Alexandra Hughes:
Well, they say history repeats itself and it is, and this is history in the making. So I think you'll have to ask yourself in this very moment, "What side of history are you going to be on?"

Alexandra Hughes:
Welcome to season three of the ASCA Viewpoints Podcast, the podcast where we talk about the student conduct profession in higher education. I'm Alexandra Hughes, your Viewpoints host.

Alexandra Hughes:
Welcome back to the show, everyone. My name is Alexandra Hughes. I am the host of this ASCA Viewpoints Podcast, and I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy during these times. I don't have any Carol Baskin Tiger King jokes for you all this week, and I am exhausted. I am tired. I am emotionally drained and it's been a lot. So for those of you who listened to this show, if this is your first time, welcome. I am so glad that you're here. Those of you who have been avidly supporting me since I became the podcast host for season three, I truly appreciate your support, your love. All of the support that I've received from people has been just phenomenal, and I just thank you for that every single day. If you listen to the show, you know that I typically record an episode at some point. I could do a couple in a week. I kind of just have a big group of them, I guess you can say, when I can get people and I release an episode every month.

Alexandra Hughes:
I will do the introduction to that episode the week that the episode goes out. The reason for that is because I want it to be current. I want it to be relevant. Do you know if there's any updates that I need to talk about? Anything from board, whether it's Gehring, whatever's going on. I just kind of do the introduction that week. I don't really know how to do the introduction this week to the show if I can be very honest with you, and I struggled trying to figure out what I want to say because I want to say so many things. The only thing that I know to do is to just speak from the heart. So this intro is probably going to be a little bit longer than normal and I recognize that, but I'm going to ask that you please listen. Even if it makes you uncomfortable, if you've never had the desire to listen to anything about race before, I'm begging you to just please listen now.

Alexandra Hughes:
This is going to be kind of a soft trigger warning for my fellow black colleagues in the field. I'll put in the description whenever this is over because I also understand that the retraumatization of hearing this is not always the most helpful, but I'm going to ask that for everyone out there, no matter your culture, race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexuality, whatever that looks like, please just listen. I am a black woman and I am tired. The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor just in this past short amount of time are only the most recent in a long, long history of tragic events that really recognize and hold light to the fact that very little progress has been made since the civil rights acts of 1964, which was 56 years ago. We have parents, my parents who are older than that and members in our organization that are older than that.

Alexandra Hughes:
Last week on the same day that we watched a police officer pin his knee to a black man's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, we watched a man on the ground who said he could not breathe, who called for his mother and who we watched die on camera. This was not a television show. This was not an episode of Law and Order. We watched him in die. We saw a white woman that same day in Central Park weaponize the use of saying that she will call the police and threatened a black man by saying, "I'm going to tell them that there is an African American man threatening my life," and she picked up the phone and the world watched in horror as her entire voice changed. She got on the phone and cried and said those words, "I am being threatened. Please send the police and the cops immediately. I am being threatened." The thing is, her phone call is what we know too well in my community.

Alexandra Hughes:
We fear that a phone call like that, a phone call by a woman that was not being threatened. A woman that was asked to put her dog on a leash by a man who was ivy league and an upstanding, which it should not matter, black man at that, but we fear that it will lead to a death like George Floyd's. It's funny because in Central Park before this is where this incident happened, there is a series on Netflix, for those of you who are finding the end of Netflix during this global pandemic, by Ava DuVernay called, "When They See Us," and this series takes place and it talks about the same place, Central Park, the story of five boys Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise who are the ages of 14 to 16 that were sentenced to five to 16 years in prison for something called the, "central park jogger." It was a case and a crime that they did not commit. There was overwhelming evidence that showed that these black and brown boys did not commit the crime, however, they were sentenced. I would encourage you to watch it.

Alexandra Hughes:
You see, the thing is I grew up with a father who taught me what to do when the police pulled me over, how to hold my hands out of the window, how to ask for permission with every single movement that I make. Just late, I watched a video of a black man who recorded himself outside, I guess his house, wherever he was, with his son on the ground with his knee to his son's neck and he was teaching his son how to live through an officer putting they're knee on his neck, how to breathe through it, what to say, what to do, but most importantly, how to survive eight minutes and 46 seconds being essentially strangled in that position. Privilege is a word that I know people don't like to hear. However, it has come up so much over this past week and weekend, and people have been asking me to explain it in a different way. So this is the way that I can explain it.

