My C.E.L.L.s, My Nerves: Purdue is an unhealthy place
for WE who teach Culture and Race
by Jolivette Anderson 'the poet warrior'
I put in a lot of work trying to bring Purdue University into the 21st Century by developing relationships that will use the academic environment to educate students and the public about Race, Racism, Anti-Racist Work and Race Relations. The university leadership tells the public one thing while it puts up barriers and road blocks for people like me who worked at the university trying to do the work.
I recently found out or maybe figured out that Mitch Daniels ordered my termination from the Purdue Black Cultural Center because of the march that took place in April 2014 when someone saw the words 'white supremacy' written on the mirror in the dance studio OF THE BCC. I am the "professor" who really isn't a 'professor' who taught the classes and workshops in the space.
Here is what happened:
1. I teach race and culture workshops using large flip charts and markers. Some of those flip charts have adhesive on the back that allow you to place the flip chart paper on the wall. Think of a very large post-it note.
2. I write words on the flip chart as I lecture to help me stay on track mentally because I am pulling knowledge from my vast amount of information stored in my head from study and from my life experiences. I facilitate discussion more that lecture students.
3. I was driving back from Louisiana from burying my mother when I had to stop at a hotel to rest about 6 hours or so from West Lafayette, and the following morning my phone starts ringing and I start getting text messages from people, students, faculty, staff, administrators because someone WROTE WHITE SUPREMACY ON THE WALL AT THE BCC.
4. I arrived in West Lafayette around 6 or 7 pm. I went home to shower and then went to the BCC to try to assist in figuring out what went on. Upon walking into the room where the vandalism was suppose to have taken place, I did not see anything on the wall. I asked my then supervisor 'where is the vandalism?' and she walked me to the mirror and I had to look intently to see the words 'WHITE SUPREMACY' written on the mirror like an imprint.
5. The first words that came out of my mouth were something like ' this has to be from the workshop, that's the only way this could be on the mirror like this, but I haven't done a workshop in the room in over a year, and this doesn't look like my hand-writing'. My supervisor said she was waiting to hear from other people that had been in the room. I remember telling her that I didn't think it was from my workshop but I don't know how else it could be written on the mirror like that. For now, let's just say it is not my handwriting until we figure stuff out'.
6. I went home to try to settle myself back into West Lafayette and figure out my life a bit, moving forward without my mother's voice being a few clicks of a button away. I put her picture up on my altar next to my dad and just sat on the couch crying on and off again while watching television. The local news came on and I heard the newscaster do a story about a march to take place on the following Monday protesting the latest racial incident at Purdue. My comments to my supervisor had made it to the lips of the police chief on campus.
7. Once at work on Monday, the police detectives came to investigate. I showed them to the room to look at the mirror. I told them my side of what happens in the space and the content of my lectures. I said to them the same things I said to my supervisor and then I had a thought. Let's see if we can recreate this on the mirror to see if it is from the workshops. I went to my office to get the flip chart, ripped off some sheets and put them on the mirror. I wrote the words white supremacy on the flip chart over the adhesive strip that made contact with the mirror and the words transferred to the mirror. I remember saying to the detective that "this doesn't look like my hand writing" and she said "yes, it does, some of the letters are similar" (paraphrase). I immediately said something like, 'what are we going to do, they are going to march about this' and the detective said something like ' oh I wouldn't worry about that, there are plenty of reasons for them to march about related to these issues'.
8. We informed my supervisor, and I pulled the organizers and some professors aside to tell them the results of what was found when there was further investigation that morning. Some thought I was asking them to call off the march and became irritated with me. I explained to them that I just wanted them to know the truth before they go out to march so they would have the proper information.
9. My supervisor made an announcement to the group that assembled, a few hundred people, and I heard a students' voice say something like, " we know there to be incidents and acts of racism and hate speech and etc. on this campus and if you are willing to still march in solidarity against these acts we will still march...", and march they did. Not everyone marched, I found out later.
10. I went to the steps of Hovde Hall to catch the last part of people speaking out against racism and regular acts of racist behavior committed against them. One students spoke out and said he was leaving Purdue because of how he had been treated.
Meanwhile, among the upper level administrators, I was being blamed for "causing the march" perhaps or "inciting the march" maybe. And the folks I stand in solidarity with deemed me a person who "changed my story' perhaps due to pressure from the upper level folks when all I was doing was was trying to be honest and taking my time to make sure I did not misrepresent myself or the situation, while one weekend, a Friday night to a Monday afternoon made everyone around me question my ethics.
In the meantime, I was working internally and quietly, to get a course on U.S. Race and Racism started at Purdue with the support of the Office of the Provost and several faculty.
