standard for me than it is for other students.
Tamarra: Underestimated. Can I ask you a follow up question Gerald? Gerald: Absolutely
Tamarra: When you say underestimated, and I could be completely off track so, correct me if I'm wrong,
do you feel like
you're not smart enough in the classroom or the perception is that you're not smart enough or capable enough or knowledgeable enough or...
can you explain to us what you mean by underestimated?
Gerald: Yes, so I believe it's the perception that I don't know the answer, that I'm not smart enough, that I'm gonna drop this class because it's too hard, that
like I feel like teachers almost have the premise that, why should I answer this question? He's not going to survive the first two weeks of the class.
And it's always uncomfortable. It shouldn't be uncomfortable as a student to ask those questions, especially when my White peers are emboldened to ask questions, if that makes sense.
Tamarra: I want to ask this question because I
think this is important and I think this is a big part of the larger problem that other people don't really see.
So we're talking about what we are experiencing from the outside, right? And whether it's from our classmates, faculty members, our vibe around campus, whatever that may be. Do any of you feel like, and I will
put myself out there and confess to this as...and I'll use the term successful and successful I am in many ways in my life. I often feel like when I walk into rooms that
I do have those things where I'm underestimating myself, and I often wonder where that comes from, right, what creates that in as particularly as Black people
that we walk into a room fully capable, but somehow we're questioning who we are, amongst other people, particularly White people who don't look like us, right? And we very well may be the smartest person in the room,
but there's something that's happening in the larger world that might be affecting that confidence. Can any of you guys speak to that feeling at all?
Madison: Absolutely to what Gerald was just saying
being underestimated. I also think that, and I know this is another question that's going to come up later in the slideshow, but
it makes a difference.
I think that the thing that you learn, the more you're in colleges, it's not necessarily the fact that you show up to every single class every day, it's the additional work that you do outside of the classroom, right? So
while I've had a whole bunch of amazing teachers,
anytime anybody ever asked me what teacher to take, I scream at the top of my lungs Perry Martin.
Because I didn't understand that
there's a difference in having teachers that are great and that are making sure you're doing good in the class, and having a teacher that pushes you just that much further, and he doesn't just do this for his Black students but like he makes it a point to
continually question you and continually make sure that you are striving to be your best. So whether that's him holding you after class and going, hey, you weren't on it today, get it together. Or him saying, I know you want to do X, Y, and Z, but why do you want to do X, Y and Z? And it's
important. It's important to have somebody that look like you understand when you're, I don't wanna say copping out, but understand that like
extra is needed to do...You can't just do the bare minimum and get the full experience. So, to Gerald's point, sometimes teachers do underestimate us. Sometimes we feel like, you know what, they don't care about what I'm turning in any way so I'm just going to turn in whatever I have,
and they won't go any deeper than that because some of them only expect the bare minimum
from us. So I won't say that I've had that experience a lot because I've had
a plethora of amazing teachers who have worked with me and made sure that I got done what I needed to get done, but it does hit differently when it's somebody that
has experienced exactly what you're going through and they make sure that you don't slip through the cracks, or cop out, or that you're getting the kind of attention that everybody else is getting.
Because Gerald's right and Latanya's right, sometimes we don't want to stand out too much because then it's like, oh,
she's annoying or, oh my gosh, why isn't she getting it. And it's like okay am I not getting it because
it's a hard subject to comprehend? Am I not getting it because I'm too afraid to ask questions, because I don't want to be that girl that seems like, oh, I don't know the answers because classmates might think X, Y, and Z about me?
We always have to be on point. We always have to work harder and do more and I feel like that's a difficult standard to always have to uphold all the time.
Tamarra: Thank you, Madison.
Latanya or Tim did either
of you want to chime in?
Johnny: Professor Coleman I do have another question for the student panel that I can, if you don't, if I may.
This is, you know, speaking about the students experience in the classroom with their peers and professors and faculty members. There's a
question regarding about leadership faculty and staff and what those folks intend to do to help support our Black students further and really posing that question to the students on what's actually, what type of actual health interventions would you guys like to see?
