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A panel of four Virginia Tech students and one faculty member discussed problems with racism and sexism in American society last night in Squires' Haymarket Theatre.
The event, hosted by The People's Coalition and named "The Candid Confab: My Sister, Your Bitch," centered on issues that black women and minorities in general face.
"The goal is to get people talking about things that normally don't come up in conversation," said Jamel Toms, the show's host and one of the founding members of The People's Coalition.
He explained that the title derived from the idea that men often call a woman a "bitch" without stopping to think that she is someone's daughter, and perhaps mother or sister.
Political science instructor Brandy Faulkner served as the faculty panelist. Senior communication and psychology major Juanisha Brooks, Alpha Phi Alpha director of education Earl Brown, general engineering major Elijah Lundberg, and Jamel's sister, junior political science major and the club's president, Synethia Toms, were the student panelists.
Jamel and Synethia created The People's Coalition last October and its first large-scale event was Justice for Jaz.
"We started because we felt that there are a lot of misrepresented students," Synethia said. "We felt that people of color don't really have an outlet."
Some of those in attendance were drawn to the event because of its intriguing nature.
"It's definitely something very modern and up-to-date," senior history major Ashley Payne said.
The event began with a series of video clips illustrating stereotypes surrounding black women and the reasons for certain labels. One clip showed black children faced with a black doll and a white doll consistently choosing the white doll as the "good" one. Fifteen of the 21 children chose the white doll. Another video, called "The Bitch Manifesto: A Tribute to My Daughter," showed a man performing a speech about how "women in this society have been given a role to play."
He stated that men are considered unstoppable if they become successful, while women who attain the same level of success are seen as aggressive and overbearing.
The panel brought up questions as broad as the definition of sexism and as narrow as whether afro-style hair should be straightened to adhere more to the styles of white women.
After discussing why some men seem to fear successful women, Brown stated that "these self-esteem issues we have we don't want to admit, but they are inherent within us."
In regards to the feminist movement, Faulkner said black women were constantly working throughout the movement, which made them very skeptical of the societal event.
"The black woman was the antithesis of beauty," Synethia said. "So it was OK for them to work outside the home."
The debate became slightly heated when the question arose of whether men should be a part of attempting to stop degradation of black women.
"Women are just going to have to do this themselves," Lundberg said.
After Synethia asked him if "men should participate in eradicating sexism," Lundberg replied, "I might tag along a little bit."
"I think both sides just have to be more conscious," Brown said.
Synethia agreed, saying that women need to get to the point where they stop degrading themselves in magazines.
The discussion flowed toward the media's portrayal of black women multiple times. A clip of a black actress was shown estimating that she could make at least $4 million more as a white actress, and she didn't earn $1 per movie at the time the video was made. Brooks said she straightened her hair before going on an interview for a broadcasting job, because "tame" hair is more commonplace in the media. "I know that God didn't make a mistake on us," Synethia said. "We have to stop suppressing our African roots. Black is beautiful."
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"...men often call a woman a "b*tch" without stopping to think that she is someone's daughter, and perhaps mother or sister." Why does a woman have to be some dude's property before a man might think she doesn't deserve to be called a b*tch? Why not just say, all women (and men!) deserve respect? Why does a woman only have worth in relation to a man? There are single women out there that don't have families, is it OK to call them b*tches? And yes, men need to be involved in stopping s3xism. If there weren't any men, there wouldn't be any s3xism, so it does seem that logically men have a role to play in stopping it. PS - this web site won't post my comment unless I edit s e x and b*tch, even though the article itself uses those words.
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While racism and s*xism do exist in this country (I believe s*xism is actually much more apparent than racism in today's society), it isn't even close to as apparent as the Democrats want you to believe. If you listened to leftists in this country, you would think people are still burning blacks at the stake and hanging them! America has done more good for blacks than any other country in the world. Where else can you find a black man running for the President of the greatest country which happens to be a white majority? Where else can you find a country that has thousands of black millionaires residing? Where else can you find a country in which blacks have a huge head-start compared to their black relatives in other countries, including countries that are predominantly black?
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The problem in this country is that we can't truthfully talk about race without being called a racist. If you even mention how blacks may be partially to blame for all of the problems in their race (as Cosby did), you're deemed a racist or uncle tom. How are we supposed to talk about race when we can't even begin to speak the truth about what's going on in this country? Obama talks so much about transcending race, he will unite the races, blah blah blah. Then why did he attend a black nationalist church that preaches anti-Jewish, anti-white rhetoric? Why is his campaign continually placing people more and more white people behind him when he's speaking? For a man that wants to transcend race, it doesn't seem like he's heeding his own advice too much. We don't live in a racist country, no matter how much the libs want you believe we do. It's the only way they can get the black vote, by perpetuating that lie.
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Sean, if your head wasn't so far up your butt, you would realize that we do indeed live in a racist country and that disadvantages to african americans are a part of the institution. Do you not remember the various news reports about hanging nooses in the past year? No, we don't lynch black people anymore, but we certainly leave them languishing in prisons for drug crimes that their white counterparts wouldn't face, for example, the difference in punishment for having coke and having crack cocaine. You are living in a bubble if you think we live in country free of racism.
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While inequities in the system do in fact exist, the ultimate point to take away, Anna, is that, if you abuse neither coke nor crack cocaine, you don't need to worry about prison time. I think what Sean is trying to address is the notion of responsibility, which (unfortunately) is largely absent from the bully pulpits of leading African Americans. This is further evidenced by the intolerance of African Americans (the most vocal, at least) who dismiss the success of notable blacks such as Clarence Thomas, Condolezza Rice, and Colin Powell as 'sellouts' to the 'white man.' Ultimately, most black youth (to their great credit) don't buy into the eternal victim ideology - and while racism is certainly not wholly dead (and never will be), they tend not to let racial tension interfere with their own successes. THAT is something to be celebrated.
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Anna, we don't live in a racist country, plain and simple. Sure, there are some racists in this country, but the majority of people in this country couldn't care less what your skin color is when deciding to be your friend, to hire you for an opening position, or accept you to the University. There are have been numerous opportunities provided to blacks in this country, moreso than any other race. And while many of them have taken advantage of them (i.e. affirmative action), many blacks still believe the white man is holding them down, and think they can't pull themselves out of the gutter without government assistance. Like Kyle said, it comes down to personal responsibility, of which many people in this country simply don't have.
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The noose incident was an isolated incident. It wasn't even directed at anyone. It's a despicable act that is deserving of some sort of punishment, but did it really hurt anyone? The reason for difference in sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine and powder cocaine isn't because of race, it's because crack cocaine was being sold at such cheap prices due to the saturation of it in the inner city that anyone could buy the drug. Thus, it led to thousands of people abusing daily. The major cities were seeing large increases in violent crime, so they thought the solution to this was to create harsher penalties for people dealing crack. Unfortunately, it was the black gangs that were mainly dealing in crack in the mid-late 1980s, so they were punished. But I do think the punishments for drug crimes are way too harsh in this country and something should be done about it, but that's for another day.
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Also, Anna, I don't know what color you are, but if you're black, I have a question for you. Do you feel that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are representative of what the black race is really angry about in this country? Or do you think they just sensationalize and very biased in which stories they cover?
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Racism should be looked at with groups like the Black Student Alliance. What kind of name is that? HOw is that not racist?
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The show had nothing to do with any of the topics below.
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