Here in the U.S., poker is something of a national pastime. Perhaps we don’t all hit the casinos and play for actual money, but many of us do spend quite a lot of time at the kitchen table enjoying a home game with friends. So, it should come as no surprise that players of another national pastime would turn out to be quite good on the felt. Yes, we’re talking pro footballers who rock at poker, and while it might seem like an odd combination, it’s more common than you think.
Now, the game of choice for most players is, of course, Texas Hold ‘em. It’s the most popular version of poker played in the U.S., but there are also slightly different versions such as the recently released Split Hold ‘em. It takes quite a bit of practice to learn how to play properly and no small amount of intelligence. Yes, we know what you’re thinking, but contrary to popular belief, there are a lot of smart cookies in the NFL, and it does take quite a bit of brainpower to master poker to the level that these guys have reached.
Strangely though, there are few quarterbacks that play poker at such a level that we’ve even heard of them at a table. And while this would seem to be at odds with our earlier assertion that poker is a thinker’s game, who’s to say that running backs and wide receivers aren’t just as intelligent. Not us, that’s for sure.
So, who are the pros that can hold their own at the table? Emmitt Smith, the former Cowboys legend, has spent a lot of time at the tables playing and doing quite well at several celebrity and charity events. He even had a run at the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2010 but failed to make it past the first day. Fred Jackson of Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks fame is another running back who had a crack at poker and played on the Mid-States Poker Tour. He has yet to win an event, but he’s plugging away.
Wide receivers aren’t well represented on the poker circuit with Miles Austin and Sammy Watkins the only two notable names that we’ve seen at any tournaments. Watkins is notorious for skipping Buffalo Bills off-season training to play poker and has garnered a reputation as a man who loves his cards. Austin, on the other hand, heads up quite a few charity poker events and in 2014, made it to Day 3 of the WPT World Championship. No mean feat for a man who plays only for fun.
Perhaps the most successful though is Richard Seymour. The former Oakland Raider and New England Patriot has enjoyed a lot of success on the poker circuit since retiring back in 2012 and so far, has earned over $150,000 in winnings. While that might not sound like much compared to his NFL contracts, it shows that he is taking the game seriously. He told ESPN that although the game is still a hobby, he wants to one day make it to the final table at the World Series of Poker.
Of all the players that have taken to the tables since retiring from the NFL, our money is on Seymour to make it big. The guy has an incredible competitive streak and is taking the game seriously. He’s even played on the European Poker Tour and down in the Bahamas.
So, who’s next? Will we see Brady and Gronkowski in Vegas anytime soon? Or perhaps we’ll see James Harrison lighting up the World Series of Poker Main Event. We’d love to see that, so fingers crossed it happens.
Within a single academic year, a seeming resurgence of student protests at historically black colleges and universities is calling attention to these schools in ways that undoubtedly make most administrators uncomfortable and often marks protesters as threats to the survival of the institutions they call their own.
Student protesters at HBCUs are not, however, preoccupied with convention that says: if you love your alma mater you will not criticize her publicly.
Maybe they are right.
Black protest at HBCUs is a tradition as old as the institution themselves — especially if one recognizes that to be black and educated defied conventionality which advanced that black folk were not educatable, much less smart.
In fact, black education in and of itself is a protest.
And for as long as black schools have existed, black college students have led the way in the forging by force, the making of modern America.
All of us have been the beneficiaries of the courage of black college students. Whether it’s in choosing your seat on a bus, sitting in a restaurant, trying on clothes or drinking from a water fountain, desegregation in public accommodations has been ushered in by their protests.
To be clear, protesting is as much a part of the HBCU tradition as Greeks strolling on “the yard,” bands playing at football games and fried chicken Wednesdays in the cafeteria. It is not an aberration. It is central to our historic and contemporary mission.
To lose them means that we have loss a part of what makes us special. Then we’d really be in trouble because it would be an indication that our historic mission has been subject to some kind of erasure.
Which is why we cannot get to the place where student protest is disallowed.
Black colleges have, by virtue of racism and of white supremacy, have been burdened with exceptionalizing themselves in ways in which demonstrate the influence of toxic black respectability as well as a preoccupation with the white gaze—the notion that we are not supposed to wrestle with the same types on intra-institutional struggles that other institutions have and do.
That is to say, all institutions have problems—including HBCUs. If protesting is not present at them, it doesn’t mean we no longer have problems but rather that students have lost the courage to protest because we are failing to cultivate the courage to protest in our students. That’s the real canary.
Administrators, understandably, are keenly aware of the delicate positions of HBCUs in a sector that most experts agree is beset with serious and real challenges to the persistence of many American colleges and universities—not just HBCUs.
Although preoccupied with their institution’s story not ending with them, HBCU administrators generally and presidents especially should always remain aware that their institution’s story did not begin with them. It is our duty to honor the past, a past filled with HBCU presidents who likewise, were faced with student protests and who did not always or even often welcomed the “trouble” they bring.
To honor the past is to inspire in the present what will be needed in the future. And for us, that means cultivating informed courage in our students. Because inasmuch as courage is absent in cowards, it is dangerous in those who are ignorant. Nothing is as damning as courage paired with ignorance.
So how should HBCU administrators respond to student protests?
In general, college administrators could do a better job, listening, explaining, confronting difficulties together—as opposed to simply dismissing protesting students as rebellious or misplaced or outside of the character of your institution. Something up to and including how students process across the graduation stage, should be discussed with students who simply put are customers. Because despite our definition of ourselves as a family, and our efforts to lend care to students as though they are our children, they are, in fact, not children. read more
While a number of historically Black colleges and universities are likely to enter a competition for a seven-figure grant to develop a rocketry program, a professor at Tuskegee University is letting it be known that his Alabama school has a distinct edge.