Latanya: Um,
I would like to see...
I don't know how to
say it because it was a big controversial topic about a couple years ago, but I think we need more courses
that touch bases
on the Black community. We need more African Studies implemented back into our curriculum as opposed to just having a Black student body to, you know, be informative about the history.
If there's any, you know,
events that come up...
I just feel like the campus, I just feel like the school needs to be more educated about the Black community. Not of today, but then.
And, you know, with media and things of that sort of the positive and not just the negative, because I think we are portrayed to being portrayed as in the negative opposed to the positive, you know, like, you know, a lot of people know top college graduates are African American.
You know, a lot of attorneys, a lot of African American doctors and, you know, for us, college perspective and me just talking to the student body
outside of the, you know, the Black student body, you know, a lot of students didn't know, you know, a lot of students didn't know really anything, not to say anything but a lot of our history. So I really feel like some curriculum or something needs to be implemented back in to colleges.
Tamarra: Thank you, Latanya.
Can, can I just kind of jump out on a limb and ask David and Simon. How do you think a
Black History course or Black Literature course or some course that teaching about what Latanya is talking about, how would that benefit you?
David: I think personally, it would give me a good insight into the Black culture that we, I feel like a lot of us or most of us take for granted
in our society, just because of how much we've taken from it.
Um, but first I'd really like to know, where did we get all these influences? Where did they come from within the Black community and within Black culture and from the countries that Black people are most prevalent, and have
yeah, maybe, maybe an entire Black Studies course would be a good course to have. And if not, or in addition, have a lecture or two on
Black culture, whether it's in a US History class or Western Civilization class or World History class. I haven't taken a world history class but.
Just in any of those classes have an extra lecture that pertains to the Black culture specifically because, I mean, it is important, we should learn about other cultures and especially the Black culture, just because of how much influence they have over our current culture.
Tamarra: Thank you, David.
Simon: Yeah, to, uh, to second what David said, kind of as White people, we kind of have the privilege of not really having to be aware or having experienced the problems on campus that people have been talking about and
I think that's a problem and I think that anything that informs us of
problems that we're kind of blinded to because of our privilege, anything that does that is ultimately going to be helpful.
Tamarra: Thank you, Simon for that.
Anything else to add on that before we move to the next question?
Gerald: Yes, I'll kind of expand on Latanya's point, I really agree with her. I think sort of like we have an IGETC sheet. I think that should be one of the requirements
that all students should have to do because it's extremely important and I think that kind of could serve to combat some racial issues.
But in addition to that, I think we need to sort out how we have sustainability committees and multicultural day committees, which are genius and which are definitely needed, absolutely. I think we should have a Black lead
committee or commission on Racial Equity or Racial Relations, or a committee somehow regarding that if that makes sense.
Tamarra: Yep.
Latanya: And I just wanted to add to what David was saying
in Black US history and, you know, that the history is there, and nothing's perfect but, I'm going to be completely honest, between two campuses
we'll probably get three days to a week, talking about Black History. So that's why I felt like I think\ a course, it self, in a nut shell, would be great for the campuses, not just for Moorpark but for all undergrad campuses.
Tamarra: I think that's a key point and as a person who has
worked on developing curriculum in both Ethnic Studies and also Women's Studies, I think the only way that we, you know, that the problem that started this conversation about was racism that we're seeing in our streets and police
brutality and such, right? And so we're talking about what do we do to combat that. Is a course going to change that? No, it may not fix it, but what it will do is educate
people on other people, right? As opposed to us carrying around these stereotypes and misunderstandings of who they are and I think all of us both Black and White and other ethnic groups
will be enlightened by courses that really give us the truth of who Black people are and we don't have that, it's an option, right? Well, in our society, I think some of us need to be required to to learn. Next slide please.
Um, well, this is kind of related to what we've been talking about. I think you guys have more insight into these questions that we put together and they're all sort of connected but
if there are specific responses that you all want to make to this, that would be great.
