BSU Newsletter [October 2013]

CAUCUS PACKETBlack Student UnionTHE

October 2013 Vol. II, Issue II

6.1. 3.

OCTOBER

2013

Table of Contents:EXECUTIVE BOARD UPDATES

1Emmitt Till Event/ Bay Area Black Student Council

Democratizing Information2

3C: Campus Climate CommitteeBSLP: Black Student Leadership Program

BSU Gear3

BSU Art CommitteeChancellor’s Multicultural Advisory Board

4UC Santa Cruz Black Community

Administrative Breakfast ClubDiablo Valley College Connection

CAMPUS UPDATES5

Senator Iwuoma’s UpdateCalSERVE Update

Bikes 4 Life

6The Passing of Bro. Maliq Nixon

COMMUNITY UPDATES7

Afro Dapartment UpdateFierce Resistance

8IMPACT Update

ORG. UPDATESOrganization of African Students Update

Afro House Update

Content by :BSU Board

Layout design by:Onyx Express/Rajan Hoyle

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Emmitt Till Event/ Bay Area Black Student Council

In August of 1955, one year after the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, a young boy from Chicago named Em-mitt Till visited some of his family in Missis-sippi. While in Mississippi, Emmitt was accused of making the fatale mistake of whistling at a white woman. Simply because of this act, he was lynched. Being lynched meant being brutally murdered. It meant being tortured. It meant ter-rorism. Days later his body was found in a river and eventually transported back to his mother in Chicago. His mother insisted on having a public funeral with an open casket to show the brutality of white supremacy. From this the image of Em-mitt Till’s body spread nationwide and served as a large catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. In the past few months there has been par-allels drawn by people between the lynching of Emmitt Till and the murdering of Trayvon Mar-tin. Even though both events were unique in

many ways, the BSU Outreach Team recognizes the importance of making these comparisons and seeing how they both stem from a shared narrative. That’s one reason why this November 19th BSU plans on co-hosting a community event at Laney College with surviving members of Emmitt Till’s family. Both Emmitt’s cousin who was with him in the south and Emmitt’s niece who is a modern day social activist will be flying out to the Bay. This will be an unprecedented event that will bring together Black workers and a targeted estimate of 200 Black students. To accomplish this, the Outreach Team will be connecting with dozens of campuses in the Bay area including all CC’s and CSU’s. From these connections the Team will also be working towards setting up the Bay Area Black Student Council, which is aimed to go public at the event. For all of this to happen, the Outreach Team will be depending upon the Cal Black com-munity for help in outreach and planning. Assistance is needed in central planning, publicity, on and off campus outreach, and many other areas. If you are interested in all or would like to get more information please email Mylo Santifer at [email protected]

This year the BSU Exec. Board has been dedicated to ensuring that Black students are informed about what we’ve been working on. We’re trying to make sure our weekly emails reach everyone (normally on Sunday or Monday nights). Also black orgs and community members feel free to submit write ups for our monthly caucus packets. We have sections dedicated to community and org updates.In order for us to become more effective in communicating with the community we need your help in both spreading information and providing us feedback.If you have any feedback or if you haven’t been getting our emails please contact our Internal Affairs office at [email protected].

Democratizing Info.

Last month Black Caucus approved the formation of the Campus Climate Committee (3C). Since then, the BSU Exec. Board has been working on setting up the team. Below is the charge of the committee.

The BSU Campus Climate Committee, also known as 3C, will critically analyze the condition of Black stu-dents in a way that takes into account campus sys-tems, initiatives, and programs, campus climate issues, intra-communal issues, and off-campus factors for the purpose of communal healing and empowerment.

The committee has a timeline spanning the full academic year. The next stage of the project includes determining the methodology and scope of the committee’s research.

For more information on the committee please contact Marcel Jones at [email protected]

The goal of BSLP is to provide BSU members with his-torical knowledge and an organizing skillset needed to be effective change makers. Oriented around community empowerment, BSLP consists of discussions and teach-ins. So far there has been presentations on the Hxstory of Black Student Organizing, Strategic Planning for Grass-roots Organizing, and The Three Civil Rights Cycles.

Future trainings will include Black Feminist Theory in Or-ganizing, Movement Differed?, and Breaking Down the Prison Industrial complex. The trainings are held in 247 Dwinelle 5:30-7. No need to register, just stop by whenever!

For more information on BSLP con-tact Marcel Jones at [email protected].

3CBSLPThe gear has arrived! However, there is a lim-ited supply for those who didn’t pay in advance!

