Category:

News

CampusCommentaryNewsWorld

Hypocrisy and Censorship

by Nadine Melanesia Black
written by Nadine Melanesia Black

An oppressive silence fills classrooms when students bring up topics surrounding Palestine and the encampment to almost any UCLA educator, dancing around the topic anytime it is mentioned in relation to what we are learning in class, which has left me puzzled as this is a glaring contradiction.

On Sept. 5 UCLA outlined a “Four Point Plan for a Safer, Stronger UCLA” that claims to focus on “enhancing community safety and well being, fostering a culture of engagement, learning and dialogue across difference, prompting freedom expression in line with University of California policies, and continuing to evaluate how to support our diverse community.” Through these four points, UCLA admin is further repressing students’ freedom of expression by regulating how one expresses themselves under the guise of creating a “safer campus environment.” Even within UCLA’s mission statement they claim to want to “ensure freedom of expression and dialogue, in a respectful and civil manner, on the spectrum of views held by our varied and diverse campus communities” and to have an “open and inclusive environment that nurtures the growth and development of all faculty, students, administration and staff” through debate and critical inquiry.

The hypocrisy of the facade that UCLA puts on for admitted students who are eagerly awaiting to attend a university to have fulfilling discussions and debates on current topics in comparison to the reality of silencing their student population is jarring. 

How is it that Palestine is a central part of the current global political discourse, yet this is rarely talked about in the classes of the Amerikkka’s “#1 public university”? In emails regarding the encampment, why is it that the former Chancellor Gene Block dedicated only a measly sentence about the immense suffering of Palestinians but claims to not take a side?

Students are being punished for exercising what they have learned at this school, including ideas surrounding how social norms can be challenged to gain more rights for marginalized people, with courses relaying acts of resistance throughout history via both physical and online spaces. The absence and censorship of educational safe spaces for conversations surrounding Palestine disallows for any growth or learning for students.

Monitoring and censoring what is being said in classrooms won’t stop student’s ideas and hunger for change, but only further highlights UCLA’s compliance with the mass killings in Palestine.

UCLA admin cannot continue to ignore the pleas of their students. Cries against the oppressive system of white supremacy that UCLA benefits from are drowned out in favor of maintaining the UC’s tidy and rule-following facade. If this school wants to truly comply with their mission statement, they would need to allow for students to express themselves in and out of the classroom.

At the bare minimum, discussion and dialogue around Palestine is essential in educational spaces, and banning this exchange just shows what UCLA stands for, whether they explicitly say it or not. However, a conversation alone is not enough to elicit true change against an oppressive system. Continuous resistance against the status quo and forcing the administration and government to hear our voices must be practiced as a collective community.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
CommentaryNewsU.S.World

Technology is Never Neutral

by Bahji Steele
written by Bahji Steele

The adoption of generative AI presents both significant challenges and potential benefits for Pan-Afrikan communities in the United States. A recent McKinsey report, The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier*, highlights the technology’s global economic impact, which could reach up to $4.4 trillion across industries. However, as organizations begin to explore AI’s applications, concerns are rising about its effects on Afrikan employment, particularly for Afrikan men.

A separate McKinsey report, The Future of Work in Black America, paints a grim picture of AI’s potential to disproportionately impact Afrikans in America. The report finds that Afrikan workers are overrepresented in jobs at high risk of automation and underrepresented in roles more likely to remain secure. Due to state and institutionalized racism, the job market has historically been harder for Afrikan men to succeed and make a living. It also reveals that half of the top 10 occupations held by Afrikans pay below the federal poverty line for a family of four, and all pay less than the national median salary of $52,000. Many of these jobs, predominantly held by young Afrikans without college degrees, are also among the top 15 occupations most at risk of AI-driven job loss.

The racial wealth gap further complicates the situation. A 2016 study by the Corporation for Economic Development and the Institute for Policy Studies found that, if current economic trends persist, it would take 228 years for the average Afrikan family to accumulate the same wealth as the average white family.