Do you see yourself and your cultural experience reflected in the curriculum? And by curriculum, what are you doing in the classroom? What books are you reading? What are you having discussions about? What do your assignments look like?
Do you see that in your courses here? Yourself and your culture being reflected back to you.
I think Latanya you had a response to that.
Latanya: Number Nine, or number eight?
Tamarra: Number six.
Latanya: Oh we're on six.
Yeah, I did. I think I made my point. Yeah I did, but I, you know,
I just get the vibe, especially as a, you know, a Black woman or a Black student
Black girl attitude, oh, you know, she's always perceived as snapping my finger or, you know, and yeah, that, that, you know, I get that vibe, I've gotten that vibe
I kind of got lost on the question.
Tamarra: Oh, you're referring to the vibe from your classmates?
Latanya: Yeah, I don't know if we are referring to six, right?
Tamarra: I may have a
missed number, but the question on the screen is about curriculum. And I think you did say something about the need for that type of curriculum that reflects Black people and Black culture and history.
Latanya: Yeah, and even I did and I just wanted to add this, even if we have a showcase a book where, you know, I don't know how buyers are the one book all you guys can't see it, but if we have more books, if we have more, you know, pamphlets we have or, you know, do anything with a paragraph or two.
to be informative to the campus, that would be great but that was it.
Tamarra: Thank you.
Other thoughts on this question? I know we kind of talked about it a little bit but anybody want to add to this?
Okay, we can move to the next question. Next slide please.
Um,
Is it important for you to see black faculty and staff on campus?
And I will leave that for any of you to respond to.
David: Yes.
Madison: 100%
David: Short
Short answer, yes.
Pretty personally, I have seen. I have seen a lot of people, a lot of different professors from different ethnicities and different countries.
But I don't know how many African American people, professors, I have seen. It would always be nice, it's always nice to see
an African American Professor on campus.
Also because they represent the African American community on Moorpark College campus.
Tamarra: Can I ask you, David, how that benefits you?
David: It benefits me
The way it benefits me is that I see that there's more diversity to Moorpark College than just what meets the eye, and to some
what meets the eye may just be that people may think, oh, it's just all white here, but really that's not true. And I want to show that, hey,
we have everyone here. We have white, black, Hispanic, Asian, whoever and, uh, however many people you want.
And to see a black professor is like they are the figurehead of the black community. Seeing a white professor, they are a figurehead of the white community at Moorpark. So that's why I thought it benefits me.
Tamarra: Thank you. David: Yeah, I like to see that there's that community.
Tamarra: Thank you, David.
Tim: For me, like most definitely as well. Really, at the beginning, like when I was at Moorpark maybe the first year, I think it was just the first year. I only knew
Johnny and Professor Lumas, right? But then like, for example, like Professor Coleman, I think I met my second year, which I wish I knew her earlier. And then
Perry Martin, like, I did a panel. I did a panel my last year and a student panel like similar to this but less people. And obviously, it was just about us on campus. But,
like, I didn't like know about him. I actually had him in an online class like for business.
And if I hadn't, like, known how good of a teacher he is and all the good things people said about him, maybe I wouldn't have taken that class online, you know, and I didn't get a chance to like experience the
whole dynamic of him in a classroom. So that's why I had like Bryson take him and
this like to help them out, like for the semester. Like, I wish I could have, but I just didn't have space to take him, you know, so just knowing
more staff and faculty like earlier, I would have benefited more I feel like.
Tamarra: Tim, in what ways would you have benefite?
Tim: I don't know cuz like I feel like I'm close like I've known
by knowing professor Lumas and Johnny. So I feel like I can go to them for stuff, you know, and it's kind of like I have my own life I have questions. I tend to talk, like me and Johnny have a lot of conversations all the time, you know, and I feel like I could have had that connection
with others. Let's say with you, with
Professor Martin, like I just feel like
It'd be easier to talk like it's like the inside people, if that makes sense, you know. Like I would say click but, you know.
David: Yeah.
Tamarra: It's the question from the book. Why are all the white people sitting together in the cafeteria.
