Being Invisible: Asian American and Pacific Islander Students on Campus

This presentation’s purpose is to cover the issues that Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) students face as both the “model minorities,” a stereotype of being academically advanced with high achievement in the STEM field and being complacent with issues of social justice, and “invisible minorities,” underrepresented in multiple aspects in society, at Iowa State.

The AAPI includes more countries and regions.

The presenters started by asking a series of questions to participants, including has anyone been impressed by your English skills, have people assumef your intelligence, do you feel underrepresented in school.

One of the participants said ”English is my first language. People often assume I don’t speak perfect English after hearing where I am from and later complimented my English speaking skills.”

Another participant said, “Some Asian students don’t have a country to identify with, because they may be adopted or have been living in the U.S. for too long. So, they struggle to connect with each other.”

AAPI students are represented on campus by academic programs, including a five-year plan for Asian American studies program, culture based lunch offerings from ISU Dining and AAPI month celebrated at Iowa State in April.

Several survey results were showed later, which featured 124 responses.

Out of the survey participants, 61.1 percent of them said they have experienced discrimination, more than 60 percent said they are pressured by their parents to achieve academic success, more than half were pressured to pursue STEM majors.

By Mia Wang 

 

From Bobbies to Five-0 Policing and Community throughout History

Natasha Greene, patrol officer with the ISU Police Department for almost three years, and Carrie Jacobs, deputy chief, who has spent 16 years with ISU Police, presented about the history of law enforcement and certain abuses by American law enforcement.

Jacobs began discussing history of policing and started with Sir Robert Peel.

Jacobs said organized policing was initially supposed to be a form of community service. Jacobs discussed Peel’s principles of policing and there were three that stuck with her specifically:

Number two: To recognize always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.

Number four: To recognize always that the extent to which the cooperation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.

Number seven: To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

Greene acknowledged that some of the first forms of policing in the U.S. were groups doing slave patrols, although an organized police force had begun in Boston almost 70 years earlier.

Greene said it is important to acknowledge the influence of slave patrols on policing and systematic racism.  

Greene discussed the history of the Texas Rangers and how they were largely tasked with immigration patrolling and murdered thousands of Mexican people along the border.

Jacobs said motorized police patrols began to be the majority in the 1930s, which enabled faster police response, but started driving a wedge between police and the community as police were less available to the public.

Greene said diversification began in law enforcement in the mid-twentieth century, but that in many cases, it was simply for the optics. Green spoke of the black Atlanta Police Department started in 1948. The black officers weren’t allowed in the police station or allowed to fraternize with white officers.

Greene spoke of the Warren Court from 1953 to 1969, which ended legal segregation and made multiple important steps toward civil rights, including not using illegally obtained evidence and a right to a public defender.

Jacobs spoke of the Stonewall Uprising, where police raided a known LGBTQIA+ bar in New York. She explained the corruption of police and the mafia in New York and how law enforcement targeted anyone who they thought were members of those communities.

Marsha P. Jones and Sylvia Rivera, trans women of color, were leaders of the Stonewall Protests by founding STAR.

Greene spoke of a 1970 Chicano Moratorium march in East Los Angeles. The march was peaceful and police attacked the crowd toward the end of the day, four civilians were killed and several hundred were injured.

Local journalist and activist, who was unnamed in the presentation, was killed that day. The community viewed his death as a political assassination, Greene said.

“When we hear riot in the media, what they’re talking about is communities of color advocating for their safety,” Greene said.

Greene educated the crowd about Black Panthers and Brown Berets who existed to organize their communities and defend from law enforcement. Green brought up COINTELPRO, a federal program used to target and disrupt these groups through covert actions that created internal conflict.

Greene read a quote from the FBI describing COINTELPRO’s purpose as to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize” black nationalist movements at that time. Two hundred thirty five different COINTELPRO operations targeted black nationalist groups.

COINTELPRO also targeted the American Indian Movement.

Jacobs said to move forward and improve relations, it is important to acknowledge police brutality, both past and present.

Jacobs spoke of the militarization of local police forces which began increasing in the 1980s. She shared her belief that this is often unnecessary. Jacobs spoke of the 2004 Veishea Riot, which prompted ISU Police to purchase riot gear and train officers in crowd control.

Jacobs said she felt like a “badass” initially, which caused her to have an epiphany.

“I’d probably want to throw a brick at me too, If I saw that,” Jacobs said.

Greene spoke of the 1992 Rodney King riots following the acquittal of the four police officers who savagely beat an unarmed motorist. Greene said the graphic footage showed a reality to many that led them to realize that some communities are terrorized by police.

Greene said this even began important police reforms, both federally and locally.

Jacobs said that following 9/11, many large cities began to regress towards militarized police forces, driving a wedge between the public and police.

Greene also said it’s important to recognize that what they call a “guardian” mentality does not exist in all places, using Ferguson as a recent example. She said she wants to weep when she sees signs that say “stop killing us,” because it is the reality of some communities.

Greene highlighted initiatives of campaign zero, a follow-up to Black Lives Matter, and detailed how ISU Police is implementing it.

She included body cams, implicit bias training and true community representation in police forces.

