We would like to thank Rebecca Tessier for allowing us to share a spoken word piece she did to reflect upon her USC experience. Please see the video and the transcription of the piece below: You can’t be black at a white university You can’t be black at a white university You can’t be black You can’t be black You can’t be You can’t be You can’t You can’t Is what USC tells me everyday: You can’t because you’re black . . . I am a piece of shit according to USC Just like what’s before me There isn’t much difference between it and I in President Nikias’ eyes Except for that fact that I am a living, breathing human being and this is . . . Well . . . shit But actually, let’s examine our properties: It’s black and I’m black But for different reasons Its color lends to a myriad of different secreted substances And while my skin isn’t black I’m Black because society says so “Black” as a race didn’t exist 400 years ago It wasn’t until the white man realized That he needed to create certain disguise for the Africans One that made it so that they weren’t equal Because you can’t torture a people You can only do that to things without value Like shit Speaking of things without value That’s us too: Me and it Me and the shit We both can’t afford the food here Or the housing . . . or books . . . or the air Because treating your students like banks is fair I’m just someone’s paycheck, home from afar Hey President Nikias, where’d you get that new car? Oh that’s just my tuition Business as usual at USC Side note: People used ask me why I came to a university that I couldn’t afford Why not go to a community college? Or get a job? And you know what I said? I said, I have two jobs and I still can’t afford Seeds And how come your income makes you more valuable than my intellect? Oh you wana know how? Because USC says so Anyway back to us No I don’t mean you and I I mean me and it: Me and the shit Another one of our similarities is We’re a collection of things that were once of wealth The shit was once food that nourished the body That contributed to its overall health But now we’re seen as discarded waste Let me just give you a taste as to what that looks like: Take a young biracial girl with beauty, intellect, and ambition Throw her into a Caucasian Chauvinist Coalition Tell her that what once made her a queen Is now seen as a disability And yeah her skin may be light and she may “talk white” But the frat boys will always oversexualize her “exoticism” And she may have natural hair and dress with flair But the sororitudes will always emphasize her people’s “eroticism” And just like bees, the shit and me We’re both dangerous, poisonous, and not to be touched But here’s where we’re different It’s dangerous because well, isn’t it obvious? Nothing that comes out your body should go back in Just like humans Just because I came out of one doesn’t mean I should go back in My genesis shouldn't determine my Revelations I’m dangerous because I come from a linage of strong people Stolen from their mother country Raped and beaten until almost total extinction And yet still, we rise I’m poisonous because of my diversity And I don’t mean outward The diversity of my ideas threatens the white heterosexual patriarchal system On which USC was built So I am a problem Therefor I should be touched Because my disease might pass People at this university might grasp The importance of a Black house Of affordable education education So it’s better if I am treated as an it So it’s better if I am shit Now that I am what they want me to be What are we going to do with me?