Is there some connection, is there something that you can connect and relate to that you may not get in other places? Latanya or Madison, or even Gerald, do you want to respond to that?
Madison: Yeah, I was just gonna say it's really the difference between, I sympathize with what you're going through, and
I understand what you're going through. It's the difference of, I've been in this position before, like especially because when there are staff or there is
faculty that is, that looks like you. It's the difference between like, I've been where you are already and this is how I was able to navigate it and...
Just being able to sympathize, because you will never fully understand what it's like to be a black person if you're not one. You can sympathize with us. You can
educate yourself as much as possible, but you will never be able to see that you've been in my shoes.
And that affects the way you teach, that affects the way...coming from somebody who took childhood development classes and
who wanted to be a teacher for a while like, there is a very big difference in the way you teach based on your life experiences.
There's a difference in the way that you handle certain situations. There's a difference in how you speak to people based on what you have personally gone through.
So Johnny, for example, was way better than any other counselor that I met with simply because Johnny understood why I wanted what goals I wanted
and didn't just dismiss my thoughts because they might be difficult for him to find an answer. Because he knows what that's like to have somebody dismiss your thoughts, because the answer that I'm looking for is a difficult one.
That really makes a difference. It makes a difference to go all day not seeing anybody that looks like you
in a setting where people are clicking on different levels because we're the same age, or we look alike, or we've known, like it's different
having everybody else have a sense of community around you, and then you see a professor Coleman, or you see a Professor Martin. And partially because there are so few of us they remember your name, they remember your face, they, they
make it a point to go out of their way and it's different. It hits differently and it makes you feel more comfortable on campus to know that
if there's a situation where there is a racial situation, because I had a friend who went through that, it would have been different for her to go talk to a counselor that was white than if she would have talked to
a black counselor which she went to go see, like it's different because to, for example, what we're seeing on the news. You see a white lady looting and they're saying Oh, well, let's just hope that she works at the store.
Whether you're intending to have that bias or not you have it. Whether you're intending to try to defuse the situation you're going to do it differently because of
the experiences that you've had in your life. And so having black faculty and staff makes a world of difference, and knowing that they're accessible to you also makes a world of difference.
Tamarra: Thank you, Madison, for sure.
Other responses?
Gerald: I agree with Madison. For me, it really surpasses importance. Like having Professor Coleman, Director Conley, Professor Hopkins,
people that I could go to and people that can identify with my blackness, and helped me with issues that they could only relate with
is so invaluable to me and I'm very grateful for that. However, what's more important to me is having black people in positions of power to not just be figureheads, to actually
promote equity on campus and actually kind of relate to my black identity because, I think what I want
to express is that Black Lives can't just matter when we're being slain the street, they have to matter in our classrooms, and they have to matter on our campus.
And empty platitudes of sympathy, they can't just be performative they have to actually matter and we have to put them into effect. And that's all.
Tamarra: Gerald. I gotta give you the
Activist snap on that one. (laughing) Gerald: Thank you.
Tamarra: Thank you, Latanya. (laughing)
Um, I'm going to move to the next question, unless folks want to respond. Any additional responses to number seven?
Next slide please.
And I think actually we may leave this for the last question because number nine I feel like we've already talked about in some ways, and I know our time is getting short.
But, I do want to ask, the question is framed for black males. But if there are other responses, Madison Latanya that you want to add to this
question please chime in. But as a black male, what is your experience like off campus in this community, and by in this community we mean the community in which Moorpark is located, because some of us don't live in that community, right?
Tim: Yeah, I could hop on on this one. Um.
So I live in the San Fernando Valley, and if you know about the valley it's a melting pot, really, you could say. So I'm used to, like, just all all types of races, whatever is fine, and I have no problem with anybody period, right. So...
but it's just you could tell the diversity is different, you know, coming from the valley and then maybe in like Simi Valley, for example.
