Dark Girls: A Preview

I came across a really powerful preview to a film called "Dark Girls" that looks at issues around skin color, specifically darker skin tones, in the black community.

Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.


 The film seems to take a multidimensional approach to understanding why people feel the way they do about dark skin, using examples from popular culture, psychology studies, personal testimonies of internalized, intra/interpersonal, institutional and ideological oppressions, and others.

Please share with people you think would be interested because I feel that this film has the potential to have a strong impact on its viewers!

Burning Nanny

Shweyga Mullah worked as a nanny for two of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's grandchildren. When she couldn't keep one from crying, Aline, the wife of Gadhafi's son Hannibal, poured boiling water on her head. When Mullah was found her attacker and husband had fled the scene and she was left with bruises, scars and much patchwork to be done. Even though the burns were inflicted three months ago, she was still in considerable pain. The wounds and pain she feel can never be erased, but she rejoices at the fact that she is loved by god and have been blessed to have people support and help her. The Libyan health Minister, Naji Barakat stated "I think it's a crime against humanity," which indeed is true, this is absolutely disrespectful, immoral and completely degrading to any human to disregard them in such a way. She is only human and she cannot control the emotion of a child at all times. Sometimes children cry and if you cannot stop it does it mean we go around burning those who help us when we are in need. This act of dehumanization completely aggravates me and I refuse to see this SURVIVOR not see JUSTICE.

This was not only a horrific act to put someone through, but as well not the only time that this Aline had portrayed such hateful behavior towards servant of the Gadhafi household. As said by CNN, A man too frightened to reveal his name led CNN reporters to another one of Hannibal Gadhafi's properties, a gated, high-walled villa-like house, where the man said more abuse was meted out to staffers. This masked man stated, "Shweyga is not the only one," describing a Sudanese man who was also scalded with water after he burned an undershirt he was ironing, "Foreign staffers bore the brunt of the abuse." Another woman describes basically a prison cell that she had stayed in as a care giver to the family. This behavior is a form of discrimination, hatred, racism, and enslavement. These people were not given proper meals, dormitory or respect and that is the worst thing you can do is disrespect someone. I feel the most sympathetic to all these beings and wish nothing more than happiness for all of them.

Back at the burn hospital, Mullah faces months of recuperation and surgery. Her story generated enormous public response. So far, people have donated more than $16,000 dollars for her care. CNN is making sure that she receives proper care to be eligible to return home to her family. This relates primarily to the Women's Center because not only is it an act of violence against a woman, but against multiple workers because of their race and against servants in general because of the stigma attached to how people treat lower level classed workers. As an activist and advocate for the Women's Center this relates extremely to our mission of advocating for a violence, harassment free environment, as well creating an anti-racist, non-sexist queer-affirmative space for all to feel free, but I cannot ever truly feel free knowing in the world such acts are still occurring. I pray that all the places in the world like us fight as diligently to stop these acts.

"Spirit Day" of Action!

RSVP on Facebook and invite all of your friends!

Let's wear purple again for Spirit Day on October 20th, but this year let's take it a step further!

In response to last year’s high profile anti-LGBTQ-related suicides, thousands of people across the country wore purple on October 20th as a way to show solidarity with those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community struggling with bullying, violence, and harassment. Let’s make “Spirit Day” an annual day of both solidarity and ACTION. 

Wearing purple as a way to show unity and support for those in the LGBTQ community is just the first step! If you are on a college campus, create an event or bring in a speaker that focuses on ways to counteract bullying. Recruit a bunch of friends to volunteer with a local non-profit or organization doing LGBTQ advocacy work. If you already work for a great organization, organize an event for October 20th! If you don’t have any organizations around you, create a community project of your own! (A mentoring project, community art piece, etc...) Help to organize a “Spirit Day” event at your school or in your community that focuses on bullying and how LGBTQ youth (or those who are perceived to be LGBTQ) are often at risk of being on the receiving end. And don’t forget to actively challenge bullying whenever you witness it!