Alexandra Hughes:
Have you ever thought about if you would be killed for any of the following reasons? Because I have. Let me give them to you. If you can go out jogging, Ahmaud Arbery; if you can relax in the comfort of your own home, Atiana Jefferson and Botham Sean; if you can ask for help after being in a car crash, Jonathan Ferrell and Renisha McBride; if you could have a cell phone in your hand, Steven Clark; if you can leave a party to get to safety, Jordan Edwards; if you can play loud music, Jordan Davis; if you can sell CDs; Alton Sterling; if you can sleep, Aiyana Jones and Breonna Taylor; if you could walk from the corner store, Mike Brown; if you can play cops and robbers that's a child, Tamir Rice; if you can go to church, Charleston Nine; if you can walk home with Skittles in your hand and a hood on in the rain, Trayvon Martin; if you can hold a hairbrush while leaving my own bachelor party, Sean Bell; if you can party on new year's, Oscar Grant; if you can die by getting a normal traffic ticket, Sandra Bland; if you can lawfully carry a weapon and let the officer know, Philando Castile; if you can break down on a public road with car problems, Corey Jones; if you can shop at Walmart, John Crawford; if you can have a disabled vehicle on the side of the road; Terence Crutcher; if you can read a book in your own car, Keith Scott; if you can be a 10 year old child walking with their grandfather, Clifford Glover; if you can decorate for a party, Claude Reese; if you could ask a cop of question, Randy Evans; if you can cash a check in peace, Yvonne Smallwood; if you can run, Walter Scott; if you can breathe, Eric Garner; if you can live, Freddie Gray, that's privilege.

Alexandra Hughes:
Privilege is when you have never had to think about if you would die for many of the things that I mentioned above because trust me, I have, and people that look like me in my community, we have. Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because to you personally, it does not exist and that's the narrative we need to change. I've had some colleagues of mine reach out to me about what they're planning to do and I commend them on that. I do not have all of the answers, the best answers and please keep in mind, I do not speak for every black person as I record this episode. But what I can say is this. I think if you all are planning on your campuses to do something, there's a couple things that I would keep in mind.

Alexandra Hughes:
This is an issue, but we need someone to say that this is a black issue and it is critical that black students need to be addressed and to be supported. More often than not, we are grouped into people of color. However, that term can sometimes do more harm than good. I would encourage you all to reach out to your black student leaders or organize an event that is tailored to support them or even just better, ask them what it is that they need, but also be prepared for the fact that they may not know and may not be able to tell you what it is that they need because you see, as black people, this is trauma that we are constantly living in. This is not new to us, but it is a reminder every day that it is a crime to simply live. It is extremely hard to be productive academically in a place if you're existing that may not acknowledge or have any idea what's going on.

Alexandra Hughes:
I remember in 2016 when Philando Castile was killed. I remember crying as I was getting ready for work. I remember crying as I pulled into work. I remember the fact that not one person knew what was going on where I worked and I remember feeling so isolated from my friends and family outside of where I lived. I remember crying in my office all day. I remember crying all night. And I'm sharing this personally because a lot of people don't have it in them to share their personal experiences right now. What I will say is this, if you do have events, I would encourage you to be very intentional with what you're doing. If you are having them, I would encourage you to reach out to black leadership community members, et cetera because black students may not necessarily want to hear from people that do not understand their struggles and that is okay if you don't, but keep that in mind. Also, keep in mind that it is possible that some people may decline. As quite simply put, it can be too emotionally draining to have these conversations.

Alexandra Hughes:
Also, not everyone understands how or wants to have these conversations in an academic way when it is your lived experience. This applies also to your fellow black colleagues as well, who are having to navigate a global pandemic while realizing the black people are dying at disproportionately high rates of this virus because of systematic structures and the trauma of watching someone that looks like them, their child, their brother, their father, their sister, their mother being murdered and there's nothing that they can do. It is recognizing that there are some areas and institutions that may have majority students that are not black and that is okay, such as predominantly white schools, predominantly Hispanic schools, predominantly whatever that may be and these students who may be of color, who may be white, who want to come out.

Alexandra Hughes:
Allyship is so important and I think there's weight and teaching them about why this is a thing, why people are upset, why people are doing what they're doing and the real history in this country of institutional racism, the real history behind movements that are here like black lives matter and why and what it actually is supposed to be and even educating them about other movements in this country, things that may be related to their history like the Chicano movement with Latinos and its role in maybe the civil rights. There are a plethora of virtual resources for them. It may give them a sense, if you have students that are coming in saying, "We want to do something," that they are contributing to something and helping, whether that's a podcast like this, YouTube videos, lectures, Ted talks, handouts, books, places they can raise money. There's a lot of different places.

