As an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr College I joined a group of Black and other young women of color in protesting the college when it announced it would close our Black Cultural Center. Since then I’ve been interested in the ways in which marginalized students gravitate towards activism because it’s the only way to survive hostile higher education environments.
While universities co-opt their work to make themselves look like beacons of progress and diversity, we know that it is the labor of these students that push their campuses forward. I hope this project serves as an archive of their work so we can set the record straight! 
The 16 young women I interviewed are students, activists, and artists. They craft for us a better world and ask us to imagine it as possible. 

"We need to organize as if great movements are possible"- Angela Davis

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This project is the digital version of my qualifying paper focused on the experiences of Black and other women of color organizers on college campuses. The quotes I present here are part of 16 interviews I conducted. I focused on women of color, and especially Black women, because they are often given little credit for their organizing, but are (and have always been) critical to movements for social justice.

*** For now, all student names are pseudonyms 

I present this digital project in three sections:

1. Telling it Like it is: In this section student activists describe how they experience education systems and the walls they come up against. I include quotes from their experiences in k-12 and in higher ed. 
2. "We Do this Because It's the Only Way to Survive": Here I highlight quotes from students detailing why they became student activists. I also include quotes that detail the impact their activism has had on their lives as students/full human beings
3. Imagining Better Futures: The digital project ends with the vision. It includes quotes about what the university could look like and the importance of the imagination to activist work. 

Can we all give a big thank you to the black women that organized the protests that lead to the Mizzou president stepping down?

— Ali B (@wtflanksteak) November 10, 2015

Chapel Hill, NC#problack #afrocentric #blacklove #blackunity #blackwomen #blackculture #blackunity #riseup #ase pic.twitter.com/yLcNcP5oW3

— BlackTradeCircle App (@Blacktradelines) August 25, 2015

Hi I'm Jomaira ! I'm an immigrant, Afro-Latina, and daughter of a Walmart worker and a caregiver.
 
Growing up in the world as an Afro-Latina inspired my work as a sociologist and educator. I'm invested in seeing Black and other girls of color thrive in educational spaces and I believe that it is the institutions that have to transform. I am tired of asking our girls to assimilate, it's time the institutions learn to love us for who we are.