Twice As Good To Get Half of What They Have

by with One Comment EducationFeaturedGen Z

The cheating scandal involving Yale University, Stanford University and the University of Southern California, etc. has confirmed what people of color in this country have known for years: being wealthy and White stacks the odds in your favor.

Many people believe that being a hard worker, dedicated and honest will make any goal attainable. Sadly, that’s never been the case.

Federal prosecutors charged 50 individuals—including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman—for bribery. They bribed college officials by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to have their children’s standardized test results manipulated, fabricating their kids’ athletic credentials and having their children falsely diagnosed with learning disabilities for extra testing time, which was used to cheat.

The irony of this situation is not lost on me. This behavior is the exact type of “scamming the system” that people of color are often accused of. High school senior Kamilah Campbell from Florida had her SAT results flagged after retaking the test and going from a 900 to a 1230. Her results were deemed invalid and Campbell “felt like she was being accused of cheating.” After being unsatisfied with her original score, she received a tutor, utilized the Princeton Review Prep Book, and took online classes. Black people are often lectured, told not to expect handouts and to simply work harder if we want any semblance of success. Kamilah put in the extra work and was still punished for it. Whenever we make any type of strides, the goal post is moved once again.

I realized that parents involved in the scandal likely did what they thought was best for their children. This led me to remember the story in which a Black single mother was jailed for attempting to do the best for her kids. Kelley Williams-Bolar, a mother living in Ohio, was prosecuted on felony charges after using her father’s address to have her children enrolled in another school district. All Kelley wanted was to keep her children safe and give them access to a better education. She spent nine days in prison, was placed on probation for three years and given 80 hours of community service. Similarly, Tanya McDowell, a mother from Bridgeport Connecticut sent her son to a school in a different district and was convicted of first-degree larceny. Unlike Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, these women don’t benefit from the privileges of being White and wealthy.

The education system is not equal and children of color often get the short end of the stick when it comes to the quality of their education. Kelley and Tanya did what they deemed necessary to give their children better opportunities; however, Loughlin and Huffman had no reason to do what they did. Their privilege gave their kids access to the best tutors, internships, extracurricular activities, and connections that would have allowed their kids to succeed whether they were capable or not. These women should be prosecuted and be punished the way that the system punished Kelley and Tanya. In fact, these women should be punished to a much higher extent.

The most painful part of this story is knowing that money allowed unqualified students to be given spots at the country’s best universities; meanwhile qualified students who did the work necessary to excel legitimately were denied. I’ve witnessed firsthand the work that lower-income students put in so that they can fund their college education: spending hours applying for scholarships, working tirelessly to excel athletically/academically to receive full rides, going into debt from taking out student loans, and posting GoFundMe’s to receive the money to continue their schooling. This scandal comes as no surprise because the playing field is not, and has never been equal. Laughlin’s daughter, Olivia Jade, stated that she did not care about school, and simply wanted to attend for the “experience.” For many people of color, attending college is more than an experience. For many of us, college is a lifeline. It’s a chance for us to improve our circumstances and create the life that we dream of living. Olivia Jade reducing university to nothing more than a chance to attend games and party is a testament to how rich people live in completely different worlds than everyone else. This scam is a testament as to how even if lower-income people of color work twice as hard, the wealthy can rely on money to cut to the front of the line. 

Similar Read: Segregated Rosters

Learning From Black History

by with One Comment FeaturedGen Z

As everyone likely knows, the month of February is Black History Month. In this country, the topic of race tends to be a very sensitive one. The reason race is such a difficult topic to discuss is because nobody wants to be called a racist. Nobody wants to be called out and told that what they are saying or doing is wrong or problematic. However, what many people don’t realize, is that this kind of call-out communication is sometimes necessary. If a person of color takes the time to explain why something is offensive or harmful, it is important to really listen and understand. White people cannot decide for people of color what is and is not racist.

On the other hand, however, it is never necessarily a person of color’s responsibility to teach White people about their history. People of color should not have to carry the burden of educating White people. If you are not Black but you want to do something for Black History Month, take the time to learn some Black history for yourself. Black history is often not taught thoroughly in schools. In general, we really only learn Black history through the lens of American history — starting with slavery, and usually ending around desegregation and integration. However, we all know Black history didn’t start with slavery, and the hardships certainly didn’t end with integrated schools.

