The first Women's and Gender Studies (WGS) lecture of the semester was held in Greenwood Library Wednesday, Feb. 1, with Dr. Jamie Riley, director of the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, presenting "Racism, Discrimination and Prejudice: Voices of Undergraduate Black Men at Predominately White Institutions." The event was also a kickoff to Black History Month.
Dr. Naomi Johnson, assistant professor of communication studies, framed what the presentation would encompass. She asked those in attendance what the word "gender" means. She explained how the answer does not apply to the biological makeup of people but instead the roles, behaviors and attributes society constructs as appropriate for men and women.
Riley hails from the University of Georgia, where he earned a Ph.D. in counseling and human development services. He came to Longwood last year and has created a student and faculty-staff council dedicated to promoting the importance of diversity on Longwood's campus. Wednesday's presentation was actually a brief version of Riley's dissertation research — research that totals over 300 pages.
Riley's research looked at the experiences of black students on a predominately white campus. He said that black males are one of the smallest minority populations that can be found on campuses with a majority of white students.
Riley proved that much of the experience of the black man comes from the ideologies many whites form about blacks as a child. Among his research questions, Riley focused on the exact nature of the racist experience for the black undergraduate men.
Instead of lecturing about the experiences, Riley offered audio recordings of these students' experiences. He also showed the visual side of the research. He asked his participants to take pictures of places or things that reminded them of racial tensions around campus. Riley said these photos showed what the students wanted others to see.
Riley said, "I had an overwhelming amount of men who were willing and wanted to participate." In the first two days, he had over two dozen men who "just wanted someone to talk to."
One of the students, referred to as Hamilton in the research, took pictures of a police car. This police car reminded him of the time he was hanging out with white friends when a cop came up to make sure he wasn't bothering the white students. Hamilton also snapped a photo of the football stadium where he felt like he was often patted down more than others were because security was afraid he might have a weapon.
In the case of Andre, an interracial student, discrimination was apparent, but only at different locations around campus. He was singled out at a fraternity house party because he was the only black student there. Once people in the house learned he was in fact a friend of someone at the party, they had no problem with him being there.
In addition to the numerous pictures he acquired for the research, Riley had a total of eight post-pictorial narratives.
"The nature of racist experiences for black males is immeasurable," said Riley. He said there was no place where black men were safe from such experiences on the campus.
Relating the research to the idea of gender, Riley said many of the black men were conflicted on whether or not to respond to the study with their experiences. They felt that simply handling the discrimination was much better than complaining since their gender hindered them from opening up fully.
Riley noted that nobody ever really stood up for the black men and that they were often left in the dark. Despite this observation, all of the men were able to say on their own that they would not generalize the majority group as bad people after the instances. Riley said it was interesting since many majority groups generalize minority groups as a whole, not on the individual basis. Perhaps the most shocking outcome of Riley's study was that all of the participants, with the exception of one, said that the experiences made them wish they were not black men.
In addition to other students around campus, the participants in Riley's research had at least one negative experience with a member of the criminal justice system. As far as black men are concerned, Riley said there is a need to "develop a community."
The WGS program hosts a lecture the first day of each month. For more information, find their blog through the Longwood blog page at http://blogs.longwood.edu/wgst/ or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LongwoodWGS.