When wearing a Black Power tshirt or crewneck make sure to do it with pride. It’s important to know what Black Power was meant to be and what it means to you***. Feel free to articulate to your brothers and sisters why you rep Black Power, but also if you are met with hostility understand that it isn’t your re-sponsibility to relieve the world of all its ignorance.

To claim your order you can find the BSU Out-reach Team at Black Wed. and Black Caucus or con-tact Mylo Santifer at [email protected].

***For more information on Black Pow-er refer to Why Black Power? on the back cover.

BSUGEAR

Below is a message from Mylo Santifer on the formation of the BSU Art Committee:

Art has been a pivotal and influential form of expression since our precolo-nial existence in Africa. Paintings, the voice of the griot, and music all have developed culture as well as served as means of documenting our hxstory. For example, during the time of physical slavery art of music such as negro spirituals were many times the keys to the enslaved Africans freedom.

W.E.B DuBois’ stated in his Criteria of Negro Art that “I do not care a damn for any art that is not used as propaganda” from this statement we can see that the context in which DuBois lived in the 1920s, art was charged politi-cally and black artist were held responsible for the state of their communi-ties.

Within this tradition, our Black Student Union is developing an Art Com-mite which will focus on the ability of black students to express themselves creatively through the arts in order to raise question, display social mes-sages, and narrate the #BlackatCal experience.

As we develop our committee we hope that many of our community mem-bers will tap into their Artistic spirits and let the world see your image, hear your word and feel your emotion.

Artfully,Mylo

Rodney Witherspoon will be working on putting together the first meeting. Rodney can be contacted at [email protected].

As indicated in previous Caucus Packets members of the BSU Exec. Board along with representatives from other people of color (POC) communities have been working on a multi-year campaign around the Multicultural Development Of-fices. One victory from this campaign has been the promised development of a Chancellor’s Multicultural Advisory Board.

To ensure that the Board is setup effectively in a way that positively impacts our communities a meeting was held Friday October 4th with student representatives along with staff members within the Division of Equity and Inclusion. Present at the meeting were Black students Marcel Jones and Nicole Walker. The majority of the meeting was spent de-termining the purpose and mission of the Board. On arrival

the student representatives had a proposal for the committee that included sections on: purpose and mission, member-ship, policy development, discretionary funding, programs and initiatives, meetings and term length, campus climate issues, and general ideas. Below is an excerpt from the section on campus climate issues that helped guide most of the conversation:We understand that the frequented hostilities students of color face on campus are not in fact isolated instances. We believe that white supremacy and institutional racism is embedded within the University and we believe that the role of the Advisory Board should work towards addressing these structural issues.

For more information on the Advisory Board please contact Marcel Jones at [email protected].

Chancellor’s Multicultural

Advisory Board

Black Panther Artwork

BSU Art

Committee

In the past few weeks Black students from Cal have made two trips to UC Santa Cruz to visit fellow Black students. The last trip, October 11-13th, included visiting a community BBQ at the humble abode of Wisdom Cole, a Black student leader and co-chair of this year’s ABC Confer-ence. These visits have been part of a larger effort to create a culture of being connected with Black students on other campuses. UCSC along with UC Davis are both about a little over an hour’s distance from Cal.

UCSC’s Black community is filled with community organizers, artists, gifted intellectuals, and just generally down people. The BSU Exec. Board encourages community members and organi-zations to reach out to the UCSC Black community along with communities on other campuses.

It’s also important to note that this year’s ABC conference will be hosted by UCSC in late Feb-ruary. ABC Conference is an annual conference put on by the Afrikan/Black Coalition that is hosted on a different UC campus every year. The conference gathers around 600 Black students to critically engage with issues that deal with Black students and the Afrikan diaspora in general. Currently the BSU Exec. Board is working on getting sources of funding for our delegation, but look forward to getting information on how to apply.

For more information on the ABC conference or how to connect with Black students on other campuses please contact Sabrina Robleh at [email protected].

Black student reps will be meeting with the Administrative Breakfast club, a collective of Black staff and administrators on campus, Friday Oct. 18th to discuss different initiatives Black students have been working on. The BSU Exec. Board looks forward to finding different ways we can bridge the gap between Black admin and Black students and find ways that administrators can support us beyond financial support (even though donations are very much so appreciated). The Board will be sending out pertinent updates following the meeting.For more information please contact Sabrina Robleh at [email protected].

