The benefits of study abroad are well documented, from increased confidence to an expanded worldview — and college students who study abroad are more likely to do better in school and graduate on time.
But that experience is often unattainable for a particular group of students: men of color. Of the more than 300,000 U.S. undergraduates who study abroad each year, an overwhelming majority are white women.
For students at the University of Washington, the Brotherhood Initiative (BI) wants to help level the field.
Breaking down barriers
Studies show that men of color graduate at lower rates than their female and white male peers. To help address this disparity, Joe Lott, associate professor at the College of Education, established the BI in 2016 as part of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge — and in line with the UW’s Race and Equity Initiative, launched by President Ana Mari Cauce.
“The main barrier for many of these students of color is a sense of belonging at the institution, because they rarely see other students, faculty and staff who look like them,” says Lott. “We wanted to create a space where they feel welcome and at home.”
That sense of belonging has been especially lacking in study abroad programs.
“Students don’t see themselves in study abroad materials, and they think, ‘Well, that’s not for me,’” says Tory Brundage, a graduate student at the College of Education and member of the BI leadership team.
Another major hurdle is the cost, he says. Many BI students come from lower-income backgrounds, so time away from a job or the burden of additional loan debt to cover trip expenses puts study abroad out of reach.
In late 2016, Lott and Brundage began exploring how to make study abroad possible for BI students. And last summer, thanks to financial support from UW Study Abroad, four BI students headed overseas.
Another major hurdle is the cost, he says. Many BI students come from lower-income backgrounds, so time away from a job or the burden of additional loan debt to cover trip expenses puts study abroad out of reach.
In late 2016, Lott and Brundage began exploring how to make study abroad possible for BI students. And last summer, thanks to financial support from UW Study Abroad, four BI students headed overseas.
Marquis’ journey
BI member Marquis Wright never thought he’d be able to study abroad.
A junior majoring in communication and creative writing, Wright grew up south of Seattle in Federal Way. During his freshman year, he was typically the only person of color in the room, and he often felt as if he didn’t belong. But thanks to the BI, Wright found the support he needed.
“The Brotherhood Initiative made my being a man of color on campus — and in academia in general — more manageable,” he says. “It really opened up the doors for everything I’ve done at the UW. I know that no matter what I do, I have a network of peers and mentors behind me.”
Still, studying abroad never seemed feasible, Wright says, between the high cost and the demands of his majors. “Then, through the Brotherhood Initiative,” he says, “I heard about the Dark Empire program in London.”
Led by Clarence Spigner from the School of Public Health, Dark Empire is an exploration seminar on race, health and society in the U.K. Thanks to the donor-supported Global Opportunities Fund, Wright and two other BI members received scholarships to take part in the program.
While Wright loved experiencing U.K. culture, some of his most valuable lessons came from reflecting on life back home as a black man in a predominantly white city.
“In Seattle, it’s easy to feel like an outsider,” says Wright. But in diverse London, “I would walk down the street and see huge populations of people of color. I was surprised at how little I was looked at like a stranger.”
That comfort was something Wright had been missing in the U.S. “I got to see what life is like outside of what I’ve always known, outside of the racism and microaggressions in my interactions with people in Washington,” he says.
“Now I can see more of my place as an African American male in American society,” Wright says. “The experience helped me be more outspoken about the things that systemically affect me and others who aren’t part of the dominant majority.”
New directions for the Brotherhood Initiative
Starting this August, the BI leadership team hopes to foster more experiences like Wright’s through an annual exploration seminar at the UW Rome Center.
“Education Rome: Masculinity, Race & Educational Pipelines” will focus on concepts of masculinity throughout Rome’s history. Lott hopes that participants “will gain a thirst for understanding more about Italian culture, their own culture and their place in local and global contexts.” The BI aims to offer scholarships for the program so it’s accessible to all students.
“My trip really rounded out my time at the UW,” Wright says. “Now I feel like I can bring my experiences as a person of color and a black person and pursue a life that I want for myself — and that I wish more people could have.”
As Dean, this is the joyous time of year when we honor the achievements of our faculty, staff and students and confer degrees on our proud graduates. And then, as this season of ceremonies, champagne and cupcakes winds down, I will pause to take stock of our progress on our most important priorities. Here’s what’s weighing on my mind.
Throughout higher education, marginalized scholars continue to experience microaggressions and discrimination at all stages of their academic paths, from student to job candidate to faculty member. The UW and the College are not exceptions.
In reflecting on this, I want to acknowledge that anything I write here has been said before, and better, by people of color in higher education.
I know that I am part of a larger UW leadership that is committed to equity and inclusion. I also know that the lived experience of our community members shows we have a very long way to go. We are moving at a glacial pace despite the fact that the urgency is real and should be felt by every member of our community, particularly those who are in positions to change systems—people like myself who are administrators and/or tenured faculty members. With each passing year the stakes are higher and the toll is greater.