Alexandra Hughes:
People know that I teach race in one of my classes, or one of the things that I teach. I teach culture and I teach race. And it's important for me to make this clear. When I talk about the class that I teach on race, it's not about overt things. It's to be honest, I skip over this slavery thing, lynching, hate crimes, none of that. But what I talk about are things like silence, mass incarceration, English only initiatives, hiring discrimination, not challenging the racist jokes that you hear, denial of privilege that's hurting people, red lining property taxes. There's so much there, microaggression. There's so much. The thing is the reason why we are in education is to make a better future for tomorrow and to create a better society. If, as educators, we're not advocating for social justice, then why are we really here? There was someone on the internet, on the interwebs and I'm going to @ScottWoods. I want to make sure I'm not plagiarizing, and I'm going to read this.

Alexandra Hughes:
He said, "The problem is that white people see racism as a conscious hate when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people's expense, whether white no like it or not. Racism is an incisionless cultural disease and is so insidious that it doesn't care if you are a white person who likes black people. It is still going to find a way to affect how you deal with people who don't look like you. Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another and so on. So while I agree with people who say, 'No one is born racist,' it remains a powerful system that we're immediately born into. It's like being born into air. You take it in as soon as you breathe. It's not a cold that you can get over. There's no anti-racist certification class. It is a set of socioeconomic traps and cultural values that are fired up every time we interact with the world, is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it's hard work, but it's the price pay for owning everything."

Alexandra Hughes:
That was Scott Woods who's @ScottWoodSpeak who says that... I could not have summed it up better because it's important that we acknowledge that. I understand that this has been hard and probably hard to listen to. And I appreciate you so much if you have listened to me up to this point, and I thank you. I ask wherever you are listening, if you were in your car, in your home, in your quarantine closet, whatever that looks like, if you don't believe me, and if you don't believe what I'm saying is true or any of the stuff that's going around, there was a white woman by the name of Jane Elliott who's known for her work. She gave a speech a long time ago and had some work that she was doing a long time ago, and I want to propose the same question to you as she proposed to her audience.

Alexandra Hughes:
She said, "I want every white person in this room who would be happy to be treated as the society in general treats our citizens, our black citizens, if you, as a white person would be happy to receive the same treatment that our black citizens do in this society, please stand." Then she pauses because no one in the room stands. She says, "You didn't understand the directions. If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand." Nobody's standing here. That says very plainly that you know what is happening. You know you don't want it for you. I want to know why you are so willing to accept it or to allow it to happen for others.

Alexandra Hughes:
So I know this is a lot, but I'm going to ask and I'm going to give you some tips. Don't say, "I'm not responsible for what my ancestors did." We know that, but instead say, "I don't support what my ancestors did, but I acknowledge that I live under their legacy." Please don't say, "It was so long ago. Get over it." Instead, you can say, "Historical events have modern day legacies and the present is shaped by the past." Don't say that, "That was the norm back then," and we don't need, "That was just the norm back then, but we're not judging someone by today's standards." Hey, look. Even back then, there were people who were not okay with this person's actions. Recognize that if someone says, "We can't change the past," don't say that. Say, "We can end the oppressive legacies of the past and we can change the future." And by the way, these were by @TheDailyPolitic. We can change the future because we need you more than ever, more than ever. So I ask that you please help to change this narrative because we cannot do it alone.

Alexandra Hughes:
Now, be prepared, this month, I've already had some people indicate that they want to help us build and be better community members. So I'm going to be putting out probably more episodes than I ever have because I know this is a monthly podcast, but we might be changing that up for this month. But I'm going to be putting out episodes that I really want and I'm going to ask for you to listen to that will hopefully help to make our offices better places. If you want to engage in this conversation, I'm going to put myself out there. Email me at the podcast.

Alexandra Hughes:
Okay. Let's take a break. We'll be right back.

Alexandra Hughes:
And we are back. Well, what was supposed to be an introduction has now turned into an entire episode. I realized that I talked for about 20 minutes. I would say, I'm sorry, but I'm not. So we're just going to go with that. Now, that being said, the episode that I originally planned to put out this week, I want to make sure that I'm not detracting from this amazing guest's time, her energy, the knowledge that she's giving and I want to make sure that it is received very well. So I'm going to hold onto her episode. I promise I will be putting it out soon, that way we can get all the knowledge that she talks about. I think that you will really enjoy it. I was laughing. I was talking to her. I had a blast. I also don't want to take away from what I just said because I realized that it's a little heavy. It's a lot. It is. It is heavy. So instead of that, I'm going to shift a little bit and let you know a couple of things moving forward.