Yet, if approached with an equity lens, AI has the potential to help close this wealth gap. By investing in reskilling workers for non-automatable roles and promoting emotional labor jobs over physical or manual ones, AI could create new opportunities for Afrikans in Amerikkka. Furthermore, generative AI holds promise as an educational tool, a crucial factor given that a lack of higher education is a significant barrier to upward mobility for many Afrikans. If implemented thoughtfully, AI could be a catalyst for economic inclusion rather than exacerbating racial disparities.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
CampusCommentaryNewsU.S.World

Internal Transformation and Collective Liberation

by Nicole Crawford
written by Nicole Crawford

this is the 21st century and we need to redefine r/evolution. this planet needs a people’s r/evolution. a humanist r/evolution. r/evolution is not about bloodshed or about going to the mountains and fighting. we will fight if we are forced to but the fundamental goal of r/evolution must be peace.

we need a r/evolution of the mind. we need a r/evolution of the heart. we need a r/evolution of the spirit. the power of the people is stronger than any weapon. a people’s r/evolution can’t be stopped. we need to be weapons of mass construction. weapons of mass love. it’s not enough just to change the system. we need to change ourselves. we have got to make this world user friendly. user friendly.

are you ready to sacrifice to end world hunger. to sacrifice to end colonialism. to end neo-colonialism. to end racism. to end sexism.

r/evolution means the end of exploitation. r/evolution means respecting people from other cultures. r/evolution is creative.

r/evolution means treating your mate as a friend and an equal. r/evolution is sexy.

r/evolution means respecting and learning from your children. r/evolution is beautiful.

r/evolution means protecting the people. the plants. the animals. the air. the water. r/evolution means saving this planet.

r/evolution is love.

Assata Shakur

When abuse is prevalent within our most intimate relationships, we find ourselves limited and hypocritical in our passive attempts to adopt liberatory frameworks and practices into our lives. As people who are intrinsically webbed into a broader international struggle towards collective liberation, we are subject to colonial, imperial, and white supremist violence on a macro-institutional scale. However, our focus on the plight of Afrikans through the lens of combating fascist and militarized violence, institutional exclusion, and discriminatory systems of power, while necessary, can often externalize the roadblocks we face to achieving Pan-Afrikan collectivism in a way that overshadows and disregards the deeply rooted internal transformations that must take place. 

Intercommunal violence exists among the organizations, structures, and people who are most affected by the forces of state-oppression and intimidation. This is not surprising. When routinized to function as part of a larger system of power we are likely to consciously, but more often unconsciously, adopt western, hyper-individual, and abusive ways of knowing, thinking, imagining, and interacting as a means of survival. This brings us into dialogue regarding one main question: Does the liberation of Afrikans require internal transformation?

Christopher Lavender, a first year transfer studying sociology, provides us with a common perspective to ground our discussion on the matter. He says, “Yes, let’s just call it how it is. I believe so. With Afrikans you are weighed against anyways all throughout life, especially here, they say it’s the land of the free, but we are not really free.”

This analysis is not only shared among most people within the Pan-Afrikan diaspora, but it’s simply true. Faced with the institutional barriers of police violence and systematic oppression, the disconnect between the promises of the imperial core and our lived reality are jarring. 

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Since 2000, at least 1018 people have been killed by law enforcement in Los Angeles County” and “almost all of the dead were men, nearly 80% were Black or Latino. More than 92% were shot to death”. So, to say that we as Afrikans are privileged enough to see the fruits of equity and liberation would be to lie to oneself. We are in desperate need of social transformation and of tangible solutions, this is clear. However, to sustain these transformations outside of the sensationalized deaths of Afrikans and performative protests, we require a change in how we view ourselves and deep understanding of the degree to which structures of violence influence our communities. 

Caila Chappell, a third year senior and political science major explains this as she says, “While there are oppressive systems in place that are keeping people of the Afrikan diaspora down and from being able to access certain things, I think that no one else will free you but yourself. The people that are oppressing or in these oppressive positions are not going to be the ones to free you because they’re benefiting off your oppression, so you would have to take within yourselves to be able to overthrow the places in power that are keeping you in whatever position you are in”. 

She also reminds us of where we as Afrikans have come from. “Throughout history, typically the people who have freed Afrikans are themselves. I think a lot of history is misconstrued through a white-savior complex lens. For instance, you have Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves when in reality that was not the goal to free the slaves, it was more so a political move and even after that while they may not have been physically in chains, Afrikan people were still enslaved. So, I think the only way that they were able to achieve some sort of freedom or a greater freedom than they already had was through convening with themselves”. 

This perspective unveils to us a new depth of truth and commitment that is required in our attempts to adopt liberatory frameworks and longevity in our struggles towards collectivism and self-determination. We must understand our histories, not from a linear perspective, but from an analysis that allows us to recognize patterns of erasure, oppression, and violence when they are happening before our eyes. Our failure to legitimately consider these parts of our practices is often what prevents us from integrating the external accountability that we expect from violent institutions into our own lives and immediate communities. 

