[RAICES] Important: Racism at Mt Holyoke

[Sydney M. Hoover]

Good morning,

This morning I received a disturbing email about a systemic racist experience 
that happened on the Mt Holyoke Campus during the Association of Pan African 
Unity's Community Service Week. Please read the message below. 

It is Black History Month. But, as Edwidge Danticat stated last night at her 
reading - coincidentally at Mt Holyoke - "There is no history without black 
history." It's clear that this month of commmemoration powerfully challenges 
the scope of both North American historical amnesia and elucidates on the 
complicated ways in which people are implicated in society.

People of color still live physical lives in racialized bodies. This is a 
material reality that people live with. But it is not the body to blame, but 
the systemic and institutionalized ways in which people of color's bodies - the 
ways in which difference - are framed and conceptualized, and in that way, 
people are taught to fear one another. 

In the spirit of both building and healing, there is a Visions of June Jordan 
conference happening at UMass this weekend, opening tomorrow night with Sonia 
Sanchez's 7:30 keynote address, which coincidentally coincides with the 
Association for Pan African Unity's event happening at 8 p.m., also on Friday. 
I am also wondering if SOURCe is interested in sending a letter of solidarity / 
support to Mt Holyoke's Association for Pan African Unity. 

Thanks and any thoughts / discussion are awesome.

peace,
soo na

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From: Deborah M Yi <debmyi at MtHolyoke.edu>
To: kasa-l at MtHolyoke.edu
Subject: Discrimination on Mount Holyoke Campus (fwd)
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 01:37:41 -0500 (EST)

If any of you feel that you have been discriminated in any way in the
Mount Holyoke Community, I encourage you to express your concerns, just
like the student below.

Deborah Yi
Mount Holyoke College
2810 Blanchard Student Ctr
South Hadley, MA 01075

**************************************************************************
"I honor English majors.  It's a dumb thing to major in.
It leads nowhere.  It's good to be dumb, it allows us to love for no
reason.
That's the best kind of love."
-Natalie Goldberg, "Wild Mind"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 21:56:45 -0500 (EST)
From: Kyra Z Norsigian <kznorsig at MtHolyoke.edu>
To: action-l at MtHolyoke.edu
Subject: Discrimination on Mount Holyoke Campus

PLEASE READ:

From: Latangela Phillips

Hello All,
I am writing this email to make you aware of an incident that occurred on
February 19, 2004 at approximatemately ten minutes to four in the
afternoon.

Last week was community service week for Association for Pan
African Unity. This entailed students from
the Springfield highschools coming to visit the campus each day to
engage in
different activities which varied from guest speakers, to visiting
classes, sharing in a common reading, etc,. These students were guests
here and many
departments on campus were made aware of their visit.

On Thursday morning, I called the Registrar's office to see if any rooms
were available because we had an Alum coming to delivera presentation ot
our students.  I was informed that in fact Cleveland
L1 was available and that it would be for the rest of the afternoon. The
students, the presenter, a volunteer from the outside commuity, Yolanda
Holland, and myself arrived at Cleveland around ten
past three. I did notice a flyer that said someone would be speaking in
the room at 4:30. At about 3:45, a woman peered into the room and I went
out to speak with her. She told me she had the room
reserved for a speaker at 4:30. I apologized. even though it was still a
40 minutes before her reserved hour, she was very
irritated with my response that we would be leaving shortly. About two
minutes later, she came into the classroom and starter to yell at the
presenter and told her she couldn't be here. This woman went on to use the
words "you people" several times. At which point I asked Yolanda to go out
in the hallway and speak with the woman so that our presenter could
conclude her presentation in a noise free environment.  After seeming to
be calmed by the exchange in the hallway between her and Yolanda she
returned to the room full force, yelling at a level that made it clear
that our presentation could not continue.  She asked to speak with the
person in charge, to which Yolanda and I both responded that we were, and
she went on with her "You people" statements a bit more and informed us
that we could not be here, and when I responded that we were on our way
out she continued to move closer to me with her hand directly in my face
and say "YOU cant be here. This space is RESERVED", while continuing to
point her finger in my face in a scolding manner. I asked her several
times to please remove her finger from my face and to lower her voice
in the prescence of our students and guest speaker. She continued on in
her rant for several minutes in front of the highschool students even
as we were making every effort to walk out of the room and usher our
students out of her range. I decided not to argue and stepped into the
hallway. In the hallway the woman spoke so crossly and remained so close
to me that I could not move away from her verbal abuse. She continued to
yell, "advising" me several times that I should stop speaking. She later
went on to say that she didn't understand why we were there, that this is
a private college and that we had no business here. At this point, our
entire group decided it was best to leave. Needless to say, I was very
upset and the young girls were confused by her treatment and didn't
understand why they had been treated so poorly.

I am outraged that anyone employed  at this college would feel that I did
not belong here. Not only do I have a tuition bill to show for it, but
by organizing an event that was focused on bringing young, bright women to
Mount Holyoke College in order to engage in its legacy of supporting and
education women, Yolanda Holland and I, along with a great number of MHC
student volunteers who helped make last week a success, considered
ourselves endeavoring in ambassadorial work for the College. To be told by
any member of Mount Holyoke College community that we "didn't belong
here" goes against everything for which the College is supposed to
stand. This woman may have her views about who belongs and who doesn't
belong at MHC, but they should not be expressed in that manner campus.  I
doubt if she would have expressed  the same concerns with the students
brought here for the Take the Lead Program.

This discrimation that occurs on this campus by the BioChemistry
Department was expressed as a concern at an earlier meeting back in
October to President Creighton, Dean Buoy and Acting Associate Dean
Braun. Since that time, we have not been made aware of any steps taken to
resolve this matter. As you can see, this is not the first time anyone has
felt bad about the way they were treated in the Mount Holyoke Community. Even 
if only one
person, it is still terrible. I will not be treated in this manner anymore
on this campus and people need to realize that this happens everday in
some shape or form. These incidents are treated like isolated ones and
people need to express their concerns.

The woman I am speaking of is the Senior Administrative assistant to the
Biochemistry Dpt. Please express your concerns not only to the Chair of
the Department but also forward them to the President's office, the Dean's
office, and the Associate Dean's office. Thank you in advance.

Latangela Phillips