In an initiative that will be announced in more detail in coming days, Base 11 of Costa Mesa, Calif., will award a $1.5-million grant to one HBCU to develop a hands-on, experiential liquid-fuel rocketry lab.
Contacted by Diverse, Dr. M. Javed Khan, Tuskegee professor and head of the Department of Aerospace Science Engineering there, said Tuskegee “has the unique distinction of having the only accredited aerospace engineering program at an HBCU. We have graduated the largest number of African-American aerospace engineers in the U.S.”
He added that students in the program “are active participants of high-impact, hands-on engineering activities such as the University Students Launch Initiative, Unmanned Aerial Systems design-build-fly and have also participated in the NASA Zero-Gravity program.”
Base 11 – a nonprofit, self-described “STEM workforce and entrepreneur acceleration” company – is trying to increase diversity among aerospace engineers and in the commercial space industry in general. This effort is in collaboration with Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the oldest predominantly African-American fraternity in the world, which unveiled the competition at its recent Boulé bi-annual gathering in Cincinnati.
“The African American workforce and entrepreneurial community was largely left behind by the tech boom in Silicon Valley, and we don’t want to see the same thing happen with the commercial space industry,” said Base 12 CEO Landon Taylor. “This grant will equip an HBCU with the seed capital and human capital needed to build a robust, long-term student rocketry program that can work in concert with industry to develop in-demand aerospace talent and launch new innovations that will harness space as the new frontier.”
Although she did not name names, Christine Byrd, director of communications for Base 11, said some HBCUs already have sent emails indicating interest in applying for the grant. Diverse reached out to several HBCUs to gauge interest, but only Tuskegee commented. There will be a competitive request-for-proposal process that begins in August, with the winning school selected by the end of fall.
“What’s important to realize is that the big names in commercial aerospace right now – SpaceX, Virgin, Blue Origin – are using liquid propulsion, and they need aerospace engineers with hands-on experience,” said Byrd. “So by establishing this rocketry lab at an HBCU, we will significantly accelerate their students’ opportunities to participate in the commercial space – which is estimated to become a $2.7-trillion industry within 30 years.”
The diversity gap as it relates to the STEM field, with women and non-Whites underrepresented, makes the grant an opportunity for a school to jumpstart the level of participation among those groups, particularly African-Americans.
Bringing more diversity to the field is going to be key to long-term economic growth as well as America’s global competitiveness because at the end of the day it is technology that’s driving the future of humankind,” said Douglas R. Bender, a Base 11 corporate board member. “You’ve got academia, you’ve got industry, and you’ve got philanthropy, and for the first time ever we’re kind of squarely in the middle to try to tie those things together so we can support STEM, but also the participation of minorities through HBCUs.”
The grant announcement comes weeks after the public announcement of the Base 11 Space Challenge, a $1 million+ competition for the first student-led rocketry team to design, build and launch a liquid fuel rocket to 100 kilometers – the edge of space.
The Base 11 Space Challenge was announced on June 6 in Compton, Calif. at Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum, where youth in South Los Angeles can learn everything from piloting aircraft to building rockets. NASA astronaut Leland Melvin headlined the event, where more than 120 leaders from aerospace, government and academia gathered with student rocket team members.
Khan referenced Tuskegee’s history of contributions to aviation and technology as another factor that may impress the panel that will determine who gets the $1.5-million grant. He said Tuskegee’s aerospace engineering program “continues the legacy of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen by educating African-Americans to successfully meet the challenges of the modern technological world.
“We consider ourselves well-positioned for being selected for this excellent opportunity to enhance the education infrastructure of the aerospace engineering program and contribute significantly to the diversification of the aerospace engineering workforce.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 27, 2018) – The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Howard University’s College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA) a three-year, $1,000,000 grant to fund an innovative cyber security research project created by Associate Dean Moses Garuba, Ph.D. and Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Danda B. Rawat, Ph.D.
The research project, entitled, “Security Engineering for Resilient Mobile Cyber-Physical Systems,” will focus on significantly advancing the field of cybersecurity for networked systems.According to the NSF award abstract, the goal is to design, develop and evaluate the cyber-defense solutions for resilient cyber-physical systems using a federated framework.
“The rapid and massive connection of remotely accessible and reconfigurable cyber-physical system (CPS) devices, which can be any device, such as a smart car, make CPS systems more vulnerable to a multitude of cyber attacks,” says Rawat, who is also director of the University’s Data Science and Cybersecurity Center.
Rawat and Garuba plan to develop a mobile physical systems testbed for implementing and evaluating adaptive cyber-defense solutions.
“With this award, Howard University will be able to provide research assistantships to graduate and undergraduate students to work on this project to develop adaptive cyber defense solutions for CPS,” says Rawat.
The project is being supported by NSF’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities Research Infrastructure for Science and Engineering (HBCU-RISE) initiative and aligns with national efforts to produce the next-generation of cybersecurity experts for government and academia.
“I am delighted to see our faculty vigorously transform our college, while engaging our students in conquering the daunting technological challenges of our time,” says Dean Achille Messac, Ph.D., College of Engineering and Architecture. “Dr. Rawat and Dr. Garuba are exemplary change agents in our college, and I am proud of them.”