The only, like, and I haven't really had like any experiences. The only like really weird experience that I had was, I think it was my second year, and is when Jenise was still the
president of BSU and it was like me, Bryce and Trey and Janise. We went to the habit like after meeting to go eat. And I was driving, I think, and then
we're in Simi, and I happened to look to my left, and there was like a truck and it had like a Confederate flag in the back, and I was kind of like
Did I just like see that like I was kind of shocked and like you know there's four black people in the car right next to it. So I'm like, do I want to like
you know, make attention to this. Like it was just a trip because I have never seen that really in the valley. You know, so I don't know, that's just some that...
if anything, but other than that. Yeah.
Tamarra: It sounds like
Even without somebody's behavior,
there was something that was symbolic of something that caused you to feel a certain way.
And, I think, I just want to say really quickly. I think that's an important point you make, because oftentimes people think, well, it's just a flag or, you know, it's just a statue. Symbols have meaning and clearly your response of just simply a flag.
affected you in some way.
Tim: Yep. Tamarra: thank you Tim.
Other responses?
Latanya: Oh man, but I just say, I guess that
My friends off campus
In the community or is it just in general a community
Tamarra: In this community where the colleges is.
So, Simi, TO, you know, around this area.
Latanya: So I haven't thought about that.
Tamarra: Thank you.
Madison: We come to Madison stomping ground. Tamarra: [laughs]
Living here my entire life I have a lot of experience in this community. It is sharp, to say the least.
My senior project when I was in high school was a documentary called the 1% where I documented what it is like to be black in Thousand Oaks, where the population of black people at the time that I filmed this was .01 percent.
I've had women when I walk down the store in Target clutch their purse, because I went down the same isle as them.
I've been there where store clerks are staring at me, assuming I'm stealing, when my white counterpart is walking around robbing them blind.
It's an experience. And it's not even just always
the in your face, it's the subtle things that you notice that people don't think you notice like...
To you, you clutching your purse little tighter when I walk down the aisle is something that you don't even know that I noticed. But as an eight year old, I noticed that. As a child to have to repeatedly feel like
is there something about me that should be different? It messes with your head, it messes with your head a lot and I feel like it messes with your self esteem, it messes with
the way you look at yourself, or the people around you.
It is in some ways, improving, but in other ways not at all.
It's hard. It's hard to know your worth outside of what other people think about you anyway. It's hard to constantly
feel like you have to prove yourself. The thing I've said time and time again. It is horrible being a child that is black in a predominantly white neighborhood, because at all times of every hour of every day I have to be a constant representation of my entire race
always. I can't just be loud because I'm Madison and I'm an extrovert. I'm loud because I'm the loud black girl.
I can't just like certain things because I like them. I like them because pop culture. I can't like the way I look until somebody else like a Kylie Jenner makes it okay.
It's hard. It's hard and it's difficult, which is why my parents made it a very big point to constantly remind me of who I was and
the type of person that I am outside of what anybody else thought. To Tim's point, the valley is a melting pot. My mom made it a point to take us to the valley so that we saw people that look like us.
But yeah, it's definitely a different experience than if you live in the valley or if you live in LA.
There definitely is a lot of subtle racism that goes on in the community, whether people want to address it or not, there is.
And it's not even all the time putting people down. It's the experience of, oh, I think you're cute and I like you, but I can't bring you home because my grandparents would hate you.
Little stuff like that that I have heard time and time again. That really starts to mess with your psyche and even more as a black male,
You're seen as you only live out here because you're a jock. You only live out here because you are offering some kind of athletic ability. It's never
oh, you got here because you're smart. They never assume that first, ever. Or if you're upset or frustrated, you're scary. You're not allowed to be upset or frustrated publicly ever.
Tamarra: Thank you. Madison. Latanya, Did you just? Go ahead.
Latanya: I want to add after we're done with our questions. I wanted to bring up something up to ask
Tamarra: Can you...
Can you ask that question again,
Or make the statement? I didn't hear that too well.
Latanya: Oh, I don't know continue with the question or if we are done and now I meant to ask question after the question.
Tamarra: Okay, no problem. Is there anything else that any of you want to add to this particular question?