Submit and share your stories/projects/reflections on 

Tumblr: http://spiritdayofaction.tumblr.com/ 

Twitter: Follow us @SpiritDayAction | Tweet using the hashtag #SpiritDayofAction

And of course if you are unable to do any of the above, you can always WEAR PURPLE and spread the word!

This is GENIUS!

I love The Crunk Feminist Collective. Their writing inspires me to write more, even when I feel like no one is reading. Their work keeps me grounded as I work through my love/hate relationship with feminism and feminist spaces. Their words are a constant reminder that there other people like me who experience the complexities of feminism today, rather than just surface, non-intersectional,  second-wave notions of feminism.

And I also love that they write awesome Back-to-School Survival Guides! Follow the link to read in its entirety, but I just had to highlight a few of my favorite tips:

"Be your own best advocate. Prioritize your own professional needs/goals.

• You have not because you ask not.  You have to be willing to ask for what you need. You deserve transparency about the rules and procedures of your program, cordial treatment from faculty, staff and students, and a program that prepares you not only for the rigors of grad school but also for the job market (should you desire a career in academia).  But folks won’t hand it to you on a silver platter. You have to build relationships, ask questions, and make demands.
• Figure out your writing process (the place [home, coffee shop, library], time [morning, afternoon, night], and conditions [background noise, total silence, cooler or warmer] under which you work best and try to create those conditions as frequently as possible during finals, qualifying exams, and dissertation.

Be proactive about self-care.

• Figure out your non-negotiables. For me, sleep is non-negotiable. I must have it. I don’t do all nighters. I also generally don’t do weekends, so I adjust my schedule accordingly. What are your non-negotiables?
• Take advantage of on-campus therapy services. My last two institutions have had women-of-color thesis and dissertation support groups. Consider joining.
• Cultivate a spirit-affirming practice. Grad school/the academy is a mind-body-spirit endeavor. So meditate, pray, exercise, do yoga, go to church, cook a good healthy meal. Do whatever you need to do to keep your mind, body, and spirit in balance.

Be willing to get CRUNK!

• If the environment is hostile, it is most probably characterized bymicroaggressions of various sorts.  Racial microaggressions –“brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color– are quite common for women of color, but microaggressions can be used in sexist, heterosexist, or ableist ways as well.  A microaggressive environment demands resistance of various sorts. So do you and be you. Unapologetically.  Keep a copy of Sister Audre near by so you can make sure you’re channeling your legitimate anger productively, and then, get crunk if necessary."

Working in Higher Education while earning a Masters in Higher Education Administration feels like double the pressure at times. It's like I'm learning about issues of retention, diversity, intercultural communication, access and inequalities, then sitting (somewhat) idly by as they play out on campus. Ok ok...I suppose working in an LGBTQ Student Center that approaches campus diversity from an intersectional approach isn't all that idle...but issues and incidences of microaggressions on campus feel overwhelmingly much deeper and larger than my work sometimes.  

But that's my story...and I'll work it out! Either way...check out the guide, and thank you to THE CRUNK FEMINIST COLLECTIVE!

Bad-Ass Folk!

This month's Bad Asses are....MY AMAZING BOSSES for making the NYU LGBTQ Student Center a totally amazing place to work! I know you may be asking yourself why is this person trying to suck up to her bosses? Well that is a silly question because they probably won't read this, so there.

But in all seriousness, New York University was recently named the most LGBTQ-Friendly Institution in the US! The Princeton Review released it's annual ranking and once again NYU placed first, followed by Standford. Honestly, I'm not sure what criteria was used to earn NYU this ranking, but I know that my supervisors have definitely contributed greatly to campus climate. I love this work! Check out all the schools on HuffPo!

Post Racial? Yeah Right!

**Trigger Warning**



Click here to read more about this sad, sad story. 

I'm saying you should settle...

