By Emily Nixon
The Brooklyn College Black and Latino Male Initiative (BLMI), BCAP (Brooklyn College AANAPISI Project), Immigrant Student Success Office (ISSO), LGBTQ+ Resource Center, and the Women’s Center hosted their Community Reflections event on Feb. 4 in Ingersoll Hall.
All BC students were welcome to attend the event to be given a space to share their thoughts and concerns. Students voiced their fears of the impacts of the executive orders and presidential decrees being enacted upon them.
“We have to remain hopeful in the face of fear,” said Sau-Fong Au, director of the Women’s Center and principal investigator at BCAP, during a community event where students gathered to commiserate about the inauguration of President Donald Trump and his initial executive orders.
At the beginning of the discussion, Au, Kelly Spivey, director of the LGBTQ+ Center, and the rest of the event coordinators made it clear the discussion would not be able to immediately solve the worries and issues the participants had. It was meant to allow them to express their frustrations, worries, and opinions.
The event was also deemed a starting point for change, as the main opinions and struggles were noted down on a chalkboard. The organizations’ leaders would follow by looking at and brainstorming potential ideas to offer support to the student body’s worries.
“Three things: Organize, Strategize, Economize,” said Alante Richards, who is a peer mentor, peer advocate, and wellness fellow with ISSO. “[…] In a time of unsurety, as it is right now, the resources that everyone in here right now has is what is gonna make the difference.”
With this reassurance, Richards warned about the dangers of keeping unrest and anxiety bottled up.
“But I hear it in some of your voices, you might not have that outlet, and because that’s the case, what happens is you can burst at any moment,” said Richards, “and I can tell you that can be way more detrimental, especially because that’s what the oppressors want.”
Other students reassured that the event itself was a form of resistance, pushing them to keep talking to their peers and communities and exercising their personal power. Other voices offered tips for regaining a sense of normalcy and managing their anxiety. Monique Ngozi Nri, the director of CUNY EDGE, an organization that provides cash assistance and personal, professional, and academic support, and an English professor at BC, told students to “curate your news sources.”
“I only look at my news information like once a day, and the rest of the day, I don’t. I try to stay informed, but not [by constantly checking the news],” said Nri. Constantly checking news sources can lead to anxiety and increased irritability as one is always shifting their focus to the news rather than the tasks at hand, according to Psychology Today.
Nri also advised students to read Rebecca Solnit’s “Hope in the Dark.” Solnit, an American writer and activist, often discusses topics such as feminism, politics, and the environment.
“[The book] talks about change, the way change happens on an ongoing basis,” said Nri. “Read it, because […] we can come together as a community, and we will make small advancements.”
During the final stretches of the event, Spivey handed out papers with news sources, such as GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation).
“I’m making a point to only check trusted news sources for the latest news instead of getting too upset by headlines in speculation,” said Spivey. “Organizations and individual journalists are really working diligently right now to bring us the facts as quickly as they can.”
Bouncing off of Nri’s points, Au reiterated, “Sanity is a practice. You have to do it every day, and it doesn’t happen overnight.”
Tatiana Cozzarelli, an adjunct professor in the Department of Secondary Education and Childhood Education at BC and journalist for “Left Voice” brought up the recent protests at NYU Langone Hospital after the hospital canceled gender-affirming care appointments for patients 19 years old and younger according to LGBTQ Nation.
“This room and our stories and our discussions together are what’s gonna be able to build, not just to fight these attacks, […] but to go further,” said Cozzarelli. “I feel like we have to harness our rage towards taking care of each other and going further.”
“Once we are able to organize and strategize, the final thing we have to do is capitalize. Every opportunity that comes up, we have to seize it,” said Richards, emphasizing the importance of banding together to achieve change.
Students interested in future events from these clubs can check their Instagrams: @lgbtqcenter_bc, @womenscenterbc, @issobc, @bcap.brooklyn and @bcblmi.
Students interested in “The Left Voice” can also check @left_voice for all of their updates.