Alexandra Hughes:
I will be doing, or rather hosting a webinar the week after next through ASCA titled, "Systematic Racism: Is My Office A Contributor?" in which it will be a part of a series. For those of you who know, some of you know, some of you don't know, I have a series that is called, "Is My Office A Contributor," which I look at different topics and help us as educators, examine if we are contributing to these things, what that looks like, how it shows up in different ways that we don't think about, and really looking at tangible tools to learn from each other and ensure that we are creating the best spaces, the best environments for our students moving forward. I have a ton of them that I do. I love them there. It's a great thing. People have been reaching out to me about it. So I realized it might be better just to go ahead and do a webinar, which is actually what we're going to have. Please be on the lookout for that.

Alexandra Hughes:
In that conversation, we're going to be taking a look at systematic racism, biases, policies, especially right now in the summertime when we have the ability to change them. I think that's so important. As I said, I want to give actual, tangible tools that you can take with you to have at your disposal. Now, disclaimer, I can not in a 45 minute webinar, just solve everything or even teach everything. Please, please, please keep that in mind. To put in a 45 minute webinar what I teach in a semester in my class is not enough time. Even in that semester, it's not enough time. I just don't have it. But I do think that you will thoroughly enjoy it. It's a hope that you do, and I really, really hope that you come. So please be on the look out for information about that next week when I post the episode that I'll be doing. Like I told you, I'm going to be coming with you guys with episodes every week for this month.

Alexandra Hughes:
I will have the information, the solidified a time and date in it, but please be on the lookout through your email from ASCA as far as when that is. Now, last thing. I am working on a super, super, super, super secret, top secret project that I guess it's no longer secret because now I'm saying it on a national podcast. So whatever, it's cool, but I need your help. I know that I had this amazing platform in which I am so honored and thankful that you all listen to me and tune into what I'm saying, and I can say things and get my voice out there. But this organization is about all of us and all of our voices. I want to do something with that. So I'm not exactly going to tell you what, but I want to dedicate and I want to do something for us. That being said, I want to hear from you. I want to use this platform that I have to share your voice, your truth. And what better way than to hear from you, our listeners, our members directly?

Alexandra Hughes:
I need you to know that you were valued and your existence matters. I want to hear about your struggles if you are open. I want this to be a space where we can take a step in the right direction towards healing, even if it's just a small little bit. That being said, I want to know a few things. Here are a few questions to think about. What is something small that people can do every day to support you? What are you scared of? What are you struggling with right now? Do you have people you can talk to and confide in when the world seems heavy? How can we and other people make you feel heard? Now, this is not just only for our black colleagues, but for all of us. If you are an ally, please, please, please step up in this time as well because this is when we need you most, all of us, all races, ethnicities, cultures, countries, people. Let's come together.

Alexandra Hughes:
Now, in order to do this, if you could record a two to three minute voice note, I would love it. If you'd rather type it out to me, that's fine as well. If you only want to answer some of the questions, one of the questions and that's fine and not all of them, it's totally fine. If you don't want me to say your name, that is fine as well. We can be anonymous. Any way or combination that you feel comfortable with, I'm here for it. And most importantly, if you don't want to participate, I understand as well. I think what we have to do is show love and we have to lead from love. That's the only way. So I need you to do something for me. Okay? If you would like to take part of this and you want to participate, I need you to go ahead and email me directly. Okay? The email for the show is the ASCApodcast@gmail.com or there's a jotform that's going to be included as a link in the podcast description.

Alexandra Hughes:
So either one of these works. If you could by the 17th, that's a couple of weeks away. I know we're at the third today and I know people listen to this at different points, but if you could by the 17th of this month, June 17th of 2020, send me that, click the link, say a few words. It could be a sentence. It could be a word. It can be a voice note that's two to three minutes. However you want to do it, whatever makes it work, do that for me please. Show your support for others in your community and in our community, or allow yourself to be heard. I would greatly appreciate that. I will not say anything more about what I'm doing. Just know that it's a thing and I need your help. Okay? That's everything I got. That's everything I have. I appreciate, as always, you tuning into this show. Please stay safe. Please stay strong. We are still in the middle of a pandemic, so please, please, please stay healthy. But most importantly, just remember that you matter.

Alexandra Hughes:
This episode was produced, edited and hosted by Alexandra Hughes. That's me. If you're enjoying the podcast, we ask that you like, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps others discover us and become more visible to our podcasting community. If you have suggestions for future guests or would like to be featured on the podcast yourself, feel free to reach out to us by email at ASCApodcast@gmail.com or on Twitter at ASCA podcast. If you'd like to connect with me on Twitter, you can find me @AlexandrasView. Talk to us. We talk back.