By K Rambo

 

A Whole Lotta Women: Women in Blaxploitation Movie Posters

Blaxploitation movies were created in the ’70s and feature some things such as a white villain, excessive violence, black sexuality and plot themes usually mirror some Black American experience, according to Lauren Malone, the presenter of “A Whole Lotta Women: Women in Blaxploitation Movie Posters.” Some examples of these types of movies include “Super Fly,” “Proud Mary” and “Undercover Brother.”

Visual rhetoric terms and definitions

• Persuasion: What means do we use to persuade our audience?

• Rhetorical Appeals: ethos, pathos and logos

• Visuals/Text: How text becomes part of the visual and what it does for the overall argument?

• Figure/Ground: the figure is the focus of attention; the rest of the field is the ground

• Text/Visual: relationship of the text (words, typography, placement) to the visual

• Color: shades, hues, contrast, etc.

The purpose of this presentation, is not to come to a consensus on whether on not they are a good or bad representation of black women, “taking these ideas from African American rhetoric to putting them to these ideas of classic visual rhetoric,” Malone said.

Through the presentation, Malone presented different movie posters to discuss different visual rhetorical appeals and messages that the posters portray. In the poster for the movie “Coffy,” audience members examined the figure/ground of the image and how the poster creates a sense of identification for the audience. Malone spoke about how in posters like this, hair and hair style can be a type of identifier for women of color.

When looking at the “Foxy Brown” poster, Malone asked audience members to examine how empowerment plays out in the poster, specifically, what visual cues are clues toward power and empowerment throughout. Color was examined in a “Cleopatra Jones” poster.

As Malone moved through the different posters, she pointed out that each concept builds off of each other.

Malone asked members of the audience to group together and talk about a poster for the new “Proud Mary” movie and how all of the topics that were discussed on previous posters play out in this particular poster.

On the topic of identification, one audience pointed out that her natural hair depicts the evils weighing on her mind. Another pointed out that none of the men in the image are facing forward, almost in a passive stance.

After analyzing all of the images, Malone pulled up poster from the new “Black Panther” movie and discussed how conversations often stop after people identify whether they think the poster or advertisement is good or bad.

“When we talk about all of these concepts, I want us to think about this as a tool kit, especially to think about how these things allow us to keep conversations going,” Malone said.

By Caitlin Yamada

 

The Invisible Blackness of Latin America

The event started with a quiz of Kahoot!, a website which allows a room of people to answer multiple-choice questions.

The questions started out with which country had the greatest number of African arrivals during the transatlantic slave trade?

Correct answer: Brazil.

Next, which country has the first black president in an American country?

Correct answer: Mexico had the first black president, Vicente Guerrero.

After that, the presenters asked which country was the first to include race as a category on their census?

Correct answer was Columbia.

Is talking race racist?

Everyone answered false. This was an opinion question.

These questions led into the topic of this ISCORE session: The invisible blackness of Latin America.

Nayely Hurtado, junior political science, Joi Latson, senior in global resource system, presented with Elisa Rizo, associate professor of Spanish, on the oftentimes hidden history of slavery and oppression of black people in Latin America and the currently silenced discussion of race issues in these countries.

Hurtado spoke of the ideology of colorblindness in Latin America. People thought since they are mixes of black, Spanish and indigenous, they didn’t have to think of race.

The word race in Spanish is not clearly defined. It could mean nationality or the breed of a dog as well as race.

Hurtado said many people in Latin America identify more with a color rather than a race. One man was described as black by his family, as the person with the darkest skin in his family but was also described as medium-brown by his coworkers.

Usually the color blindness approach is taken by the group of elites and when the oppressed bring up issues, there are repercussions, Latson said. A Cuban man, Roberto Zurbano, wrote on issues of race in Cuba in an opinion article in the New York Times. He later lost his job over this.

Many of these race issues in Latin American countries are prevalent in the media. Latson showed a man who did black face for a Peruvian television show which was paired with a word Latson said translates to black idiot. She said people with lighter skin said it wasn’t offensive while those with darker skin saw it as problematic.

The producers of the show issued an insincere apology saying they were sorry people were offended and later brought the character back.

Another picture on the screen showed children dancing in black face. A comment on the video said they were going to have students in their class do the dance.

The overarching theme of these examples is fears that people will be accused of not having a sense of humor silences them from speaking out against racism. This contributes to the cycle of silence in Latin American countries.

Chile and the Dominican Republic are the only countries without plans to add Afro-descendant to their census. This has kept citizens who would fall under this category from receiving scholarships from schools in countries like the U.S.

Peru told the U.S. government they had no black citizens when the U.S. was offering scholarships to Afro-Peruvian people, Latson said.

The presenters went into hiding blackness which involved hiding hair and having skin lightened in painting.

By Danielle Gehr

 

The Color of Esteem: Dismantling Skin Tone Stereotypes

A brown paper bag hung outside the door. Each attendee’s skin tone was compared to the color of the paper bag. Those whose skin tone was lighter than the paper bag were told they passed. Those with a darker complexion were told they didn’t pass. The people who passed sat on the right side of the room, while those who didn’t pass sat on the left.