Consider the inequitable burdens of intellectual and emotional labor placed on marginalized and underrepresented members of our community. Some examples come to my mind:
People of color: expectations around recruiting other people of color, serving on diversity committees, being viewed as speaking ‘on behalf of’ entire racial groups, carrying the trust and pain of students of color, the toll of constant code-switching
White women and women of color: fewer opportunities for professional growth and advancement, incidents of harassment and assault, feeling of being alone and having one’s career jeopardized by speaking out
Marginalized scholars: too often they find themselves in a double bind. We congratulate ourselves as we recruit a more diverse faculty while loading a heavy and often conflicting set of expectations on these scholars. Of course, we expect they will be engaged colleagues, but what happens when the engagement is labeled as “too much activism,” taking time away from doing “real” academic work? What message, in turn, does that send to students—our future faculty and staff members—who share similar experiences and backgrounds?
This inequitable labor can make it possible for administrators to avoid holding themselves and institutions accountable for real systemic transformation.
Incoming generations of students will be majority people of color. Even our College’s traditionally white, male-dominated fields will see more and more white women and people of color. I fully imagine that our programs will embrace these shifts and we will be champions for diverse ways of learning and knowing, which will strengthen our work and expand possibilities for discovery. However, we aren’t fully there yet; we are still too near the start for me to see the finish line.
We’re in this together. I thank the College Diversity Committee for their work this year in prioritizing actions that reflect our Culture Study as well as their own experiences. We will be acting on these priorities while keeping an eye on emerging challenges and opportunities. Our earth science colleagues can point to times and places where glacial change has accelerated, reshaping landscapes in its wake. That’s what I look forward to, knowing that to do this we must all move forward together. Participating in this work isn’t optional.
Lisa J. Graumlich
Dean, College of the Environment
Mary Laird Wood Professor
Nearly 20 years ago, members of a UW student, faculty and staff organization called Voyagers noticed something missing.
The group, for Pacific Islander students and their allies, found little of their heritage or culture reflected in courses and activities, and scant evidence of efforts to grow their numbers of students and faculty. They mobilized for recognition, and over time, as other groups were involved, there were achievements to celebrate: an affiliation with the Ethnic Cultural Center, the Poly Day event in April.
Now, after lobbying by faculty and students, there is an academic victory: a newly announcedminor in Oceania and Pacific Islander Studies, beginning in spring quarter. The 25-credit, interdisciplinary program is housed in the Department of American Indian Studies and includes classes from the departments of American Ethnic Studies, Anthropology and English, and the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs.
The goal is to offer students a “transformative academic experience” in a coherent, organized curriculum that opens new lines of inquiry into the histories and cultures of a vast yet community-oriented region.
“The new minor is exciting for us. It allows the university to join hands with the Pacific Islander community in Washington state by educating about Oceanic knowledge. It also creates visibility for a population that often feels invisible in the larger institution,” said Holly Barker, who helped push for the new program as a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and curator of Oceanic and Asian Culture at the Burke Museum.
The minor, one of nine new UW minors over the past three years, is believed to be the only such program outside the University of Hawaii. City College of San Francisco offers a 17-credit certificate in Critical Pacific Islands Studies, while the University of Utah is currently developing a Pacific Islander Studies initiative.
Here at the UW, the name includes “Oceania” – the geographic region that includes Guam, the Marshall Islands and Polynesia, and a nod to the link between the vast ocean and the islands. Housing the program in American Indian Studies reflects that department’s own thinking about identity, said AIS advisor Kai Wise.
“A lot of courses study First Nations in Canada, and indigenous peoples in Mexico and Central America. This minor supports the idea that we’re a broader department looking at indigenous studies, not just in the United States,” Wise said.
The minor includes a five-credit practicum, designed to give students experience working with the populations they’re studying. Students who pursue this minor, like other majors in its home and related departments, often go into community service or organizing work as a career, Wise said.
That’s how Raeleen Camacho, a UW junior, plans to use the minor. A native of Guam, she wants to become a public health nurse and return to work there.
“It will help me help people in my community,” she said. “These classes give me an understanding of how each island is different, with different traditions, languages and cultures.”
Countering stereotypes, embracing identity
Washington has the third largest population of Pacific Islanders in the nation, but the general public is often unaware of issues facing the community, said Taylor Ahana-Jamile, independent learning program manager for UW Study Abroad and a UW alum. What’s more, he said, young Pacific Islanders sometimes have little understanding of their own identities, due to the legacy of colonization.
