 Hi, my name is Dr. Joan Blakey and I am Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Tulane University. I'd like to acknowledge my research partners, Emmanuel Nungui, who is an Associate Professor in the Zilber School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Gary Williams, who is a Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. We did a study titled Why Are You Here? The Lack of Belonging Among African American Students in Predominantly White Spaces. And so I'd like to talk with you about our research and what we found that is so important now because of the current climate that many students across the nation are protesting and really challenging these environments to become more inclusive, to become more diverse, to become more welcoming and understanding of who they are and the contributions that they bring. And so for historical reasons these environments were not created for people of color often or LGBTQ and others who do not conform to a dominant demographic, which is typically white students from middle and upper class families. And so really the challenge now is how do we begin to make these environments more inclusive and more welcoming? And so our research really focuses on a sense of belonging. And while our research focuses on African American students only, much of what we will talk about today really does apply to other groups of students. And so a sense of belonging is really the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by other environments. That has been operationalized or sense of belonging has been operationalized as a need for relatedness, feeling secure, connected to the environment, expressing or experiencing one's self as capable and worthy of respect, close relationships with groups, social groups, individuals in that environment, the quality of those relationships in that environment, the extent to which students feel that activities are reflective of them and their experiences, the respect and trust that they feel by administrators, teachers, and staff, and the level of safety that students feel in these environments are all a part of a sense of belonging. So there's different components of sense of belonging, welcoming environments, the first one, and that that is really that students feel that they are important, that they are an important part of this place and that that can come in the form of smiles, acknowledgement from administrators, teachers, and staff, other students, that administrators and staff and faculty speak to students and over time begin to know students by their names. That there's signs and pictures and things that are reflected on the walls and things in the environment that are reflective of diverse people and of diverse cultures, that there's a sense of warmth from people in the building, that there's rules and practices that are happening on a daily basis in these buildings that convey to the students that this school is better because they are there. So mattering is the second sort of sense of belonging and mattering is a sense what students believe that they are important to authority figures, that mattering is about conveying to students that they're more than just butts and seats or you know numbers, but that actually the school is better, the school is would not be the same without them. Cultural sensitivity is the third component of a sense of belonging, that cultural sensitivity is a step beyond cultural awareness and that it requires individuals to try to imagine what it would be like to be in someone else's shoes. And so cultural awareness or racial awareness is that there's a recognition that there's two African-American students in my class. Cultural sensitivity is sort of imagining what it would be like to be those African-American students and being an African-American student in a class full of white students. And so it's really trying to put yourself in that place. I think that cultural sensitivity also is reflected above the experiences that these students have and so students talked about teachers assuming that they had cheated because they aced an exam. And so the message is that you weren't bright enough to pass this exam on your own and your own merit. You had to have cheated, you had to have had some help. Comments about their intelligence or how articulate they sound, which is the assumption that they're not articulate, that people of color can't be articulate, that sort of a skimming over of history or the contributions that people color or others have made in history. And so that the history is not just reflective of what white people have contributed, but all people have contributed. Assuming that black students need help and so we're letting students of color know about the tutoring services and all the services that are there to support them as if they would automatically need those services. Students have talked about having the police called on them because of the assumption that they could not have possibly been a student in this environment. And so what these are called is microaggressions and what they're known as. And so microaggressions are everyday verbal, nonverbal and environmental slight snubs, insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostility or derogatory and negative messages to people of color. These behaviors often aren't malicious, but nonetheless do inflict injury and harm. And so oftentimes we focus on intent versus impact. And so the intent is that I didn't intend to insult you or to harm you, but the impact is felt as harm nonetheless. And so we really begin to need to disentangle niceness from racism and understand that it's possible to be racist and nice. The fourth component of sense of belonging is seeing yourself reflected in that environment. And so that's, again, textbooks on the curriculum. That is the plays and extracurricular activities that are offered in those environments. And so one of the students talked about, you know, a play that I don't remember the name of the play, but the play casts all of the black people as monkeys and as animals in the play, whereas white people were sort of throwing food to the monkeys. And so what that represents is that oftentimes in the past people of color have been equated with animals and been seen as monkeys and those things. And so those, again, those messages are seen as really contributing to this dominant narrative that they are, you know, not human. And so really being cognizant of those kinds of messages. The students talked about that they remember having their classes having a moment of silence when, you know, the Florida mass shooting had happened. And many of their classes, they were, you know, experiencing a moment of silence yet. Students of color were talking about that daily black people were being shot by the police and that not once did their student, did their classes stop and pause to, to have our moment of silence for the African American students or young people who were being shot. And then students talked about going through these institutions and never having had a person of color or teacher of color and what that must be like. And so seeing themselves reflected in the curriculum is really important. And so what these things cause is an internal dilemma. And so what happens is not only do these African American have to sort of, you know, do perform and do all these things. But what happens is that then there's a, there's a, there's a mental piece that happens with it. So we're oftentimes having to understand and interpret it. Did, did we interpret this correctly? Did, did they really mean what they said? Did they, what did, what did they mean by that? Were they being racist or not? Should I say something? Should I not say something? Am I overreacting? And so there's this internal dilemma and this internal component that is happening as a result of us being in these environments and experiencing these things. That as, as a result, there's psychological consequences that come with that. So we're talking about anxiety, depression, difficulty sleeping, diminished confidence, anger and rage that oftentimes people of color feel in these, these things. And so we're talking about, again, this, this intent or an impact that it's, it's, you know, a minor cut, right? And so the, but when you think about that, these are, this is happening day in and day out, all day long that over time, these chronic exposures to these microaggressions and become micro traumas. And so that these students are talking about the fact that they are in these spaces and they are paying the same amount of tuition and fees and yet they are not receiving the same level of education that others are receiving. And so in conclusion, we're talking about students of color that often are facing fear, frustration, judgment, being ostracized because of their race or ethnicity, that these institutional educational settings are disproportionately targeting black people in terms of campus environment or other kinds of negative experiences that these, these, these environments are really grappling with whether or not they should get rid of symbols of racism, which sends a subliminal message that the contributions that these people have made are more important than the black students and how the black students feel in these spaces, that the lack of black faculty and staff also send the message that there's not black people that have reached these kinds of, that have the kinds of credentials that are necessary to be in these kinds of spaces. And then not seeing themselves reflected in the curriculum is, sends the message that black people or people of color have not contributed to, to this country or to the history of this society. And so while these institutions were formed at a time when black people or people of color or other people were not allowed to attend, attend these institutions, this is no longer the case. And so much of my work is about helping these institutions create places that are more welcoming for African-American students, where African-Americans do feel a sense of belonging that feel that while the institutions were not made for them, that they are changing and willing to change to be more reflective of their experience. And so that's really what my work is about. I am so happy and glad that I had the opportunity to share with you. Thank you so much and have a great day.