###
About Howard University’s College of Engineering & Architecture
The College of Engineering and Architecture (CEA) is one of Howard University’s 13 schools and colleges. The CEA comprises the five departments of Architecture, Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering. The CEA offers fully accredited Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degree programs. Graduate degree programs with abounding research opportunities offered in the engineering disciplines are Master of Science, Master of Engineering, and Doctor of Philosophy. Certificates in Cybersecurity and other professional programs are also offered. CEA graduates possess the ability to apply their knowledge of mathematics, science, design and engineering to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems and understand the impact of architectural and engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context.
About National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2018, its budget is $7.8 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 50,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.
About HBCU Research Infrastructure for Science and Engineering (RISE) awards support the development of research capability at Historically Black Colleges and Universities that offer doctoral degrees in science and engineering disciplines. Supported projects must have a unifying research focus in one of the research areas supported by NSF, a direct connection to the long-term plans of the host department(s), institutional strategic plan and mission, and plans for expanding institutional research capacity as well as increasing the production of doctoral students, especially those underrepresented in STEM.
On her first visit to West Virginia State University a decade ago, Leisha Salyer, who is white, did not even realize WVSU was a historically black college. On an average weekday, the school of 3,800 bustles with white commuter students who are West Virginia residents—65 percent of the total student body is white, though most of the 500 residential students are black.
When WVSU awarded Salyer a volleyball scholarship, she was unaware she was on the verge of a college experience that would become a racial fairytale of sorts. She didn’t know much about HBCUs at all. There was only one black kid in her high school class, and his adoptive parents were white. “And you only see black people in the media portrayed so negatively,” Salyer told me. “State changed my outlook, totally, my whole outlook on everything, and I know that’s really a massive thing to say.”
Initially, she fell in love with the small-town feel of the tree-shaded campus in Institute, West Virginia. On the second visit, however, someone mentioned WVSU’s history. Founded in 1891 as the West Virginia Colored Institute, the school was among the segregated public institutions that opened in the South during in the late 19th century to serve black students, who were then legally barred from attending other schools. Name changes would follow to fit the times. Eventually, West Virginia State College became West Virginia State University in 2004. You’ve probably heard of the school if you saw Hidden Figures, which tells the story of Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, a mathematician and 1937 graduate of the school whose brilliant calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were behind the success of the first US manned space flights.
“I thought that it was really cool that my school actually had a history.” Sayler said.
When she shared the school’s story with her parents—Trump-loving Republicans—the scholarship was not enough to conquer fears about their daughter’s choice.
“Are you sure you want to go there and be a part of that?” she remembers her mother asking.
“Yes!” Sayler answered emphatically.
“They were so nervous about it,” she told me. “Then they came to campus to see me play. It was so funny because everyone was so nice to them and they would be like, ‘They’re just so polite. Everyone here is so polite.’ So it was kind of a great learning experience for them just to see a whole other culture and to see how it is around me and how they took care of me. My family and I just love it. It was just a learning curve for them for sure.”
Salyer, who spent three years coaching volleyball at WVSU after graduating in 2012, said she easily introduced her parents to her black boyfriend at WVSU, and they love the African American man she married two years ago. Yet she still has not told them that she did not vote for Trump, much less that she voted for Obama in both 2008 and 2012.
HBCUs were once the only choice for many black college students, but even though that’s no longer true they remain pillars of black culture. Since desegregation, many have viewed them as spaces that spare black students from the racial tensions that plague predominantly white institutions. But today they are also home, almost paradoxically, to a growing number of white students. The change is most dramatic at Bluefield State University, another HBCU in West Virginia, that is now 93 percent white. For both Bluefield and WVSU, attracting whites has been a matter of survival, given the rapid decline of the state’s black population in the wake of the collapse of coal mining. Today only 3.6 percent of the state’s residents are black, according to the most recent Census estimates. (The presence of white students at HBCUs in other southern states is no longer rare, but they are far behind West Virginia schools in enrolling white students.)
“The African American population in this country is going to be flat as far as graduation rates,” said Anthony Jenkins, the president of WVSU. “So if you have historically white and historically black institutions fighting for this small pool of African American students, you have to recruit other students from other ethnic and multicultural backgrounds.” More on VICE.
The space race is expected to become a $2.7 trillion powerhouse, yet companies can’t find enough people for rocket science and system engineering jobs.
Base-11, a nonprofit group which teaches people to think beyond decimals, sets students on direct pathways to four-year degrees, jobs, and start-ups with hands-on training in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Recently, a donor gave a $1.5 million grant to Base-11 to foster career development with aerospace departments at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
The initiative was announced at the annual gathering of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, also known as The Boulé, the oldest African American fraternity with more than 5,000 members across 134 chapters.
“Sigma Pi Phi is honored to support the next generation of aerospace talent, and ensure young African Americans are part of the commercial space race,” said Wes Coleman, president of Sigma Pi Phi. “We are proud to count among our members the leaders of many HBCUs and of Base-11, and look forward to working together.”
The grant to increase the numbers of African Americans in the commercial space industry comes just weeks after the announcement of the Base-11 Space Challenge, a $1 million competition for a student-led team to build and launch a liquid fuel rocket to the edge of space.
The Base-11 Space Challenge was announced June 6 at Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum, where youth in South Los Angeles can learn everything from piloting aircraft to building rockets.
NASA Astronaut Leland Melvin headlined the event that drew leaders from aerospace, government and academia as well as student rocket team members.
“The African American workforce and entrepreneurial community was largely left behind by the tech boom in Silicon Valley, and we don’t want to see the same thing happen with commercial space,” said Landon Taylor, chief executive officer of Base-11.