“You have young Pacific Islanders who cannot speak their ancestors’ language, do not know their history and then are unfamiliar with their mother and father’s cultures. But it is not the Samoan American parents’ fault that their children do not know their language. It is not the people of Micronesia’s responsibility to teach their children about the devastating history of atomic bomb testings. It is the colonizers’,” said Ahana-Jamile, who as an undergraduate was president of the Polynesian Student Alliance. “With the minor we can focus on such issues, and we can start to teach our children who they are and where they come from.”
At the UW, Pacific Islander students say they sometimes have felt stereotyped, or generalized as “Asian,” said Kat Punzalan, director of the Pacific Islander Student Commission. The minor can help educate non-Pacific Islanders as well, she said.
“Visibility is one of the biggest challenges that impacts the Pacific Islander community on campus, and people simply don’t have much of an understanding of who we are,” Punzalan said. Pacific Islanders excel in a variety of activities, pursue majors in assorted disciplines and contribute through research, the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity’s student ambassador programs and cultural events, she pointed out. “We are celebrating the minor today, but the next step is a major!”
To the people involved in establishing the new minor, the recognition is similar to that achieved by African-American students in the 1960s, when protests led to the establishment of the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, or when later efforts resulted in the creation of departments in American Indian and ethnic studies. All were the work of students who wanted to see their culture, history and identity reflected in the staffing, teaching and outreach of the university.
Classes related to Pacific Islander history and culture have been offered for some time, but organizers of the minor such as Rick Bonus, an associate professor of American Ethnic Studies, saw the program as a way to more formally institutionalize the curriculum and validate it as a field of study at the UW.
“Instead of thinking only faculty and staff are the sources of knowledge, the minor is a gift from the students to the UW community,” he said. “The more we can enable a university environment that recognizes and values what students bring into the classroom, the better. The Pacific Islander students who advocated with us wanted to be co-learners and co-producers of knowledge. They wanted their cultures and histories to be part of our academic community: That’s what being an Islander is all about. In true Pacific Islander spirit, this is a collective.”
Helen Enguerra, an admissions counselor in the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, remembers coming to the UW several years ago as a freshman, eager to find community. Born and raised in American Samoa until she was a teenager, Enguerra said she wasn’t used to the individual nature of the college student experience.
“For me, going to school wasn’t just for myself, it was for my family. I was used to having people support me, and here, it felt like you do everything on your own.”
But Enguerra took some anthropology classes, joined the Polynesian Student Alliance, and began to see community in new places.
“I learned that study groups can be a community. It’s about the Pacific Islander value of reciprocity, how you help one another,” she said.
Today, Pacific Islanders make up about 0.5 percent of UW undergraduate enrollment, and reaching out to prospective students is part of Enguerra’s job. Having a designated minor, with so many courses reflecting the interests and learning styles of Pacific Islander students, can help with retention and recruitment, she said.
Community is part of that learning style, added Barker, who works with a group of Pacific Islander students from the UW each week at the Burke Museum. She formed the group, known as Research Family, nearly five years ago as a way to help Pacific Islander students feel connected through artifacts, study and friendship. Her anthropology classes features students and people from the community as instructors, as with her special topic during winter quarter, Oceanic Research Methods: The Culture of the Canoe.
“There is an Oceanic sense of community building that, when we bring it into the classroom, it is a powerful thing,” she said.
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For more information on the Oceania and Pacific Islander Studies minor, contact Wise at kaiwise@uw.edu.
Student activism in 1968 led the UW to create one of the nation’s first office of minority affairs. Here’s their story. And their outlook for the future.
When scientists have conducted research in Native American communities, the process and the results have sometimes been controversial.
There have been a few well-known cases, such as the 1979 Barrow Alcohol Study, in which researchers examined substance use in the tiny Arctic Circle town and issued findings to the press, before briefing the local community. Media coverage interpreting the findings described an “alcoholic” society of Iñupiats “facing extinction,” while the people of Barrow (now known as Utqiaġvik) felt betrayed, and researchers faced questions and criticism.
Then in 1990, members of the Havasupai Tribe gave DNA to an Arizona State University researcher for the study of diabetes; when they learned their blood samples had been used for other studies as well, they filed a lawsuit, ultimately winning a financial settlement and the return of their DNA.
The cases illustrate what to Cynthia Pearson, a research associate professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, and others are avoidable tragedies. Research among American Indians and Alaska Natives can be a partnership, argues Pearson, who has developed a training curriculum for scientists and members of tribal communities that clearly explains informed consent, tribal sovereignty and culturally respectful study.
“There is a way you can produce and publish results without harming community,” said Pearson, whose article about the new curriculum and a related study appeared online Feb. 20 in Critical Public Health. Myra Parker, a UW assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, co-authored the piece.
