Download pdf - February 2015 Black History Month

H.O.P.E. PUBLICATION, FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE

H.O.P.E. Heartbeat of P.U.L.S.E. Embodied

Black History Month

WEEKLY MEETINGS TUESDAYS @ 8:00 PM UNIVERSITY UNION

P.U.L.S.E. IS AN SA CHARTERED ORGANIZATION ON BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY’S CAMPUS THAT AIMS

TO EDUCATE, ELEVATE, AND EMPOWER WOMEN OF COLOR, HOWEVER WE ARE NOT EXCLUSIVE. TO ACHIEVE THIS, WE PROVIDE A SAFE HAVEN TO

OPENLY DISCUSS ISSUES THAT AFFECT US SUCH AS GENDER, SEX, AND SELF-ESTEEM AS WELL AS

PROVIDE NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES TO BUILD A COMMUNITY. FURTHERMORE, WE STRIVE TO WORK TOWARDS THE PROSPERITY OF WOMEN

THROUGH VOLUNTEER EFFORTS IN THE BINGHAMTON COMMUNITY.

PAGE 2

PAGE 4

PAGE 6

PAGE 8

MEET OUR INTERNS

“HOW I KNEW I WAS BLACK”

5TH ANNUAL BREAST CANCER WALK

PAGE 11 HEART DISEASE AWARENESS

DO YOU HAVE A DREAM?



Ashley Mitchell President

Lezlie Parker Vice President

Brianna Infante Publications Coordinator

Toni-Ann Black Co-Public Relations

Hilary Hernandez Co-Public Relations

Ariel Hunt Community Service Events Coordinator

Claudia Wright Secretary

Ashley Duran Fundraiser

Cassandre Lolo Treasurer

Rahilou Diallo Educational Coordinator

Melinda Momplaisir Senior Advisor


I have a dream that there will be a world with no fatal diseases, violence and mental disabilities. I just want to live in a world full of peace, love, and

happiness. -Claudia Wright

I have a dream… that one day our great and beautiful nation will come together as one and fix the mess that we have left behind in our tracks. It

seems to me that everyone has forgotten what our great and beautiful nation is all about. Being free does not being violent and cruel to your

environment, your peers, or your world. This all just goes back to the saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

-Toni-Ann Black

I have a dream that one day all races, genders, sexual preferences and economic levels will be equally respected. That one day my future sons will

not fear police officers and officers will respect their black skin. That my daughters’ bodies will be as equally respected as my sons' and that their ‘”No”

will be enough. -Melinda Momplaisir


I have a dream to become a Pediatric Nurse and further my degree as a Nurse Practitioner. Working with kids is something that is close to my

heart. I hope to bring a new aspect to nursing. -Ariel Hunt

I have a dream that we will one day live in a nation were we are not surmised by our gender or color of our skin. I have a dream that one day I

will not be judged because I am a woman but by the content of my character. I have a dream that one day there will be complete equality for all

human beings. I had this dream yesterday. I have this dream today. I’ll have this dream tomorrow.

-Ashley Duran

I have a dream that women will treat each other like women. Not degrade each other for little differences such as skin color or hair texture. Every

woman is beautiful in their own way, no one should be singled out or put down for being different. Difference is beauty. It creates diversity.

-Lezlie Parker


HISTORIAN/SA REPRESENTATIVE INTERN Year: Transfer Junior Major: Psychology Minor: History “This semester, I am looking forward to accomplishing everything I set my heart into, despite any pitfalls to keep me from moving forward.”

ELISA RIOS

MARIAM TRAOREFUNDRAISER INTERN

Year: Freshman Major: Economics and Sociology “This semester I look forward to

earning a high GPA, going to banquets, and of course, attending great

P.U.L.S.E. GBs.”


FUNDRAISER INTERN Year: Sophomore Major: Chemistry “This semester, I am looking forward to being accepted into SUNY Oswego's Costa Rica study abroad program. It has always been a dream for me to travel the world and I finally have the opportunity to do so over the summer. ”

CHRISTINE MAGANA

JASLYN ROJASPUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR INTERN Year: Sophomore Major: Psychology “This semester I am looking forward to mastering new crafts.”