“This grant will equip an HBCU with the seed capital and human capital needed to build a student rocketry program that can work in concert with industry to develop in-demand aerospace talent and launch new innovations that will harness space as the new frontier,” Landon said.
Base-11 will fund a grant to one HBCU to develop a hands-on rocket program, create a liquid-fuel rocket lab, as well as recruit and hire aerospace faculty to head the development of a liquid fuel program within its engineering school.
“We hope that this is just the first of several grants, and that more partners will step forward to establish and support aerospace education at HBCUs,” said Dwayne Murray, who leads Sigma Pi Phi’s committee on HBCUs.
Interested HBCUs will be able to apply for the grant beginning August 2018. The grant recipient is expected to be selected by the end of fall. Read more
Little Rock, Ark. (June 25, 2018) – Effective June 25, Air Force Maj. Darris Johnson will take command of the U.S. Air Force 19th Communications Squadron in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Maj. Johnson is a native of Fayetteville and attended E.E. Smith High, then later Terry Sanford High where he graduated in 2000. He then went on to attendFayetteville State University where he received a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2005. He was commissioned through the university’s Air Force ROTC Program.
“I’m humbled and excited to be selected as the 19th Communication Squadron Commander,” said Maj. Johnson. “Through a T.E.A.M. philosophy of leveraging our Talents, serving with Excellence, Advancing our technology through innovation, and remaining Mission-focused, our unit will be able to provide the capabilities necessary to ensure mission success at Little Rock Air Force Base.”
In his new role, Maj. Johnson will lead a team of 100 Airmen who serve as the central hub for ensuring a secure and accessible computer network on base. They send security updates, patches and install new software while also providing essential customer support.
“The Mission Support Group is excited for Major Darris Johnson and his family to join the team,” said Col. Jennifer Allee, the 19th Mission Support Group commander. “As the 19th Communication Squadron Commander, he will be a vital link to generating combat airlift here at Little Rock Air Force Base. He is joining a team of professionals that support the entire installation for supply, engineering, human resources, contracting, communications and security forces.”
The communications squadron falls under the Mission Support Group and is part of the 19th Airlift Wing (Air Mobility Command), which provides the Department of Defense mission ready Airmen and supports the largest combat aircraft (C-130) fleet in the world. The wing’s responsibilities range from supplying humanitarian airlift relief to victims of disasters, to airdropping supplies and troops into the heart of contingency operations in hostile areas, as well as supporting base partners as the host unit.
Maj. Johnson has received the following major awards and decorations over his 13 years of service:
Meritorious Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster
Joint Service Commendation Medal with “C” device
Air Force Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters
Afghanistan Campaign Medal
Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
Humanitarian Service Medal
He is married to Tia and together they have a son, Jayden.
About Little Rock AFB
The local community purchased 6,103 acres, then donated them to the Air Force in 1952. Construction of the base began in November 1953 and Little Rock Air Force Base opened its gates Oct. 9, 1955. Its missions have been diverse over the years: Bombers, reconnaissance, missiles and cargo have all called Little Rock AFB home. While the mission of Team Little Rock has changed over the years, the community partnerships have remained strong.
About 19th Airlift Wing
The 19th Airlift Wing (Air Mobility Command) is the host wing and provides the Department of Defense mission ready Airmen and supports the largest C-130 fleet in the world. As part of AMC’s Global Reach capability, the wing’s responsibilities range from supplying humanitarian airlift relief to victims of disasters, to airdropping supplies and troops into the heart of contingency operations in hostile areas as well as supporting base partners as the host unit.
Beyonce is not done with identifying with the Africans and their culture and won’t in a long time to come. In 2016, Nigerians celebrated the body painting art of Laolu Senbanjo in her video Lemonade. Her joint video Apesh**t with her husband from their surprise album Everything Is Love has given us another reason to be loyal to the Carter family.
While the director of the latest video remains Ricky Saiz who is responsible for Beyonce’s Yonce video, the second unit director of the single is a British-Nigerian Jenn Nkiru. In an industry where women are beginning to gain recognition for their artsitry, she joins the likes of Ava Duvernay (Jay-Z’s Family Feud) and Melina Matsoukas (Beyonce’s Lemonade).
Nkiru, a contemporary artist, identifies as a Nigerian filmmaker and is known for her style of telling stories that project the marginalised and the issues they struggle with. At the age of 21, she attended Howard University where she graduated with an MFA in film directing. In 2017, she showcased her short film at the Tate Modern Gallery International Women’s Day celebration. This distinctive work featured Guerrilla Girls and Zinzi Minott dances. That same year, she also worked with Bradford Young, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer for her short film En Vogue and has a series called the HASHTAG$.
More so, her 2017 short film, Rebirth Is Necessary won best documentary at the 2018 London Independent Festival.
Nkiru rose from a humble beginning. At the young age of 15, Nkiru worked as an assistant to Diane Martel, an established director.
She is also recognised for writing excellent music video stories. In this regard, she has written for Pharell, Major Laser, Imagine Dragons, Red Bull and J Cole.
She presently owns Nkiru + Nkiru production company.
While there are more than 100 historically black colleges and universities in the country, only three have LGBT student centers.
Keep your t***** out of our bathrooms. Thanks!
#DIE No f******* allowed! We don’t want you here.
Keep Spelman safe. We don’t want you. F*** you freaks. No queers.
Those vile and violent messages, scribbled on torn and wrinkled paper, were slipped under the dorm rooms of LGBT students at the end of the spring semester at Spelman College. Amber Warren, former president of Spelman’s LGBT student group Afrekete, got the first one in early April.
