Youth of color, lesbian, gay, bi, trans
Colby College students confront trustees
By Leslie Feinberg
When the Colby College Board of Trustees met on campus on
April 13, the demands of students of color and lesbian, gay, bi
and trans students were in their faces all day long. Colby is a
private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine, with a
student body of 1,700.
The trustees planned to convene to confer about the school
president's "strategic plan" for Colby. But oppressed students
were not about to allow their demands to be rendered invisible
in that plan. So they formed a powerful coalition, student
leader Javenese Hailey told Workers World.
"As a woman and a visible person of color, I have
experienced racism and discrimination on all levels at Colby,"
she said. She quoted civil-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, "I
was sick and tired of being sick and tired."
Hailey noted, "Working through college committees and
voicing concerns with administrators and faculty proved
futile." So she decided to organize civil disobedience to "rock
Colby's bureaucratic boat, raise the consciousness of our
community about the issues that marginalized groups on this
campus face and demand institutional changes."
Originally, Hailey recalled, "The idea was to focus solely
on institutional racism. However, the more I began to examine
the dynamics of oppression, I began to realize that there was
room for coalition building with queer students at Colby, and
that because oppressions interlock, that coalition was
necessary. The issues that we addressed were racism and
heterosexism at Colby."
She stressed, "We wanted Colby to be held accountable for
its reluctance to address the needs of these two groups in the
past and present. Our coalition went as far back as 32 years to
bring to light previous demands that had been 'conveniently
neglected' by this institution. Our list of demands included
multicultural housing, a Queer Studies department, more diverse
curricula in various departments and increased enrollment of
Native American students."
'They got the message!'
White, queer-identified student activist Amanda Ashman
described the protest events to Workers World. Students draped
the campus with painted bed sheet banners urging, "Students of
color and queer students unite!" Since it was Pride week on
campus, they also hung "this amazing rainbow quilt that a
student had made. But by morning it got cut down," she
said.
"In the morning we set up our table in the student center,
which is a central thoroughfare. We had a big banner for
students to sign." It read "Solidarity through diversity: Take
a stand against institutionalized racism and heterosexism."
Ashman noted that only two students balked at adding their
names while she was at the table.
Students wore white scarves across their mouths or pinned to
their clothing, she explained, "as a symbolic gesture of how
students of color and queer students are silenced on this
campus. And we made and wore T-shirts with our demands on
them."
At 10 a.m. students took over all radio programming at
WNHB--the campus station--for four hours, broadcasting
audiotapes of students describing the racism, anti-lesbian,
gay, bi and trans bigotry and discrimination they have
encountered, as well as political music like Queen Latifah's
"Unity."
Other youths set up a steady stream of meetings with the
dean of students' office to begin transfer procedures--mostly
symbolic--to drive home student anger at the campus political
climate.
During the afternoon, "We all moved over to Robert's Union,
which is where the board was meeting," Ashman continued. There,
students read their own drafted "strategic plan" that included
their demands. And, "we read some of the student experiences,
read some poetry, sang, and made some noise chanting, 'The
people united will never be defeated' and singing 'Lift every
voice and sing,' " historically viewed as the African American
national anthem.
When the trustees held a reception, students took advantage
of the huge glass doors of the campus restaurant. They massed
in front of the glass with fluorescent poster boards inked with
their militant messages. Ashman noted, "They had to go through
us to get in. You could definitely tell they didn't know what
to do and they couldn't ignore us. Some tried to find another
way in."
When the trustees tried to move to another location for
dinner they had to wend their way through another tight circle
of student protesters.
By the end of the day, Ashman said, the trustees "definitely
got our message. It was a wake-up call."
In assessing the Colby struggle, Javenese Hailey concluded:
"I cannot emphasize enough how important the coalition between
the students of color and queer students was. I strongly
believe that the liberation of all people depends on our
capacity to liberate every oppressed group of people. And
though our oppressions are different, our experiences of
belonging to oppressed groups can hold us together.
"It was hard work, as is the case with any movement against
the status quo, but it was well worth it. I would do it over
again in a heartbeat.
"One of the most important things I learned was that making
coalitions is not comfortable; in general, we may not fully
understand the experiences of those belonging to different
oppressed groups--that's what makes it uncomfortable. But if we
can move beyond that awkwardness to support each other,
anything is possible."
Reprinted from the April 25, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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