Okay, Matt, can you move to the next slide please.
And I think this is something. A couple of you talked about this, this idea of a double standard.
And unless you all have additional things that you want to add to it in terms of expectations. Like, what do you expect as a black student that may be your white counterpart is not necessarily expected to do. There were a couple of responses
to that.
I know we're getting short on time here. I think we're kind of at 2:30. Johnny, Can you give me a little bit of direction here.
Johnny: Yes, we've got about a couple of minutes before we wrap it up. There was a couple of things in regards to net steps,
and we do have a poll question to give out to the audience to kind of gather some data and then kind of close up. And this potentially could look, you know, moving to a part two discussion, but I think we do need to kind of wrap up.
In regards to be respectful of time, other folks have other meetings to go to. And we did commit to 2:30, so we are getting to that two Minute Warning.
Tamarra: Okay. Latanya. I'm gonna let you make your last point, and then we'll move into thinking about what our poll what the next steps.
Or what to do.
Latanya: Okay, so I can ask my question really fast?
Tamarra: Sure.
Latanya: I just wanted to add
The
I don't how to ask this question, but the President of Moorpark, the Associative Students, whoever else can have an involvement in this, but
as a member of Black Student Union
And I'm speaking for the Black Student Union and body. We wanted to know if there is some kind of way we can get a permanent home room for our organization. So we can, you know, just have some where we can you know hold our meetings. My event is rejoicing, Black History Month
You know, you know, anything, a room that we can go to as far as
being able to have, you know, a study hall or just somewhere where, you know, African American students, but others as well can come and, you know, study, you know, have lunch, rejoice in each other.
Talk about the future. So, you know, we can have a safe haven outside of, you know, constantly, you know, having to, you know, book the room and that's it.
Tamarra: I'm going to just throw this out here
really quickly, but, and I don't know how much time we have to talk about it. But I think Johnny, Kristen, and then maybe the president of the ASMC, that, wouldn't those areas respond, be able to respond to that?
Johnny: You're speaking about a physical location like a real actual room and I don't feel privy to be able to answer that question. I think that's another discussion with other administrators or
College leaders on the campus, but definitely something that we can obviously document from
this webinar to take that to our campus leadership executive team.
Kristen Robinson: Yeah. And this is Kristen Robinson. I completely agree. It would be actually my goal if or when we're able to renovate the Campus Center to give our clubs
a concerted space where it's only for their use because right now we know it's not easy semester to semester having to be
reserving a new room and not knowing okay, is this room going to be big enough? Does it have the technology that we need?
And then having to go back and forth with our business services. And unfortunately, that's the process now, but hopefully once the Campus Center is renovated if that is prioritized
we can allocate a space. I know that we've had some other clubs who have wanted to give their students a space, whether it's for meditation or prayer. And so there's a lot of different
things that we could do to better accommodate our students and it's just a matter of space is always an issue on campuses. I know that we're expecting a
a budget cut and so I'm not sure if right now is the conversation, but it's really great to hear an actual club say that versus me thinking it's something that clubs want because then that's better ammunition for when we go to
talk to our campus about prioritizing renovating the Student Union and really making it a space that our students can use
Tamarra: Thank you, Kristen.
Thank you, Latanya for sharing that and for bringing that to our attention. So if we move to the next slide, Are we moving to the pole?
Um,
Johnny: Yes. Tamarra: the way we want to kind of
think about next steps. Obviously we don't
have time to talk about it, but we'll certainly create another form to do that. In the poll that you'll see on the screen, it's asking,
giving you some options of things that we think are good ideas but maybe those aren't even good ideas. And so we'll need to talk about additional things that you might think are
good or useful as next steps. You can choose one, or all, or three, or how many of those options you think are useful but we're really asking what next steps would you like to see on our campus?
Opportunities for you to learn about your history, and culture and the history and culture of others, which came up in the panel.
More faculty and staff on campus that represent racial and ethnic diversity. A student Task Force working on racial justice, and I think I actually heard Gerald talk about that.