There are centuries of Black history prior to slavery that has essentially been erased. There are so many Black people in this country today who don’t know where they are from or who their family is. Absent history is a huge problem in the recording and telling of history. All it takes is for someone to decide that your storyline is unimportant, and suddenly it’s gone forever. The more you learn about Black history, the more you realize just how much is left out in teachings. 

The best thing you can do as a White person during Black history month is to listen and to learn. If we want to move forward in our society, we need to stop silencing people. We need to listen to these marginalized groups and stop assuming that we know what they need or what’s best for them. Take a step back and listen to those who are actually affected by racism and other race-related hardships every day. We are still far from true equality in this country. One Black president does not mean we have solved racism. We still have a long way to go in our society. If we want to make lasting change, we need to start giving Black people the power and the voice to be able to do so.

I’m Tired of “Wokeness”

by with One Comment CultureFeaturedGen Z

Wokeness. You’ve heard of this term. If you are a member of the Black community, you most likely have come across this term through everyday vernacular and if you are a student of color in college, this word has been thrown around in almost any conversation regarding equality rights and progress for underrepresented individuals in depreciated communities. Wokeness is a mental state coined by people of color declaring knowledge upon the current marginalization of Blacks, women, Latinx, LGBT+, poor, and working-class groups. What may have started out as genuinely powerful philosophy has transformed into a popular term. One that has enforced a mentality that progress is only through performative wokeness rather than different intellectual, conversational, and communal spheres.

I’m tired of “wokeness”. Because those who have used it have used it solely to advance their own purposes. We regurgitate the same information. We select individuals and praise them to push their agenda of “wokeness” that services individualistic people in the group. In the Black community specifically, social justice warriors tend to service straight BLack men the most. Their prerogatives seek to validate and confirm old information. Although this information is important and should be supported. Communities of color specifically Black communities have evolved into popularism and elitism online. Social Justice Warriors are influenced by who follows them as well as their audience. Black culture sells. And social movements are sometimes the sole proprietors of mass profit. If not “woke” individuals are benefitting from social enterprise, they benefit from popularism.

We thrive off popularism – especially within the college atmosphere. Where social media likes, retweets, and reblogs dictate and reinforce our success and popularity. As fluid and beneficial social media pages can be i.e. sparking movements like Black Lives Matter, pushing for clemency against wrongly indicted women, and exposing sexual offenders for the world to see, online popularity and social media effects are detracting from real-life conversations, progress and success that would be exhibited in college culture today, all masked in the ideology of wokeness.

However, wokeness has been tested time and time again in the real infringement and harm of certain populations. When media influencers that we love say something against the most popular rhetoric, when we disagree within a marginalized community there is an urge to cast out these people and continue a paradigm of “wokeness”. It’s a hierarchal approach that detracts and limits our conversations on how to fix certain aspects within Black communities. It makes popularism and what is most agreed upon the agenda of engagement instead of encouraging difficult conversations within educational institutions. I am not advocating for limiting knowledge on the difficulties that minority and certain populations go through. Instead, I am advocating for the humanization of these groups. That they are victims of systemic oppressions but also that they can be limiting to their approach of engaging different dialogue across lines. And until we eliminate performative wokeness, we cannot grow our community affairs, detracting from our philosophy of growth and progress.

[H&M Board of Directors] Diversity = 0%

by with No Comment Uncategorized

H&M is a global brand; but as you can see from the picture above, their board of directors lacks diversity, any diversity. The Stefan Persson family, the Swedish billionaire founding family, owns the majority of voting shares, and by any metric you prefer they’re clearly a successful brand.

However, “Coolest Monkey In The Jungle” is probably a phrase every business should know not to associate with black people in their marketing campaigns, let alone a young black male… especially a company like H&M, the second largest clothing-retail company in the world with more than 4,500 stores and 130,000 employees. At least you’d think they’d know not to do such a thing, but apparently not.

H&M has often used black models and other people of color to represent their brand. Just take a look at their 2016 Annual Report, which is their main snapshot and pitch to current and potential investors…

So if these are the images they portray to their investors, why would they think a young black male in a “Coolest Monkey In The Jungle” hoodie would fly?

Lack of diversity, pure ignorance? Either way, when will large companies stop making such careless mistakes that threaten their bottom line? The Weekend quickly responded and tweeted to his 8 million + followers that he would no longer be working with them.

The 24/7 meme creators quickly responded. Too bad this isn’t the image H&M released in an attempt to market their youth apparel.

Instead, they signed off on an insensitive and offensive image, which will probably end up being the first of many marketing blunders of 2018 that offends people of color.