Failing to consider these aspects of struggle makes it hard to create autonomous solutions to the intimidation and degradation that we face, but more importantly, it is dangerous. When we fail to identify that we too can adopt practices and mindsets of hyper-individualism, colonialism and imperialism, we become a danger to our broader global community. 

Kenya has become one of the latest examples of this as they have started their interventions in Haiti. “Kenya has sent troops on missions inside and outside Africa, but no African country has ever led a security mission outside the continent” and while Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said  “Kenya stands with persons of African descent across the world” this is false. “Washington has increasingly grown reliant on Nairobi for its security interests in the Horn of Africa in recent years” and this is a perfect example of blackface imperialism and how our negligence in adopting measures of self-accountability and internal transformation will always lead to more harm (Al Jazeera). 

Simply put, “Abuse of all kinds, specifically systemic abuse, translates to abusing each other” said Caila. 

Nathanial Tesfai, a first year transfer studying history and political science echoed this sentiment as well. “In Afrika today, the World Bank is giving countries unfair loans” but he explained that “my family jokes about it, in Kenya they promise prosperity and end up stealing from the treasury”. 

Our inability to honor the duality of our plight as Afrikans is killing us both literally and metaphorically. We are responsible for not only challenging the external systems of power that we can recognize, but furthermore, challenging ourselves to reframe how we form community. We as Afrikans are in a need of a deep shedding and metamorphosis and while this is grueling work, it is absolutely necessary as we continue to plant the seeds of struggle for our future generations to nurture and reap. 

Assata Shakur says, “the power of the people is stronger than any weapon. a people’s r/evolution can’t be stopped. we need to be weapons of mass construction” and this is true. We are responsible for one another, in grief and in healing, and understanding this is the only way that future generations will begin to experience the ease and autonomy that our ancestors have struggled towards.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
CampusCommentaryNewsWorld

Whose University?

by Nicole Crawford
written by Nicole Crawford

The guidelines for the Public Expression Activities that were outlined within the Time, Place and Manner policies, which were released on Sept. 4, included statements such as, “Don’t conceal your identity with the aim of intimidating any person or group or to evade recognition“, “Don’t set up tents, campsites, or other temporary housing… on UCLA property”, and no distribution of food or access to specific walkways unless permitted by the university between midnight and 6 a.m. 

Many of these policies are subjective and infringe upon the rights to free speech, neglect equitable access to food and housing security, violate public health and safety precautions, and only allow students to use two-percent of their campus space to express grievances about how their tuition dollars are spent. Students have a right to protest against the complicity of their university in the ongoing genocide against Palestinians and intimidation of the Global South. The administrative opposition to this intrinsic right has left students questioning who the university is actually trying to protect: the students or the zionists the administration funds? 

According to William Ramataboe (he/him), a first year graduate student pursuing a masters in business association, there was no problem with these policies and nothing that violated human rights. Adding, “I read it quick so I might have skipped something” but this analysis simply cannot be true. 

It is clear that the university administration does not view the students that fund UCLA as part of their communities of concern as they continue to wield their power to silence, intimidate and erase student voices and acts of resistance on campus. This brings us again to the question of fascism, ableism and the ever increasing presence of these institutions of violence in our lives. Fascism is understood as a political ideology that prioritizes the “good of a nation” above individual interests, “contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism”, “forcible suppression of opposition” and “the tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control” according to Britannica and Merriam-Webster. Ableism is defined as “discrimination or prejudice against individuals with disabilities” (Merriam-Webster). 

Working with these two definitions we can begin to understand the implications, of the Time, Place, and Manner policies, on the quality and freedom of student life and movements across campus. The university is actively working to protect economic interests, public image, and appeals to zionists at the expense of moral and ethical protections. With a ban on the ability to practice masking during an ongoing public health crisis (COVID) and only allowing protests in partially-inaccessible areas of campus, the university has now positioned itself in direct opposition to those fighting for disability-equity and justice. Additionally, this decision was made autonomously without the input of the students whose financial support acts as the bloodline of this university, meaning that the rights to cultural, political, and individual expression and determination can no longer function within this space. So whose university is it really?