Opportunities for mentoring and relationship building. And finally culturally responsive support services like tutoring and counseling.
That actually came up in our discussion, the issue about wanting to look at HBCU's and feeling like the counselor didn't have adequate information to direct you
to those resources. So if you can complete the poll. Select the things that you think might be useful and click Submit. That will be really helpful for us.
This is kind of a technical question, so whoever wants to respond to this. I don't know if Johnny can or if somebody else can. Is the poll on the screen for everybody over the resources? Is that what everybody's looking at?
Johnny: We just popped up on the main screen on the main slide. So I just went ahead and submitted one myself and it just went into some sort of box that we can actually come with the data i'm assuming, to kind of provide
the data points. But right now we're looking at the resource page that I think that we should kind of discuss as we close.
Tamarra: These are some resources
that we have on campus. Again, the events happening
very acutely, right, in our country right now. I think have really had an impact on a lot of us, so we do have a mental health services on campus that you can contact if you need to talk about it and vent.
Kind of deal with some of these things from that perspective.
And then we also have a crisis text line where you can text in. Um, I don't know the complete details on this, but it sounds like you can do similar things that you would do with mental health, but you're sort of directly and immediately texting in questions that you may have.
If I'm not correct about that someone can chime in and correct me and then
Clarissa Green-Anicich: I, I would just want to review a couple great resources in addition to the ones that you have on this slide. Ayana Therapy is this great resource for marginalized communities.
And what it does is it matches you to a therapist of your race, it could be of your religion, it could be of your sexuality.
So it's a really excellent resource. Again, it's called Ayana Therapy and we also have this on our Student Health website page.
In addition, there's a really great app called Liberate. And Liberate is a app that's designed specifically for people of color that has meditations and lectures and I think the most upcoming lecture is on black love and rage and it's this Friday from 8:00 to 9:30.
And just excellent resources in addition to us at the health center. We're here for you. You can definitely come for free, confidential treatment with us but wanted to throw that out there.
Tamarra: Thank you. Clarissa.
And then finally,
issues related to our Associated Student Body group and leadership there was an email there for our president David Katz, who is also with us in the panel today and thank you for being available, David.
Johnny: Tammy, can you...
So I'm sorry we were, Matt, they wanted to get the pole again. There are some folks that maybe didn't get an opportunity to get a pole, but I'm just reading your text. Now that's a possibility. Here it is there. So thank you, Matt.
Tamarra: We'll give a few more minutes, we'll leave the pole up for people to complete. Um, I think that's our final slide there. One more slide, we've got some cool images and some acknowledgments to our groups on campus that have been particularly resourceful or
available and helpful for black students on campus, but also for other students
as well. The A2MEND group Black Student Union Veterans Resource Center, and of course our Associated Student
Body group.
Thank you all who have participated in this event. I think it was quite enlightening
to hear from the students and their perspective on these issues and how they're being affected. And I also think that for me as a faculty member and as a person who has been working on planning events and activities on campus, really reflecting equity and diversity and multiculturalism
to the students. And this was very helpful for me to think about what some of the things that you all are talking about might look like on campus outside of the classroom, but also inside of the classroom. So I thank you all for your honesty and your courage to speak.
Latanya: Thank you for having us.
Tamarra: You're welcome. Tim: Thank you.
Gerald: Thank you everyone.
Amanuel Gebru: Thank you, everyone, and thank you, Tammy for facilitating this and thank you to all our students in their perspective.
Madison: Thank you guys for having this event. Tamarra: Thank you, Madison
Latanya: Remember our face, remember our faces, talk to us when you see us on Campus.
Talk to us, we're here.
Tamarra: We'll never forget you, Latanya!
Tim: Never
Johnny: Well, again, thank you guys for showing up. We really appreciate it. We'll provide the data from the pole information
and then look for a follow up email on the next steps. Thank you all. Enjoy your day and be safe and healthy.
Khushnur Dadabhoy: Thank you Matt as well.
Mary Rees: Thank you.
Sharon Manakas: Thank you all.
David: Thank you everyone.