Campus, News

Expanding the struggle for justice

Fueled by the numerous instances of police brutality and other injustices, the Africana Studies Student Association hosted a panel discussion in the Karl Anatol center Wednesday night.

ASSA president Xavier-Giles Rogers expressed concern that these issues weren’t being talked enough at CSULB, which was one of the reasons the organization decided to put this event together.

“There’s been a lot of stuff going on since Ferguson, and I feel like it’s important to highlight what’s been happening since then,” Rogers said. “With this event I want to enlighten people and create a conversation and critical thinking about some of the issues that are going on around us.”

The panel was a mix from current and former CSULB students and staff including Rogers, ASSA faculty advisor Natalie Sartin, and Africana Studies department chair Maulena Kaurenga, who headlined this event. The moderator, Africana studies and anthropology double major Danny Crumble, opened with a question to the panel asking in what ways did the events in Ferguson bring about change, if any.

“Ferguson served as a spark, one spark can ignite a whole forest fire, and a whole forest fire of actions against police violence took place as a result of Ferguson,” said Kaurenga. “Black Lives Matter became nationally and internationally known as a result of Ferguson.”

Black Lives Matter activists have certainly risen to the forefront of national conversations since then, and one of the means of this has been through social media. The panel discussed both positive and negative aspects that social media has given to causes like Black Lives Matters. Africana studies and political science major Langston Tolbert, who sat on the panel, gave an analogy to describe the role social media  can play.

“Social media is just a tool, and like any other tool it all depends on how you use it,” Tolbert said. “A person can get on a piano and make it sound like nails scratching a board, whereas if it’s Beethoven, it’s going to sound like beautiful art; it’s all in the way you use it.”

The panel answered questions and spoke about many other issues like black materialism, lack of unity within the black community, racial profiling, lack of support for black enterprises and economics, and ultimately what we can be done to solve these problems.

Towards the end Crumble opened up the panel for student questions. Students expressed gratitude at having the chance to discuss these issues.

“I definitely think change can occur from events like this and we need a lot more like this on campus,” said ASSA vice-president JQ Willis. “Everything shouldn’t be about fun and activities, there are real life struggles going on so events where we can tackle these things head on are very much needed.”

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