Jonny Garnett (he/him), a fourth year undergraduate sociology major agreed with this analysis as he said that this was a “response [to] last spring protests that the school put in place to go against public expressions” He said, “I feel like everyone should have freedom to express themselves” and that this was “limiting people from calling out violations” adding that he did not “agree with them putting restrictions”. 

While students have until Nov. 4 to express their opinions to the University on these policies at public comment, this decision has undeniably forced students to return to a more restrictive and censored campus environment. 

For Afrikans at UCLA and across the globe, the topic of student protests, censorship and university policies are intrinsic to our universal experiences on campus. In times of hyper-surveillance, increasing fascism, and violations of human rights, the Time, Place and Manner policies and UCLA campus climate are only but a microcosm of the international struggles towards liberation and intersectional solidarity we all face. 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
LifestyleNews

The Gentrification of Belize

by Brianna Juliet Lambey
written by Brianna Juliet Lambey

Belize is the home of my ancestors, the place where our culture was founded and fostered. Belizeans, particularly Garifuna Belizeans, who have spent generations on their land are being pushed off their land by foreigners looking for a new vacation home. The ancestral land is now being filled with high-end resorts, pickleball courts, and bars paid for with foreign money. Both my parents are Garifuna people who immigrated to the Occupied Turtle Island (the United States) from the southern coastal towns of Belize. The first time I saw glimpses of my parent’s home country was on an episode of House Hunters International when a white couple was looking for a beachfront home to move to after they retired. The land of my ancestors is being sold to the highest bidder. I didn’t know it at the time, but this episode of House Hunters was a sign of gentrification, another consequence of European colonialism.

The Origins of the Black Caribb:

Garifuna is the main ethnic/cultural group of pan-Afrikan Belizeans. Garifuna culture is thought to have originated in the Caribbean when ships carrying enslaved people landed on the coastal areas of countries like Honduras, St. Vincent, and Belize. Many Garifuna people fled enslavement brought on by oppressive British colonialism in Honduras and settled along the southern coastal parts of Belize. Since then the Garifuna people have largely made up the population of the southern coastal towns like Hopkins, Dangriga, and Punta Gorda.

The Displacement of the Garifuna People

During the period of British colonialism in Belize the southern coastal towns which have been historically predominantly inhabited by the Garifuna people went largely untouched by Europeans. However in recent years as Belize has become more of a tourist destination the beachfront properties and land, particularly in the town of Hopkins, are largely being purchased by white Americans and Europeans. A study conducted by three Belizean scholars found that “75% or more of coastal land has[ve] been purchased by foreigners.” The per capita income of residents in developed countries is roughly “eight or more times that of Belize,” which allows for a “greater disposable income and ability to pay” for the coastal land. The difference in disposable income allows foreigners from developed countries to “drive up prices of Belize land to levels far above what most Belizeans can afford” which shuts the native people of Belize out of the market for land (Cayetano).

The gentrification of Belize has largely gone unnoticed, but with every new purchase of beachfront property, the native people of Belize are being pushed farther inland, and away from the land that has been theirs since they escaped oppression. Gentrification is the new form of European colonialism, the process involves foreigners coming to a country and exploiting the country’s resources for economic gain at the expense of the native people who have spent generations on the land.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines gentrification as “a process in which a poor area (as of a city) experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses and which often results in an increase in property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents.” Similarly the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines colonialism as “the practice of extending and maintaining a nation’s political and economic control over another people or area.” In the case of Belize where the country’s economy is largely dependent on tourism, beachfront properties are incredibly valuable. The town of Hopkins which was formerly known for having one of largest Garifuna populations is now known for its various resorts, tourist attractions, and its growing number of foreign residents. Even Bill Gates purchased land to build a beachfront compound off the coast of Hopkins. By controlling Belize’s land market foreigners are able to control a large portion of the country’s economy which often grants political power within the country.

Webster’s dictionary definition of colonialism and gentrification can be easily applied to Belize, as middle-class to wealthy foreigners are seizing economic, and potentially political control, through the country’s land market at the expense of displacing the native residents from their land. When I visited Hopkins the coast largely resembled areas in Los Angeles with large gated beach houses, restaurants, and (in comparison to other parts of Belize) very few pan-Afrikan people. This starkly contrasts with other southern coastal towns in Belize which have very few white people, and have more businesses that cater to the locals rather than the tourists. The Garifuna culture that has generationally inhabited the Belize land is being pushed out with the native residents. An example of the cultural displacement occurring in the town of Hopkins is the Jankunu tradition.

