 I'm Nicole. I'm the current political action co-chair of the Black Students Unit here at MIT. I really got involved with the political action last fall. I live in Newhouse and on my floor in another community in Newhouse 3. I think someone was just fed up with the state of the kitchen and there were a lot of dirty dishes around. And essentially they put up posters with a lot of violent language. And it also included the tire trip of starving children in Africa. And it was about the nature of like starving children in Africa would die to eat these scraps off your plates. Oftentimes what happens is the BSU exec will organize a number agency GBM just to gather the opinions of people. It's also kind of a check-in like how are you guys doing? How does it affect you? Like community like how are we doing as a whole? And then after that we kind of brainstorm solutions and what we want MIT admin to do. Like last year I was not BSU exec but I worked really hard on writing the demands after Newhouse 3 because I just thought it was ridiculous that shit like this could happen. It was so many nights of meetings and talking with admin. Like even though I was choosing to put my time into it, it's not like another extracurricular. It's not like I'm choosing a soccer practice over doing my homework. It's not like I'm going to like the business club. Like I am a black student. I'm affected by this like instance of race-based violence. I am calling an MIT to respond. It's not my fault that I have to do that on top of being an MIT student. But officially we asked for a couple things like a public apology, the dismal made known, the incident made public to the MIT community. None of that happened. MIT is a money-making institution. In meetings with admin it's never been hostile but it feels like we're not being heard. They will sit with you, they'll have a meeting with you, have a discussion and then after that either there's no follow-up or they tell you, sorry no. Like I know Boston is one of the most racist cities in America. That's not it. We are on MIT's campus and in Simmons actually last year a student walked into a room full of people of color and just called them slurs and then walked out. Why do I have to go through MIT being subject to this? And MIT does nothing about it. And it's really hard because people are saying like oh you didn't have to be BSU co-chair, you don't have to get involved in BSU exec, you don't have to completely disengage from your identity but you don't need to do activism. If I don't do it, who is going to do it? Because MIT is not fighting for black students. And I've heard that from admin like they will not act unless we as students push them to act. So yes I don't have to be co-chair, I don't have to be on BSU exec. But that means there will be no place for black students at MIT. And I cannot have that.