The notes were a blow to her gut—a sign that Warren’s work since her freshman year to make the historically black women’s campus in Atlanta more inclusive of LGBT students hadn’t gone as far as she wanted.
“I honestly feel like, in a weird way, I let my campus down, but Spelman just failed me. There’s only so much that I can do as another student,” said Warren, 22, who received a note the day that Pride Week activities were announced at Spelman. “I felt like it was a slap in the face to not be protected by my campus nor supported by my student body…. I felt like it was hard to get people to care.”
Historically black colleges and universities are making overtures to be more inclusive of LGBT students. Spelman announced that it will start accepting transgender students this fall. Bowie State, Fayetteville State, and North Carolina Central State universities have LGBT student centers, and more black colleges are offering courses about black queer history. Despite the incremental progress at HBCUs, there is still resistance that makes black queer students feel like outsiders at home.
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, PhD, the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies at Spelman College, has worked to make the college LGBT-inclusive since 1981, when she became the founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center. Part of its mission is to address LGBTQ issues. Spelman has gone further than other HBCUs in advancing LGBT issues, but there is still room for progress, Guy-Sheftall said.
“It has been difficult to create what I would call a queer-friendly campus because we haven’t acknowledged as an institution the deep and persistent issues around homophobia that exist in the community—and HBCUs are a microcosm of that,” Guy-Sheftall said. “We would have to say out loud and on a regular basis that we have issues around this and address them as an institution.”
Spelman is perceived as a leader on LGBT issues at HBCUs because Guy-Sheftall’s center led many of those efforts, including a three-year research and advocacy project around LGBT issues at HBCUs with a grant from the Arcus Project. In 2011, nine HBCUs gathered at Spelman for a historic summit. In 2017 Guy-Sheftall established the Dr. Levi Watkins Jr. Scholars Program, which awards scholarships to LGBT students and hosts LGBT-related programming on campus. Spelman is the only HBCU with a tenure-track professor in black queer studies, Guy-Sheftall said, and last year the school announced that it would begin admitting transgender students this fall.
But Warren believes the college responded poorly to the transphobic and homophobic notes. An attack on a transgender student that followed, she said, is evidence that the school isn’t prepared for more transgender students on campus: They aren’t protecting those that are already there. “The climate is too toxic,” she said.
At least four hateful notes circulated on campus. Warren said she got a note on April 2 that referred to her partner using a transphobic slur. Weeks later, her partner, a trans man and Spelman student, received a note as well. He was then attacked on campus in his dormitory on May 3. Before his attack, Afrekete met with school officials to discuss safety issues. But the administration’s response, Warren said, was weak. An e-mail was sent on April 25 saying that students received hateful messages and Spelman didn’t condone them.
But the e-mail didn’t directly mention transphobic or homophobic sentiments, and it was only sent to student residents, Guy-Sheftall said, leaving most of the college unaware of the hateful notes and their connection to the attack that came later.
On May 1 Spelman’s President Mary Schmidt Campbell issued a statement to the perpetrator: “You are not Spelman College. Spelman abhors your behavior. Spelman will continue to open its arms to embrace all of our Spelman students whatever their gender identity, sexual orientation or gender expression. Spelman is love, justice and respect. You, the perpetrator, are not Spelman.”
Spelman College declined requests for interviews with administrators about the institution’s response to the notes, as well as with public-safety personnel about the investigations into the notes and the attack on the transgender student.
Warren, who recently graduated, said she and other queer students feel Spelman’s response to the notes was inadequate and left them vulnerable. Moreover, she is worried about students’ safety in the fall, because those who sent the notes and attacked her partner weren’t apprehended.
“I really feel like I was [playing the role of] public-safety [officer], and the dean of students and administration,” she said. “I did all the roles. I literally ran a queer trauma unit out of my own dorm…. The reason it got more toxic and heavy is because all Spelman did was send out emails.”
LGBT clashes on HBCU campuses
Some of the hostility toward LGBT students at HBCUs has occurred at the nation’s top black institutions. In 2011 Robert Champion died after being beaten during a Florida A&M University hazing incident. Champion was gay, and his lawyer believed his sexual identity played a role in the beating. At Morehouse College a student was beaten with a bat in 2002 after a classmate believed he looked at him in a dorm shower. In 2009, Morehouse, a black men’s college and the brother school to Spelman, issued a dress code that forbid students from wearing women’s clothing. Hampton University didn’t recognize an LGBT alliance group on campus in 2007 because of improper paperwork, a university official said, but it officially accepted the school’s first LGBT student organization in 2016.
An important first step in addressing transphobia and homophobia at HBCUs is recognizing that it exists, said Seth E. Davis, PhD, a black queer literacies scholar and assistant professor at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. He graduated from an HBCU, Tennessee State University, in 2009.
“It’s an embedded part of the culture…The whole system is built on it,” Davis said, speaking of transphobia and homophobia at all colleges and universities including HBCUs. “It’s such an embedded part of Greek culture, SGA culture, the dorm culture.”
It’s also crucial for HBCUs, including Spelman, to provide training for staff, faculty, and students to ensure the entire institution is prepared to create an atmosphere of equity for queer students when they interact with every department on campus, especially housing and public safety, Warren said.
“If you’re not black, cisgender, Christian, come from a two-parent household—if you just come in with your own setbacks and different mixture of identities that are oppressed, you’re kind of already ostracized from Spelman’s community,” she said.