Given the origins of the Garifuna, the culture is largely influenced by the different Afrikan cultures across the diaspora. Garifuna culture has adopted its own traditions and style, with influences from different Afrikan cultures, such as the Jankunu (roughly pronounced John Canoe). Jankunu is a dance that served the original purpose of mocking the white slave owners during colonialism, but has now become a staple of Garifuna culture and is performed every holiday. Traditionally the Jankunu perform their dance in front of local households in exchange for roughly twenty Belize dollars (ten US dollars), however, in recent years places like Hopkins are now charging around four hundred Belize dollars (two hundred US dollars) to watch the dancers perform. By drastically raising the price many of the natives may no longer be able to afford to experience the cultural tradition of seeing the Jankunu dancers perform. Meanwhile, the resorts in the area hire the Jankunu to perform for their guests, so they can get a glimpse into the Garifuna culture which comes at the expense of the native people.

It’s sad to see some of the last few places on this earth that have largely gone untouched by European colonialism and imperialism become gentrified. The Garifuna people spent years escaping the oppression and colonialism brought on by European forces, but years later colonialism has returned under the guise of capitalism.

A potential solution to the cultural and physical displacement of the country’s native people is to follow in the footsteps of Mexico which previously “banned foreigners entirely from directly owning land.” Although this approach may appear drastic it would help preserve the garifuna culture and presence on their native land. It seems more drastic to allow the garifuna people to be displaced from their land, and replaced by foreigners due to wealth disparities. By prohibiting foreigners from directly owning land the garifuna people can continue to occupy and own their ancestral land.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Black HistoryCultureLifestyleNewsOpinion

The Sexualization of Afrikan Girls

by Nyomi Henderson
written by Nyomi Henderson

Because we are simultaneously Afrikan and woman, we have become accustomed to our natural bodies being oversexualized in society. Since the beginning of institutionalized racism and the colonial empire’s enslavement regime, Afrikan women’s bodies have always been associated with the idea of a promiscuity that was foreign and erotic. Institutionalized racism is defined as: the perpetuation of discrimination based on “race” by political, economic, or legal institutions and systems like education and the legal system. Now, some could argue that as a woman “lucky” enough to be living in a society with things like the #MeToo Movement and Title XI, the treatment of “colored” women has come a long way. I beg to differ…

While I want to acknowledge the work of Faye Wattleton, Elaine Brown, and so many others who were pioneers of social justice and advocates for the reproductive rights of Afrikan women, it doesn’t erase the violence we have endured. There will never be a justification for forced reproduction for profit and pleasure or the immoral study of the female anatomy through dissection and nude physical auctions.

To ground our discussion on the sexualization of Afrikan women, I want to remind of us Sarah Baartman and how her body, to this day, is still fetishized and sexualized. The constant violation of her rights and autonomy throughout history challenges us to consider how sexual violence is used as a tool of colonial power, intimidation, and dehumanization. In an opinion column done by Hope Moses titled “Oversexualization of Black Girls and Women Must Stop,” they hit the nail on the head by mentioning how:

A 2017 Georgetown University study discovered that Black girls as young as 5 years old are already seen as less innocent and in need of less support than white girls of the same age. This presumption leads teachers and other authority figures to treat Black girls as older than they are and more harshly than white female students, with the disparity being vast for 10- to 14-year-olds.

Focus on the phrase “less innocent.” Most people tend to associate that phrase with immorality, or the quality of being impure and sinful. Through this language, we begin to understand how sexualization functions to erase and delegitimize the innocence of Afrikan girls—the very same innocence our white peers gain by simply being alive. In a theory I heard from one of my favorite video essayists, Tee Noir, called the “Pink Nipple Theory”, she discusses the difference in how white womanhood is received in comparison to Afrikan femininity. In essence, white women expressing sexuality and sensuality is deemed acceptable, as their sexuality is understood as separate from their identity. This wildly contradicts the rhetoric formed around Afrikan expressions of sexuality, which is seen as less of an act and more of an identity. This creates a world in which Afrikan women’s bodies are weaponized against them through institutions of white supremacy. We are hypersexualized as a condition of the violence used to justify and aid in institutionalized racism.

So when we start to think about the adultification of Afrikan women at a young age, it’s easy to see how girls as young as 5 years old are being dress-coded and sent back home for not wearing “appropriate attire.” These institutions of racial violence cause young Afrikan women to experience a different childhood than their peers, lacking the freedom that comes with acting their age, without hyperawareness of their sexualization.

