DOC Activism

#Blackout:

December 2014.

This year saw increased activism due to national movement for Black Lives Matter, following the death of Michael Brown and other unarmed black persons.

In response to these events, the BSU did a photo campaign protest #BlackOut for justice, where members wore all black, posed HandsUpDontShoot, and posted on Facebook:

2015 Events: The 2014-2015 year was led by BSU President Nakisha Renee Jones.

Below is a list of all the events of that year, focused on community, solidarity and activism:

·      Created the UPS Black Student Union One More Scholarship

·      One More Scholarship Fundraising Dinner—raised over $10,000 with help of BSU volunteers and community members

·      Volunteered for Race & Pedagogy National Conference

·      Outing to view Dear White People

·      Kwanzaa Celebration

·      BSU Retreat to the Northwest African American History Museum

·      First Annual Black Student Union SOLIDarity Conference at University of Washington Seattle

·      #BlackOut – Protest to Support Ferguson

·      Coordinated the Die In with staff members to protest Police Brutality and support Black Lives Matter Movement

·      SUB Poetry Protest to protest for Black Lives Matter

·      Assisted with the talk-back in the Piano Lounge after the Ferguson decision

·      Attended Black Lives Matter council meeting

·      Black Lives Matter Event with Race & Pedagogy and Race in Tacoma

·      March of Solidarity across campus

·      Black History Month

o   Afro-Caribbean Dance Night

o   Michael Powers—Jazz Guitarist

o   Black Box—weekly interaction with students on campus

o   BSU and Q&A film series

§  Selma

§  Out in the Night

o   Kevin Powell

o   Gospel Choir

·      BSU Retreat

2016 Events: During 2015-2016 the BSU President Rachel Askew kept the fire burning.

Here is a list of events from that year:

· Hosted BBQ/Kickback on Todd Field to welcome freshmen

· Hosted talks with Keith Blocker, Hilltop Urban Gardens, and Access Programs

· Volunteered at Hilltop Urban Gardens to begin work on the BLM Memorial Garden

· One More Scholarship Fundraising Dinner—raised over $10,000 with help of BSU volunteers and community members

· Volunteered for Race & Pedagogy Summit

· Outing to view The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

· Co-founded Advocates for Institutional Change (AIC) coalition

· Have since formed committees through AIC and participated in meetings with administration

· Planned and executed the November Walkout alongside members of AIC

· Kwanzaa Celebration

· Gave tours to Lister Elementary 3rd graders

· Hosted the Black Box (interactive discussion platform in WSC)

· #BlackOut & SUB Poetry protest to Support Mizzou

· Hosted talk back after Straight Outta Compton viewing

· Attended Black Student Union meetings with UW-Tacoma, TCC, UW-Seattle

· Attended community Black Women Speak Rally at Tacoma Aids Foundation

· Collaborated with ASUPS and CICE for Black History Month events

· Protested the Board of Trustees meeting

2018 March for Our Lives: 

In 2018 after then-President Trump indicated his intent to ban trans service members from the US military, members of the Black Student Union organized a campus-wide march in support of trans and non-binary people. As written about in the following spring’s issue of CICE Magazine, (a magazine produced by the Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement which no longer exists on campus) one student present at the march wrote, “On November 5th, 2018 students came out for BSU’s march on campus at an unprecedented scale in the years of activism I have seen in my time as a student. It was encouraging and heartbreaking, watching students of color and queer students make themselves vulnerable on stage in the dining hall, sharing stories of the violence they had survived to be in that room.” This campus has the capacity for moments like the one described here, however, it is often a struggle to combat the apathy also present on campus. Puget Sound has so much to offer you and you will work to find those places that are the best fit for who you are and who you want to grow into being while here. And having so much to offer or being a place where anyone can create a club if they can’t find what they are looking for also means that on top of classes, students are very busy.  It can be rare for such a significant number of students to pause and show up in support of other students and yet when we collectively show up for each other in big and small ways, we are part of creating a space of support and encouragement. 

(language from summer 2021 walking tour) 

2020 Black Lives Matter Protest: 

In the summer of 2020, amidst the global COVID 19 pandemic, three rising juniors organized and led Tacoma’s largest Black Lives Matter protest to take place that summer in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Manuel Ellis. Of the experience, co-organizer Mimi Duncan wrote, “I feel like it happened so quickly. There was a moment when we occupied the intersection at Sixth and Division and I looked back and couldn’t see the end of the line. To see that many people come out to support Black lives and affirm the statement that Black lives matter was unexpected. It was such a moment of solidarity, community, empathy, and unity.” Fellow organizer Serena Sevasin shared, “I know it’s a big thing: three 20-year-olds holding one of the biggest protests in Tacoma, but the truth is we couldn’t have done it alone or without the faculty in the African American studies program and the Race & Pedagogy Institute. We wanted to make clear—as Black students at Puget Sound—that we need to be recognized and something needs to change. We have the influence and the ability to make something this monumental happen. It’s not just for myself, but for the future of BSU and for future Black students at UPS to know that they’re valued and they’re going to have support, because we’re going to create that for them.”

(Language from summer 2021 walking tour)