JOYCE SOTOHISTORIAN/SA REPRESENTATIVE INTERN Year: Junior Major: Integrative Neuroscience


A Personal AnecdoteWritten by: Onyx Ramirez

Part 1: DenialMy mom tells me that my first solid food ever was tostones dipped in Catchú, (so that confirms my dominican-ness). But my blackness? My blackness was swept under the rug and hidden behind phrases such as trigeña, morenita, jabá, and high yellow. Terms like these were too often used to disguise my

African roots, (although the roots that grow out of my head, the ones that I grew up hating shout my origins loud and proud). My family (maybe yours too)

put other Dominicans down; the ones that have the “bad hair” and the ones whose parents didn’t “marry up.” These customs aren’t exclusive to

Dominicans, however. They are found all throughout the diaspora and their origins stem from survival. Nevertheless, if you had asked me 5, 4, 3 years ago

if I was black, I would say “No. I’m Dominican,” even though I now know that those things are not mutually exclusive.

Part 2: Anger What do you mean I’m black? That doesn’t make sense, I’m Hispanic. Sure,

the first Africans of the slave trade were brought to Hispaniola but that doesn’t mean anything. Those people all kind of just disappeared magically. They have nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with them. Yeah I’m brown but I’m not dark enough to be black, right? My hair is curly and my nose is

wide and I know for sure I’m not white, but I can’t be black. Spanish was my first language after all. Yeah we’re all fighting that good fight and ~equality~ but

at the end of the day, we’re different. Sure I don’t have much in common, culturally, with Central and South Americans but we’re all one peoples and I have pigeonholed myself and I have a box and that box is labeled “LATINA”

and I like that box. It’s comfy and I heard that I’m supposed to be a good dancer, which is nice.


Part 3: BargainingYes, in retrospect, I guess I do have African roots and that’s nice and dandy.

But I’m not black.

Part 4: Depression Wow okay, I guess I’m black.

My mom (who is much darker than me) was shunned by my dad’s side of the family (who are much lighter than me) because she was dark but what am I supposed to do about that? Yes, it hurts when my aunts make some passive aggressive comments about me looking “ghetto” when I leave my hair curly.

Yes, my family is super racist but does that mean I’m supposed to fault them? These ideals and practices aren’t my family jewels. I don’t cherish them. They

haven’t been passed down generation to generation like your aunt Gweneviere’s antique china (that was acquired under some pretty sketchy circumstances) because Dominicans love being racist. These are survival

instincts! If we try hard enough, if we pray hard enough, if we lighten the race enough maybe we’ll be able to blend in with white folk! Then maybe — one day, someone will claim us. That’s the thing about the Diaspora. We’re not one and we’re not the other and nobody wants you. We’re not a group that

stands at a united front against racism and that was done on purpose. Colonization did much more behind the scenes work than we give it credit for, and we have to give credit where credit is due! Along with the physical

enslavement of 12 MILLION people came the mental enslavement. One very basic example of this is the house slave situation. If you were lighter you got

to be a house slave, if you were darker you were a field slave. This life is survival of the fittest, and when being black in the Dominican Republic could literally get you murdered in the 30s (look up the Parsley massacre), I see why

my family tells me to straighten my hair on Sundays. When I look at my grandparents (some darker than me and some lighter than me) I feel bad for them because they have so far distanced themselves from reality and it’s not

their fault. At least, not really. This is not to say that I agree with or am justifying their “I no black, papi” attitude — they’re wrong and I get that.


YEAR: SophomoreMAJORS: Political Science,

Sociology, LACAS (triple major.)

I am currently an Intern for LASU, I am on the Student

Conduct Board, and I am the VP of Public Affairs for Smith

Hall of the Hinman Community.

Part 5: Acceptance However, I can (on an intellectual level) understand why everything went down the way it did. There are systems in play that perpetuate

this kind of thinking and if I could detail every one right here I would. But I can say a few things for certain. Being black doesn’t mean I can’t be a Latina. At this point I’m no more one than the other, and being

Latino means something different for every Latin American country. To me, that means dropping some s’ here and there and eating plantains. I am SIMULTANEOUSLY Latina and Black, which is mind blowing to a lot of people because apparently I’m only allowed to be one thing and I

have to choose because my complexities (and yours!) make others uncomfortable. For a minute, seriously look at me, though. There’s no denying this. Too often am I confused for African American for this to

be a casual mistake. This conversation isn’t over but if you’re unsatisfied with anything I said, I love talking about this.