Administrative Breakfast Club

UCSantaCruz

BLACK Community

In keeping with our vision of forming and maintaining connections with all BSUs in the Bay Area, the Co-Presidents of the Pan-African Union at Diablo Valley College (DVC), Shay and Dieudonne recently came to the UCB campus and at-tended two of our executive board meetings. Expressing an interest in collaborating with us and the greater Bay Area Student Council initiative, they voiced their desire to have an African American Studies program at DVC, and called for a closer connection of our campuses. They have worked hard to reach out to other similar organizations on other colleges and wish to “provide their members with valuable experience in serving their communities, developing cultural pride, networking, and cultivating new leaders.”-Dieudonne, PAU Co-President Their PAU has also been instrumental in colaborating with a new program at DVC called Umoja--a Kiswahili word meaning unity-- that is part of a statewide community of educators and learners committed to the academic success, per-sonal growth and self-actualization of African American students. This is a program that would be incredibly beneficial for us to learn more about, and seek out ways of implementation for our own campus. It is imperative that we as black students join together and share the resources, knowledge and capacity of each cam-pus. In terms of broad visioning, the organization and collaboration of students alongside the greater black community are the means with which we can bring about tangible solutions to issues plaguing our communities. Moving forward, we hope to maintain strong ties with the PAU at DVC and foster relations with other community colleges and state universities as well.To learn more about our connection with DVC please contact Sabrina Robleh at [email protected].

DVC ConnectionBlack Panther Artwork

Senator Iwuoma’s UpdatePeace Community,

My staff and I have made some great headway so far this semester in achieving goals we couldn't have even fathomed at the beginning of this school year. One of the major focuses of my office is to pass a cultural competency constitutional bill through the ASUC. This bill will promote a program that will have four steps in achieving cultural competency among UC Berkeley students, and therefore improving the campus's climate. The four steps of cultural competency will work to reach students campus-wide by: engaging all incoming students in the discourse through CalSO, implementing a campus program that will outreach to all students, having a two-unit small group discussion course on the matter, and, finally and most importantly, encouraging participants to become facilitators, program coordinators, or CalSO leaders to keep the idea of cultural competency going. The I.G.N.I.T.E. (Invest in Graduations Not Incarceration, Transform Education) bill, which I was one of the lead presenters of during the University of California Student Association Congress this past Summer, will be on our campus's Senate's floor this week to be voted upon. This voting will either approve or reject ASUC's support of the bill. Depending on the outcome of this voting, I will discuss later on this bill and it's implications.

Peace and love,

Destiny Iwuoma

CalSERVE Update Below is CalSERVE update from CalSERVE Community Mobilizer, Spencer J. PritchardWant to run for ASUC Executive Office with CalSERVE? Our application is finally out. Visit our website, calserve.org or [email protected] for the application. They are due November 2nd. Community slating for Executive candidates will be November 10th.CalSERVE Campaign Events –Thursday (Today) October 17th 7 – 9pm at Anna Head Alumnae Hall: Worker Speakout and Photo Gallery. Come support our campus workers and contribute to a conversation about building a student-worker community at Cal.Friday, October 18 6 – 8pm at 2060 VLSB: Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, is coming to speak about the use of solitary confinement in California prisons.We also have intern class every Tuesday from 6:30 – 8pm, locations vary but if you want to learn about CalSERVE and the issues we are working on feel free to come by. The best way to get these updates is to email [email protected] and ask to be a part of the listserv.Email [email protected] for more information.

Bikes 4 Life Below is an update from the BSU Outreach TeamBikes 4 Life (B4L) is a Black owned organization at 1600 7th street in West Oakland, just off the West Oakland Bart stop. It’s easily identifiable from the mural of Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor, a Black cyclist born in 1878. According to the B4L website, “Bikes 4 Life is a grassroots neighborhood bike shop and social justice enterprise with a mission to sup-port the surrounding community and offer healthy, sustainable life opportunities to young people.”On a regular basis, B4L hosts bike repair workshops, Oakland bike rides that tour hxstoric areas (including those related to the Black Panther Party), Open mic events, and performances. The shop also serves as a welcome spot for ‘One Fam’- a youth group that is centered on community empowerment.Members of the Outreach Team were able to sit down with Tony Coleman, B4L’s CEO. Tony outlined how running the shop was a means to an end – to address community issues in West Oakland. He talked about how B4L has been a growing project that not too long ago started hosting a yoga class at a location just next door. He did also highlight the difficulties of having such an important community space. Tony understood that the city’s grants to community centers are often misplaced, and that running such a multifaceted operation comes with major challenges. However,