The curriculum is now being reviewed for inclusion by Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative Program (CITI), which provides online training in research ethics and conduct to scores of colleges and universities around the world. At the UW, CITI is one of the available trainings that are required for many researchers involved in working with human subjects.
In her article, Pearson outlines her Ethics Training for Health in Indigenous Communities Study (ETHICS). Three expert panels guided the development of the culturally tailored curriculum: one group composed of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) with experience conducting research in their communities; another composed of American Indians and Alaska Natives, along with outside researchers who worked in AIAN communities; and a third composed of academic Institutional Review Board (IRB) members and ethicists who review AIAN-focused research. Then, in a national study with about 500 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN), that new curriculum was evaluated. The evaluation showed that at first attempt, about 28 percent of the group that took the traditional curriculum passed, whereas among those who took the culturally tailored version, nearly 60 percent passed. The results, she said, helped inform a new training curriculum that aims to enhance research capabilities and increase participation in federally funded studies in Indian Country.
Key to this approach to community-engaged research is clear, concise material that resonates with study participants and stakeholders, Pearson said. That means acknowledging historical trauma, understanding tribal authority and the significance of the community in daily life, and respecting the specific knowledge and values that American Indians and Alaska Natives possess.
Take the concept of risk, as typically outlined in a study involving human subjects. The adapted curriculum defines “group harm” as a risk for American Indian/Alaska Native communities, in which a tribe is identified by the public release of stigmatizing data regarding, say, substance use or at-risk behaviors for HIV. Similarly, the training points to the need to protect locations of research, just as a scientist would protect the name of an individual, because many Alaska Native villages are so small as to be easily identifiable.
When informed community members are involved in every step of the process, Pearson said, there is potential for reducing harm from research while enhancing trust and collaboration, and producing research reflective of community values.
“Originally developed for community members new to research, this training will provide valuable guidance for academic researchers and IRB administrators in the conduct of more accurate and respectful research among AIAN communities,” she said.
The ETHICS study was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. Other authors on the paper were Chuan Zhou of the UW School of Public Health; Caitlin Donald of Oregon Health & Science University; and Celia Fisher of Fordham University.
The curriculum is available for download. For more information, including a trainer’s toolkit, contact Pearson at pearsonc@uw.edu or 206-543-9441.
Four decades of teaching and research have brought Quintard Taylor a lifetime achievement award from the Washington State Historical Society.
Taylor is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of History at the University of Washington, now emeritus, with additional appointments in the American Ethnic Studies Department and the Center for Multicultural Education. He is also the founder of the 13,000-page website BlackPast.org, which celebrates its 11th anniversary this year.
He has received the Washington State Historical Society’s Robert Gray Medal for 2017, recognizing his career and “far-reaching commitment to researching, preserving and promoting the history of African-Americans in the Pacific Northwest.”
He sat down with UW News for a discussion of his work and this unusual moment in history.
Of all your accomplishments, of what are you most proud?
“I am most proud of Blackpast.org. I have devoted so many hours to it, it almost sounds like an obsession, but the reason I say it is because we have a hugeaudience. We have just crossed the 4 million mark in visitors in 2017.
“I never would have imagined in 2007 that we’d have any kind of response like that. When we first crossed the 100,000 mark, some of my colleagues in the history department were shocked, because after all, it is simply a website. It is a website, but one that focuses on African-American history and the somewhat radical idea that the history that is normally presented in the university classroom can and should be taken beyond the campus and made available to everybody. And we thought, OK, that’s a cool concept in principle. Let’s see how it works.”
Taylor said the greatest honor he and BlackPast.org received was an invitation for him to address the National Education Association’s annual conference in Florida, where he spoke to an audience of 2,000 people.
Asked about the nature of the BlackPast audience, he said those coming to the site are mostly between the ages of about 40 and 70, two-thirds women and about two-thirds black. About 17 percent of visitors are from outside the country, primarily from Canada and the United Kingdom.
The site also, Taylor added, has links to black newspapers across America and “the most comprehensive list of newspapers on the African continent,” where you can view daily front pages.
You mention that among your goals is to get BlackPast.org into every classroom in the nation.
“Yes, and the big issue is that only 12 percent of the people who use it are teachers, and another 10 percent or so are students. We’d like to see those numbers improved with 50 percent of our clientele as students. We do know students are using it because our numbers go up in the school year and they go down in the summer. But even when we see that impact, it’s small considering the potential numbers.
Taylor added with a laugh, “It surprised me, because in a way this website is made for students. It’s the Wikipedia for African-American history. I resented that at first but now I embrace it. Like President Barack Obama embracing the term ‘Obamacare.’”
He said, however, that BlackPast needs to find a sustainable funding model, so a full-time person can be hired “to what I now do for free.”
