BY ANNA FRIEDRICHSEN | the Statesman February is Black History Month and while some find this memorialization trivial, others embrace it.
UMD’s Black Student Association (BSA) chooses to embrace the month, recognizing that February gives them the opportunity to reach out to the UMD community, as well as the greater Duluth community.
BSA Vice President Monique Webster is one of eight student leaders the association has.
“I feel as if UMD wants to be more culturally aware, but they don’t fully know how to do it,” Webster said. “It’s like pulling teeth.”
BSA wants people of all backgrounds to participate in the events they’re putting on this month. They want people to know that BSA isn’t an exclusive group.
“This month we have a lot of events and activities going on. We’re playing movies every Monday from 12-5 that show historical figures and black love,” Webster said.
Other events going on this month include “study nights to promote academic excellence,” Jeopardy, 50 Shades of Black (with CSS), BSA Lock-In, BSA Rap Battle, BlakChat and Poetry Night.
The times for these events can be found on posters throughout campus, on the Office of Cultural Diversity website, or simply by going to the Multicultural Center and asking BSA about their programs.
“There’s not usually this many events in a month, but for February we like to do more,” Webster said.
The goal of the organization is to create relationships between the black community on campus and serve as educators in promoting awareness. The problem with this is that it’s simply not happening.
“People pick and choose what to talk about with the black community. People talk about Beyonce’s fashion. They don’t talk about the struggles Beyonce and Obama went through to get where they are today,” Webster said.
Racism and exclusion are still very prevalent at UMD, despite the efforts made to eliminate these things. Just last week a black student living in the dorms on campus got on an elevator to see an expletive staring her in the face (See story).
Students of color panels, where people from various backgrounds visit classrooms and talk about their experiences as minorities, are almost a laughable thing to Webster.
“They’re a good thing to educate people, but why are they a thing in the first place? We shouldn’t need that,” Webster said.
The fact is that racism and bigotry are still problems that many UMD students face daily. Black History month is great at the surface level, but if you take a closer look you’ll see so much more wrong with it.
UMD’s Multicultural Center allows minorities and groups like BSA on campus a safe haven to go and feel comfortable with people who understand what they go through.
“The different groups [in the Multicultural Center] promote, bring awareness, unite and encourage each other,” Webster said. “We get people to come to events for classes, but most of the time the only people who come to BSA events are from the BSA, other Multicultural Center groups, or they’re friends of BSA members.”
There are several sponsored annual events BSA hosts, including: Soul Food Dinner, African Night, Kwanzaa, and Black History Awareness Month.
Webster says that while things have gotten better over the years, there is still so much more to be done to eliminate racism at UMD, in the Duluth community and throughout the country.
“I hope we can change,” Webster said.