This upcoming presidential election is becoming more frightening every day. The Tea-baggers are strengthening, the Republicans are becoming more and more radical, and the Democrats seem to be giving in on major issues.  I get that Obama has absolutely fell short of my expectations as queer, as a woman, as a person of color, as poor, as a student...well as a lot of things. And it's easy to say that we need to teach him a lesson by not voting for him, but politics are not so black and white.

Let's say that Obama isn't re-elected...who then will speak for the issues you care about? Will this person have enough pull to actually win a primary or an election? What if we are so divided that an uber-conservative is elected? I know what a lot of queer folks are waiting for: inclusive federal Employee Non-Discrimination Act, and marriage. But where should we place our efforts, in a Republican, an incumbent, or a president who has kept a small percentage of his promise. As much as the tides have seemed to turn in this country, if Obama wants a second term, there is no way he will legalize federal civil unions or ENDA.

Obama isn't perfect. No politician is. But I'm hoping that the change I was promised will come in his second term. And if he doesn't do it on his own, you bet your ass I'll be there rallying and protesting and causing a ruckus... because he'll have no excuse. No second term to worry about. It'll be his chance to be the president I voted for.

I have hope, do you?

Queer Without Borders

It's only now occurred to me that I have yet to write about my final project, and the places I have gone and beautiful people I have met because of it.

When  I was Queer Peer Services Coordinator at the Ramapo College of New Jersey, I organized what we called Queer 101 Panels for various social issues classes. These panels basically consisted of 3-5 students with some sort of LGBTQ identity that would answer whatever inquiries their audience had. Having served on at least 50 of these panels myself, I  learned rather quickly what kinds of questions non-queer people had for me and my community. I've answered anywhere from "How old were you when you knew you were LGBTQ?" to "How do lesbians have sex?" Upon panel after panel, I realized that everyone had a unique story, and that I never grew tired of hearing them.

I decided to conduct and record my own Queer 101 Panels in South Africa! I began with hotel staff, moved onto queer peer educators at the local LGBTI community center, and finally ended with a group of university students.  I thought I would hear some radically different stories, but in truth all of their stories sounded so familiar. Aside from the obvious difference Apartheid tended to cause such as understandings of race, many of their narratives seemed as though they were slightly different versions of stories I heard many times before.

Their voices seemed to play on repeat. The struggle to identify their own sexuality. The anxiety around coming out to the family. The physical, sexual, and emotional abuse that seems to occur far too often in the LGBTQ community. Their many struggles with religion and spirituality. Their difficulty to find a safe and welcoming space to call home.

Their experiences have touched me deeply, and all I've wanted to do the past couple of days is to find more and more people to tell me their stories. But alas this South African journey is coming to a bittersweet end. What I take with me is that no matter how different a place may seem, we are all inevitably connected through basic human experience. Perhaps this experience is connected even more so when queerness is taken into consideration. Perhaps queerness occurs without borders! I consider everyone I've met a member of my queer community, and I'm so touched to have found a home here in South Africa.  I'm incredibly honored to have been able to meet so many wonderful, courageous people, and I know this journey is only the beginning!

P.S. I am not able to post my final documentary on youtube because of the safety and security of the people I interviewed, but if you are my facebook friend expect to see the final film soon! See everyone in the States!

Education as a Tool to Reconcile Racism

The question came up in class as to whether or not education can be used as a tool to help mend the racial divisions of Apartheid. While I think education is a good start, there are problems with the current education system that keep it from being as powerful a tool as it could be.

Racial interaction happens on two important levels in schools:

1. Student to student
2. Staff to student

While many schools have changed drastically in terms of racial demographics, many schools still contain a majority. The schools in the townships that we have learned about have been primarily Black, while more expensive less accessible schools schools in more suburban areas continue to educate primarily White students.  I'm curious as to how students make sense of their identities and interactions with those of other races when placed in a school where there are only a handful of people who look like them in their peer group. Unless the teachers are comfortable facilitating difficult conversations around race and reconciliation, will Apartheid simply become a history lesson rather than a recent system that affects current systems like education and the economy?

