AFSA Event Observation Report
Adams Center, Delta Sigma Theta, and Kappa Alpha put on the event on April 28th at the bottom of Adams Center from 6-8pm. The event was open to anyone, and the primary audience was black students and most took place in some aspect of the event, which is really cool. Everyone at the event was quite inviting and made the event enjoyable for me. They started with food that loosely aligned with black culture: gumbo, fried chicken, rice, green beans, mac and cheese, watermelon, and Kool-Aid and punch. It was delicious, and they didn’t run out of food early. The first presentation was a poetry slam about police brutality especially to black individuals. There was also a PowerPoint on repeat that displayed many statistics and facts about the
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disproportionate number of individuals of minority in jail, killed by police, and in positions of power. Several groups danced or performed throughout the event.
After the poem was The African Students Association; they performed a group dance that showed off the group as a team and also each individual’s dancing. It was very fun, and a few dances were related to older dances from groups in Africa, and other dances were historical of black culture in America. They explained this near the end of the event when everyone was invited to learn some of the dances. After AFSA’s performance came the Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. stroll. It’s sort of an extremely energetic follow the leader dance, but its better described as a group dance that usually happens to be in a line. Most if not all strolls are paired with music, and this particular stroll used a whistle blown by the leader of the dance group. Using a whistle isn’t uncommon and just adds to the energy and the hype that these strolls are known for. There was a lot jumping and kicking contrasted with smooth controlled “rolling.” I was extremely impressed by the group again. After their performance the Delta Sigma Theta also performed their own step show. Compared to Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. there was much less jumping, but more relaxed dancing. The step shows/strolls have been a very big part of the black Greek community. There are annual competitions, and even today there is another event in the Walk-Adam mall taking place. After the performances, both Greek groups showed us their chants, and head scarves were given out as …show more content…
well. Through this event I learned about the local black fraternity and sorority and The African Students Association (AFSA). I also came to see that cultural organizations can be a load of fun even for individuals that don’t identify with that culture. Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. focuses on providing community, social welfare, and academic scholarships, while Delta Sigma Theta strives to improve political, education, social, and economic conditions through lobbying, education, and economic initiatives. Two super interesting aspects of Delta Sigma Theta is that they participated in the first Women’s Suffrage March, and they are the largest black Greek organization. An interesting part of the event was that the diaspora from the title wasn’t really explained aside from some dances having an origin from somewhere in Africa. Looking into the word I found it is defined as the dispersion of a people. Surely the forced ‘dispersion’ of people from Africa has had a great effect on culture in America, and unfortunately we can see how it affected the systems in America that has disadvantaged an entire people group. As I saw from the PowerPoint at the event, blacks are not the only people group at a disadvantage here in America. While researching issues faced by the black community that are different from my own, I ran into a concept that I remember discussing lightly in psychology class in high school.
The issue is called stereotype threat, and it is the explained by Massey and Owens to be a process where a stereotype in society causes an effect in individuals involved in the stereotype. The specific stereotype discussed and the one that I believe is the most relevant in college today is the stereotype that blacks don’t perform well academically. The stereotype is often in much harsher terms, but the gist is that they aren’t as academically successful as say white students. The threat takes effect when black students are aware of the stereotype. The effect of the threat can manifest itself either internally or externally. A stereotype threat is internalized if a student believes in the stereotype in some way. This internalization is a threat to their academic success, because it is a threat to their self-esteem. To clarify if a student thinks they won’t be successful in school because of the stereotype, then they might (subconsciously most likely) “disidentify” from their own academics. This is liken to the argument “my grades don’t define me.” By students not putting in all of their effort they have an out of sorts so it doesn’t tarnish their self-esteem. If a student externalizes the threat, then it’s a very different process. The student doesn’t actually believe the stereotype, but
they do believe that others believe it. The students will “know” that their white classmates and professors will be prejudiced against them, because the students are black. This expectancy to be discriminated against will affect these students’ stress level even if they don’t receive any evidence of the prejudice of the people surrounding them. This stress is a weight that can hurt students’ abilities to succeed in school (Massey and Owens 557-575). An interesting note discussed by the article is that the stereotype threat only works if people are aware of it or believe in it enough for it to affect them. As part of this reasoning, parents who weren’t from the US were less likely to be aware of the racist stereotype in the US, so they were less likely to pass it on to their children. In addition to these students being less susceptible to the stereotype threat, there is an idea that many immigrant families hold on to. “An immigrant ideology of grit and effort” helps students fight the stereotype threat. Through