Policing students’ gender presentation at Spelman is an issue that serves to ostracize those who express their gender in unconventional ways, said Tiana Barnwell, 20, a political-science major at Spelman, who will be a senior this fall. During a first-year student event where students traditionally wear white dresses, Barnwell opted to wear a suit, and said she was publicly criticized by some staff for going against the conventional feminine attire.
“From freshman year I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect,” said Barnwell, who is a self-described lesbian with a masculine appearance. “There was an incident where a security guard didn’t want me to come on campus because he thought I was a boy.”
However, Barnwell said that she’s seen progress at Spelman, particularly in classes. “I never felt unwanted or unwelcome in class from a professor. I have from students, but never a professor. I’ve noticed a change in language from professors,” she said, with more gender-neutral and less heteronormative dialogue.
According to Guy-Sheftall, acceptance of LGBTQ students on HBCU campuses is selective and situational, and it depends on an institution’s leadership. “The acceptance occurs because people on the campus work at it,” she said. “I think if you’re not working at it, not talking about it, not naming it, I think you will have not very much acceptance.”
LGBT centers offer information, advocacy
North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina, is working on making its campus more inclusive of LGBT students. The university opened its LGBTA Resource Center in April 2013, the second LGBT center at an HBCU. (The first was opened at Bowie State University in 2012.)
Tezz Crudup, who identifies as a transgender queer man, will be a senior theater major at North Carolina Central University this fall. He transitioned while enrolled at the university, and he believes he was accepted by students and faculty because the LGBT center creates a culture of inclusivity on campus.
“I met students at the beginning of the year who were anti-LGBTQ community. Since the year progressed, and they’ve been out here for a year now, they look at it as it’s no disorder or it’s no disease because that’s how we’re trained sometimes,” said Crudup, 21. “Now that we have an active [LGBT] center everybody goes in and out. It builds a support system. So our support is strong.”
The Safe Zone Office, the LGBT center at Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, became a center for information and advocacy on campus when the state’s House Bill 2, known as the bathroom bill, required people to use restrooms according to the gender on their birth certificate, said Brent Lewis, Safe Zone Office and Resource Center director. He tailored trainings for faculty and staff around transgender issues and gave students discussion space.
“Some of the interactions and understanding of students may not have happened in my office if a person like myself was not here to help students navigate the politics and navigate their feelings,” Lewis said. His school’s LGBT center opened in October 2013.
While there are more than 100 HBCUs, there are only three known HBCUs with LGBT-student centers. White institutions have had LGBT-student centers as early as the 1970s.
“Traditionally HBCUs do well at nurturing the black identity. Where we don’t always do a great job as HBCUs is also nurturing and supporting and showing compassion and understanding the gay, lesbian, bisexual transgender, however you identify—that part of your identity,” Lewis said. “For students, that becomes difficult. As we think through intersectionality, our identities don’t move separately. Those identities impact each other.”
Inclusion helps retention
Black queer students have many options for education. If HBCUs want to remain competitive, they must provide services for LGBT students to recruit and retain them in the same way services are offered for cisgendered and heterosexual women, veterans, and disabled students, Lewis said.
“Some of our smaller HBCUs, and specifically our private ones, are having enrollment challenges, fiscal challenges…. It’s vital to our sustainability,” he said of HBCUs’ providing services for LGBT students. He said that it helps with retention if “all identities are being supported.”
Fayetteville State’s LGBT center is a draw for black students who want to attend an HBCU and be at an institution where they “wouldn’t be afraid to be gay, trans, lesbian,” Lewis said.
NCCU’s LGBT center is a service to all students because it’s a space that is “culture-shifting” by affirming LGBT students and enabling cisgender and heterosexual students to develop as allies, said Jennifer Williams, LGBTA resource-center coordinator at NCCU.
“When these students graduate they are going to inevitably have colleagues, co-workers, who identify within the community. I look at my role here as one that is to prepare professionals with cultural competence in working with LGBT people,” she said. “The center is a place for conversation. I feel like a lot of growth and a lot of the learning that happens in college happens outside of the classroom.”
The National Black Justice Coalition, a national civil-rights organization that works toward the liberation of black LGBT people, has conducted cultural competency training with HBCU administrators for a decade on policies and practices that can promote equity and inclusivity on campuses.
David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said it’s important that the entire black community work toward equality for LGBT people within black institutions, and in others. Most black LGBT people live in the South, where many HBCUs are; in some Southern states, it’s still legal to discriminate against LGBT people.
“Unless black people do the work of supporting black people, all of us in all of our diversity, none of us will ever get free,” he said. “None of us will ever be healthy. None of us will ever be happy in the way that we deserve to be.”
The Human Rights Campaign, a mainstream LGBT advocacy organization, has an HBCU program that trains LGBT students at HBCUs to be leaders on their campuses. The organization also hosts an annual leadership summit.
Some HBCUs are making real progress in LGBT inclusion, Guy-Sheftall said, and she rejects the idea that black institutions and black people are more homophobic than others. But for HBCUs to move forward, schools have to work in the same way white institutions did when they admitted racial minorities, she said.
“I think that somehow we do believe that we don’t have the same issues around difference that, for example, white institutions have around race,” Guy-Sheftall said. “We sort of accept the idea that people are racist. But I don’t think that we, generally speaking, accept that people are homophobic and might act on that in very problematic, and in some cases violent, ways.”