About BlackPast.org
BlackPast.org is a free reference website about people of African ancestry in the United States and around the world. Supporting the 13,000-page website is a volunteer staff of 12 and nearly 700 volunteer contributors across six continents adding new content regularly. It was founded on Feb. 1, 2007. The site includes:
An online encyclopedia featuring more than 4,500 entries on people, places and events in African-American history.
Perspectives Online magazine, featuring commentary on important but little-known events in black history, often written by those who participated in or witnessed those events.
The complete text of over 300 speeches by African-Americans, other people of African ancestry, and those concerned about race, from 1789 to 2016.
More than 160 full-text primary documents, including court decisions, laws, organizational statements, treaties, government reports and executive orders.
Nine major timelines that show the history of people of African ancestry from five million B.C.E. to today.
Nine bibliographies listing more than 5,000 major books categorized by author, title, subject and date of publication.
Six “gateway pages” with links to digital archive collections, African and African-American museums and research centers, genealogical research websites and more than 180 contemporary African and African-American newspapers.
Links to more than 200 documentaries on African-American, African, black Latin American, Caribbean and European history.
Special features on African-American firsts, major black officeholders in history, President Barack Obama and LGBTQ populations.
How does BlackPast cover the Black Lives Matter movement?
The site, Taylor said, has a page explaining the rise of the movement as well as almost 70 entries detailing other situations “involving police conduct vis a vis unarmed black people. Other entries describe the three founders of the movement.
“You know the first entry that’s on the list? An incident in Seattle in 1938 that involved a black waiter in a hotel in what is now the International District. He was pushed down steps by three white policemen and killed by the fall. At first, they said he just tripped and fell. Nobody questioned that explanation, except that there were some witnesses who reported that he didn’t fall, that he was pushed. Three cops were prosecuted by the local authorities and they all they went to jail although the governor would eventually commute their sentences.”
Taylor stressed that there was an organized community in Seattle even then that was smaller and less powerful and influential than today, but that was nonetheless able to get the officers arrested and put in jail.
“As we began to compile the stories for the Black Lives Matter page, we realized every story is different which is another reason for doing it,” he said. “We want those who died to be more than just statistics for either the proponents or opponents of Black Lives Matter.
“The Black Lives Matter page shows how racism, contemporary poverty and poor education help generate the conditions that bring about the murder of black women and men and that this tension between the cops and African-Americans has deep roots in history.
“This kind of angst we’re in now, the moment we’re in, didn’t come out of a vacuum or thin air. President Trump’s not even responsible for it. This is a long, long history that has been going on in this country, north, south, east, and west, and we show that connection at BlackPast.”
Speaking of President Trump, what are your views of his presidency and administration?
“I’m not as concerned as you might expect me to be. Because I’m a historian, I take the long view. I’ve seen this overt racism before. I grew up with it in Tennessee in the 1960s.
“When were growing up, there were local racists, the mayor, the sheriff, the local police force, who make Trump look like a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. I grew up in what political pundits now call the real America, deep red Tennessee, and that’s where the big cultural divide is between the interior, the heartland, according to some historians, and the east and west coasts. That divide goes all the way back to the Civil War. And I don’t know at what point we’ll be over it. Maybe we’ll be over it when there’s a demographic shift, a tremendous demographic shift.
“In some ways, Trump is a bad echo of what has happened in the past. I think a lot of the anger toward Obama wasn’t directed toward his policies; Obama could have been a conservative. I think there were a lot of people who were having a hard time with the huge demographic shift taking place in America today.”
Tell more about this demographic shift.
“Last year for the first time in the history of America, kids of color were the majority in all the public schools. That’s a sign, an indication of what’s going to come in the future.”
Taylor described two arguments in play: One, the need to understand these populations and help incorporate them into American society. The other comes from those who are “frightened” at these demographic shifts and the loss of a national white majority.
“Whether or not Trump is a racist, to me doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Trump has tapped into this angst, this anger, this sense that there are white people who are going to be a minority pretty soon.”
Taylor added that it’s no accident that the greatest racial violence by the state in America has been in South Carolina and Mississippi: “Why? Because those are the places that have black majorities going back to the Civil War.
“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be appalled by what Trump is doing. I’m just saying that I look at the long haul. I just really think that this is kind of a last hurrah …”
A last hurrah of what?
“Of those who wanted to keep America white, of those who sincerely believed and in some cases still believe that race, nationality, and culture are and have always been linked. If this is the case, they are frightened that this linkage that in their eyes has accounted for the success of the American nation, is somehow going away and that they have to fight back against this extreme shift. As the change proceeds, their voices become smaller but at the same time more angry and shrill.
“I’ll give you a parallel.”
