As 2014 came to a close, the BMU and other campus groups reflected on violent confrontations between African-American males and law enforcement officials. Subsequent judicial acquittals rippled outrage into pools of sadness.
But with the onset of a new year and semester, unwarranted brutality experienced by black men at the hands of police has occurred not only in Ferguson and Staten Island. It has also happened in New Haven, when Tahj Blow, SY ’16, was held at gunpoint by a Yale Police officer after fitting the physical description of a suspect.
Though the details of this incident remain unclear, it localizes questions about the disregard held for black men by our law enforcement officials, an issue pertinent to the BMU. The club, though open to the involvement of both sexes in its efforts to counter racial injustice, has continued to take a gendered approach to civil rights advocacy. Bonded by a sense of brotherhood, the BMU addresses specifically male issues.
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Nestled on a threadbare couch in the living room of the Afro-American Cultural Center, fondly referred to as “The House,” I begin one of the cozier interviews I’ve conducted at Yale. Members of the BMU settled in with laughter and warm greetings as they conversed about rushing fraternities and shopping classes. Their animated chatter and easy smiles stood in stark contrast with the somber, black and white online images of members holding poignant signs to their future sons.
Will Searcy, TC ’16, President of the BMU, emphasized the importance of unity to the organization’s culture. “The BMU was founded in 2007 by Casey Gerald to create a space on campus that served as a support network for black men, and also as a space where we could create a sense of community within the larger black community on Yale’s campus,” he said.
As a student organization focused on empowering black male students, the BMU treads carefully, aiming not to take heavily political, public stances on race issues, but to foster solidarity and communication within its membership.
“First and foremost, we are a brotherhood,” BMU’s Freshman Representative Idris Mitchell, SY ’18 said, his last word echoing what seems to be the BMU buzzword. Mitchell’s idea for their photo campaign grew from a need to express frustration with the Garner and Brown court decisions—not as an effort for the club to gain national recognition, though the campaign received coverage from media ranging from The Huffington Post to Al Jazeera.
“I came up with the idea, in part, because I felt there was a need for some cathartic release,” Mitchell said. “I felt that if each BMU member could release some emotion, some energy, some anger, and write it down—that’s part of the healing process.”
On the BMU’s Facebook page, they describe their “To My Unborn Son” project as a campaign meant to highlight that “we are losing fathers, sons, brothers, uncles and grandfathers with little to no justice being served after the fact.” This description excludes black female victims of police brutality and unjust incarceration. A few days after launching the campaign, the BMU extended its reach to include photos of female students. Some female participants changed the wording of their messages from “To My Unborn Son” to “To My Unborn Child” or “To My Unborn Son and Daughter.”
Searcy explained that the photo campaign originally addressed a son exclusively since it was intended to function as an exchange between BMU members and Michael Brown Jr.’s parents. While Searcy welcomed the change of wording from son to child, he wanted the campaign to focus on the Brown’s loss. “There was a lot of media coverage from many different angles, but at the end of the day, sometimes we forget that at the heart of the situation is the loss of someone’s child, the son of Michael Brown Sr. and his wife,” Searcy said.
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Healing is also a word that comes up frequently in post-Ferguson discussion. For those disturbed by the acquittals of recent cases, healing often occurs through discussions about injustices faced by the black community in a safe setting, where others can empathize. The Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY) is a campus organization that sought to launch inclusive initiatives. BSAY hosted several events in reaction to Michael Brown’s and Eric Garner’s tragic deaths, encouraging the Yale student body at large to unite through activism. BSAY’s “Hands Up, Walk Out” rally drew a diverse group of over 300 Yale students who joined hands in protest.
But for some students, healing occurs most effectively in a community whose members share similar backgrounds, and, unfortunately, may be vulnerable targets of the same racist stereotyping. For BMU’s Freshman Representative Akintunde Ahmad, PC ’18, the organization persuaded him that Yale has a support system specifically for black men.
“Before coming to college, I had my mind on going to a historically black college,” said Ahmad. “But after I met up with Mitchell, [the BMU] was the sole deciding factor that made me come. It’s about being around people you know have had the same experiences as you, and receiving advice from them.”
An experience exclusive to black males, explained to me by Searcy, is the stigma surrounding black fatherhood. While the phrase “black fatherhood” may be tied to absenteeism in stereotypes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study last year that firmly debunked these myths. The study proved that African-American fathers were actually more involved with their children on a daily basis than those from other races. Last semester, the BMU held a discussion about black fatherhood, and why the narrative of absentee black fathers prevails.
“We talked about our experiences with our fathers, and then what we want to do as future fathers,” Searcy said. “Those are the types of conversations in BMU where you’re sharing your experience of being a black male, whether it’s about fatherhood or something else.”