Our families can also function as institutions of violence because they foster our primary socialization. This is important because our parents can indirectly and directly internalize adultification, whether it’s by punishing us or by making side comments about our bodies and our intentions, on the basis that we should “know better” or just want to “act grown.” Even the textbooks we read in school fail to mention the historical menticide and generational traumas that have impacted the way that we see our bodies. As a result, structural violence against Afrikan women has become the status quo.

I couldn’t relate more to the feeling of being seen through someone else’s eyes. This is why in the Afrikan community it’s so important to challenge the normalization of sexual violence in our society and investigate how impunity is often grated to perpetrators of violence against women, men, and nonbinary people. It can happen to anyone, at any time, yet the punishment and repercussions are low. As more and more of us realize our autonomy, we recognize that this has to change as we, in our essence, are inherently valuable.

You are more than your body and what you “bring to the table.” You are whole and flooded with adoration. You are someone worth getting to know, not because of how you look externally but because of the traits and quirks you have that you think no one else sees. If this message triggered anyone, I would like to drop some resources such as the National Sexual Assault Hotline, which is available 24 hours at 1-800-656-4673. I also encourage mental health practices, such as journaling, community circles, and therapy.

You are more than your story, you are more than your abuse, you are loved.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
News

Cali Kids

by Nicole Crawford
written by Nicole Crawford

most city kids couldn’t recognize themselves in a crowd  

i envy this at times 

you see kids like me only become dreamers because we spend so much time alone trapped within our minds 

that we have to know the world within

the one that restores faith in human kind 

even if it ceases to exist in the morning 

we don’t have quick fixes or escapes 

just that mindful time made up off that 1/8 

more like a 1/4 if i’m being honest

alone in your room

making hieroglyphs out of dancing light

fiending for a reprieve that the drugs could never get you 

and still you reach 

because at least the weed helps to pass the time out here 

in these places where there’s nowhere to go  but up 

even if you stumble 

we’re the kids who take the long way home, 

the ones with those old film cameras to capture life because we know how quickly presence can fade into memories even if we do our best to hold on 

we make playlists for the month just to let you in on how we felt, more like how we’re feeling, but these permanent time stamps of how digital footprints bring our paths closer together at times soon fade too, because seasons change and holding onto the past only keeps you from seeing the beauty of what is right in front of you 

we’re not big on birthdays because your company has always been just enough 

and we don’t say goodbyes, not really anyway, because we never wanted this to end, or at least i never did 

kids like us stay away from the crowd because they hate wallflowers and it’s not my fault that i hate how the spotlight can change you if you’re not careful 

so we come to a difference of opinion more often these days 

and i’m not with the dramas but he was right about the sky being what we stand on to reach the beyond 

like breakfast in bed in Bali 

just you and me 

on the vision board sometimes but more likely found in those midday dreams 

we’re the romantics that got caught up in the city of lost souls, how easily we find home in one another because real recognise real and you not with me in the mornings makes me sick if i think about it for too long and i can tell you this because you not from the city so you won’t use it against me and that’s why i love you 

and we say i love you toos in exchange because we hold ourselves accountable to presence in love 

but remember, kids like us spend time alone, so forgive me for being so comfortable with myself that it can seem like i forget about you at times, i promise i keep you close to me 

on some 13 pages in my notebook diary type shit , deep in my heart right next to the place that my dreams manifest 

so next time you need me, know i’ll be somewhere in cali, looking for the sunlight that breaks through the clouds like the day i realised i could shine too if i could just get out of my head for a little while 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
CampusCultureNewsSports

For The Girls: Increasing Support for Afrikan Women in Basketball

by Krystal Tome
written by Krystal Tome

Written by & Photos by: Krystal Tome

Afrikan women’s representation in sports media is deeply affected by race and gender disparities. As a continuation of “Bridging the Gap: Disparities between Women’s and Men’s Basketball,” I will explore these issues in a different perspective, taking into account recent events and related discourse.

In 2022, the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament obtained March Madness branding. This comes after 83 years of the men’s tournament using this coinage and 40 years since the start of the women’s tournament. 

Since 2020, when the NCAA did not provide the same resources as the men’s teams when it comes to chartered flights and exercise equipment for the Women’s National In-Tournament (WNIT), the NCAA has made improvements. In 2023, the NCAA bridged some of these gaps for the March Madness tournament and plan to do this for the WNIT as well. Although some amendments are being made, there is still a lot of work to do as an industry.