Taylor described how the Ku Klux Klan was powerful at its peak in the 1920s, faded from prominence, then returned less powerfully in the 1960s, and again in the 1980s and 1990s.
“But in each instance it’s an echo of its previous self. That reflects their belief that they are indeed losing the battle. Call it the culture wars or another name, that they are losing control of the United States.”
“And when somebody comes along and says, ‘You can have it all, you’re the greatest people in the world’ — remember talk radio has been saying much the same to this audience for the last 30 years — the ‘let’s make America great again,’ slogan becomes a brilliant appeal to the folks who feel that America is no longer great because it is being transformed.”
Finally, how do you think President Obama will be remembered by history? For the cultural milestone, certainly, but also as among the better presidencies?
“I don’t disagree with that. I think certainly Obama is going to be considered one of the better presidents, though not the best. At the top of my list: Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt because quite frankly they faced much greater challenges than even Trump, and certainly than Obama did. On the other hand, Obama would be in the top five or six, and certainly in the top 10 among presidents.
“I think where Obama becomes important is what we’re discussing. He represents a sea change in terms of the culture of America — that by his very presence he is representing the transformation of American society.”
Academics tend to be comfortable with and even lead such changes, Taylor said.
“But what about people who are not in charge of the transformation, or what if it leads to a society that you feel uncomfortable with? I think Obama represented that to a lot of folks.”
Taylor added that Trump “has actually done the other side a favor because you look at what’s happened with the #MeToo movement and how that’s going to materialize, so to speak, in terms of the coming elections, I think it is going to be absolutely incredible.”
LaShawnDa Pittman made RealBlackGrandmothers.com, a place where people can post testimonials about their grandmothers, and archive the experience of the women “who have played such an important, and unsung role in American society.”
Those movie characters may have made comical, cultural icons of black grandmothers, but they don’t do them justice. They’re not even played by actual women.
“If that’s what you’re getting, you’re missing what a lot of these women bring to bear on their families and communities,” said LaShawnDa Pittman, an assistant professor of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington.
“We shouldn’t be talking about the black experience without talking about black grandmothers.”
Pittman did her doctoral dissertation on black grandmothers: Their health. Their income issues. Their place in society as a stabilizing, nurturing safety net for families that, without them, might very well fall apart.
During Black History Month, the site will feature testimonials from 20 people whom Pittman considers “influential leaders” including Naima Mora from “America’s Next Top Model” and Seattle chef Edouardo Jordan.
“We shouldn’t be talking about the black experience without talking about black grandmothers,” says LaShawnDa Pittman, shown interviewing a grandmother. (Photo Courtesy of LaShawnDa Pittman)
“We are relying on these women more and more, and their representation online is not representative of their role in the world.”
It is a role they serve with less money and more health problems than the general population.
Consider: Around 7.6 percent of black women have heart disease, compared to 5.8 percent of white women and 5.6 percent of Mexican American women.
In 2016, around 46 of every 100,000 black women died from strokes, compared to 35 of every 100,000 white women.
They have a higher rate of diabetes, for developing breast cancer, and are more likely to die from cancer than white women.
If that isn’t enough, Pittman said, “they’re more likely to be poor.”
Black women have high labor-participation rates. They start working younger and work longer, historically, often as domestic and agricultural workers who did not receive Social Security benefits through their work.
And, according to an analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, black women who work full-time and year-round earn 64 cents on the dollar compared with white men, the largest group in the labor force. Black women also experience high unemployment “and are overrepresented in jobs with little job security, few benefits and limited opportunity for advancement,” the IWPR said.
This continues into old age, when black women are even more vulnerable economically and tend to assume greater caregiving responsibilities.
“So they’re doing more with less, and with impaired health,” Pittman said.
All this, while bearing witness to some of the biggest problems society has faced: Drug abuse. Racism. Mass incarceration.
“People love to focus on the problems of the family,” Pittman said. “But those problems didn’t create themselves. They’re born of the racism in this country.”
(LaShawnDa Pittman’s own grandmother, Warnella Wells, sparked her interest in the role of black grandmothers. Photo Courtesy of LaShawnDa Pittman)
While working on her dissertation at Northwestern University and as a post-doctoral student at the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, Pittman interviewed 77 black grandmothers on Chicago’s South Side about their history, their health and their role in the family.
“They were so surprised I wanted to hear their stories,” Pittman said. “They’ve been invisible. This website, I hope, will erase that.”
Pittman’s interest in black grandmothers started with her own, a woman named Warnella Wells, a nurse’s aide who lived in Kankakee, Illinois.
Pittman’s mother, Joyce, got pregnant with her when she was 15 and gave birth to her when she was 16.
The three women all lived together until Pittman’s mother decided to “establish her own household,” Pittman said, even though she didn’t have a job.