No one has come to me to ask me what happened, how it happened, with the exception of a handful of students who I walked through the process and one independent student who said that she still didn't believe it even though I demonstrated to her how the words got transferred to the mirror. I reassured that student that I understood how she felt, I told her that she is young and that youthful energy will not allow her to believe it because there is so much energy, negative energy that is racist and supports racism on this campus that it is natural for her to not believe it happened the way it did.
I kept working and almost a year to the day, April 2014, I was fired. My supervisor waged a long campaign to silence me and when I demanded to be myself and to be heard, she intensified her 'get rid of Jolivette campaign' and terminated me. I had been working on my 30 days notice letter to submit to her on the anniversary of my mother's death, but she fired me on April 1st, April Fools Day.
Here is an example of the work I was doing. This is my research and activism work that stopped when I was fired. The Mechanical Engineering Department had my cultural education curriculum as a mandatory part of their curriculum and had approved a new class built on the curriculum I designed for their students. This piece was to be published as a Black Cultural Center Library Cultural Brief in May 2014 but was never published. It is my work, my intellectual property so I am sharing it here on my blog.
BCC Cultural Brief
The Culture Education Living Laboratory (CELLs) as a Third Space Teaching and Learning Environment
By Jolivette Anderson-Douoning
Black Cultural Centers have four decade long histories on several campuses at Predominantly White public colleges and universities. While the original founding of the cultural centers is rooted in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) responding to the social unrest following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the purpose of the cultural centers has always been two-fold: 1) to be a safe-haven for Black students who have a psychological, emotional and spiritual human need to see, interact with and learn from people from their own culture who have their own ways of communicating and who share a common history in the United States and 2) to be a space that can welcome people from other cultures so they can learn about Black Culture in informal or formal gatherings such as, discussions, programs, performances, and the like.
From their inception, Black Cultural Centers have never been exclusively for Black people, but spaces designed to facilitate “the specific circumstances of the cultural meeting” between Black (now called African American) culture and other cultures as they exist in higher education spaces.
In present times, we have entered into another time of “unprecedented social change” that finds Black Cultural Centers in a unique position. While its first purpose is assumed to be a natural part of its name, its second purpose (as stated above) is hardly known and rarely thought to be a significant part of student learning in a meaningful, measurable way.
My work as Cultural Liaison at the Purdue Black Cultural Center and my research as a graduate student in American Studies and Curriculum and Instruction, has positioned me to see through two lenses, and through each frame, I understand how two institutional cultures can function together with proper vision and leadership. Over the past 9 years, I have developed the concept of ‘Culture Education Living Laboratories’ or CELLs. CELLs operate in a “Third Space”, a sometimes ambiguous arena where the ‘programmatic’ aims of departments that offer services to students and the ‘academic’ aims of the institution via the classroom meet –in spaces like the Black Cultural Center-- and student learning takes place. It is a 21st century learning environment and experience. There is movement, discussion, arts, design, role-play and other methods of instruction under the guidance of a trained facilitator. It is not a regular scheduled class during a semester but a special laboratory, ‘lab’ that must be completed for a passing grade in a class or as an independent study.
The CELL is structured to place the student as the nucleus of their own experiences in the world and to make them conscious of themselves so they can recognize the humanity of others and become sensitized to what is valuable to self and others. The foundation for teaching and pedagogical practices used in the CELL comes from the D. Ciphers Curriculum©.
According to the Purdue University Core Curriculum, it is the university’s goal to prepare and develop students to be successful on a global scale. For this to happen, it believes students must access the following foundational and embedded learning outcomes. The CELL will help students in all the areas listed below.
Foundational Outcomes (numbered as listed in the actual curriculum)
3. Intercultural Knowledge and Effectiveness
5. Human Cultures
Embedded Learning Outcomes
- Creative Thinking
- Critical Thinking
- Intercultural Knowledge and Effectiveness
- Ethical Reasoning
- Global Citizenship and Social Responsibility
- Integrative Learning
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Leadership and Teamwork
- Integrative Learning
The CELL will begin at the Purdue Black Cultural Center as a Mechanical Engineering, ME 297 class. The ME Sophomore Global Seminar students have visited the BCC by the hundreds each year for the past almost 7 years. It is this type of relationship building between Deans, Faculty and Staff that has made the CELL possible.
Students who want to learn about themselves as the foundation for learning about others will have the opportunity. The role of Black Cultural Centers is to educate EVERYONE about the African American Cultural experience in the United States. This is done through the Arts, it is done through a specialized collection of materials in the BCC Library that has information about Black Life and Culture, it is done through Educational Tours for K-12 and Culture Lectures for students in Higher Education. It will now be done through the Culture Education Living Laboratory class. All are welcome to register as we plan to have the course cross-listed with other departments.
References
Bhabba, H. (1990). The 3rd space. In J. Rutherford (ed). Identity, community, culture and difference (pp. 207-221). London:
