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Posts tagged as “smith college”

Cultivating Space: Being a BIPOC Student at a Predominantly White Institution

Located past Elm Street tucked behind Cutter-Ziskind House, a warm white and canary yellow building known as the Davis Center houses Smith College’s Mwangi Cultural Center. This small space on campus is the primary hub hosting and running programming for students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).

Harris Hawthorne Wilder and his Forgotten Legacy of Indigenous Oppression at Smith College

Content Warning: Anti-Indigenous Racism, disrespect of human remains
All across Smith’s campus, buildings bear the names of people who have, in some way or another, contributed to the college. While the type of namesake ranges from former professors to famous alums to donors, these names — and especially the names of residential buildings — are instrumental to building the sense of community Smith prides itself on. But when examining some of these namesakes more closely, a darker undertone begins to emerge. 

Black Indigenous History Beyond Black Panther: Pablo José López Oro on Garifuna New Yorkers

It’s February 2016 at a music center in the Bronx, and Pablo José López Oro, who is currently a Smith professor of Africana Studies, attentively gazes at a group of Garifuna folks rhythmically swaying across the stage. The beat of militant drums echoes across the room as the dancers, dressed in a traditional attire that predates their existence, swing their hips and fervently chant in their native Garifuna language rooted in Carib-Arawak syntax — Carib-Arawak Indians, they claim, are their ancestral origins.