“That’s what you need black grandmothers for,” Pittman said. “She was accountability for my mom. Black grandmothers are the checks and balances for their kids about how they are raising their kids.
She continued, “To the degree that my mother was going to listen to anybody, she was going to listen to her.”
Pittman is also working on a book called “Black Grandmothers From Slavery to the Present,” which she believes to be the first scientific study of its kind.
The book has been a labor of love, but an emotional one, as well.
While poring over slave narratives, she came upon the story of an older slave named Sarah who was not moving fast enough for the overseer. So he beat her down to the ground and threw her into a prickly pear bush, “and she died in agonizing pain,” Pittman remembered.
“I felt like there needed to be a place to honor that history.”
The book will have an academic bent, so Pittman doesn’t expect it to be a mainstream read.
“If it wasn’t for my mom knowing me,” she cracked, “she might not know about my book.”
The website is for everyone, though — and Pittman sees endless possibilities sprouting from it. With the help of archivist Sara Daise and some summer interns, Pittman has created a place where people can read stories, sayings, news stories and wisdom.
She hopes to get testimonials from African-American artists like authors Toni Morrison and Alice Walker; Oprah Winfrey and Nikki Giovanni; and to inspire exhibits about black grandmothers in African-American history museums here and in Washington, D.C.
“I want RealBlackGrandmothers to be the go-to place for all things black grandmothers,” she said.
Pittman wants people to use it to document their family histories; educators to use it to teach about grandmothers’ roles in African-American history and culture. She wants students, artist
s and entertainers to plumb it for research and ideas.
“Even those just looking for inspiration,” Pittman said. “These incredible women are sure to provide it.”
Seattle Times staff columnist, Jerry Large, recently wrote a story about two UW students who attended an event featuring Ta-Nehisi Coates. This event was produced by Seattle Arts and Lectures in partnership with the University of Washington.
Since the spring of 2017, a dedicated group of UW Advancement employees has been meeting to confront racism head on. The members of the UA Equity Team meet to uncover the history of racism in America, to examine personal bias, to better understand institutional racism, and to grapple with white privilege.
“These are tough and, sometimes, raw subjects,” says Jan Harrison, one of the group’s facilitators and ARCS Foundation Liaison and Director of Diversity Stewardship at the Graduate School. “But our aim is to reveal why race is still an issue in America and why we should care about it.”
Working in concert with the University’s Race & Equity Initiative, the new team comprises volunteers from across campus and has met six times since launching this spring. Meeting during their lunchbreak, the group is committed to incorporating methods and techniques that will improve and sustain diversity and equity on campus and in their lives.
“During the election season, a lot of important issues and questions around race and equity began to emerge. I realized that I lacked a lot of knowledge about these topics and struggled to find answers. I was excited that Advancement was offering a way for me to learn and, hopefully, make a difference in the world and at UW,” says Krista Berg, an Advancement Prospect Management Strategist.
Participants are focused on the key areas of the initiative: confronting individual bias and racism, transforming institutional policies and practices, and accelerating systemic change.
“We know these are lofty goals. We know there are no easy answers. We know there are no quick fixes. We’re committed to doing the hard work and striving to make them the new norm in Advancement.
— Christina Chang, Assistant VP, Finance and Talent Management, University Advancement
From the beginning, the planners knew this was a heavy lift for all involved. So they developed a framework to foster authentic, honest, and confidential dialogue. “We’re not talking at them,” says Harrison. “This is safe space where we can have open and frank conversations so that we can move beyond the rhetoric.”
“We knew this was the only way to move towards internalizing, learning, and acting,” adds Seija Emerson, an Advancement Human Resources Coordinator and Equity Team organizer. “One of the biggest challenges we face is the notion that this is a type of professional development that can be checked off once finished. We strive to go beyond just making the participants feel good about themselves. We want to show ways to affect change.”
The first meetings involved deep probes into the history of racism in America—the history that examines the how race has shaped the country. They’ve also examined the hierarchy of race and investigated how America transformed from a society with slaves into a slave society and how that transformation shapes our institutions.
And at each meeting they contemporize the topics, connecting the facts and history to current events.
Jan Harrison, Director, ARCS Foundation Liaison & Diversity Stewardship, Graduate School
By taking incremental steps, the group is gaining knowledge about the ongoing narrative of race and white privilege in this country.
The discussions and exercises are showing results. “I’ve become even more aware of the different areas where more latent forms of racism and stereotyping have an effect,” says team member Joseph Sherman, a Major Gifts Officer at the Foster School of Business. “I’ve always known that institutional racism existed here at the UW, but seeing more examples of how it exists allow us to be more effective in addressing it.”
