BY: DJ PRESTON
During the 2016 fall semester, bananas were thrown at Black women, and May 1 marked the anniversary of bananas being hung on nooses around campus in 2017. Four years later, a university president change, and many racist incidents laters, how have race relations changed on campus? Graduating seniors share their thoughts and opinions.
2017 Protest by Blackprint Staff
New Jersey native, Chelsea Green, is graduating with a major in Elementary Education and a minor in dance. She was on the AU ambassadors executive board and won the Caribbean Circle Pageant in 2019.
Isabella Dominique is graduating with a double major in CLEG and Poli Sci. She was also the president of AU NAACP and the chair of the AU Black Caucus.
DJ. Preston: Do you think things are better or worse now?
Isabella Dominique: I think it's gotten better. After the bananas, the administration realized that they have to pay attention to Black students, whereas my freshman year, I didn't get the sense at all like they cared. As a student leader, it's really easy for me to get a meeting with Fanta or anyone that I might need to talk to about a certain issue. We have their attention, and in a lot of ways, we kind of have more power than a lot of white student groups. Just because, I think they're really scared of being in the news. They know that like, if they don't pay attention, it's gonna pop off and they're gonna, lose money or not have as many applications.
Chelsea Green: In my opinion, it has improved. I know a lot of people would say different. We still have little blips, but it's not as great as it was before. I think it's definitely improved in terms of frequency, but in terms of response, it's the same response.
DP: Do you think things will continue to get better from here?
ID: I would hope, well it's hard to tell with this whole Corona thing. I can see AU using that as sort of an excuse to not support communities in the same way that they promised. At the end of the day, they're going to prioritize all students, rather than specific students that need help, and have always needed help. I had more hope that AU was gonna keep moving forward. That also means that student leaders need to be involved and keep pushing admin. They're pretty careful not to make any moves on behalf of Black students. Black student needs to be involved and stay involved
CG: I don't know. I wonder if it's increasing the amount of students of color or Black students specifically on-campus. I'm not sure what it is. How can AU make it like, we're not posters, like we're not used because a lot of Black students on campus feel like they're part of a photo op all the time. Whenever there's a gathering of Black people, there's somebody from a youth admin office with a camera, taking pictures. Next thing, you know, you see that picture up on Twitter or whatever
DP: Are the effects of the banana incident still being felt?
ID: I think after the bananas, Black students have the attention of administrators. And we can leverage that to get what we need as students.
2017 Protest by Blackprint Staff
CG: There was an impact on the activism that AU had because of the way we ran that protest. It allowed people to see how we come together. Also, I have friends who are not graduating this semester because of freshman year. A lot of people don't realize that like there are multiple people who suffered academically because of this.
DP: Are stories like this important to pass down?
ID: I think underclassmen should still know the stories. It's important. Like a passing of the torch.
CG: It's definitely important for all this information to get passed down to future classes because it could only help them in the future in the event that if God forbid something crazy happens. The classes before me did amazing work prior to us even coming to AU and they helped us figure out how we can do the work. They gave us the tools to continue to work and then it just keeps getting passed down from there. It also gives people who aren't in our class some type of comfort because shit happens.