I use the word "staff" as opposed to educators in the second category of interactions for a reason. Race matters for educators and support staff. We visited the Oprah Winfrey school (no we didn't see Oprah despite my prayers), and I couldn't help but notice that while a majority of students were Black, there were very few Black teachers or administrators. In fact, the staff that was painting one of the dormitories were entirely Black. One of the tour guides of another group was commenting on how she preferred White teachers because Black people in South Africa weren't as educated or talented.  She was Black.

My tour guide expressed that she wished she has more White students in her peer group because she was told by a few White students that she had met from a different school that the Black Economic Empowerment Act was reverse discrimination. Oprah's school is technically for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, so there were only a few White students. This does somewhat fit the national populations considering there are far more Black people living in poverty than White. My tour guide didn't really understand that the school she was attending, and other programs like it, are more so to rewrite the systematic wrongs of Apartheid policy. Even though those policies went away, it will take decades for the system to function more equally.  To call Oprah's school or the Economic Empowerment Act reverse discrimination is to completely ignore historical wrongs.

I couldn't help but wonder how students at Oprah's school found mentors. Personally, I tend to seek out mentors that I have similarities with. Aside from Oprah herself, I was having a lot of trouble finding successful Black women with whom the students could look to for guidance. How many of those teachers and counselors really understand the students' struggles? And is success being defined as being more acceptable in White spheres? I wonder if that one tour guide would feel the same way about teachers in South Africa if she had more experiences with Black teachers in Oprah's school.

I have a lot more about staff-student interactions, but I need a little more time to process a recent experience. Until next week, but in the meantime please posts reactions and thoughts in the comment section!

Running Parallel

After interacting with schools, organizations, and folks from South Africa for three weeks, I can't help but to find similarities with the States.

Even though slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws ended several decades ago and Apartheid ended only two decades ago, they both have had long lasting impacts. These impacts can be seen both on interpersonal and institutional level. Institutionally, schools are still incredibly unequal in terms of resources and quality of education.  Schools with majority Black learners in the townships produce significantly less matriculating students than those with primarily White/Afrikaans learners. The one university program we visited in Soweto had a fairly diverse mix of students at the BA level, but diversity was lacking when I looked at the racial makeup of the MA students and professorial staff.

The poverty disparity in terms of race is also incredibly visible in almost every area we've been in. To be fair I haven't seen every part of South Africa, but after having visited Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and several townships I feel as though I've observed a fair amount of the major areas. But I didn't realize just how unequally wealth is distributed here until I found myself shocked in Durban to see White people asking for spare change. For the entire trip, up until this past weekend, I had only seen Black faces on the streets asking for food or money.  I didn't realize how desensitized I was to the racial background of , to a certain extent, until I was in a more urban area where the population wasn't as homogeneous as the townships.

In many communities, there is also a distrust and lack of emphasis on the importance of education.  The affects of an inoperable government and education system are still evident. Even though in theory everyone has access to some form of education now and the system is compulsory until grade ten, our observations show that students are held to the same expectations nor are they provided with the same affirmations. A course called Life Orientation is offered at many secondary schools, and is meant to provide practical life skills. It was discussed in my class that many White students are taught how to be good bosses/employers, while many Black students are taught how to be good employees. Expectations definitely affect performance and aspirations. If those who educate you tell you, either implicitly or explicitly, that you can only amount to subservient professions, you may begin to believe it.

Some of this may sound a bit bleak, but I have to ask myself, is it really all that unfamiliar?

I grew up in urban areas where the faces of those living in poverty were almost entirely the same color. The school districts New Jersey are also segregated along the lines of class with large implications of race.  School districts had unequal resources and student achievement suffered greatly. the majority of students in colleges are White, especially for upper-level degrees. Granted, the disparities are more striking in South Africa because the majority of the population is Black and not White, but both countries suffer from distorted representations in higher education.

Of course the countries are different, especially in terms of recent past versus distance past of government-sanctioned racism, but as I spend more time here I become more and more shocked by just how similar our current systems are.