Jennifer Williams, LGBTA resource-center coordinator at North Carolina Central University, stands before a wall of flags representing a spectrum of gender and sexual identities. (Photo by Sherri Williams)
###
This story was produced in partnership with the Anna Julia Cooper Center of Wake Forest University as part of Black on Campus, a series reporting on issues of national consequence to a black college student audience. It is under the umbrella of Student Nation, a section devoted to highlighting campus activism and student movements from students in their own words. For more Student Nation, check out the archive.
OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH: ARLINGTON, Va.–The U.S. Navy’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI) program recently was named a “Top Supporter of HBCU Engineering Schools” by US Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine.
The designation results from a survey the magazine conducted of the deans of 15 HBCU engineering schools accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology–and of the leaders of Advancing Minorities’ Interest in Engineering, a corporate-academic alliance.
“The Navy is honored to receive this accolade,” said Anthony Smith Sr., who heads the Navy’s HBCU/MI program. “It reflects our mission to educate students about the Navy’s research needs, get them excited about creating solutions and even inspire them to pursue Navy-related internships or scholarships.”
The “Top Supporters” survey asked participating HBCU institutions to list the corporate, government and nonprofit organizations providing the most support to their schools. They considered factors such as support for infrastructure modernization and enhancement, research and mentorship projects, participation on advisory councils, faculty development opportunities, scholarships and career opportunities.
The Navy’s HBCU/MI program is based at the Office of Naval Research, with the mission of discovering some of the best and brightest minds in support of the Navy and Marine Corps.
The program has three main goals:
Expand opportunities for schools to successfully compete for grants and contracts for basic and applied research.
Offer scholarships, fellowships and internships to students pursuing degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) studies.
Promote greater student interest in STEM degrees at HBCU/MIs.
“We’re always looking for diverse ideas and innovative research to address the science and technology challenges facing the Navy,” said Smith. “Collaborating with HBCU/MIs connects us with a huge number of talented students and faculty.”
Winfrey signed a multi-year deal with Apple to create original content.
Oprah Winfrey is one of the world’s richest people. After landing a $1 billion multi-year deal with Apple, the mogul was named as the first Black female entrepreneur on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Winfrey’s fortune has grown to $4 billion with all of her deals and Hollywood projects, Bloomberg reported.
The media mogul’s fortune hit a record $4 billion to make her the first black female entrepreneur on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.@Oprahhttps://t.co/rowuMpCOlj
The former talk show host has been steadily increasing her riches and growing her cultural influence. Her starring role in Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time, a powerful Golden Globes speech and talk of a possible 2020 presidential run have widened Winfrey’s social capital. She was the first Black woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Globes, as well as a supporter of the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements against sexual harassment and assault. Now, with the Apple deal, Winfrey is further cementing her status as a dominant force in Hollywood.
Apple announced its groundbreaking deal with Winfrey Friday (June 15), enlisting the mogul to create original content, CNNreported.
“Together, Winfrey and Apple will create original programs that embrace her incomparable ability to connect with audiences around the world,” the company said in a statement. “Winfrey’s projects will be released as part of a lineup of original content from Apple.”
With the deal, Winfrey will be an on-screen host and interviewer for Apple. The move was made as Apple ramps up its content portfolio to better compete with Amazon and Netflix, which regularly adds original television shows and movies for its subscribers.
The multiyear deal —which will not affect Winfrey’s formal agreement with OWN after she recently extended her contract through 2025— comes on the heels of Netflix signing Barack and Michelle Obama to a deal to create original programming that was confirmed in May. More from Newsone
Howard University alumnus Chadwick Boseman honors James Shaw, Jr. —who stood up to a gunman at a Waffle House—who is a graduate of Tennessee State University……HBCU MEN🙌🏾✊🏾🤞🏾 pic.twitter.com/tctxiUVNvg
“Receiving an award for playing a superhero is amazing, but it’s even greater to acknowledge the heroes that we have in real life,” Boseman said. “So I just want to acknowledge somebody that’s here today. James Shaw Jr. Where are you? Stand. If you don’t know James Shaw Jr., he fought off a gunman in Antioch, Tennessee at a Waffle House. He saved lives. Come on up here.”
Shaw then took the stage and Boseman handed him the golden popcorn award, “This is gonna live at your house.” Shaw was grazed by a bullet while grappling with the gunman and burned his right hand grabbing the barrel of the weapon. Shaw also created a GoFundMe page to assist the victims of the shooting.
🍿🍿🍿 and more 🍿… THANK YOU #MTVAwards! #BlackPanther fans, you’re incredible. During the show, I was honored to meet @JamesShawJr9. He saved countless lives by tackling a gunman who opened fire on people in Antioch, Tennessee in April. He’s a true hero that walks among us. pic.twitter.com/bIF8vOk3v3
The Tigers open the season Saturday, September 1 at Southern Miss for a 6 p.m. kickoff. The match-up will be broadcasted live on the new ESPN +, its new direct-to-consumer subscription video service.
A week later JSU meets Tennessee State at the annual Southern Heritage Classic at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. The Tigers then closeout their three-game road swing Saturday, September 15 at Florida A&M with a 4 p.m. start.
JSU returns home amid a bye week and prepares for its SWAC opener Saturday, September 29 versus Alabama A&M. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Tigers return to the road the next week at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, with the kickoff set for 2:30 p.m.
JSU returns home for a pair of games. The Tigers host in-state rival Mississippi Valley State for its 2018 homecoming on Saturday, October 13. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. The following week, JSU plays host to North Alabama, which is also scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
JSU then travels to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and will meet Southern on Saturday, October 27 at 6 p.m.
In its final home match-up of the season, the Tigers welcome Prairie View A&M to Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday, November 3 at 2 p.m.