CAMPUS UPDATES

The Passing of Bro. Maliq Nixon Brother Maliq Nixon, a student activist and a friend to many, recently passed away early Saturday, September 21st. BSU Exec. Board has not yet been informed about the cause of death. Maliq was a warm and caring person that took social justice issues to heart. He was an active member of the coop community, CalSERVE, the Gender Equity Resource Center, and Cal Dems. A memorial was held in his honor Sunday October 6th at Cloyne, a northside coop. A wide range of people came out exemplifying how many people and spaces Maliq touched. CalSERVE chair Devonté Jackson had this to say about Maliq’s passing:“Maliq’s passion for social justice and his commitment to organizing on progressive issues has been truly inspiring. I became friends with Maliq through CalSERVE

and I was always energized around Maliq because his passion was so contagious. He will truly be missed but his energy lives on. Rest in power.” BSU Exec. Board would like to encourage Black students to take a moment of reflection in both honoring Maliq, but also in thinking about how we can improve the mental and physical health of our fellow community members. For more information on this story there is a Daily Cal article that also highlights other comments from friends of Maliq: http://www.dailycal.org/2013/09/23/uc-berkeley-sophomore-maliq-nixon-dies-19/.

in Tony’s words “[B4L] gives the youth an out, something good and constructive to put their minds to.” Due to the important role that B4L plays, Tony and his crew continue to work tire-lessly at serving their community, regardless of the many obstacles they face.The BSU Outreach Team highly encourages Black community members and organizations to reach out to B4L, attend their events, and find out how they can help push forth the work that B4L is putting in.For more information on B4L, please visit their website at http://www.bikes4life.com/, or email Justin Johnson at [email protected].

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COMMUNITY UPDATES Afro Department Update

Black studies is the first field of academia birthed out of student struggle. In fact, this hxstory is only shared with other third world studies that the late1960s third world Liberation front advocated for. Originating in Merritt College, Black studies was created for propelling forth the struggle of Black liberation. Most campuses don’t have nearly as prominent of an African American Studies Department (Afro Dept.) as Cal’s. Within the UC system there is only two Afro Depart-ments. Its crucial as black students we take advantage of this resource and at the same time be an active participant in shaping Black studies not just a passive recipient. Having taken multiple Afro Classes, Black student and Afro House resident, Jen-elle Greene, had this to say about Black studies. “As Black students it is important that we engage in an educational process which positions us in the center of information. This is Black studies.” To help out with choosing the best Afro classes, BSU Exec. Board will be releas-ing a Telebears Guide in next month’s Caucus Packet. Also look forward to seeing regu-lar updates from the Afro Dept. in future Caucus Packets. For more information on the department, checkout their website at http://africam.berkeley.edu/.

Fierce Resistance This past Thursday, MeChXa de UC Berkeley hosted, in collaboration with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, “Fierce Resistance: Women of Color, Trans* and Queer Narratives in Prisons” that shed light on the fastest growing prison population (wom-en, especially Black women and other women of color) and created a dialogue on how the prison industrial complex directly affects women of color, queer people and trans* folks. The event took place in the Multicultural Community Center. This event showed MeChXa’s commitment to fighting mass incarceration and further strengthened the bonds of our communities as we seek to create tangible methods of combatting the prison indus-trial complex*. Also, on October 4th, MeChXa hosted their 3rd annual Poetry Slam, with theme of “Cleansing Nuestras Almas” (Cleansing Our Souls) at the Multicultural Commu-nity Center. It was a beautiful event in a community space that is unfortunately too often underutilized by our community. Trans* is an umbrella term that refers to all of the identities within the gender identity spectrum.{Taken from www.itspronouncedmetrosexual.com}The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solu-tions to economic, social and political problems. {Taken from www.criticalresistance.org}

IMPACT Update Below is an IMPACT update from African American Theme Floor President, Markel Moore:

I.M.P.A.C.T, as the AfroFloor, is hosting our Annual Open House from October 18-20 in Unit 1 Christian Hall. We would highly appreciate it if the larger residential communities came to support us as I.M.P.A.C.T. In regards to our theme, we are highlighting all the forms of Black Art that are underrepresented in mainstream society: photography, visual art, poetry, spoken word, film, culinary art, etc. in efforts to embrace black experiences through expression. On Friday, we are hosting our own Talent Show at 7pm in the Unit One Courtyard. On Saturday, our Open House begins at 11am in Christian Hall on the fifth and sixth floors. At 2pm, we are hosting a lively community critical dialogue in Chris-tian’s sixth floor lounge, so come check it out and find out the topic of discussion. From 10pm-2am, we are having a “social gathering” in Unit One’s All Purpose Room (APR). On Sunday morning, from 9am-11am, we are having our Pancake Breakfast also in the APR. We are all selling tickets and if you want some of the good morning grub, please purchase your tickets in advance. Again, this is an annual black community event that in the past has been magnificent, so supporting us freshmen would do wonders. From that, we would love for more people, of all years, to come and get to know us. The Afro Floor freshmen are here and will be here, so creating this welcoming environment is essential.