A post-seminar survey revealed overwhelming support for the training and a desire among staff members for additional training. “That’s when we realized that we had do to something. We had to provide an opportunity for deeper understanding,” Chang says. “We asked Jan to help guide our efforts. We’re so glad she’s jumped in with both feet.”
Trained as a critical race scholar, Harrison’s interests in social justice, equity, and social altruism were kindled by the power of her mother’s words. “She had the ability to weave narratives about self-love, self-confidence, family history, Black American philanthropy, and racism into meaningful life lessons.” Those stories fostered Harrison’s awareness, understanding and pride in being a Black American.
Though 13 percent of Advancement employees are persons of color—a percentage well above the national average of 9 percent—the ethnic makeup is very narrow. “We’re overwhelmingly white, Asian and women,” says Chang. “Diversifying our numbers is an ongoing process.”
Christina Chang, Assistant VP, Finance and Talent Management, University Advancement
The team’s efforts have sparked interests from other colleges and universities, seeking solutions to diversity and equity. Next spring, Chang will co-chair the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Diversity in Philanthropy Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. In addition, Harrison and Emerson will present on the formation of an Equity Team, a session chronicling the team’s inception along with best practices they’ve discovered along the way.
“We’ve been recognized as an advancement unit in higher education that cares about diversity and is doing something about it,” Chang says. Accolades aside, Chang, Emerson and Harrison are aware of the challenges the team must still tackle. Goals include increasing participatio and raising the number of men and people of color in the group. The number of attendees has steadily increased; they’d love to double the people attending the monthly meetings.
The harder challenge is handling questions like, “What’s keeping individuals from knowing the experiences of black and brown people in this country and moving beyond willful blindness?” Emerson adds.
“This is grassroots work, addressing one person at a time,” says Harrison. “Then when that person has the opportunity to address diversity and equity with colleagues, friends, and family they’ll speak out.”
For at least one participant, the exposure is changing her perspective. “I’m starting to see the ways I’ve been complicit. I’m much more conscience of my own biases,” says Berg. “The Equity Team is helping me confront these biases and learn to change them.”
The Equity Team Book Club
An offshoot of their meetings is the formation of a book club. Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” was discussed in September. Published in the early 1950s the book is an important part of the African-American literary canon. “But I’ve never read it,” declares Chang, “because it’s not part of the white canon.”
The next meeting is Wednesday, December 6 at 5:30pm at Tavern12 to discuss The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. For more information about future book club meetings, contact Krista Berg (kas7686@uw.edu).
Today we learned that the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will come to an end in six months unless there is legislative action to protect it. This decision could have extremely serious consequences for students on all three of our campuses who are an integral part of our community. I want to reassure every affected person that if DACA ends, the University of Washington will do everything within its power to minimize the disruption to your lives and education. We also support all efforts to restore the protections that DACA has provided, including legal actions planned by Washington State Attorney General and UW alumnus Bob Ferguson.
DACA was designed to put the American dream within reach for more than 800,000 young people who were brought to this country as children without documentation. By granting these students the opportunity to pursue their education and livelihood without fear of deportation, DACA has come to embody the best of America. These students have added so much richness, knowledge, courage and strength to our community and our nation as a whole that more than 600 university presidents and chancellors, including the leaders of every public university in our state, have written the White House to express their full support for the program.
As Provost Baldasty and I wrote last November, the UW strives to provide a safe, secure and welcoming environment that protects the privacy and human rights of everyone in our community. Our long-standing policies do not permit us to provide immigration officials with information about our students or allow immigration officials to enter UW classrooms or residence halls without a court order. Additionally, the UWPD does not and will not inquire about immigration status when they detain, question or otherwise interact with people. And Seattle and King County officials have affirmed that local law enforcement will continue their policy barring officers from asking about immigration status.
The decision to revoke DACA will not affect financial aid provided by the UW. Legislation to uphold the state’s commitment to providing financial aid to DACA students is expected to be introduced in the next state legislative session.
Students, faculty or staff seeking individual guidance can find resources, including an ally directory, at UW Leadership Without Borders Center or by emailing undocu@uw.edu. Last week, we reached out to students enrolled in DACA to direct them to appropriate resources should they be needed.
Ending DACA diminishes us all. It breaks the promise our country made to these students when we urged them to enroll in the program, to be proud and unafraid. We join with leaders in higher education, industry, government, religious institutions and humanitarian agencies across the nation in calling for congressional action to restore the program quickly.
Discontinuing the program doesn’t just threaten the security and futures of Dreamers. It also threatens to erode our nation as a democracy that has embraced the diverse talents and contributions of generations of immigrants, including our country’s founders.
Our values as a University are clear and will not waver. To you, our DACA Dreamers, I stand with you, UW’s leaders stand with you and your University stands with you.
