It wasn’t hard to spot Ejiro Okoro among the small group of white faces walking toward me. The gold and blue scarf around her hair said something about her personality that yelled pride. The busy black tote bag and her obviously exhausted expression made me think that Okoro is the type of girl who takes advantage of every single minute of a 24-hour day, but I don’t like to assume things.
I always admire overachieving students. I envy that push that students like Okoro bring to campus. You see, the Africana Studies Student Association president, along with other members of the Cal State Long Beach’s black community, is behind the recent “Blackout” protest. One of their biggest attention-grabbers was the slogan “Blackout 2009: 1 in 2,074” printed on their T-shirts.
A Daily Forty-Niner article stated the number meant that only one in 2,074 students was black. Visitors to the online Daily Forty-Niner posted comments that the number didn’t add up. Okoro admits there was confusion over the meaning behind the data they used. Their message was that each activist represented one of the 2,074 currently enrolled black students at CSULB.
“I don’t believe it’s unfair to ask an institution of higher learning to be able to institute programs to help those [students] of African decent,” Okoro said, referring to comments that their demands were unjustified. “We’re asking if this school can be a catalyst for change.”
Like many student groups organizing campus events, Okoro admits things probably went a little wrong. Try being a student with a job, a full-time class schedule, putting together a major event and see how some things are bound to go wrong.
Maybe there was a lack of communication between the media and the ASSA as far as what they wanted out of the protest, but Okoro and the other ASSA officers stand behind the Blackout.
“I got some pretty ugly phone calls and I was mad, too,” ASSA Vice-President Saliem Aregaye said of the confusion and how comments were out of context. “But look at past activists; people didn’t always support them.”
Aregaye referred to Malcolm X and other iconic figures from the Civil Rights Movement. All ASSA officers agree that if they want to better their community, a college education is the best way to go. They are replicating actions by men and women of the past as a template to their movement.
Although the Blackout is a work in progress, the ASSA is aware their demands will not be met if they don’t do their part. They’ve already begun to organize a community-based program to reach out to young students. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is.
“These are people’s lives that we can potentially help with the success of this program,” Okoro said. “Us being here is a result of people’s struggle so we have a responsibility to the people coming after us.”
I only hope the rest of the CSULB student population learns a thing or two from the ASSA’s self-imposed responsibility and creates change of their own. Or whatever.
-Julio Salgado
When you’ve had centuries of a headstart in society compared to the couple of years that minorities have had, having a “whiteout” would be indeed a joke and insulting. I suggest you take a couple of true history classes so you can see what headstart I’m talking about.
I’ve always wondered if there was a “whiteout” protest on a historically black campus, what would happen? Would white people be racist for doing this exact same thing?