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But last semester’s photo campaign propelled the BMU into a more visible role in civil rights activism, reaching a wider range of students with their visual campaign. Unity, support, and service remain the group’s key initiatives, but the BMU agrees that their “To My Unborn Son” campaign has set an example for the widely felt impact that the organization can have. The potential to reach so many students through their initiatives raises questions as to whether the group should advocate for injustices faced by African-Americans—male or female.
“A lot of times people ask why we are a black men’s union, and it’s important to look at the context of the group’s founding in 2007,” said Mitchell Jones, BK ’16, Vice President of BMU. That year, Gerald discovered that black male students at Yale were graduating at a lower rate than any other demographic on campus, at around 92 percent, while the rest of campus graduated at a rate of 97 percent.
“It was not that black men couldn’t do the work required to graduate. Lower graduation rates occurred because we didn’t feel like we came from a place of support,” said Jones. “Gerald thus founded the BMU to create a space where black men could talk about their issues,” Jones added. “That is in our mission statement, and that’s what we continue working towards.”
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But so strong an emphasis on brotherhood raises questions of exclusivity. For Social Justice Chair of The Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY), Alexandra Barlowe, BR ’17, the BMU’s mission is inherently insular. “While BSAY is about bringing the black community together as a whole, the BMU is more about doing things for black men,” she said.
The BMU’s photo campaign was indicative of its outdated mission, according to Barlowe. “From the perspective of a black woman at Yale, the campaign was pretty disappointing,” she said. “The whole tone of it seemed more focused on the members themselves, which is not what we should be doing. After Ferguson, people really need to be coming together.”
It may seem like female voices feature only minimally in the BMU’s post-Ferguson efforts; photos with female participants were not posted on the BMU’s “To My Unborn Son” Tumblr, though they were uploaded to the group’s Facebook page.
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BMU’S mission parallels that of Yale’s Black Women Coalition (YBWC), a sisterhood that strives to provide a supportive space for Yale’s black women. While some students refer to YBWC as the sister group to BMU, President Alexis Halyard, DC ’16 said, “BMU is not our only ‘sibling,’ so to speak. In my opinion, the community of organizations at The House (the Afro-American Cultural Center) all belong to one family.”
The House’s groups did take some shared approaches in responding to cases of police brutality and racial profiling. According to Rachel Wilkinson, SM ’16, Vice President of YBWC, organization members prioritized fostering honest conversations about race, for students who may not be able to converse comfortably about such topics with suitemates or classmates.
Both the BMU and the YBWC focus most on community outreach and solidarity for their respective members, rather than public activism. But there is overlap in these communities, and the co-ed, more inclusive dialogue that occurs at The House can remain hidden from public view, where male-only photo campaigns receive the most attention.
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Last week’s treatment of Blow by the Yale Police is a reminder that violence towards black men remains relevant and local. The student community, many of whom responded to the BMU’s and BSAY’s call to action, has engaged in initiatives at both national and campus levels. Though the event was postponed due to inclement weather, the Ferguson and Beyond Open Discussion sponsored by the Department of African American Studies had over 400 students who indicated that they planned to attend on its Facebook event page.
To the Secretary of BMU, Isaiah Genece, CC ’17, the student body’s response to post-Ferguson initiatives has been hugely supportive. “I’ve seen a larger mix of people at the events than I’ve seen for demonstrations in the past,” he said. “People from all backgrounds are coming together, seeing inherent injustices in current events.”
Though the overall response from Yale’s student body has been compassionate and vocal, there could be an increasingly diverse and nuanced conversation. Dara Huggins, PC ’17, board member of YBWC, hopes that conversations about race vary more in both participants involved and content discussed. When asked what she envisions, Huggins said, “We (the black community) don’t need to sit here and talk to ourselves. We know what problems exist, and need others to see them too. I want dialogue to be from a well-rounded perspective, a well-rounded place. I want black women, I want black men, I want trans, I want everyone of every color, gay or straight, to participate.”
She said, “I feel as though a lot of students on campus who aren’t of color aren’t aware of how different the experience of living on Yale’s campus or in New Haven is for black students. There is a huge divide between how Yale students treat other Yale students and how they treat students who are members of the New Haven community. People have become so desensitized to the inequality that surrounds us.”
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In response to Yale police’s treatment of blow, President Salovey sent a campus-wide email emphasizing that the incident was far different from that which occurred in Ferguson and Staten Island.
But Salovey stressed that irrespective of last week’s incident, student activism surrounding civil rights issues must persist. “There are real challenges here where the lines of race, inequality, and policing intersect, and we as teachers, students, and citizens must face them,” Salovey wrote. “These are not just someone else’s issues, located somewhere else; they are America’s issues, and they are our issues.”
On this, most of the community civil rights leaders I talked to agreed. While tragedies involving Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner may have closed in court, discussion of discrimination and racial profiling continue on campus through the work of organizations like BMU and YBWC, groups whose public images may seem gender-specific. There is strength in unity, and perhaps the mightiest brotherhood or sisterhood is also the most inclusive.