By: Renae Visico
The sixth floor of the Student Center was filled with students and faculty engaging in meaningful conversations. On Nov. 1, the Brooklyn College (BC) Black Solidarity Day (BSD) Committee hosted the 57th annual Black Solidarity Day at the Student Center.
Created by former BC professor and Afro-Panamanian activist Carlos Russell, Black Solidarity Day is celebrated each year on the Monday before Election Day. During this day, people are called to stop commercial spending to protest a society that benefits from the oppression of African Americans.
For the first time in Black Solidarity Day’s history at BC, the event took place in the same week as the Puerto Rican and Latinx (PRLS) Studies Department’s Encuentro, inspiring the organization of BC’s first Solidarity Week to honor both events that encourage political engagement in the BC community.
“[Solidarity Week] is all an effort to have students recognize that they’re living in a time where you should be thinking about how your education is uniting you with other people, not separating,” Black Solidarity Day Committee Faculty Advisor Lawrence Johnson told the Vanguard.
Every year during Black Solidarity Day, a Meet Your Community Organizers Roundtable is held. Rather than taking on the structure of a traditional panel or lecture, students had the opportunity to have roundtable conversations with African American and Afro-Latino grassroots organizations.
The Roundtable opened with introductory remarks by Omar Hardy, Chief Minister and District Leader of The People’s Coalition To Stop Deed Theft. He represented an organization that aims to prevent homes from being disproportionately taken from Black communities, especially in Brooklyn and Harlem.
“We as a people have been violated a lot and dehumanized. […] If we’re not standing up fighting them, it’s our fault at the end of the day,” Hardy told the audience. “Our homes are being stolen away from us unlawfully, and we as a people have to know that we don’t have to abide by any unlawful acts.”
Around eleven community organizations were present for the Roundtable, including Haitian Woman for Haitian Refugees, Crown Heights Tenants Union, and NYC Road Runners MC.
All of the present organizations offered different perspectives and areas of community involvement for BC students to learn from. One organization, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), emphasized its dedication to improving the everyday lives of black immigrants.
“I learned that because I come from an immigrant background, I could trigger detention and deportation,” said BAJI Deputy Director Abraham Paulos. “Ever since then, I’ve been fighting for the rights of immigrants and people that are incarcerated.”
Paulos described that it’s especially important for the BC community to learn to be better allies to immigrants because of the student body’s diversity and their location in a city filled with immigrants.
“I think that [BC] represents Brooklyn and New York more than the great majority of campuses out there,” said Paulos. “I think it is because of the diversity of the students’ socioeconomic status, ideology, and intellect that I really like the students at Brooklyn College.”
Another organization at the Roundtable, Carlota’s Warriors, is dedicated to debunking disinformation about Cuba in American media and uplifting stories told by Cubans.
“Carlota, who we are named after, is an enslaved African woman who was in Cuba and led a rebellion against the Spanish colonizers,” Carlota’s Warriors curator Sohini Das told the Vanguard. “That’s why we named ourselves around her, to continue that fight against the colonizers of today.”
Das stressed the importance of bringing underrepresented people’s stories into the classroom, as she believes awareness through education is one of the first steps towards action.
“There’s a role that we need to play as people inside the United States to tell the real truth about what’s happening in Cuba,” said Das. “I felt like part of my responsibility as an educator here is to partake and invite my students to Black Solidarity Day.”
Local political parties were also present at the Roundtable, including the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP.) Inspired by the writings of influential philosopher W.E.B. DuBois, they have been advocating for Black liberation in the United States for decades since 1972.
“You don’t have to join us to be a part of the struggle. As long as we’re moving in the same direction, that’s all that matters,” said A-APRP Pre-Cadre Member Yao Gbanaglo. “It was important for us to both have a voice and a presence, but also to provide guidance.”
Black liberation was a key goal for many of the organizations present, including the December 12th Movement (D12). D12 dedicates itself to bringing the NYC community together to demand better quality health care, criminal justice, and reparations.
“I observed how the dynamics of exploitation, demobilization, and mass incarceration continued to be patched up with band-aids, while the root of the issue was unaddressed,” D12 member Deja told the Vanguard. “Being around D12 members and learning the history of the founders proved to me that there is always something we can do.”
BC students gathered around the tables for productive discussions with these community organizers, and Black Solidarity Day reached and inspired New Yorkers beyond the BC community.
“I’ve gotten a lot of information out of [the Roundtable]. I’ve been very inspired to know that I’m only one individual, but I know that my small contribution will have a major impact in the world and the community,” said attendee Sirlenda Williams.
Ultimately, the Black Solidarity Day Committee wanted to challenge the BC community to demand better education that empowers students to be change makers in their communities.
“The question is never going to be, ‘Who’s going to do it?’” Johnson told the Vanguard. “The question should always be, ‘Why not me?’”
For more information on Black Solidarity Day, visit BC’s website: https://www.brooklyn.edu/diversity-and-equity/black-solidarity-day/
For more information on the Black Solidarity Day Committee, visit @blacksolidaritydaycommittee_bc on Instagram.