The Tigers conclude the regular season with a pair of games on the road. JSU is set to meet Alabama State on Saturday, November 10 for a 2 p.m. kickoff. The Blue and White travel to rival Alcorn State on Saturday, November 17 for in-state bragging rights. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. | The Alabama State men’s basketball team is headed to the Bahamas in August for a six-day tour that will feature games against international competition as well as team-building activities prior to the 2018-19 season.
“We are extremely excited about this opportunity,” Alabama State head coach Lewis Jackson said. “It gives us an opportunity to get in the gym and practice as a team in July, and it gives the guys a little but more time to find our some more about themselves and about us collectively as a group.
“I know four years ago, we had this opportunity as a group and the guys responded very well throughout the course of the season. With the youth we had last year, just the opportunity to get some early games in August will be tremendous for us. There will be a lot of teams doing the same type of trip, so we will be able to see them play a little but and improve in some areas.”
Alabama State will depart for the Bahamas on August 7 and face the Atlantis All-Stars the next day, August 8, at the Sir Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium. They will also face the Bahamas All-Stars August 9 at the Sir Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium, before a day off. The Hornets conclude the tour against the CTG Knights on August 10 at the Sir Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.
In preparation for the trip, the Hornets will be allowed 10 practices in Montgomery beginning in July.
“It’s beneficial for us because we get the guys away from distractions for a few days,” Jackson said. “There will be a big group going with us, but the core group of guys that will be playing and coaching that will get an opportunity to bond and find out a little more about each other. We are excited about the opportunity, all of our guys are excited about it and they are here this summer getting a chance to workout. It will be an exciting time, especially the team-building aspect.”
The NCAA affords each program the opportunity of traveling outside the United States to face foreign competition once every four years. This will be the second foreign tour for Alabama State to the Bahamas.
GREENSBORO, N.C. – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s Aggie Stadium, home to the reigning HBCU football national champions and track teams that have won seven MEAC conference championships over the past two years, will be renamed BB&T Stadium, thanks to a significant gift from the banking and financial services corporation, officials announced today.
The $1.5-million gift will secure the naming rights of the 37-year-old facility for the next 15 years and will go toward renovations and upgrades of the A&T athletics complex, including the stadium. That includes improvements to the in-stadium Irwin Belk Track, as well as numerous other upgrades around the stadium.
“Athletics are often described as the front doors for universities, the entry point for those outside our campuses to learn about our campuses and institutions,” said Earl Hilton, A&T’s director of Intercollegiate Athletics. “The success of our sports teams this past year has created a new level of visibility for athletics at A&T, and we are truly appreciative of BB&T’s support that will help us put our best foot forward in our facilities.”
The 125,755-square-foot facility that will now be known as BB&T Stadium, opened in 1981 and was expanded in 2003 to its current seating capacity of 27,769. Other enhancements have been added over the years, including lighting to accommodate night games and practices and a state-of-the-art video scoreboard.
The Irwin Belk Track that rings the stadium’s football field is not only home base for the A&T track teams, but collegiate, high school and amateur meets that have drawn thousands of athletes from around the country. The A&T football team won five games at Aggie Stadium last fall on its way to an undefeated 12-0 season, capped by 21-14 win over Grambling State in the Celebration Bowl, representing the national championship.
Those teams were part of an overall athletics program that won MEAC conference championships, conference tournaments and/or MEAC Southern Division titles in football, men’s and women’s track, women’s basketball, bowling and baseball.
“As a local corporate citizen, BB&T has a strong track record of supporting the communities it serves,” said Ford Bowers, BB&T Greensboro Market President. “We are proud to work with A&T and very excited that the stadium will display the BB&T name.”
“As part of our mission, BB&T strives to make the communities in which we work better places to live and we are proud to support North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University,” said Cantey Alexander, BB&T Triad Regional President. “The Greensboro market is very important to BB&T and this investment is a perfect fit. We are pleased to support this great venue which enhances the region’s vibrancy and raises the awareness of BB&T and our commitment to the communities we serve.”
Broderick Fobbs will be the Grambling State football coach for at least the next four years. That is after Fobbs and the university reached an agreement on a four-year, $1.28 million deal.
Approval of the agreement is pending from the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors, which is expected to be approved during a meeting on June 21.
Fobbs, who was entering the last year of a two-year contract extension he signed in 2016, will earn a base salary of $198,000 and includes an additional $121,000 from the Grambling State Foundation.
The deal also outlines several potential bonuses Fobbs could get tied to the success of the team.
Fobbs could see a $15,000 bump if Grambling achieves the Academic Progress Rate benchmark; another 15,000 for the Tigers winning the Black National Championship; an additional $25,000 for a Celebration Bowl victory; $10,000 for a SWAC title; $7,500 for knocking off Southern in the Bayou Classic and $10,000 for being named SWAC Coach of the Year.
Under Fobbs, Grambling is 39-11 since 2014, including two league championships and a Black College National Championship in 2016.
“Clearly, he is a leader among leaders,” GSU President Rick Gallot told the Monroe News-Star. “When you look at everything he has does on and off-the-field, I think he’s the kind of coach we certainly believe is good for Grambling and for the football program. We’re very thankful the Foundation has been able to get involved and make the difference. That was not something he demanded, the Foundation stepped up and wanted to invest in the future of the program and the university. That’s what they wanted to do.”
To be clear, protesting is as much a part of the HBCU tradition as Greeks strolling on “the yard,” bands playing at football games and fried chicken Wednesdays in the cafeteria. It is not an aberration. It is central to our historic and contemporary mission.