The fact that basketball is predominantly played by Afrikan athletes adds another layer to the issue of gender disparity. 

Left-Right: Christeen Iwuala, Amanda Muse, Lina Sontag, Angela Dugalić, Izzy Anstey, Camryn Brown

On April 2nd, 2023, the LSU-Iowa game – the Women’s March Madness final – brought in a peak of 12.3 million viewers, a record-breaking number for viewership of a women’s basketball game. Mind you, this peak is below the viewership for every NCAA men’s championship game since 2013, according to Statista. After the game, there was much discourse online about Angel Reese, an Afrikan woman on LSU’s team, who performed a trash-talking gesture towards Caitlin Clark, a White woman on Iowa’s team, in the same manner Caitlin had been doing in past games.

UCLA graduate student and basketball player Camryn Brown shared her sentiments about this event in a recent interview with Nommo Newsmagazine Staff Writer Krystal Tome. “Women are viewed differently than men are when playing sports.” Due to this social climate, “apparently women aren’t allowed to show emotion or be excited about their sport and express like men are allowed to.” When Caitlin Clark had been doing similar taunting in previous games, she was not receiving as much backlash like how Reese had to face. This double standard highlights the racist undertones that live within basketball culture.

With the WNBA finals bringing together the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty, it is important to note how these teams and players are depicted by the media. The WNBA and ESPN “have their token white girls… Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart.” Both of these women are players on the New York Liberty and have been pushed by the WNBA and ESPN into the media with video game cover photos and overall media representation (as Stewart won the 2023 MVP award). Camryn adds, “I don’t know if it’s to make the WNBA more digestible, I don’t know for what purpose.” With so many excelling Afrikan women in the WNBA, why don’t they get the same platform?

Kiki Rice shooting in the paint

“Caitlin was having a huge tournament at that rate, so I think a lot of the people were tuned in to support her,” Brown added. With this, one can understand that Clark had an audience of her own, so when she was losing and getting trash-talked, there was poor audience reception. In addition to this, the Iowa women’s basketball team gained lots of support which may have led to a larger percentage of viewers in support of Iowa’s team–a team composed of mostly White players in a predominantly white institution. Brown’s theory is further backed by the attendance at the Iowa women’s basketball game played this 2023-2024 season in the Kinnick Stadium against DePaul, with an audience of 55,646 attendees. 

Video LSU/Iowa

Fortunately, and well deserved, the WNBA continues gaining more viewership and attendance for games. This could be a result of the success of the women’s NCAA tournament and the excitement transferring over to the WNBA season. Unfortunately, there are still systems in place pulling strings within the WNBA, causing racial tension. 

Gold medalist and back-to-back champion A’ja Wilson won the Most Valuable Player award (MVP) in 2022, averaging 19.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game in 2022. She beat her own stats this year in 2023, averaging 22.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game. Yet in spite of her impressive performance, she did not receive the MVP award again.

“I don’t understand how your MVP of last year can outperform herself and not get MVP of this year.” As a defensive player herself, Brown relates to players like A’ja Wilson and understands how important this part of the game is and how underappreciated compared to playing offense. 

This is a call to action for more support for women in sports, especially Afrikan women athletes. The time and energy we put into hyping up the NBA should also extend to the WNBA. There is power in numbers. More viewership and ticket sales lead to an economic push to expand the league to new cities, while online support for WNBA games creates a social push, resulting in a larger audience. As we push for positive representation for Afrikan women in sports media, these efforts will accelerate. Telling these stories and spreading news of the accomplishments Afrikan women athletes have can expand people’s worldviews and make a difference in the current media landscape. Although these tasks may seem small to some, the collective effort will have a major impact, improve the presence of Afrikan women in professional sports, and aid the liberation of our peoples.

Charisma Osborne gages for how to gain possession of the ball

More specifically, representing Afrikan women in sports, as well as other industries, is just one of many ways in which we can deconstruct the common trope of the monolithic Afrikan woman. Diversifying the lens through which we are observed in media allows us to exist more freely. Although there are limitations to this due to established media companies that value financial gain over social welfare, changing a small aspect of a multifaceted issue pervading the media industry can make all the difference.

As students at UCLA, we should support the women’s basketball team as well as the individual women on the team by going to the games. Giving them and the women’s game positive energy can help with these disparities. 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts