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Part of Black Student Union conference covers culture Some issues discussed grim, but many encouraging, February 5, 2007

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Black Student Union conference covers culture
SPECTRUM
By JOANN PAN

2/5 /07

of this year's event was
to acknowledge current
issues that the African
In an effort to increase American community faces
awareness and understand­ in order to enable changes
ing about African American in those areas.
"The theme of the First
history and culture, the
Black Student Union held Annual Student Leader­
their second annual Stu­ ship Conference was 'For­
dent Leadership Confer­ ever Forward,' so we need
ence this weekend.
to know the problems in
The free event, which order to do that,''said Elma
the group has been plan­ Mends-Aidoo, BSU presi­
ning since last summer, dent.
took place Saturday in
The workshops fea­
accordance with the orga­ tured topics such as the
nization 's 40th anniversary. Black church's role in the
The conference featured upbringing of community
speakers in five workshops youth,Black consciousness,
•,
that showcased this year's ascribed definitions ofAfri­
theme, "An Awakening: can-American "male" and
Redefining an Unclaimed "female ," the prison indus­
Legacy in a Period of Com­ trial system and money
Prachi Bawaskar I The Spectrum
placency."
management.
The BSU passed out documents to all students before the workshops began to discuss issues
According to group
pertaining to African America n cultu re .
members , the objective
see BSU page 3
Staff Writer

I

Some issues discussed grim, but many·enc·ouraging
BSU from PE9._e 1
The key speaker of the event,
James Hampton Jr., summed up
the objective of the conference
as an attempt to "bring about a
change."
Hampton, a Cornell University
Graduate, has been engaged in
Ancient African studies for the
past forty years.
"I wanted to expose people to
Africa, as it has been kept out of
rhe education system," Hampton
said.
He hopes to deter young Afri­
can-Americans away from the
slave mentality and teach them
to appreciate their rich history.
"I want to inject positive into
the young because l feel many
don't have an identity," he said.
"They have a lack of self-knowl­
edge and no one wants to iden­
tify with slavery. I believe that
their self-esteem will be high
after learning whothey are.'"
Hampton discussed how some

young African-Americans have
no idea about their own culture
and the greatness it holds.
"Africans have been here for
thousands of years, we were the
first people on Earth," Hampton
said. "A whole group has been
eliminated from the education
curriculum."
The discussion about "Black
Consciousness" and the other
discussion workshops helped
people to question and discuss
the needs of the Black commu­
nity.
"Consciousness is needed to
understand the present state of
things and to stop the way of
things are now. Awareness gets
us to reform," said TuWanner
Cleveland, a graduate social work
student.
Some issues discussed were
grim, but many of the conversations encouraged positive outlooks for African-Americans.
One of the largest workshops
was concerning the different

definitions of an African-American man versus anAfrican-Ameri­
can woman.
"It was important to have
addressed how the media mar­
ginalizes minorities," said Erica
Myrtil, junior political science
major."There is a very direct cor­
relation between the media and
how African-Americans are per­
ceived. It was very informative
and I liked hearing the different
perspectives.''
The workshops discussing
the effects of the Black church
and on the Black consciousness
helped close the day event.
"I enjoyed the workshops, and
it was well organized, and the
speakers were very knowledge­
able," said Ashley Reed, a political
science major. "I feel proud and
I hope this will be a traditional
that will continue here at UB."
According • to Mends-Aidoo,
the BSU held the event because
they wanted to provide a pool of
information so that the commu-

nity may use the new resources
to conquer present problems
they face.
"As a people, we need to know
how things work, recognize
things in the community that
need a push, educate members
of the community and then, take
a course of action," Mends-Aidoo
said.
The BSU feels that by holding
conferences and educational
programs they are accomplish­
ing their task.
"I have an interest in diver­
sity and an interest to under­
stand different ethnic groups,"
said George Pratt, BSU member.
"Being Black and being an inter­
national student, I feel it is impor­
tant to attend things like this. It
was an opportunity to mingle
and to learn."

E-mail: spectrum-news@buffalo.edu

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