these findings, it can be concluding that students, that spend more time taking in the racist US media, are more likely to be affected by stereotype threat (Massey Owens 558-572). Another article I found happened to touch on a topic that I was semi-knowledgeable. It’s the idea of “color-blind racial ideology” that I believe is held primarily by whites. This is the idea that we treat everyone that same and that that will solve racism. Aside from the problem that it sort of blames people of color for being “of color,” this concept throws all cultural and ethnic history differences in the trash. It suggests that stripping people of aspects of their identity is the correct way of dealing with those differences in identities. The article discussed data that gave evidence that blacks accepting this color-blind idea is related to these individuals actually blaming blacks for racism. They also tended to accept negative stereotypes that revolved around race. Although the article was unsure if the idea caused these issues or if they were both caused by some other aspect, they did find that adopting the color-blind idea was partnered in some aspect to negative mental health issues, primarily self-esteem. This made sense to me; internalizing a belief that you should stop trying to express the identity of being black, can’t be good for you, in my opinion. Again the color-blind idea is most likely unhealthy, because it tells people that race isn’t important (Barr and Neville 138-165). When I sought an article that focused on being an ally, I actually had trouble finding an article that was aimed at being an ally for any group other than the LGBTQ+ community. Eventually I did find a couple articles, but it was interesting to see that the LGBTQ+ community has a near monopoly on the term Ally as far as an identifier for an individual. The article described three qualities that members of non-dominant communities said they wanted from allies: inclusion, safety, and equity. Inclusion we’ve discussed in depth in the RA class. I believe I can definitely speak out in a way to expand and strengthen safety for all individuals. I know half the battle of supporting equality is being aware of where I personally and the system at large fall short of being fair and equal. The other half is being willing to step in and speak to defend individuals against discrimination. Other qualities from the point of view of non-dominant groups that describe individual allies that are part of the dominant group are “respectful, knowledgeable, accommodating, not condescending, and willing and able to treat them as they would anyone else.” Most of these qualities fall under the three broader characteristics above, but I feel that it’s better to flesh out these ideas when I can to help myself do a better job as an ally. Again allies were set apart from other individuals by their ability to “affirm” their community and to take “informed action.” I believe that reflecting on these qualities that non-dominant groups are likely to desire from me, as a member of the dominant group (white, straight, cis, male, Christian) (Brown and Ostrove 2211-2222).
disproportionate number of individuals of minority in jail, killed by police, and in positions of power. Several groups danced or performed throughout the event.
After the poem was The African Students Association; they performed a group dance that showed off the group as a team and also each individual’s dancing. It was very fun, and a few dances were related to older dances from groups in Africa, and other dances were historical of black culture in America. They explained this near the end of the event when everyone was invited to learn some of the dances. After AFSA’s performance came the Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. stroll. It’s sort of an extremely energetic follow the leader dance, but its better described as a group dance that usually happens to be in a line. Most if not all strolls are paired with music, and this particular stroll used a whistle blown by the leader of the dance group. Using a whistle isn’t uncommon and just adds to the energy and the hype that these strolls are known for. There was a lot jumping and kicking contrasted with smooth controlled “rolling.” I was extremely impressed by the group again. After their performance the Delta Sigma Theta also performed their own step show. Compared to Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. there was much less jumping, but more relaxed dancing. The step shows/strolls have been a very big part of the black Greek community. There are annual competitions, and even today there is another event in the Walk-Adam mall taking place. After the performances, both Greek groups showed us their chants, and head scarves were given out as …show more content…
well. Through this event I learned about the local black fraternity and sorority and The African Students Association (AFSA). I also came to see that cultural organizations can be a load of fun even for individuals that don’t identify with that culture. Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. focuses on providing community, social welfare, and academic scholarships, while Delta Sigma Theta strives to improve political, education, social, and economic conditions through lobbying, education, and economic initiatives. Two super interesting aspects of Delta Sigma Theta is that they participated in the first Women’s Suffrage March, and they are the largest black Greek organization. An interesting part of the event was that the diaspora from the title wasn’t really explained aside from some dances having an origin from somewhere in Africa. Looking into the word I found it is defined as the dispersion of a people. Surely the forced ‘dispersion’ of people from Africa has had a great effect on culture in America, and unfortunately we can see how it affected the systems in America that has disadvantaged an entire people group. As I saw from the PowerPoint at the event, blacks are not the only people group at a disadvantage here in America. While researching issues faced by the black community that are different from my own, I ran into a concept that I remember discussing lightly in psychology class in high school.
The issue is called stereotype threat, and it is the explained by Massey and Owens to be a process where a stereotype in society causes an effect in individuals involved in the stereotype. The specific stereotype discussed and the one that I believe is the most relevant in college today is the stereotype that blacks don’t perform well academically. The stereotype is often in much harsher terms, but the gist is that they aren’t as academically successful as say white students. The threat takes effect when black students are aware of the stereotype. The effect of the threat can manifest itself either internally or externally. A stereotype threat is internalized if a student believes in the stereotype in some way. This internalization is a threat to their academic success, because it is a threat to their self-esteem. To clarify if a student thinks they won’t be successful in school because of the stereotype, then they might (subconsciously most likely) “disidentify” from their own academics. This is liken to the argument “my grades don’t define me.” By students not putting in all of their effort they have an out of sorts so it doesn’t tarnish their self-esteem. If a student externalizes the threat, then it’s a very different process. The student doesn’t actually believe the stereotype, but
they do believe that others believe it. The students will “know” that their white classmates and professors will be prejudiced against them, because the students are black. This expectancy to be discriminated against will affect these students’ stress level even if they don’t receive any evidence of the prejudice of the people surrounding them. This stress is a weight that can hurt students’ abilities to succeed in school (Massey and Owens 557-575). An interesting note discussed by the article is that the stereotype threat only works if people are aware of it or believe in it enough for it to affect them. As part of this reasoning, parents who weren’t from the US were less likely to be aware of the racist stereotype in the US, so they were less likely to pass it on to their children. In addition to these students being less susceptible to the stereotype threat, there is an idea that many immigrant families hold on to. “An immigrant ideology of grit and effort” helps students fight the stereotype threat. Through these findings, it can be concluding that students, that spend more time taking in the racist US media, are more likely to be affected by stereotype threat (Massey Owens 558-572). Another article I found happened to touch on a topic that I was semi-knowledgeable. It’s the idea of “color-blind racial ideology” that I believe is held primarily by whites. This is the idea that we treat everyone that same and that that will solve racism. Aside from the problem that it sort of blames people of color for being “of color,” this concept throws all cultural and ethnic history differences in the trash. It suggests that stripping people of aspects of their identity is the correct way of dealing with those differences in identities. The article discussed data that gave evidence that blacks accepting this color-blind idea is related to these individuals actually blaming blacks for racism. They also tended to accept negative stereotypes that revolved around race. Although the article was unsure if the idea caused these issues or if they were both caused by some other aspect, they did find that adopting the color-blind idea was partnered in some aspect to negative mental health issues, primarily self-esteem. This made sense to me; internalizing a belief that you should stop trying to express the identity of being black, can’t be good for you, in my opinion. Again the color-blind idea is most likely unhealthy, because it tells people that race isn’t important (Barr and Neville 138-165). When I sought an article that focused on being an ally, I actually had trouble finding an article that was aimed at being an ally for any group other than the LGBTQ+ community. Eventually I did find a couple articles, but it was interesting to see that the LGBTQ+ community has a near monopoly on the term Ally as far as an identifier for an individual. The article described three qualities that members of non-dominant communities said they wanted from allies: inclusion, safety, and equity. Inclusion we’ve discussed in depth in the RA class. I believe I can definitely speak out in a way to expand and strengthen safety for all individuals. I know half the battle of supporting equality is being aware of where I personally and the system at large fall short of being fair and equal. The other half is being willing to step in and speak to defend individuals against discrimination. Other qualities from the point of view of non-dominant groups that describe individual allies that are part of the dominant group are “respectful, knowledgeable, accommodating, not condescending, and willing and able to treat them as they would anyone else.” Most of these qualities fall under the three broader characteristics above, but I feel that it’s better to flesh out these ideas when I can to help myself do a better job as an ally. Again allies were set apart from other individuals by their ability to “affirm” their community and to take “informed action.” I believe that reflecting on these qualities that non-dominant groups are likely to desire from me, as a member of the dominant group (white, straight, cis, male, Christian) (Brown and Ostrove 2211-2222).