“People tend to feel that people on the pass side, because they have more European features, think they’re better,” said Claudia B. Young, doctoral research assistant  in Education.

Young discussed the challenges young girls of color face within their own communities. A class of eighth graders told Young they too felt skin tone bias. Women of color are categorized as too light or too dark, a concept called “colorism.”

“It is nothing we can control,” Young said. “We didn’t pick our skin tones.”

Young mentioned an incident at her daughter’s last dance recital. The dancers were told to have their hair done “princess style”, which denotes a long, flowing ponytail.

“Princess style for what culture?” Young said.

Young’s daughter, who has tightly coiled hair, felt outcast from her dance friends.

To stop colorism, it comes down to awareness. Young used to add a hashtag to her social media profiles, highlighting herself as “team light skin.” She realized this was part of the problem.

“I had to be reflective and stop my behaviors,” Young said.

Inclusiveness is a start in changing mindsets. Young says it can start small within society. Don’t separate skin tones and uplift each other.

“Young black women with strong racial identities report higher levels of self-esteem in comparisons to those who do not identify as strongly with their race,” Young said.

By Kaylie Crowe and Angie Jachniw

 

Engaging Muslim Students on Campus

Muslims are one of the most discriminated communities in the United States. Data presented by Comanchette McBee, graduate student in education, showed incidents of anti-Muslim crimes are at an all time high in the U.S.

McBee presented to nearly 20 people in the third floor of the MU. She focused on unveiling the prejudices people have against Muslims, and the steps universities can take to help Muslims feel more welcome on college campuses.

“The stereotypes tend to be that all Muslims are terrorists, that they can be radicalized in a second,” McBee said. “All the men are domineering and all the women are oppressed.”

McBee connected to these stereotypes to the perception of Muslims in the news media. She insisted that for many people it’s the only place they learn anything about Islam.

“The U.S. has a misunderstanding of what it means to be Muslim,” McBee said. “We get most of our ideas from the mass media.”

Even if Muslims in America aren’t directly discriminated against, they can still feel isolated on college campuses. McBee linked this to a lack of religious accommodations on campus, including little or no prayer spaces and a lack of food options.

When it comes to international Muslim students, there are also cultural and language barriers to overcome. McBee presented data which showed Muslims have a hard time making friends with American students and tend to stick to small groups.

“It’s hard to succeed when you feel like an outsider on your own campus,” McBee said. “By doing more to empower Muslim students, we also provide structural student to a broad range of people.”

By Talon Delaney

 

White Fragility: What It Is, What It Isn’t and What We Can Do About It

White Fragility is a topic that, like white privilege can be very contentious, but is an important part of the discussion about race, according to presenters Carolyn Duven, Cyclone success coach and student service specialist II, and Erin Pederson, staff psychologist for student counseling services.

Pederson and Duven opened by talking about why they feel discussing white fragility is important in the greater discussion of race, saying the actions that come with white fragility often shut down the discussion or can silence or diminish the stories of people of color.

Goals of the session were then discussed. Pederson and Duven set out to: open a dialogue, increase open listening, make people more accepting of the fact that they made mistakes, desire to learn from said mistakes, encourage the sharing of experiences instead of downplaying or refuting them, teach in a non-sharing way, participate instead of withdrawing and not debate a person’s life experience.

Next racism was defined as was racism’s place in society as a social construct that is heavily ingrained in our policies and society, both intentionally and unintentionally.

Pederson and Duven said they hoped to move the question white people asked from being “Am I racist?” to being about how you participate in the racist systems of society and how one’s words and actions play into oppressive systems.

White fragility was then explicitly defined and examples were given. White fragility, as defined, is a set of behaviors that prevent white individuals from fully engaging or being silent in issues involving race and racism.

Duven then gave a very personal account of a period where she herself exhibited white fragility. The topic she was discussing, at the time, was so upsetting to her that she cried. She spoke about the way her words and actions at the time and avoidance of the issue of race and privilege shut down the discussion that was being had.

The discussion continued on to discuss general ways individuals displaying white fragility behave including emotional responses, changing the topic, focusing on their own identity and avoiding the topic at hand.

Afterward the underlying contributors to white fragility were addressed including ignorance to the system, shame and anxiety, among others. Duven and Pederson then went on to say they did not want white fragility to become a shaming term or for people to become obsessed with bragging about having less white fragility or no white fragility in comparison to another person, but simply to recognize its existence and recognize when one engages in it. According to Duven and Pederson once white fragility is recognized within an individual that individual can recognize its impact and work to not allow themselves to engage in white fragility and allow it to harm or hinder the decisions of racism and race.

Pederson and Duven then gave advice as to how to take action to avoid exhibiting white fragility and better be able to contribute to the discussion of race, then defining the social justice action continuum of confronting oppression. This continuum ranged from supporting oppression to initiating prevention of oppression.

The discussion was concluded with a call to action, asking audience members to write one goal in a set time period to improve learning and listening skills.

By Mike Brown

 

Editor’s note: The Daily was unable to cover “The Experiences of Black Agricultural Education” in this time block.