OAS Update Below is an update from the Organization of Afrikan Students from representatives Ofe Etchie and Orit Mohamed:The Organization of Afrikan Students (OAS) is a Pan Afrikan organization with the ob-jective of unifying the Black Afrikan diaspora on campus. The goal of OAS is to provide a space for Pan Afrikanism and learn about, celebrate, and reclaim what it means to be Afrikan. Other goals include honoring our diversities and similarities and discussing how we can inspire, influence and affect change back home on the continent. This year, OAS plans on promoting discussion among the black community on campus to emphasize why it is important for Blacks in America, first generation Afrikans, and international Afrikan students to defeat perceived barriers between the communities and strengthen the poten-tial we have as collective. We have general meetings every other Wednesday in 80 Barrows at 7:30 PM. Please feel free to email us at [email protected].

Afro House UpdateAfro House is looking for Boarders! Being a boarder includes full access to Afro House food whenever you want. You are considered a member of the house, meaning you will get a key, be a part of our Afro House listserv and have decision making in our House Council. Dinners are cooked six nights a week. If interested please email [email protected]. There is limited space so hurry before the spots fill up!Also for those interested being a part of the house beyond boarding, Afro is working on a list of projects including setting up a community garden and a free breakfast program for local Black youth.Afro House will also be holding our Open House on November 23nd. Details are still to be determined, but be sure to save the date!

Why Black Power? Given that Black Power, a term crafted by Baba Mukassa (Willie Rick) and popularized by Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), informs the organiz-ing work of CalBSU, the Executive Board thought it crucial that Black students had a collective consciousness of its meaning and function:

The first necessity of a free people is the ability to define oneself. With that said, we must conceptual-ize Black Power outside of the framework of White Power, which is a white supremacist ideology and appa-ratus of control intended for the accumulation of white capital and the maintenance of white society. Black Power is the politics of liberation, the means in which Black people will ensure self-determination. Black Power can be found in all organizations and movements of our hxstory that originated from and advocated for Black people. Black Power commences with a sense of community and the realization of a collective culture, hxs-tory, and struggle. Black people must understand that our individual struggles stem from a common oppres-sor, rather it be people, systems, or structures. If we have a common oppressor rooted in centuries of white supremacy that weaves throughout all of our social fabric and affects us on all levels then we must have a common means of liberation. Black Power means we must have a viable power structure that directly challenges oppressive forces within Amerikkka. It must challenge white supremacy, racism, sexism, heteronormativity, abelism, classism, and any other system of oppression, while providing people of the Afrikan diaspora the means of self-deter-mination. Once we have a viable power structure, once we establish Black Power, we can start to make choices for ourselves, define ourselves, heal ourselves. With Black Power we can challenge misconceptions and ap-propriations of Blackness in the media, we can provide means of economics stability in our communities, and we can have real unwavering representation within electoral politics. This is not a baseless theory deriving from the mental ejaculation of armchair revolutionaries. Black Power is the theoretical and the tangible. We have seen it and do see it on UC Berkeley’s campus today. Black Power is having the Black endorsed senator be the number one vote getter. It is Afro House, a house of 21 that shelters, feeds, heals, and entertains the Black community. It is IMPACT, a space and a collective of bright, innovative leaders of the Black community. Lastly it must be said that Black Power does not mean Black Supremacy or Black Isolationism. In fact, it is only with Black Power that as a people we can function within a multicultural society as equals. Without it we will continue to face subconscious and conscious feelings of inferiority, hating our skin, our hair, and our people. And without having a sense of self-love we will not be able to truly appreciate the culture and experiences of others. Black Power has a rich hxstory starting with Baba Mukassa and Quame Ture of SNCC and its hxstory moves forward with Black students today. Black Power must be the rallying cry of Black students and Black people, because it is ultimately the only possible means of liberation.

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BSU Newsletter [October 2013]