Silenced Students’ Reflections on the Second Community Forum To the SSA Community, At the second community forum we taped our mouths shut and sat at the center of the room wearing all black. We were comprised of nine Black and of color students. We did this to call attention to the ways in wh...
Silenced Students’ Reflections on the Second Community Forum
At the second community forum we taped our mouths shut and sat at the center of the room wearing all black. We were comprised of nine Black and of color students. We did this to call attention to the ways in which our voices have been silenced and labeled as aggressive, impatient, and disrespectful. We did this to highlight the disparity in the way that white voices are valued and ours are not. We did this, because this was the only way we could get people to “listen.”
During the forum, several traumatic acts of violence against Black and of color students occurred that exemplified the reasons why we began organizing to transform SSA. We write to share with you what we could not share with you then. We write to share the grief and righteous anger about the forum’s events. We write - taking the time from our academic duties during finals week - to urge you all to truly listen to student suffering, internalize it, and to use it to transform yourselves and this institution with us.
First, the shaming of student efforts for transparency through recording the forums was belittling and functioned as a means to divert attention from the issues at SSA, in order to frame student action as the problem. It suggested student leaders were irresponsibly silencing and harming vulnerable folks in our community - such as survivors of stalking or domestic violence, undocumented students, or folks transitioning - through public videos of the forum. This opening statement served as a manipulative tactic to devalue our movement and shift attention away from those in power who are allowed to inflict and dismiss student pain without accountability. It was dishonest to frame the current climate at SSA as, at all, the fault of students. We are largely the dependent variables until we put ourselves at risk by deciding not just passively accept what’s happening. For instance, right now we have to defend our actions to record the forums. We were mindful of the risks and thus placed posters advising folks to let us know if they would not like to be on camera, no questions asked. Instead of highlighting intentional efforts, the forum began by creating a hostile environment to student leaders. Student organizers should not be blamed for helping to alleviate the distrust created and fostered by the SSA administration.
Second, what does it mean when a white adjunct professor blatantly attacks a student of color for speaking her truth and challenging Guterman’s privileged identities? That act of violence both implicitly and explicitly aimed to further silence targeted populations at SSA. Not once did a white administrator or professor publicly hold this professor accountable. Not once did a white person publicly humiliate one of the numerous white students who interrupted and challenged Guterman. Not once were white students accused of “microagressing” Guterman. While white students stepped in when the aforementioned white adjunct professor aggressed the student of color, this is not representative of how the majority of white students at SSA react when targeted students are violated at this institution. Let us not forget that it was not until a professor of color directly pointed out that Black and of color students taped our mouths shut, unable to verbally contribute to the forum and using our white peers to speak for us, that we were finally acknowledged. This moment also revealed that many students and faculty in solidarity with us did not know how to support us at the forum - whether they wanted to or not - based on not having the skills or know how to do so. In the end, the same students, the ones with tapes across our mouths, are harmed.
Third, what does it mean when a professor of color suggested that we should be “appreciative” of the opportunity to speak? We understood this professor wanted to remind people that folks in countries from around the world are not often able to voice their truths without persecution. However, Black and of color folks in the U.S. – such as in Chicago and at UChicago, – still face state-sanctioned repression when demanding justice and freedom. Furthermore, these forums were made possible in the first place because targeted students demanded them. Therefore, no, students should not simply be “grateful” for being allowed to speak at SSA. Justice does not end at being allowed to speak. We have all been told at SSA that we grow through discomfort, so nobody grows by “ending on a positive note.” Even though this professor’s comments were well-intentioned, it nonetheless devalued the actions of students expressing and attempting to heal unacknowledged pain.
Lastly, we are very well aware that communities of color at SSA are made up of different races, ethnicities, nationalities, and intersecting target identities. With the current climate at SSA, it is essential these groups are not self-divided into smaller factions. The reality is that each community has its own unique narratives and struggles due to the same oppressive regimes that dehumanize us. However, it is vital that we, as students with various intersecting target and racial identities, accept that our liberation depends on Black liberation. It is crucial for our targeted communities to recognize that the U.S. and all communities of color thrive and benefit from anti-Blackness. Ignoring this reality impedes the process of radical transformation and liberation that we - as leaders, social workers, and agents of systemic change - are working to achieve, especially at SSA.
The forum was a replica of the daily traumatic and institutionally-sanctioned aggressions, isolation, and dehumanization Black, of color, and further minoritized students endure at SSA. We left the forum without knowledge of what our administration and professors are doing to understand their own privilege identities, to deepen their critical self-reflection. We left having our suffering and intentional actions gaslighted. We left feeling ashamed of the school that is supposed to teach us how to value and practice social justice and human rights. We write not to seek apologies. Instead, we write to help heal from the pain we endured; to hold our school and leadership accountable and to provide us with the social justice education we deserve; and to compel the privileged members of SSA to truly listen, critically reflect on the suffering inflicted upon minoritized people for over five centuries, and transform along with this institution.
Dominique Mikell, Olivia Blocker, Michelle Brown, Brianna Lawrence, Aliza Hirani, Najah Bhatty, Sonya Chaudhry, Diana Ali, Alisa de los Reyes, and Fátima Avellán
